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

[B Gates]

That looks like a really good drive Bill

Did you run your RAID numbers yet?

I just have Vantage to go. Going to run this morning.

[Jansa]

If it ain't broke, don't fix it

Plan to add one more Vertex 4 256GB in R0 just like to try with modded OROM before.
Replaced in Z77MX-D3H F14 bios ROM module 11.1.0.1413 to 11.5.0.1582. As well updated RST drivers in OS.
ASSSD went from 1100+ to 1030-1040.CDM read 500+ to 400+ as well 4K bit. Won't bother to add screens.
Was not so happy about performance drop. As not adding another dive yet though simply roll back changes, no big deal.

Left before OROM/RST, right after flashing back original bios and changing back RST drivers in OS from version v11.6.0.1030 to 11.0.0.1032.



So is there any trick I am missing about rollback? Any difference about specific sequence to install MB INF/RST? Cleaning registry? Something else beside clean install.
Like to get back missing 100MB/s in seq and 20MB/s in 4K writes until need TRIM in R0

[Fernando]

So is there any trick I am missing about rollback? Any difference about specific sequence to install MB INF/RST? Cleaning registry?

Exactly: You have to clean the registry from a faulty iaStorF entry, which has been forgotten to erase by the RST(e) drivers uninstall procedure.
You can easily verify, if you are effected by this issue, when you open the Device Manager and look into the driver details of your drives (right click > "Properties" > "Driver" > "Driver Details"). If you should find the iaStorF.sys there and within the Windows\system32\Drivers folder as well, you got the performance decrease by the SCSI filter driver iaStorF.sys, which is still active, but cannot really be used anymore.
Warning:
Don't try to delete the iaStorF.sys from the Drivers folder, because this will induce a BSOD at the next restart.
Solution:
Run the regedit command, open the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Contro l\Class\{4D36E967-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318} or similar and delete the word "iaStorF".
After having restarted your PC everything should be fine again. You will even be able to delete the iaStorF.sys from the System32\Drivers folder.

[B Gates]

Exactly: You have to clean the registry from a faulty iaStorF entry, which has been forgotten to erase by the RST(e) drivers uninstall procedure.
You can easily verify, if you are effected by this issue, when you open the Device Manager and look into the driver details of your drives (right click > "Properties" > "Driver" > "Driver Details"). If you should find the iaStorF.sys there and within the Windows\system32\Drivers folder as well, you got the performance decrease by the SCSI filter driver iaStorF.sys, which is still active, but cannot really be used anymore.
Warning:
Don't try to delete the iaStorF.sys from the Drivers folder, because this will induce a BSOD at the next restart.
Solution:
Run the regedit command, open the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Contro l\Class\{4D36E967-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318} or similar and delete the word "iaStorF".
After having restarted your PC everything should be fine again. You will even be able to delete the iaStorF.sys from the System32\Drivers folder.

Fernando is this something that removes TRIM? Should I do this with 11.6 drives after upgrading from 11.5? Is this something we should be doing as standard procedure?

[andressergio]

Fernando is this something that removes TRIM? Should I do this with 11.6 drives after upgrading from 11.5? Is this something we should be doing as standard procedure?

i was going to ask the same bud.-

[Fernando]

Fernando is this something that removes TRIM? Should I do this with 11.6 drives after upgrading from 11.5?

No and no!

Is this something we should be doing as standard procedure?

What I have written is only valid for users, who had switched back from any Intel RST(e) drivers v11.5 or v11.6 series to the "normal" RST drivers, which do their job with just 1 single driver named iaStor.sys.

[B Gates]

Oh crap i removed it. What does this do?

[Fernando]

Oh crap i removed it.

Do you mean the registry entry "iaStorF"?

What does it do!

If you mean the registry entry, it gives the command to use the SCSI filter driver named iaStorF.sys. This is a big mistake, because the iaStorF.sys is not part of the "normal" Intel RST driverpacks v10.x.x.xxxx, v11.x.x.xxxx or v12.x.x.xxxx and has not been designed by Intel for being used together with the RST driver named iaStor.sys.

[B Gates]

Do you mean the registry entry "iaStorF"?
If you mean the registry entry, it gives the command to use the SCSI filter driver named iaStorF.sys. This is a big mistake, because the iaStorF.sys is not part of the "normal" Intel RST driverpacks v10.x.x.xxxx, v11.x.x.xxxx or v12.x.x.xxxx and has not been designed by Intel for being used together with the RST driver named iaStor.sys.

yes thats what I removed

[B Gates]

how come iastorf was in my registry I've never used any rst e drivers

[m.oreilly]

AS-SSD:

a bit below a Vertex 4 256gb, and a bit more expensive...and that write latency...

[B Gates]

a bit below a Vertex 4...and the write latency...

read latency is faster than the V4 and it has nearly twice the performance of the V4 in real world testing. The Vertex 4 isn't even in the same league. When in RAID 0 these drives really put the V4 in RAID 0 to shame. here are the access times in raid 0:



full reviews coming very soon

[Fernando]

how come iastorf was in my registry I've never used any rst e drivers

Did you never install any of the Intel RST drivers of the v11.5 series? All of them are using the additional SCSI filter driver named aStorF. That is why I name them RSTe drivers like the v3.x.x.xxxx ones for X79 chipsets.

[B Gates]

Did you never install any of the Intel RST drivers of the v11.5 series? All of them are using the additional SCSI filter driver named aStorF. That is why I name them RSTe drivers like the v3.x.x.xxxx ones for X79 chipsets.

yes I have. Do you think we should remove the filter anyway? 11.5 drivers had slightly better performance than 11.6

[Fernando]

Do you think we should remove the filter anyway?

No, you should not remove the SCSI filter driver as long as you are running one of the RST drivers v11.5 or higher. Ma advice to remove the iaStorF entries within the registry was only valid for users, who previously has installed one of the RST(e) drivers v3.x.x.xxxx, v11.5.x.xxxx, 11.6.x.xxxx or 12.x.x.xxxx and have switched back to the 1-driver RST system.
My prognosis: Intel will stop or has already stopped the development of new drivers on the basis of the conservative 1 driver strategy. That means, that the v11.2 series drivers probably will be the last ones with an iaStor.sys as the only driver.
If I am right, we all will have to live with the additional SCSI filter driver, if we want to use new Intel AHCI or RAID drivers.
By the way: It was the SCSI filter driver iaStorF.sys, which brought Intel the break-through regarding Trim support within a RAID array.

[m.oreilly]

but the 11.2 still allow pass through, and no scsi. i don't see the correlation. up until a month or so ago, i assumed the scsi driver was needed for sata raid pass through on the intel controller, but it appears to work without it, as under the 11.1/11.2?

[m.oreilly]

...it has nearly twice the performance of the V4 in real world testing...

i don't know which real world you speak of, but for half the storage (and a sandforce controlled drive to boot..arg), and at a $100 premium over a 256gb V4, plus questionable support (never heard of this 'brand'), it must be performing unmentionable acts for you, to praise it in such a manner...sorry, off topic...

[B Gates]

here this will explain it better:

Workstation is the same as a typical user environment. Notice TWICE the performance of a V4



Drives filled 50% with data. Notice Vertex 4 scores 39,000 and the SuperSSpeed scores 69,000 one is a Ferrari the other a Buick

[Highendtoys]

The company that you have never heard of is the largest distributor of Intel NAND flash in their region. They've been making flash based products for several years and products that we see as 'trusted' brands all of the time. They are just doing their own branded drives now. Also, the parent company is based in the US.

[m.oreilly]

after seeing vantage tests give compressible results for supposed incompressible situations...i guess i don't value it as 'real world', though it's nice to see slc at such low prices. would be nice to see it in other ssds controlled by something other than sandforce, and as for the 'parent' company being in the US, that's great, but after going through many US based forums of other companies, i guess i would want to know a bit more re their support, especially with something 'new' like this coupling of slc on the sandforce targeted for consumer use in the US (i'll have to check them out), but we are way off topic at this point...

[B Gates]

after seeing vantage tests give compressible results for supposed incompressible situations...i guess i don't value it as 'real world', though it's nice to see slc at such low prices. would be nice to see it in other ssds controlled by something other than sandforce, and as for the 'parent' company being in the US, that's great, but after going through many US based forums of other companies, i guess i would want to know a bit more re their support, especially with something 'new' like this coupling of slc on the sandforce targeted for consumer use in the US (i'll have to check them out), but we are way off topic at this point...

What do you value as real world? Vantage is as real world as it gets and so is PassMark.

[jax7480]

read latency is faster than the V4 and it has nearly twice the performance of the V4 in real world testing. The Vertex 4 isn't even in the same league. When in RAID 0 these drives really put the V4 in RAID 0 to shame. here are the access times in raid 0:



full reviews coming very soon

What kind of stripe size did you use for the V4's?

[B Gates]

What kind of stripe size did you use for the V4's?

I've got way way off topic on this thread and apologize for that I made a new thread http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...60#post5138460 to discuss the SLC drives Verses any other drives.

[stasio]

Just today, I have new Intel® RAID ROM 11.6.0.1624 (not uploaded yet).
Supose to be 11.6.0.1702.
Anybody know about this?

[B Gates]

Thanks to Stasio I'm running it now and it has provided better performance across the board.