X79 Chipset: Intel RSTe vs RST

Just want to say thanks to Fernando! I have been reading and learning a lot from some of the threads on your forum. I have a Supermicro X9DAE motherboard which has the C602 chipset. When I ran it with any of the 3.8 series RSTe drivers (specifically the 3.8.0.1111 or 3.8.1.1006) I would get BSOD (related to iastor.sys) every 3 - 5 days. So after reading one of Fernando’s threads in which he explained that you can run the regular RST driver on an X79/C600 motherboard, I decided to give it a try.

It’s been 5 days now without any BSOD or system instability. With the new RST 12.9.0.1001 I was able to install right over the 3.8 RSTe driver in device manager and it properly recognizes the chipset as C600 series. Didn’t have to force install it through the “let me pick from a list of device drivers on my computer” either…

Just wanted to post this thread for other X79/C600 users that might be having this issue, and after doing some research there seems to be a lot of issues (BSOD) with the RSTe drivers.

@ moore327:
Welcome at Win-RAID Forum and thanks for your report, which may be interesting for other X79 chipset users.

Maybe you should rename the title to "X79 Chipset: Intel RSTe vs RST". This would make it clearer, that the thread is primarily designed for users with an Intel C600 Chipset Series system.

Enjoy the Forum!
Fernando

A few quick questions about this if you would be so kind.

Is your BIOS firmware set to RSTe mode? My board lets me select iRST or RSTe.
Were you able to open the RSTe 3.8 software to setup the write caching policies and check array status? This is what I have an issue with BSOD immediately upon opening the software. The system seems to run ok, with poor write performance though.
Did you install the 3.8 drivers with the F6 during windows install?
Is your boot disc in raid? Which type?
Can you open the RST software after your upgrade to 12.9?


Thanks,
-Ryan

rleidal,

1. My bios doesn’t have the option for RSTe or iRST. It is simply set to AHCI.
2. I did not have this setup in a RAID array.
3. During the Windows install, i just let the microsoft AHCI driver load because I am not running RAID.
4. No, boot disc is regular SATA (AHCI).
5. I do not use the RST software due to some of the issues it causes. I do not recommend you install the software with the RST driver.

BTW, I am running Windows 8 Pro x64. I was also have stability issues with 8.1 so i did a clean install of win 8. System is rock solid at this time.