Can you help me? My system is doing fine, except for HDD speeds. SSD’s are fine and give very high benchmarks, but both hard drivers, one is new and the other one is a bit older on somes games they get to a 100% and their I/O somehow gets saturated and games stutter on them, at least the most demanding ones. Games on SSD are fine as well as the rest of things, Windows is extremely quick and responsive, but games that are somewhat open world are hard to play on any HDD on my system. Both drivers report no error and synthetic benchmarks give good scores.
Which are the “best” drivers for me? It’s a Haswell system, Core i7 4770, 8 gigs of RAM, 2x SSD, 2x HDD, the mobo is an MSI H81M-E 33.
Hope you can help me.
@haloce100 :
Welcome to the Win-RAID Forum!
My recommendations, which are layed down within the start post of this thread, are valid for all disk drives, which are connected to any Intel SATA port, no matter whether they are SSDs or HDDs. So there is no difference regarding the choice of the best driver version.
On the other hand you cannot expect from a HDD a performance, which is nearly as good as an SSD.
So please look within the table on the bottom of the start post, which specific drivers I recommend to use with an Intel 8-Series Chipset system.
If you are still not satisfied with the performance of your HDD(s), you should replace it/them by better performant one or by an SSD and not change the in-use storage driver.
Regards
Dieter (alias Fernando)
Thanks a lot for your reply. Very useful and insightful. I ended up with the driver you recommended for Intel Series 7, 8 and 9 Chipset, this one: Intel RST(e) drivers v13.2.8.1002 WHQL dated 07/09/2015
I know speed increments are not something incredible between drivers, but with this one I noticed a faster boot time, even if just a bit. As for the HDD’s, you are right, seems I need one that performs better for gaming, well, in this case I am just gonna get another SSD and call it a day.
Heya Fernando, can you please point me to the correct ahci drivers for this controller? TIA 
@OldMX :
I have moved your question into this already existing and completely matching thread.
PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_8C02 are the HardwareIDs of an "Intel(R) 8 Series/C220 Chipset Family SATA AHCI Controller".
As you can see within the start post of this thread, my recommendation is to install the Intel RST(e) driver v13.2.8.1002 WHQL.
Greetings Win Raid Forum / Community,
I have a ASUS Z370 Maximus Hero X Motherboard and I plan to install Windows 10 64bit and configure my storage to use AHCI.
If we compare the Intel Rapid Storage Technology drivers between the ASUS website and the Intel website we can see that the driver has not been updated on the ASUS website in several months.
SATA Driver (Intel Rapid Storage Technology RST):
- ASUS Website: Version: 17.5.0.1017, Date: 07/02/2019, Size: 26.88 MBytes
- Intel Website: Version: 17.8.0.1065, Date: 01/17/2020, Size: 22.52 MBytes
https://www.asus.com/au/Motherboards/ROG…pDesk_Download/
https://downloadcenter.intel.com/downloa…r?product=55005
On the Intel website in the description it states that there could be potential negative impacts with the driver, as system manufacturers regularly customize the drivers. (As shown in the picture below).
So my question is:
(Q) In regards to the Intel Z370 chipset and the ASUS Z370 Maximus Hero X Motherboard, is it safe to use the most recent version of the Intel Rapid Storage Technology (RST) Driver found on the Intel website without having any negative impacts on the motherboards features / functionality etc ? or should I download the driver from the ASUS website ?
Any help would be appreciated. Thanks in advance.
which driver should I use for better performance AHCI > z370, I have 17.8.0.1065 ?
@OneShot :
Welcome to the Win-RAID Foum!
I have moved your post into this better matching thread.
If you want just a simple tip, please do a look into the start post of this thread. You can find the answer to your question at the bottom of the start post within the table.
Since each system is different, why don’t you find it out your own? >Here< you can find the benchmark results I got with different Intel chipset systems.
Good luck!
Dieter (alias Fernando)
I am desperate with continuous crashes copying from my main hard drive (SSD) to a RAID 1 (2 HDD drives) and I just discovered this forum. In Windows 7 I had the Intel Matrix Storage and everything was fine, but in Windows 10 with the default installed drivers I have locks copying large files. I have ICH10R, could you please tell me what drivers should I install? My BIOS Option ROM is the original 8.0.0.1038.
Thank you very much in advance.
EDIT by Fernando: Thread title specified
Can anyone advice which drivers should I install with 9-Series Chipset and DEV_8C82 AHCI Controller DeviceID under Windows 7 64-bit?
@kyriacos :
Since the answer to your question can bei found within the start post of this thread, I have moved your post here.
@Fernando
Intel Chipset/Southbridge: Intel 8- and 9-Series Chipsets (like Z87 or Z97)
Recommended AHCI driver(s): Intel RST(e) v13.2.8.1002
Recommended RAID driver(s): Intel RST v11.2.0.1006 (if possible) or RST(e) v13.2.8.1002
Is this correct?
With the above installed all drives (HDD, SSD, optical) have SCSI in their device name and individual SATA channels are no longer displayed.
Is there an AHCI driver that still displays individual channels?
Yes! If not, I wouldn’t have written it into the start post.
No, only the "Dual Channel PCI IDE Controller" has 2 Channels (as the name already indicates), but this requires, that the SATA Controller is running in IDE mode.
By the way: I don’t see any disadvantage regarding the fact, that the Intel AHCI drivers see the Intel SATA Controller as SCSI device.
What is your prefered desire:
a) the best stability and performance of your system drive
or
b) 2 IDE channels shown within the Device Manager?
@Fernando
Maybe it’s not a disadvantage, but I would still prefer to have individual channels shown.
I don’t know what are the criteria for the recommended AHCI driver, but I am having issues with v13.2.8.1002 on Z97.
Please describe your issues.
By the way: Are you sure, that the 2 IDE Channels disappeared from the "IDE ATA/ATAPI Controllers" section of the Device Manager after having replaced the AHCI driver? I suspect, that they are still there, but have nothing to do with the on-board Intel SATA Controller.
@Fernando
I get SCSI status 0 and SCSI status 4 error messages with optical drives. There are no channels listed under "IDE ATA/ATAPI Controllers" in Device Manager after installing the AHCI driver.
Some optical drives do generally not like to run in AHCI mode. That is why I connect my optical drive to a non-Intel SATA Controller, which is running in IDE mode.
Additional questions:
1. Does your mainboard offer a second SATA Controller (not from Intel)?
2. Which Storage driver from which manufacturer did you use before you updated the AHCI driver?
3. How did you update the AHCI driver?
4. Which was the name of the Controller you have updated and within which Device Manager section ("IDE ATA/ATAPI Controllers" or "Storage Controllers") has it been listed?
5. Did you recently any change regarding the BIOS settings? If yes, which one(s)?
@Fernando
I used to have a separate pcie controller too, but I removed it because of lack of space.
Does your mainboard offer a second SATA Controller (not from Intel)?
No
Which Storage driver from which manufacturer did you use before you updated the AHCI driver?
Microsoft 6.1.7601.23403 AHCI driver
How did you update the AHCI driver?
Manual update
Which was the name of the Controller you have updated and within which Device Manager section ("IDE ATA/ATAPI Controllers" or "Storage Controllers") has it been listed?
Intel(R) 9 Series Chipset Family SATA AHCI Cpntroller within "IDE ATA/ATAPI Controllers"
Did you recently any change regarding the BIOS settings? If yes, which one(s)?
No
@kyriacos :
Usually the Controller is named "Standard AHCI Controller", if the generic MS in-box AHCI driver is running. So I suspect, that the Controller name has been changed by installing the Intel Chipset Device Utility (by using the " -overall" suffix?).