Intel Motherboards : RAID Setup Menu

Author: parsec
Subject: RAID Setup Menu
Posted: 31 Dec 2016 at 1:06am

eComposer wrote: parsec wrote: Sorry to say, you seem to be confused about which Intel system supports PCIe NVMe SSDs in RAID, using Intel's Rapid Storage (IRST) feature. Currently, only the Intel 100 series chipset boards, like a Z170 chipset board, supports creating RAID arrays of PCIe NVMe SSDs, like the Samsung 950 Pro. Your board's X99 chipset does not support creating RAID arrays of PCIe NVMe SSDs. That's why you have been unable to get the <Ctrl i> Intel RAID utility started, since you don't have any supported (SATA) drives connected to the PC. Even if the Intel RAID utility was available via <Ctrl i>, you would not see PCIe NVMe drives listed as available for use in a RAID array. Intel IRST RAID support for PCIe NVMe SSDs is very new. The Intel 100 series chipset's storage support is very different than all earlier Intel chipsets, which allows it to support PCIe NVMe SSDs in RAID, with the appropriate version of the IRST driver. Also, the increase in performance provided by a RAID 0 array of PCIe NVMe SSDs is much smaller than happens with SATA SSDs. I've used 950 Pros in RAID 0 on my Z170 Extreme7+ board, and went back to using a single 950 Pro as the OS drive. A single 950 Pro performs just as good if not better as the OS drive than two in a RAID 0 array. OK, now I'm completely confused.  I have an ASRock Z170 Extreme 7+ and just added 2 x Samsung 960 Evo SSDs into two of the M 2 Pcie 3 x4 slots.  So does this mean Parsec that you CANNOT use the 960 Evo SSDs at all in RAID0, is that what you're saying???  I saw you were using earlier Samsung Pcie SSDs and had them in RAID0 configs...  What am I missing here???? I have tried for hours to get windows 10 64 bit to install on a RAID0 array using these two SSDs with absolutely NO luck trying everything I could think of.  It just doesn't work at all. I followed the approach shown in the video on the Extreme 7+ page, so the UEFI steps were all followed so this is NOT the problem.  I tried to install windows 10 64 bit from the UEFI USB drive, which loads, but will absolutely NOT show the RAID0 array to install to, after loading the latest Intel driver from a second USB.  The driver is found, and is displayed, but after running it, the RAID0 volume NEVER SHOWS as an option to install windows to under any circumstances.   I've consulted numerous sources trying every possible variation I can think of with no success. I tried ALL the different versions of the Intel RST that are available, including the Intel® Rapid Storage Technology (Intel® RST) RAID driver version 15.2.0.1020. I'd appreciate any suggestions.  Also, does this mean you'd recommend NOT using RAID0 for these units, and just boot off one of them?   If so, I wonder why ASRock showed the example of running three M 2 slots in RAID0 and claimed high performance, especially if running a single one performs better.  This just seems at odds with all the various commentaries I've seen in Tweaktown and Tom's Hardware etc. Got to say, this one has me completely stumped.  At the "sledge hammer" point as we speak, lol!  :)

You may have new information since you posted this, but as I said in my post you quoted, you CAN create a RAID 0 array of PCIe NVMe SSDs on a Z170 board like yours, and use it as the OS drive. I have no clue why you think otherwise. I never said it cannot be done on a Z170 board. I underlined the statement in my earlier post, above, that said you can create a RAID 0 array of PCIe NVMe SSDs on a Z170, or other Intel 100 series chipset board that supports Intel's IRST RAID.

I've done it myself, so I know it works. Another active forum member, clubfoot, has been a long time user of a RAID 0 array of two 950 Pros. You must be doing something wrong.

Since you didn't describe any of the procedure you used, I'll do that here:

No idea which UEFI/BIOS version you have in your board, although they should all work. New versions are better, you should use the latest version. With earlier UEFI versions, any time you cleared the UEFI/BIOS, the RAID 0 array of PCIe NVMe SSDs would be lost, as I learned the hard way. That has been fixed since then, as well as a new Intel IRST Option ROM added.

Install the two 960 EVOs. Since the M.2 slots share resources with the SATA ports, be sure you don't have any SATA drives in the SATA ports that are shared with the M.2 slots. Also, as in ANY Windows installation, do NOT have any other drives connected (powered up) to the PC.

Since I don't know what options you set in the UEFI, clear it with the clear CMOS jumper on the board. DO NOT SKIP THIS STEP!

Go into the UEFI/BIOS, and go to the Storage Configuration screen. Set the SATA Mode Selection to RAID. You MUST MAINTAIN this setting at all times!

If you have an earlier UEFI version, at this point you must Save and Exit the UEFI, and go right back in again to continue. If you have a later UEFI version, the options I'll discuss now may already be shown, but if not, Save and Exit the UEFI and go right back in again to the Storage Configuration screen. Don't skip the Save and Exit, you'll be sorry if you do.

Find the Launch Storage OpROM Policy option, set it to UEFI Only. If you don't find the Launch Storage OpROM Policy option in Storage Configuration, you'll need to go to the Boot screen, find the CSM option at the very bottom, and set the Launch Storage OpROM Policy option to UEFI Only.

You should find two options, called PCIe Remapping, one for each SSD in the M.2 slots that you want to use for the RAID array. Set both of those options to Enabled.

Once again, Save and Exit the UEFI, and go right back in again. Go to the Advanced screen, and at the bottom you should find an entry for Intel Rapid Storage Technology. Use that to create the RAID 0 array. I assume you know how to do that. Be sure to choose the 128K stripe size for the RAID 0 array, since that will give you the best performance. Finally done with creating the RAID 0 array. If you don't follow this procedure, you won't have a working RAID 0 array of your 960 EVOs.

Next, what IRST driver are you loading during the Windows 10 installation? Only one is correct, which is the SATA Floppy Image ver:15.2.0.1020 driver on your board's download page. Why they still use that terminology, floppy, I don't know but that is the driver file you need. Of course you must unzip the download file, and copy the f6flpy-x64 folder to a USB flash drive. During the Win 10 installation, connect both USB flash drives to USB ports on the board's IO panel ONLY. Also, do NOT REMOVE either USB flash drive from the PC until your Windows 10 installation completely boots to the Desktop for the first time.

Another detail, about your Win 10 installation USB flash drive. In the boot order in the UEFI, you MUST select the entry for the USB flash drive that is, "UEFI: <flash drive name>". That is a required step. Be sure that entry is selected as first in the boot order, and Save and Exit to start the Win 10 installation.

You seem to know how the Win 10 installation goes, choosing Custom, where you won't see the RAID 0 array until after you load the driver from the f6flpy-x64 folder on the second USB flash drive. If the RAID 0 array does not appear after loading the driver, something was not done correctly.

Not quite done yet. Back from the Load Driver screen, with the RAID 0 array now shown, you must format it. Find the New button, click it, which will display a message about creating multiple partitions, just click Ok, and it should format it correctly. Continue with the installation from there.

That's it.

Performance of a storage device is not shown in one speed spec. For example, the 960 EVO "sequential read" speed is ~3,200MBs, but that is only for large files, over 128KB, and varies depending upon the size of the file. No SSD reads all data/files at 3,200MBs, or its maximum sequential read speed spec. Small 4KB - 16KB files will be read at ~55MB/s, which is called the "4K Random Read" speed. That is normal for any drive, the small file read speed is much lower. One side affect of a RAID 0 array is some loss of the 4K read speed performance, not a lot but it will be at ~50MB/s instead of ~55MB/s. That is normal and happens with any type of drive in a RAID 0 array.

Loading/booting an OS involves reading many