Forum - RE: Which are the "best" Intel AHCI/RAID drivers?

#601 | RE: Which are the "best" Intel AHCI/RAID drivers? datum

Thu Oct 12, 2017 10:55 pm (Last edited: Thu Oct 12, 2017 10:58 pm)

@Fernando
@Lex
Fernando did reply exactly. The "main" onboard SATA Controller is handled by Intel SATA v14.x drivers, the "secondary" onboard SATA Controller is handled by Intel sSATA v5.x drivers, so none conflict at the same time.
On my mboard SATA6G_1 up to SATA6G_6 ports (RAID capable) are handled by the SATA v14.x drivers, and SATA6G_7 up to SATA6G_10 ports (only AHCI capable) are handled by the sSATA v5.x driver.
Yes, I know Asus does miss to offer Intel v5.x., it is usual Asus does not provide appropriate up to date drivers.

ASUS Sabertooth X99/USB 3.1, W10 x64 21H2 NVMe i750, BIOS v4101, CPU Intel i7 5930K, 32GB DDR4, Asus GTX 1660TI 6GB DDR6
ASUS PRIME Z390M-Plus W11 x64 21H2 22000.194 NVMe 970 , BIOS v3004, 16GB DDR4, CPUs: Intel i3-8100 (4 cores) +UHD 630, i5-9400F (6 cores) +GTX 980.

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#602 | RE: Which are the "best" Intel AHCI/RAID drivers? datum

Thu Oct 12, 2017 11:05 pm

Zitat von Fernando im Beitrag #600
Why should there be a conflict? There are 2 completely different on-board SATA Controllers, which need different drivers.

Here is the reason: when I read your comment under "Intel RSTe drivers v5.2.0.1194 WHQL dated 06/13/2017" from first post:

Zitat
X99 users, who are running their Intel SATA ports in RST mode, should install the RST(e) drivers v14.8.16.1063.

.. it suggests me that I should use only v14 OR v5, not both on the same system.

Zitat von Fernando im Beitrag #600
Zitat von Lex im Beitrag #598
Do you know why Asus is providing only v14 drivers for our mainboards (yours and mine) when we need also other drivers, like v5?
You should better ask ASUS than 100PIER.

Only one explanation comes eventually to my mind: is it possible to install v14 on both X99 controllers?
Or does v14 always install only on the first one leaving second controller on.. hmm.. some "default"(?) drivers?

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#603 | RE: Which are the "best" Intel AHCI/RAID drivers? datum

Thu Oct 12, 2017 11:07 pm (Last edited: Thu Oct 12, 2017 11:12 pm)

Zitat von 100PIER im Beitrag #601
Yes, I know Asus does miss to offer Intel v5.x., it is usual Asus does not provide appropriate up to date drivers.

The thing is it is not only fault of Asus: one of my friends has MSI X99 mainboard and he has only v14 drivers to download as well.

Zitat von 100PIER im Beitrag #601
On my mboard SATA6G_1 up to SATA6G_6 ports (RAID capable) are handled by the SATA v14.x drivers, and SATA6G_7 up to SATA6G_10 ports (only AHCI capable) are handled by the sSATA v5.x driver.

Where is your main system drive (with C:) plugged in? In which SATA port #?

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#604 | RE: Which are the "best" Intel AHCI/RAID drivers? datum

Thu Oct 12, 2017 11:55 pm (Last edited: Fri Oct 13, 2017 8:24 am)

@Lex
My C: drive is a PCIe x4 v3.0 SSD device such as NVMe Intel i750 400GB device, or a SM951 AHCI 512GB model/KryoM2 add incard because I use the appropriate device depending of the nature of tests to do.
I do plug the 'system' drive into PCIeX16_3 slot because PCIeX16_1 is used for the GPU and PCIeX16_2 is used for the 'special' HighPoint add-in rizer card (which do support up to four NVMe M.2 SSD devices (multi RAID mode or not)).

ASUS Sabertooth X99/USB 3.1, W10 x64 21H2 NVMe i750, BIOS v4101, CPU Intel i7 5930K, 32GB DDR4, Asus GTX 1660TI 6GB DDR6
ASUS PRIME Z390M-Plus W11 x64 21H2 22000.194 NVMe 970 , BIOS v3004, 16GB DDR4, CPUs: Intel i3-8100 (4 cores) +UHD 630, i5-9400F (6 cores) +GTX 980.

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#605 | RE: Which are the "best" Intel AHCI/RAID drivers? datum

Fri Oct 13, 2017 12:25 am (Last edited: Fri Oct 13, 2017 12:31 am)

Zitat von Lex im Beitrag #602
when I read your comment under "Intel RSTe drivers v5.2.0.1194 WHQL dated 06/13/2017" from first post:
Zitat
X99 users, who are running their Intel SATA ports in RST mode, should install the RST(e) drivers v14.8.16.1063.
.. it suggests me that I should use only v14 OR v5, not both on the same system.

Maybe the related sentence of the start post is misleading. Nevertheless: The first 8 SATA ports of your mainboard are running in RST mode and need an RST driver (here: v14 platform), whereas the last 4 SATA ports are running in RSTe mode and need an "Enterprise Edition" RSTe driver (here: v5 platform).

Zitat von Lex im Beitrag #602
Only one explanation comes eventually to my mind: is it possible to install v14 on both X99 controllers?

No, both SATA Controllers of your mainboard have different DeviceIDs and need different drivers. The Intel RST(e) drivers of the v14 platform do not support the sSATA Controller of your mainboard.

Zitat von Lex im Beitrag #602
Or does v14 always install only on the first one leaving second controller on.. hmm.. some "default"(?) drivers?

The Windows Device Management knows, which specific driver supports which one of your 2 on-board SATA Controllers. When you install the driver by running the related installer from a complete Intel RST/RSTe Drivers & Software Set, it will be done automaticly. Only if you are going to manually install a "pure" Intel RST/RSTe driver from within the Device Manager, you should pay attention, when you select the Intel SATA Controller, whose driver you want to update. Butr even if you choose the wrong (not matching) Controller, nothing severe will happen: You will just get the message, that the related driver is not compatible with this Controller.

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#606 | RE: Which are the "best" Intel AHCI/RAID drivers? datum

Fri Oct 13, 2017 10:18 am (Last edited: Fri Oct 13, 2017 10:42 am)

I am after a very interesting (and long) reading. It was a discussion between @PC Pilot, @ejp (already deleted account?) and @Fernando plus (unfortunately) only one post from @100PIER - it all starts on 31st page of this topic with this post from @PC Pilot.

Here is one quote that's quite intriguing for me:

Zitat von Fernando im Beitrag #464
Zitat von Gast im Beitrag #462
The Intel SATA RAID controller supports both RAID and AHCI automatically and in the event that you are not running a raid setup, if your drives are installed under the Intel RAID controller it will automatically be in AHCI mode yes?
No, as long as the disk drives are connected to the RAID Controller ports, they are running in RAID mode.

...as it is in contradiction to what my mainboard manual says:

Zitat
These connectors are set to [AHCI Mode] by default.

Here is the picture of this manual page, the note is at the bottom - so how can this be explained?

Here is the link to the whole manual if needed.

==================================================

@100PIER: I asked you about "where is your system drive plugged in" because I thought about some, possibly troubling, situation for me in the future as, AFAIK, the order of the drives in system is predestined by the order of SATA ports they are plugged into.

Now I have three different drives: SSD (system: C:) on SATA1, HDD (system temp files: D:, data: E:, F:) on SATA2 and DVD (optical, I:) on SATA10.

According to what you say, I should move my SSD to SATA7 and HDD to SATA8 to have all my drives under control of my "AHCI only" sSATA controller#2.

If I add any 2nd SSD/HDD in the future all is still ok as I'll plug it into SATA9.

But what if I add another/3rd SSD/HDD? I have only 4 sSATA ports (7-10) so this 3rd SSD/HDD will have to be plugged into any of SATA1-6 ports, that's "before" my SSD (system) on SATA7 - so this (I think?) will reassign the order of my drivers in the OS and probably render my system as unusable?

==================================================

@100PIER: This is what Fernando told me:

Zitat von Fernando im Beitrag #591
According to the report from 100PIER you may get the best results, if you connect your SSD with the port 7 and install the Intel RSTe driver v5.2.0.1194.

Can you share with me any tests you've performed which made you think that sSATA ports are better for drives used in AHCI mode? What are the main benefits? I was intensively searching this forum for any of your post with such info and/or results but found nothing. :(

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#607 | RE: Which are the "best" Intel AHCI/RAID drivers? datum

Fri Oct 13, 2017 11:22 am

@Lex:
The majority of your various questions were/are about the features and specifications of Intel X99 chipsets and have nothing to do with the topic of this thread. Furthermore it seems to me, that my attempts to answer your questions as detailed as possible just induces a bunch of new questions from your side.
As a consequence I stop this discussion at this place.
100PIER and me have given you a lot of information, which should allow you to find out yourself
a) the appropriate SATA port for the connection of your system drive and
b) the "best" Intel AHCI driver for your specific system and tasks.
It would be fine, if you would let us know your final results, because they will match perfectly the topic of this thread.

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#608 | RE: Which are the "best" Intel AHCI/RAID drivers? datum

Fri Oct 13, 2017 11:57 am

@Lex
If you want to boost your X99 PC performance I recommend first your C: is a PCIe v3.0 x4 SSD NVMe device such as 960EVO or 960PRO product family to avoid SATA6G limitation.
I no longer use any SATA6G port for my system boot drive.
For the DATA devices you can choose also a mixed solution of NVMe SSD devices (performance) and classical SATA6G devices (HDD/SSD economical).
My Sabertooth X99 platform is 'SSD' only.
On SATA6G ports I have connected:
SATA6G_1 up to SATA6G_3 three SATA6G Samsung 840 PRO 256G set in RAID0 mode. (768GB array)
SATA6G_4 and SATA6G_5 two SATA6G Samsung 850 PRO 1TB set in RAID0 mode. (2TB array)
SATA6G_6 is free.
SATA6G_7 an old SATA3G Intel i320 SSD (120GB) in AHCI mode.
SATA6G_8 up to _10 are free.
The choice of what SATA controller to use is quite simple: The RAID mode is supported by the main controller only, the secondary controller does support AHCI/IDE mode only.
If you don't want to use RAID mode you can use all the 10 SATA6G ports in AHCI mode.
nota: Into BIOS menu you have to set properly what is your boot device.

ASUS Sabertooth X99/USB 3.1, W10 x64 21H2 NVMe i750, BIOS v4101, CPU Intel i7 5930K, 32GB DDR4, Asus GTX 1660TI 6GB DDR6
ASUS PRIME Z390M-Plus W11 x64 21H2 22000.194 NVMe 970 , BIOS v3004, 16GB DDR4, CPUs: Intel i3-8100 (4 cores) +UHD 630, i5-9400F (6 cores) +GTX 980.

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#609 | RE: Which are the "best" Intel AHCI/RAID drivers? datum

Fri Oct 13, 2017 12:00 pm

Zitat von Fernando im Beitrag #607
it seems to me, that my attempts to answer your questions as detailed as possible just induces a bunch of new questions from your side

Well, not really. As you may note, I did not quote anything from your last post - all your answers were fully understandable for me and I had no new questions about them. My last post was the result of reading some older posts in middle of this topic (I gave a link to them).

Zitat von Fernando im Beitrag #607
100PIER and me have given you a lot of information

I asked @100PIER about location of his system drive, but his configuration is so "complicated" that I needed to find the other way to ask about my concerns. Also I still not get the information about @100PIER's reports you were talking about and I couldn't find them myself (and I've tried hard) - you asked me to ask him directly and that's why I asked about them again in my previous post. :(

My last two questions to @100PIER are very important to me. If you think my discussion does not belong here maybe you can direct me to some another topic I should move to?

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#610 | RE: Which are the "best" Intel AHCI/RAID drivers? datum

Fri Oct 13, 2017 12:22 pm

Zitat von Lex im Beitrag #609
My last two questions to @100PIER are very important to me. If you think my discussion does not belong here maybe you can direct me to some another topic I should move to?

Why don't you start a new topic titled "How to optimize the usage of X99 chipset Intel SATA ports" (or similar)?

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#611 | RE: Which are the "best" Intel AHCI/RAID drivers? datum

Sat Oct 21, 2017 2:11 pm

Hello,
Can you recommend AHCI drivers for intel Celeron n3450 ?

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#612 | RE: Which are the "best" Intel AHCI/RAID drivers? datum

Sat Oct 21, 2017 2:36 pm

@ijence:
The choice of the AHCI driver doesn't depend on the CPU, but on the mainboard's chipset resp. the model of the on-board SATA AHCI Controller.
Since your system seems to have an Intel 8-Series chipset, you should look into the start post to find the best matching Intel AHCI driver for your specific system.

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#613 | RE: Which are the "best" Intel AHCI/RAID drivers? datum

Sun Oct 29, 2017 10:05 am

@Fernando,
To avoid any confusion In Start Post#1 you should modify : "Recommended for all Intel Chipset AHCI/RAID systems (except X99):" which is contrary to 3., 4., 5. paragraphs just following this title.

I suggest: "Recommended for all Intel Chipset AHCI/RAID systems:"

ASUS Sabertooth X99/USB 3.1, W10 x64 21H2 NVMe i750, BIOS v4101, CPU Intel i7 5930K, 32GB DDR4, Asus GTX 1660TI 6GB DDR6
ASUS PRIME Z390M-Plus W11 x64 21H2 22000.194 NVMe 970 , BIOS v3004, 16GB DDR4, CPUs: Intel i3-8100 (4 cores) +UHD 630, i5-9400F (6 cores) +GTX 980.

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#614 | RE: Which are the "best" Intel AHCI/RAID drivers? datum

Sun Oct 29, 2017 10:58 am

@100PIER:
Thanks for your advice. You are right: There is a discrepance between the title and the following details.
Since I do not recommend to install the related drivers onto X79, X99 and X299 Chipset systems, whose Intel SATA AHCI/RAID Controller is running in RSTe mode, I have added this exception.

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#615 | RE: Which are the "best" Intel AHCI/RAID drivers? datum

Sat Nov 04, 2017 5:46 pm (Last edited: Sat Nov 04, 2017 5:47 pm)

I don't know if stupid questions are allowed but I'm super lost. Do you know which driver I need? Win10 has been cranking my handle since the day I installed it by freezing for 30 seconds in games. This is supposed to be the last piece of the puzzle
cpuz thingers https://i.imgur.com/Gpk0PV0.png https://i.imgur.com/1IlNMfv.png

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