@Sky87 :
If the “Add/Remove Software” list of the Control Panel doesn’t contain any “Intel(R) Rapid Storage Technology”, the related Software is currently not installed. So in this case nothing has to be uninstalled from within the Control Panel.
But if the Intel RST Software is listed within the “Add/remove Software” section, it has to be uninstalled, before the user is going to install any other Intel RST driver (no matter, whether as “pure” driver or as “Drivers & Software Set”).
Yes, i understand. I am a bit confused about the difference between RST and RSTe, does it matter which one of these i install? From my understanding, RSTe contains iaStorA.sys and iaStorF.sys. My current AHCI controller currently has just one driver listed, which is iaStorA.sys.
Therefore i am unsure if i should later try the v13.2.8.1002 RSTe package if the default Windows SATA driver proves to not work well.
I also would like to know what this driver is used for, as i do not use a RAID setup. What happens if i disable the C220 SATA AHCI Controller from Device Manager?
who is the best for X99 chipset???last version for RST?
@panosxidis :
Look into the start post of this thread, find it out yourself or ask our Forum member 100PIER, who has an Intel X99 chipset system.
Hello @fernando
i have asus rampage V who is the best RST version for my chipset?and i have driver standard ihci driver can i driver for this?thank you very mucj!
@panosxidis :
I gave you already the answer to your question (see above).
That is why I have moved your post here.
Hello to everyone!
I want to know, which versions of Intel AHCI/RAID drivers and Intel Rapid Storage Technology (if any) are suited best for my system, if I’m going to make a clean installation of last edition of Windows 10.
I read carefully first three posts in this topic and many other information on this site including first post here (Which are the “best” Intel AHCI/RAID drivers?) and first and second posts here (Performance of the Intel RST/RSTe AHCI/RAID Drivers)
Also I read information about this theme on other sites (including intel.com). But I’m not a very advanced user of PC, and maybe because of that I didn’t understand once and for all every aspects and nuances of this and other relevant software (Intel Chipset Device Software and Intel Management Engine Interface).
Hardware:
- Chipset: Z97
- Mainboard: Asus Z97-K (version of BIOS: 2902)
- CPU: Intel i7-4790K
- HDD: Toshiba DT01ACA100
- Videocard: Nvidia GeForce
I have these variants for AHCI/RAID drivers:
01) Asus download center: 14.5.0.1081
02) Intel download center: 14.8.16.1063 (but it tells that version “16.8.0.1000” is newer)
03) This site:
14.8.18.1066 (in this topic)
13.2.8.1002 (Which are the “best” Intel AHCI/RAID drivers?)
16.7.9.1027 (second place) (Performance of the Intel RST/RSTe AHCI/RAID Drivers)
If version “16.7.9.1027” is on second place, that means, that newer versions are suited for my system too. Although in descriptions for these versions on Intel’s site I didn’t see my chipset and CPU.
So now I am a little confused (already a third time), which version I need and (more importantly) which version is actually best. This site offers at least three suitable variants, Intel offers two variants and also Intel tells that for this kind of software version of a vendor is more suitable, which means that version of Asus is better.
And one more thing: since I have just one HDD and haven’t any other HDDs or SSDs, I thought that I need only SATA/AHCI drivers (and relevant option in BIOS), but I found information, that Intel recommends RAID-mode even in those cases, when user have just one disk drive and don’t want a RAID-massive.
Now I am confused a little more. )
I will appreciate any kind of help.
Thanks!
Kirill
@Kirill :
Since each system is somehow different, the user has to find out him-/herself, which is the best storage driver for his/her specific system.
You are lucky, because I have recently (1 month ago) compared the performance of many different AHCI drivers on a system like yours (Z97) running Win10 x64 v1809. >Here< you can see the test results. The clear winner was the Intel RST(e) driver v13.2.4.1002.
Unless you have created or want to create a RAID array, I recommend to set the on-board Intel SATA Controller to “AHCI” and not to “RAID” mode.
@Fernando , thanks for reply!
If only I knew, what parameters of working system I should watch in order to see differences between versions of drivers… )
But I found out that my system is booting faster with these drivers than with drivers pre installed by Windows.
When I did an installations of Windows before, I didn’t install SATA AHCI drivers every time. Because I didn’t know exactly for what these drivers are and also I’ve seen that system already had these drivers. After some installations I noticed that my system is booting faster (approximately 19-20 seconds according to Task Manager) comparing to the other ones (from 31 seconds and up). And only now I discovered that that is because of these drivers.
Anyway, Fernando, please tell me how difficult to you to do those tests with these drivers in terms of time and your occupation?
The preparation and execution of my recent benchmark tests inclusive the related documention took me some hours of my free time. By the way - I am a retired Veterinary Surgeon.
EDIT: I have moved your request and my answers into this better matching thread.
That’s a good profession.
Ok. So, if I will ask you to do those tests on Z97 platform one more time, but with another set of drivers (6 different versions), will it be a huge burden for you?
Since I have given away my Z97 system at Christmas, I cannot do any additional benchmark tests with it.
My questions:
1. Which 6 driver versions are more interesting for you than the 7 I had tested in November 2018?
2. Why don’t you do the tests yourself?
@Fernando
1. Sorry, 7, not 6. And two of these seven versions are from your previous tests. But because I don’t know how exactly you do your tests, I presumed that these 2 versions (which you already tested and which I’m interesting in) can show another results, if test will be done in conjunction with the another 5 versions. These versions are:
- 13.6.0.1002 (from Intel)
- 14.0.0.1143 (from Intel)
- 14.5.0.1081 (from Asus)
- 14.6.5.1036 (from this site)
- 14.8.0.1042 (from Intel)
- 14.8.16.1063 (from Intel)
- 14.8.18.1066 (from this site)
2. Because I don’t know how exactly these tests need to be executed. And even if I will found some manuals or instructions, since I always want to know every detail, it will take a lot of time for me. To learn about those tests, how they are working, what environment is required and so on. And I’m already pretty tired. Because I decided to reinstall Windows about 20th of december. And I reinstalled it. But this time I decided to dive deeper than usually to learn more about required drivers. And now I regret about it. Because now 7th of january and I still stuck. All that I’m doing all this time is searching-reading-searching-reading. That’s it. )
@Kirill :
Here are my comments to your driver favorites:
If you want to test an Intel RST driver from the v13.6 branch, you should better choose the v13.6.3.1001, which is the latest from that branch. By the way: The latest from the v13 platform is the driver v13.2.8.1002.
This was the first WHQL certified driver from the v14 platform. The later released v14 platform drivers are better.
The newer and probably better driver from the v14.5 development branch is v14.5.2.1088, but according to my own tests the v14.5 series drivers don’t have a good performance.
The latest (best developed) Intel RST driver from the v14.8 branch is v14.8.18.1066, which was 1 of my test candidates in November 2018.
Happy testing!
Hello best forum ever.
I was wondering if it is known here that there are problems with eDrive disks in combination with the RST 13.1.0.1058 drivers on Z77 chipsets.
I was having problems with data corruption on my Samsung 850 that is set as eDrive (hardware encryption). Took me a while to come across the reasons why.
The RST drivers 13.1.0.1058 are not compatible with eDrives at all and create file corruption. When these drivers get installed , the IEEE1667 and tcg opal devices disappear from windows device manager and corruption starts.
There are no problems with the stock windows 10 AHCI driver and also no problems after changing to 13.2 firmware and drivers from RST which belong to the 8 series. The IEEE1667 and Opal devices stay in device manager.
Lucky windows 10 let me install the 8 series 13.2 whql driver and it works well now.
Greetings
@GnarZ77 :
Welcome to the Win-RAID Forum and thanks for your report.
I didn’t know about the data corruption problems while using the Intel RST driver v13.1.0.1058 with eDrive disks.
Regards
Dieter (alias Fernando)
I swith now from my old z170 Asus to z390 Gigabyte. v16 or v17 are now the best right?
Probably yes, but I am not able to test it, because I don’t have an Intel Z390 chipset system.
Hi,
After running the newer firmware and driver 13.2 for z77 AHCI mode, I can definatly confirm that firmware 13.1 plus it’s driver should not be recommended at all for 7 series chipsets, in a ahci mode anyway on UEFI boot.
Maybe it works flawless in legacy bios boot, I did not test that.
That 13.1 has been creating minor file corruption from the day I started using it (also on non eDrives). Now with firmware 13.2 , Everything works fine and no more file corruption at all. The system now works without an annoying ghost in it.