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

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

Sat Sep 05, 2020 10:43 am

@NIK1:
The best choice depends on the specific Intel chipset and not on the model of the in-use mainboard/PC, CPU or socket.
You can find my recommendation within the start post of this thread. At the bottom there is a table with my recommendations for the various Intel chipsets. Remember: The latest Intel RST drivers are not automaticly the best.

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

Wed Oct 21, 2020 7:51 am

Hello Fernando. First, thank you for all of your work regarding these drivers. I have a few questions for you.

I have an Alienware m15 R3 laptop with a 1TB Micron 2300 NVME drive. I have no plans to run any type of RAID configuration. I've changed the mode in the bios from RAID TO AHCI. I've updated the driver using device manager to the Intel RST driver 17.9.1.1009 as an Intel(R) NVMe Controller instead the Intel(R) Chipset SATA/PCIe RST Controller using the iaAHCIC file.

1. Did I update it correctly?
2. Crystaldiskmark is giving me low read ~2300MB/s which should be ~3300MB according to spec. Write speeds are ~2700MB/s which is fine. Do you know why this is? Please note that i was getting ~1700MB/s before changing the setting to AHCI and updating the driver.
3. I am unable to run the Micron Storage Executive software which cannot detect my drive anymore. It was able to detect it before i changed the bios setting and driver. Do you know why this could be?

Thanks again for your help.

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

Wed Oct 21, 2020 11:19 am

@neoguri:
Welcome to the Win-RAID Forum!
You forgot to mention the OS you are using with your Dell laptop, but I suspect, that it is Win10 x64.
The switch of the on-board Intel SATA Controller within the BIOS (from "AHCI" to "RAID" or vice versa) has no effect onto the function and performance of the NVMe Controller, which is within your Micron NVMe SSD.
If you want to manually change the in-use driver of the NVMe Controller of your SSD, you should do a right click onto the related device, which is listed within the "Storage Controllers" section of the Device Manager.

Zitat von neoguri im Beitrag #825
I've updated the driver using device manager to the Intel RST driver 17.9.1.1009 as an Intel(R) NVMe Controller instead the Intel(R) Chipset SATA/PCIe RST Controller using the iaAHCIC file.

That is impossible, because the file named iaAHCIC.inf doesn't support NVMe Controllers at all. Only the file named iaStorAC.inf is usable for NVMe Controllers and will rename them to "Intel(R) NVMe Controller".
Regarding the best choice for the Micron NVMe Controller of your SSD I recommend to compare
a) the Win10 in-box generic MS NVMe driver (which is brandnew and very good) and
b) the latest specific Micron NVMe driver v2.1.15.56, which can be found within the start post of >this< thread and will let you to use the Micron Storage Executive Software.
It is possible to get an Intel RST driver of the v16 or v17 platform installed onto a non-Intel NVMe SSD, but according to my own experiences with different NVMe SSDs the performance is not as good as with the generic MS NVMe driver or with the specific one, which has been delivered by the manufacturer of the SSD (and its NVMe Controller).
After having found the "best" SSD connection (M.2/PCIe slot) and NVMe driver, I recommend to have a look into the start post of >this< thread, where I have given some tips how to boost the NVMe performance.
Good luck!
Dieter (alias Fernando)

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

Wed Oct 21, 2020 12:58 pm

@Fernando, thank you for your quick response. Yes I am on Win10 x64.

I guess I am a bit confused about the drivers. Is there a separate driver for NVME Controller of my Micron SSD and another driver for my motherboard storage controller? I assumed that the Intel RST drivers were for motherboards(or laptops) with integrated storage controllers...I did not know they were specifically for Intel SSD's.

I've updated in Device Manager under "Storage Controllers", to the 17.9.1.1009 driver that is provided by Dell for my specific laptop. I extracted the files from the exe file and manually installed it through device manager. The iaAHCIC.inf and iaStoreAC.inf files are both in the same folder, so I'm not sure how Windows 10 determines which file is used(I selected the iaAHCIC.inf file), but it gave me two choices of selecting either the Intel(R) NVME Controller or Intel(R) Chipset SATA/PCIe RST Controller of which I chose the first.

I have tried to install the Micron 2.1.15.56 driver, but my system would not boot into Windows, and I had to do a system restore. I can try it again, but it gave me a big scare. Also, the Micron Storage Executive Software worked fine when my bios setting was to RAID and not AHCI. Again, I'm a little confused that you are saying that it doesn't matter which mode the bios is in.

As you recommend, I will uninstall the Intel RST driver and just try the stock Win10 one. Please let me know if I am not understanding something correctly.

Thanks again!

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

Wed Oct 21, 2020 1:56 pm (Last edited: Wed Oct 21, 2020 1:57 pm)

@neoguri:
Your Intel chipset motherboard has no on-board NVMe Controller, only an on-board Intel SATA Controller, which can run in IDE, AHCI or RAID mode (depending on your BIOS settings). The SATA Controller works with all HDDs and SSDs, which are connected to any of the Intel SATA ports (not only with Intel ones).
Although you are using an NVMe SSD, which is not connected to any SATA port and has its own Micron NVMe Controller, it is possible to let it be managed by an Intel RST driver, but only while running the on-board Intel SATA Controller in "RAID" mode.

Zitat von neoguri im Beitrag #827
Is there a separate driver for NVME Controller of my Micron SSD and another driver for my motherboard storage controller?

If the on-board Intel SATA Controller is running in "RAID" mode, it is possible to use the exactly same driver named iaStorAC.sys for your PCIe/M.2 connected NVMe SSD and for all SATA connected HDDs/SSDs.

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

Wed Oct 21, 2020 2:33 pm

@Fernando
Thank you for the explanation.

What would happen if I have two different NVME SSD drives in my laptop in AHCI mode?? For example, my current Micron and a Western Digital? Would I be able to install a different driver for each drive?

Thanks again.

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

Wed Oct 21, 2020 4:35 pm (Last edited: Wed Oct 21, 2020 4:37 pm)

@neoguri:
You cannot run an NVMe SSD in AHCI mode.
If you have connected 2 NVMe SSDs from different manufacturers to the M.2/PCIe slots of your PC/Mobile, you can use the same NVMe driver - the OS-own generic MS NVMe driver or the generic Intel RST NVMe driver (only usable with modern Intel chipset systems). If you want to use a non-generic NVMe driver, you have to use different NVMe drivers (each NVMe Controller needs its own specific driver).

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

Thu Oct 22, 2020 2:19 am

@Fernando
I'm sorry but I guess I still don't understand. I currently have the setting as AHCI in my bios. Are you saying that it doesn't matter if it is set to AHCI or RAID? Granted, I was able to get the Micron NVME driver to work in AHCI mode, but it would not boot on RAID mode, so there has to be a difference somewhere. The generic MS driver was giving me worse performance than the Micron driver.

Thanks again.

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

Thu Oct 22, 2020 10:23 am

@neoguri:
Maybe your specific mainboard BIOS has other depencies between the SATA and M.2/PCIe connections and settings than other mainboards.
What happens, if you completely disable the on-board Intel SATA Controller within the BIOS? It is clear, that the SATA connected devices will not work, but you should still be able to boot (provided, that the OS and the boot sector (EFI system partition) is on your NVMe SSD and the NVMe Controller doesn't use an Intel RST NVMe driver.

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

Thu Oct 22, 2020 11:00 am

@Fernando
Strangely the bios does not give me an option to disable the onboard SATA controller. The dropdown box only gives the choice of AHCI or RAID.
For now, I will leave it in AHCI mode using the Micron NVME driver. If I run into any issues, I'll just revert it back to RAID mode and use the Intel RST driver provided by Dell.

Thanks again for all of your help!

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

Thu Oct 22, 2020 11:17 am

@neoguri:
Thanks for your interesting reports.
Final tip:
If you should ever want to (re-)install an Intel RST NVMe driver, I recommend to use the latest available version from the related development branch. You can find it >here<.
Example: Dell offers the Intel RST driver v17.9.1.1009, but Intel has meanwhile optimized resp. improved the stability of the v17.9 series drivers. The currently latest is v17.9.4.1017.

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MB: ASRock X570 Pro4, CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 3600, System Drive: 500 GB Samsung 980 Pro, Graphics: Sapphire Radeon RX570, OS: Win10 x64 Pro
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#837 | RE: Which are the "best" Intel AHCI/RAID drivers? datum

Sun Nov 08, 2020 8:54 pm (Last edited: Wed Nov 18, 2020 8:58 pm)

Hi,
You recommend in the table of this thread 'Which are the "best" Intel AHCI/RAID drivers?':

Zitat von Fernando
Intel Chipset Recommended AHCI drivers Recommended RAID drivers
Intel 100/200 Series Chipset Intel RST(e) v13.2.8.1002 or v14.8.18.1066 Intel RST(e) v15.5.2.1054 (not for RAID5) or RST v16.8.3.1003

and in the same thread:

Zitat von Fernando
Intel RST(e) drivers v14.8.18.1066
Recommended for Intel X99 systems.

Intel RST drivers v15.9.8.1050
Recommended for Intel 100/200 Series Chipset systems running in AHCI mode.
Best matching Intel RAID ROM resp. EFI "RaidDriver" BIOS modules: v15.9.1.3271/v15.9.3.3408

I guess for Intel H110 Chipset (AHCI mode only) the recommended drivers are Intel RST drivers v15.9.8.1050?
About Intel EFI "RaidDriver" BIOS modules, if I understood the drivers are included in BIOS! How do I know their version?

Regards

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

Sun Nov 08, 2020 10:08 pm

@reglis:
Welcome to the Win-RAID Forum!
I have merged your request into this already existing thread, because it doesn't make much sense to start a new thread about the same topic.
You can see within the start post of this thread, which Intel RST drivers were the best for for my own system with an Intel 100-Series chipset, but why don't you check out yourself, which is the best AHCI driver for your specific system? It is very easy to do it manually from within the Device Manager. By the way - I do not recommend to install any Drivers & Software Set for systems, whose Intel SATA Controller is running in RAID mode.
Maybe you will find out, that the best AHCI driver for your computer is the genneric Win10 in-box AHCI driver named storahci.sys.
If you want to know the version of the Intel "RaidDriver" modules, which are currently within the BIOS of your mainboard, you should run the UBU tool, but why do you want to know it? The Intel RAID BIOS modules are not used by your system as long as the on-board Intel SATA Controller is running in AHCI mode.
Regards
Dieter (alias Fernando)

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

Wed Nov 18, 2020 8:56 pm

@Fernando:
I checked myself

Seagate Laptop Thin SSHD:
Standard SATA AHCI v10.0.19041.488 100 %
Intel RST User Interface and Driver v14.8.18.1066 99.8 %
Intel RST User Interface and Driver v15.5.2.1054 99.7 %
Intel RST User Interface and Driver v15.9.8.1050 99.3 %
Intel RST User Interface and Driver v16.8.3.1003 99.4 %

Intel RST User Interface and Driver don't detect my Samsung SSD SM951 AHCI? Intel RST User Interface and Driver v11.x v12.x v13.x v17.x v18.x isn't compatible with my platform.
I guess I have to install the driver manually

It's the title of this thread 'Intel EFI "RaidDriver" (="SataDriver") BIOS Modules' that misled me. Either way UBU says 'Unknow platform BIOS'!

Notes: During my tests I saw that Intel offered:
Intel RST(e) AHCI/RAID Drivers & Software Set v15.9.8.1053
Intel RST AHCI/RAID/NVMe Drivers & Software Set v16.8.3.1007

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

Wed Nov 18, 2020 10:11 pm

@reglis:
What do the percentages mean? How did you measure it?
It was not a good idea to install the complete Intel RST Drivers & Software Sets, because your on-board Intel SATA Controller is running in AHCI (and not in RAID) mode.
Problems: The Intel RST Software is running in the background and decreases the system performance. Furthermore you have to uninstall the previously used Intel RST Software, before you are going to install another Intel RST Drivers & Software Set.
Yes, you should install the different Intel AHCI driver versions manually from within the Device Manager. You can find the on-board SATA Controller within the "IDE ATA/ATAPI Controllers" section.
The Intel RST versions, which were offered by Intel, are the versions of the software and not of the driver.

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