Author: parsec
Subject: RAID help on Z97 Extreme6
Posted: 09 May 2016 at 12:32pm
The ASMedia SATA controllers, two on your board, do not support RAID. They are completely independent of the Intel SATA controller.
You have nothing to worry about using RAID mode in terms of losing AHCI features. All the features provided by AHCI mode are also provided in RAID mode, whether or not the drives are in a RAID array.
Intel calls AHCI mode a "subset" of RAID mode, when describing their RAID support. Drives in a RAID array still use AHCI features.
You can set the SATA mode to RAID in the UEFI/BIOS, and have a drive connected to each of the six Intel SATA ports but have none of them in a RAID array. That results in each drive operating in AHCI mode.
While we still have an IDE option for the SATA mode in the UEFI on Z97 boards (why, who would use it?), using RAID mode does not put the drives on an Intel SATA controller that are not part of a RAID array into IDE mode. It has been that way since the days of Intel Matrix RAID, used with the Intel ICHx series SATA controllers.
Intel designed the AHCI feature set with a HDD manufacture, originally to improve HDD performance. Ironically, AHCI features are better suited for use with SSDs. Neither SATA or AHCI were originally designed with SSDs in mind, and we now finally have a new storage protocol designed for flash storage, NVMe.
Also, you don't want to connect any of your SSDs to the ASMedia SATA controllers... don't get me started on that...![Angry]( "Angry")
Subject: RAID help on Z97 Extreme6
Posted: 09 May 2016 at 12:32pm
The ASMedia SATA controllers, two on your board, do not support RAID. They are completely independent of the Intel SATA controller.
You have nothing to worry about using RAID mode in terms of losing AHCI features. All the features provided by AHCI mode are also provided in RAID mode, whether or not the drives are in a RAID array.
Intel calls AHCI mode a "subset" of RAID mode, when describing their RAID support. Drives in a RAID array still use AHCI features.
You can set the SATA mode to RAID in the UEFI/BIOS, and have a drive connected to each of the six Intel SATA ports but have none of them in a RAID array. That results in each drive operating in AHCI mode.
While we still have an IDE option for the SATA mode in the UEFI on Z97 boards (why, who would use it?), using RAID mode does not put the drives on an Intel SATA controller that are not part of a RAID array into IDE mode. It has been that way since the days of Intel Matrix RAID, used with the Intel ICHx series SATA controllers.
Intel designed the AHCI feature set with a HDD manufacture, originally to improve HDD performance. Ironically, AHCI features are better suited for use with SSDs. Neither SATA or AHCI were originally designed with SSDs in mind, and we now finally have a new storage protocol designed for flash storage, NVMe.
Also, you don't want to connect any of your SSDs to the ASMedia SATA controllers... don't get me started on that...
