Raid0 and TRIM Support on Intel 11.5 OROM and Latest v11.5.0.1184 RST Drivers ?

[B Gates]

I just got a statement from Intel they say all drivers 11.0 and newer support RAID 0 TRIM. They also say no 6 series chipsets are supported.

[B Gates]

Here is my latest project. http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/sideshow...220847363.html I'm trying to RAID a couple of these together hopefully they will be able to pass TRIM through LOL!

[DooRules]

At least they stepped up and put all the speculation to bed.

[Computurd]

yup, the email blast from Intel is causing quite the stir! many users will now forgo RAID on controllers in favor of the onboards until they get the controllers figured.

[m.oreilly]

I just got a statement from Intel they say all drivers 11.0 and newer support RAID 0 TRIM. They also say no 6 series chipsets are supported.

oh well...
i would like to see how much of a difference trim plays in daily performance maintenance, as opposed to just GC in modern ssds. i know FW has advanced to the point many of us raiders continue to have top performance even on OS arrays (i've gotten my highest scores on 'dirty' OS bound arrays). it would be nice to have a thread dedicated to performance over time (and individual speed differences, if any, with trim involved). anyway, i'm happy raid trim for intel based controllers (albeit 7 series only) is working, and under win7 to boot!

[B Gates]

oh well...
i would like to see how much of a difference trim plays in daily performance maintenance, as opposed to just GC in modern ssds. i know FW has advanced to the point many of us raiders continue to have top performance even on OS arrays (i've gotten my highest scores on 'dirty' OS bound arrays). it would be nice to have a thread dedicated to performance over time (and individual speed differences, if any, with trim involved). anyway, i'm happy raid trim for intel based controllers (albeit 7 series only) is working, and under win7 to boot!

Its no biggie for you because Vertex 4 have GC. SandForce drives dont so TRIM is big for SF users

[Zaxx]

They also say no 6 series chipsets are supported.

Damn it! Well I've been eyeballing a couple of Z77s...time to choose.

[B Gates]

Msi or asus

[Zaxx]

Msi or asus

Am a faithful Asus user...looks like the P8Z77V-Pro most likely.

So glad it doesn't require Win8...actually, according to the PR release today, raid trim for Win8 isn't supported yet but coming soon.

[B Gates]

sounds like a good choice

[Dazog]

So we need to OROM hack or driver hack to have Z68 support? WOW, pretty bad of intel to do this.

[B Gates]

So we need to OROM hack or driver hack to have Z68 support? WOW, pretty bad of intel to do this.

gives you smart guys something to have a go at

[Highendtoys]

Intel sent a bunch of press this today.

"Trim on RAID 0 for SSDs is supported in the Intel RST driver versions 11.0 and newer. Currently available for the general public on Intel’s downloads site is RST driver version 11.2 which offers TRIM support on RAID 0 compatible with MS Windows 7 OS on Intel 7 series chipsets (earlier chipsets NOT supported). Intel is also working on a future release providing support for TRIM on RAID 0 on Microsoft Windows 8 OS for Intel 7 series chipsets."

It is starting to go up on review sites and most likely a bunch of sites are going to test it.

From what I recall, doesn't 11.2 not pass TRIM to RAID 0. Intel also didn't mention the Option ROM requirement so I see big steaming piles of fail coming. Let's all sit back and watch the janitors of SSD reviews publish articles claiming they have RAID 0 TRIM working with 11.2 but not update the OROM.

I know, that was mean but we all know it is coming.

[presjar]

Lets go smart people! Haxor away to get Z68 support please!

[bluestang]

Just flashed my P45 with a modded BIOS with OROM 11.5.0.1582. Using driver 11.5.2.1001 on Win7 x64. No hang ups on OS load or anything. I can view disks in RAID individually, could not do before.

Crystaldiskinfo added the ability to inspect individual drives in Intel raid arrays at about 4.6 or so. Been around for ages.

and this CDI "Passthrough" has nothing to do with TRIM.

hehe, this could be it. i never used it until now, because i always run an array. lol

Yep, just like m.oreilly, I haven't used it in a while so it was a shock seeing individual drive members. Last time I used it was v4.0.2 when I was doing some SSD endurance testing. I new CDI "passthrough" had nothing to do with TRIM though. Oh well, here's to hoping it will works now or will eventually work on a P67.

Edit: Also regarding CDI, I was going on the RW Labs article which said:

"Here is a shot of CDI, it’s now able to list the drives separately EVEN THOUGH they are actually part of an array."

"Here is the other drive in our array. This is stunning because prior to this an array would not be able to be listed in CDI. The OS can now see the individual drives in an array!"

[Fernando]

Intel sent a bunch of press this today.

"Trim on RAID 0 for SSDs is supported in the Intel RST driver versions 11.0 and newer. Currently available for the general public on Intel’s downloads site is RST driver version 11.2 which offers TRIM support on RAID 0 compatible with MS Windows 7 OS on Intel 7 series chipsets (earlier chipsets NOT supported). Intel is also working on a future release providing support for TRIM on RAID 0 on Microsoft Windows 8 OS for Intel 7 series chipsets."

It is starting to go up on review sites and most likely a bunch of sites are going to test it.

From what I recall, doesn't 11.2 not pass TRIM to RAID 0. Intel also didn't mention the Option ROM requirement so I see big steaming piles of fail coming. Let's all sit back and watch the janitors of SSD reviews publish articles claiming they have RAID 0 TRIM working with 11.2 but not update the OROM.

Yes, there are more new questions than answers.
Additional point:
The "Trim in RAID0" feature definitively works on Z77 RAID systems running Windows 8. Why do they write, that the currently available Intel RAID drivers do not support it in a Win8 environment?

[B Gates]

Yep, just like m.oreilly, I haven't used it in a while so it was a shock seeing individual drive members. Last time I used it was v4.0.2 when I was doing some SSD endurance testing. I new CDI "passthrough" had nothing to do with TRIM though. Oh well, here's to hoping it will works now or will eventually work on a P67.

Edit: Also regarding CDI, I was going on the RW Labs article which said:

"Here is a shot of CDI, it’s now able to list the drives separately EVEN THOUGH they are actually part of an array."

"Here is the other drive in our array. This is stunning because prior to this an array would not be able to be listed in CDI. The OS can now see the individual drives in an array!"

I wrote that article and like you that was the first time I had seen CDI list drives in RAID 0. I apologize for the mis-leading info.

[bluestang]

No harm, no foul. I think we're all on new ground figuring out what works and what doesn't. Not sure if even Intel knows 100% at this moment.

I'm hoping to find time this weekend to check out P67 on Win7. Not sure if anyone has given that setup a test yet.

[Fernando]

After having done some additional tests with the "Hex Editor method" I have verified, that the Intel RST driver v11.2.0.1006 definitively lets the TRIM command passthrough the RAID Controller to the SSD members (the Offset area of the previously deleted jpg file has been zeroed out within seconds - like with the actual RSTe v11.5 drivers).
But: Although I have completely uninstalled the RST(e) drivers and software pack v11.5.2.1001 and deleted the iaStorF entries from witthin the registry, my RAID Controller still is using the Intel RAID ROM module v11.5.0.1582.
It has to be investigated, if the Trim in RAID0 feature still is working after having replaced the Intel RSTe RAID OROM v11.5 by an actual Intel RST v11.x.x.xxxx module.

[B Gates]

No harm, no foul. I think we're all on new ground figuring out what works and what doesn't. Not sure if even Intel knows 100% at this moment.

I'm hoping to find time this weekend to check out P67 on Win7. Not sure if anyone has given that setup a test yet.

look forward to seeing the results

[AthlonX2]

Hey fellas,
Longtime lurker here. Bill and I were talking about this and he recommended I join this thread. I have a P67UD5-B3 with the 11.5 OROM and a couple sandforce drives (with working TRIM). Is Vantage fill the only way we can test if TRIM works on windows 7 w/ a 6 series chipset?

[Fernando]

I have a P67UD5-B3 with the 11.5 OROM and a couple sandforce drives (with working TRIM). Is Vantage fill the only way we can test if TRIM works on windows 7 w/ a 6 series chipset?

That may be the most professional method, but the simple Hex Editor method, which can be done within a few minutes without flooding the SSDs with data, seems to work too. For details regarding the procedure you may look into post No 73 of this thread.

[bluestang]

In that case I won't have to wait till this weekend. I just tried it on a non-raid SSD Win7 sytem so I can see what it all looks like in WinHex as far as before and after with TRIM working.

So, I can test my P67-UD4-B3 tonight as well now.

[B Gates]

Hope you guys get some good news but its likely it won't be working per Fernando's findings Intel's statements. Hopefully one of the supra genius' on this forum can come up with a mod that will enable it.

[squawker]

Great and fascinating thread that i've been following since the first post.
Very good job done by Fernando, Andres Sergio, Btester, Chispy, Medeirosdez, B. Gates and others.
I'm certain that unless these people had not made many tests to check and stirred the subject up on this and other forums, we wouldn't have had an Intel statement about this (not clear at all, but even though an official word).
Thanks to all these people and in particular to Fernando, who had to face disbelief and asinine comments on [H]… forum as response to his knowledge, hard work and solid facts.