Hello 
I have a few questions to ask since I’m browsing this forums and I can’t get the right answer.
My motherboard is Asus P5E x38 + ICH9r controller v7.5
I lately got advanced format HDD WD10EZEX and I read somewhere that I need to use intel rst drivers 9.6 or later to get proper compatibility and performance.
My question is do I need to update my board with newer option rom too? Since it came with 7.5 verison does this have any impact on compatibility with my new HDD? Will it increase performance in AHCI mode or should I use RAID mode to get all the benefit?
Sorry for my english 
@ TrueMorph:
Welcome at Win-RAID Forum!
The Intel RAID ROM module as part of the mainboard BIOS will not be used by the OS and consequently has no effect at all on the performance, stability or compatibility of the system, unless the Intel SATA Controller has been set to "RAID" mode within the BIOS.
On the other hand it doesn’t make much sense to run a single HDD or SSD in RAID mode, because the owner of an Intel chipset system will get better results, if the Intel SATA Controller has been set to "AHCI" mode.
Regards
Fernando
Right! Thanks for clearing it up!
As for AHCI wich drivers could you possibly recommend for my system? Should I use the last one from RST series like 11.2 or 10.8 (which is native I believe?) or is it a matter of try and error?
The performance differences are not noticeable, but the stability may be different. Since it is no problem to change the in-use Intel AHCI driver manually from within the Device Manager, you can find it out yourself. You can try all Intel RST drivers from v10.1.0.1008 up to v11.2.0.1006. I do not recomend the installation of any newer Intel RST(e) driver (v11.5 or higher), because Intel’s double-driver configuration (AHCI/RAID+SCSI driver) is not the best solution for old Intel chipsets.
If I were you, I would install the latest and probably best Intel RST driver v11.2.0.1006.
With my modded BIOS for the Asus P5E with Intel OROM 12.7.0.1936, I use the “Intel Rapid Storage Technology 12.8.0.1016” driver (Windows 7 x64).
But if you are not using any RAID, (e.g. you have set the BIOS to AHCI) you don’t have to use any drivers from Intel. Microsoft’s one which is included
in Windows 7 actually works very nicely and is reliable.