Hello Fernando,
I have a Rampage III Extreme with an ICH10R raid controller. Dufus over at Andantech posted that he got trim in raid working on one of his ICH10R boards and I am wondering if we could do the same thing for this very popular motherboard?
Here is the post by Dufus http://forums.anandtech.com/showpost.php…2&postcount=531
He sent me the modded OROM, but the link is broken and I can not PM him due to forum restrictions. I have some friends over at BIOS-Mods that are interested in keeping this board up to date as much as possible. This board was designed with extreme performance and longevity in mind and I see no reason to upgrade any time soon. Not until a true platform upgrade has been released. It would be great if we could find a way to bring TRIM in RAID0 to this older platform. Below is the two threads that are keeping this specific motherboard up to date with BIOS moddifications.
http://www.bios-mods.com/forum/Thread-As…Latest-1601-S11
http://www.bios-mods.com/forum/Thread-As…sMod-2013-06-18
The BIOS modder “sinders” is also interested in a modded OROM, or a how-to guide for modding our OROM’s so that we can pass TRIM commands. Most of us with this motherboard (if not all of us) are using RAID0 with SSD’s as far as I can tell. I myself have two Samsung 840 Pro’s in raid0, and two Crucial C300’s in raid0 on this system.
I have heard it is not possible with x58, however since ours is using the ICH10R controller I do not understand why this would be true if ICH10R TRIM in RAID0 works on other boards. Any help or ideas would be great. If you need to know my hardware ID’s just let me know please.
Thanks Fernando for this great Forum.
Best Regards
Rod
@ SkOrPn:
Hello Rod,
welcome at Win-RAID Forum!
Thank you for your willingness to test the modded Intel RAID ROM v11.6.0.1207, which had been modded by CPL0 aka Dufus a while ago regarding TRIM in RAID0 support for Intel ICH10R Southbridges.
Fortunately I still have stored this modded OROM module.
You will find the link within a PM I have sent to you and CPL0.
Good luck!
Regards
Fernando
Thanks Fernando, I will forward this on to sinders. He is the one who is going to mod it into bios 1601 for us. I will then test it myself and reply back here with the results.
Thank you, thank you very much. lol
SkOrPn
Can I get a link to the OROM as well?
@ TerryMethews:
Welcome at Win-RAID Forum!
You got a PM with the link.
Please report here your results after having flashed the BIOS with the modded Intel RAID ROM.
Regards
Fernando
Hello, SkOrPn and Fernando.
It’s me sinders from the bios-mods.com website.
Thanks Fernando for assuring me on the bios-mods.com website that
when I get TRIM appears to be working message from the TrimCheck
Tool, there is no doubt about it, TRIM is definitely working.
Since I have had positive results on my Rampage III Extreme board
with an ICH10R raid controller after using the modded OROM, are
you now going to try and mod other OROMs the same way as
Dufus/CPL0 did and using his modded OROM to find the needed
modifications and then put them on this site for people still using a
boards with a ICH10R Intel SATA RAID Controller?
It would be great if you could mod the likes of the Intel
RST RAID ROM 11.2.0.1527 OROM the same way as
well as the newer OROMs.
Yes, 11.2.0.1527 has been reported by many to be the best performing Intel OROM for ICH10R. I would also like to see the latest OROM 12.7 modded as well. I seem to get just as good performance results with it, and ever so slightly better stability.
@sinders , I am ready to try that modded bios when ever you are ready to send it to me, lol… I got done with my work already 
@Fernando , could you please, if you can find some time help explain how to mod this OROM? You seem to be great at creating How-To guides, so it would be incredibly welcomed if you could write a "How-To: Guide on Modding OROM for TRIM in RAID0 for ICH10R Raid Controller". That would be ideal for the millions of people who are stuck with ICH10R still, lol.
Thank You!
Regards
Rod
@ sinders:
It is a pleasure for me to welcome you here at Win-RAID Forum!
Thanks for your interesting report, which verifies, that it is possible to get TRIM activity within an Intel ICH10R RAID0 system by inserting an especially modified Intel RAID ROM into the BIOS.
As you know, it was our Forum member CPL0 (aka Dufus), who developed the method already some months ago and succeeded with his own ICH10R RAID0 system, but unfortunately he didn’t find any user, who did the required verification test.
Now we have your result and that is really good news for interested users with an Intel ICH10R system and SSDs running as RAID0 members.
Nevertheless I want to wait for the test results from SkOrPn. If he should detect TRIM activity as well after having flashed the BIOS containing the especially modded Intel RAID ROM v11.6.0.1702, I will offer it within the start post of >this< thread. CPL0 has already agreed.
If there should be interest in other modded Intel RAID ROM versions, I will try my very best to offer them (at first for test purposes).
Regards
Fernando
Thank you so much Fernando for the warm welcome.
SkOrPn, I have sent you a private message with the link to
my Rampage III Extreme BIOS which has been modded with
the modded Intel RAID ROM v11.6.0.1207
I am sorry, but I will not write such guide. Simple reason: This sort of BIOS modification needs a lot of knowledge and extreme concentration while doing the work. Otherwise the user may get a bricked system.
On the other hand why should I write a guide about how to modify an OROM module, which can be downloaded by the user as already modded product?
You are wrong regarding the amount of Intel ICH10R users, who may get benefit of the TRIM in RAID0 feature. Many Intel 4-Series Chipset mainboard users will not even been able to get any Intel RAID ROM module v11.x.x.xxxx or newer successfully inserted, because there is not enough space for an 120 KB sized Intel RAID ROM module.
SkOrPn, Since you’ve used the v12.x OROMs previously, and if you
don’t get positive results, then you might have to re create your
RAID array when using the 11.6.0.1702 OROM.
I didn’t have to re create the RAID array because I
was already using the 11.x OROMs.
SkOrPn, if you still get weird issues with your setup sitting at a blinking cursor with the modded Rampage III Extreme
BIOS I sent you then try and reflash your board with it again to see if that makes any difference and if the same issues
happen again, I will re mod the BIOS and send it to you again.
Very good point. I have read that myself somewhere, however read below…
WOOHOO check this out people. TRIM in RAID0 on my Rampage III Extreme, beta BIOS 1601 with moddified OROM 11.6.0.1702, and this is while using IRST drivers 12.8.2.1000. Simply amazing. There can be no doubt. Since it failed the test before flashing this modified OROM, it must be working TRIM. Where is the friggin Cake and Ice Cream when you need it? Or heck a big ass bottle of WINE! LOL
These two images are TRIM tests performed while on my unmodified OROM.
20 seconds later or so…
This is on the new modified TRIM in RAID0 OROM
It appears to be a working TRIM system now. I will do some additional tests to see if any stability or performance has been lost or gained, but I see now reason to not offer this to the masses. THANK YOU CPL0 and Fernando. You guys ROCK! And you to sinders for putting the BIOS together for us mere mortals.
Not necessary, I could not get into the setup screen to launch the flash procedure. I ALWAYS use the built in Asus EZ-Flash. However, on subsequent attempts to get into the setup screen I managed to get in and set it to raid and it rebooted to windows just fine without any further modifications. Its quite hard to believe that I am sitting here typing this within a raided SSD array, with the OS installed onto it and at the same time TRIM commands are being passed to the SSD controller. Just amazing that someone figured out how to get this working. Heck, I just became that much more happier with my aging system, LOL… I just hope I am not speaking to soon and discover there is a dark side of this modded OROM success. Hehe
@Fernando , is there any other tests I should perform to conclude TRIM is working for sure?
SkOrPn, That’s great news that you also got the same positive results as me.
I would also like to give thenks to CPL0 for his modded OROM
where this wouldn’t have been possible if it weren’t for him and
to Fernando for his helpful information.
Fernando, If you are now planning to mod the likes of the Intel
RST RAID ROM 11.2.0.1527 OROM and newer OROMs the same
way then me and SkOrPn are willing to test them for you.
You just need to give us a shout when
the OROMs are ready for test.
@ SkOrPn:
Thanks for your detailed and spectacular report.
No, I think it is now confirmed by 3 different persons (CPL0, sinders and you), that the especially modded Intel RAID ROM v11.6.0.1702 enables the TRIM in RAID0 support for Intel ICH10R users, which Intel obviously never had intended.
Consequently I will offer this especially modded Intel RAID ROM module to the public by adding the link into the start post of >this< thread.
Maybe even ICH9R users may get TRIM in RAID0 by using this modded Intel RAID ROM v11.6.0.1702.
EDIT: It’s already done!
I wouldn’t mind hearing from other people using boards with the Intel ICH10R Controller
if the modded Intel RAID ROM v11.6.0.1702 also enables TRIM in RAID0 for them as well.
On further testing of the modded Intel RSTe RAID ROM v11.6.0.1702 it seems I have encountered
an issue with it and the Rampage III Extreme Onboard Marvell Controller.
I discovered that the modded Intel RSTe RAID ROM v11.6.0.1702 seems to conflict with it or stops
the Onboard Marvell Controller from working when the Intel ICH10R SATA RAID Controller is
set on RAID mode within the board BIOS.
I haven’t properly tested this but I think the Onboard Marvell Controller starts working
normally again as soon as you disable RAID mode within the board BIOS for the
Intel ICH10R SATA RAID Controller.
It is definitely the modded Intel RSTe RAID ROM causing the issue with the Onboard
Marvell Controller because I also did a test with the official non modified Intel RSTe
RAID ROM v11.6.0.1702 and the Onboard Marvell Controller starts working perfectly
fine again when the Intel ICH10R SATA RAID Controller set on RAID mode.
This doesn’t bother me so much because I have the Onboard Marvell Controller
disabled within the BIOS because I don’t use this Controller but it might bother
those who do use this Controller along with the Intel ICH10R SATA RAID
Controller on RAID mode.
@ sinders:
Thank you for your additional report.
Maybe CPL0 knows a solution to prevent this collateral issue with the Marvell Controller.
I will send him a PM.
Hopefully he will agree to check up on this and see if he can come up with a solution for this issue
because it might cause the same issues with other boards using a similar Marvell Controller.