Hello,

I want to first thank everyone for all of the info found on this site, so much more helpful than anything I found on manufacturer's websites or official forums thus far.

I currently have an ASUS Rampage Formula IV (x79), on the newest posted official BIOS 5001, not using UEFI boot option. I have an OCZ Vertex 4 120GB SSD for my boot drive on Win7, and a RAID 0 array with 2x 500GB WD Caviar Blacks. It has been about 6 years since I set this system up, so going off of initial setup is pure memory. I set the SATA mode in BIOS to RAID, setup the array with CTRL + I, and I have the Intel Rapid Storage Technology program installed. Now here is the part where I am confused as to how my array is actually working...

Currently:
-SATA mode in BIOS is set to AHCI (yes AHCI)
-(Switched to RAID mode RSTe) CTRL + I Shows Intel Rapid Storage Technology enterprise SATA Option ROM V3.5.0.1005
-(Switched to RAID mode IRST) CTRL + I Shows Intel Rapid Storage Technology SATA Option ROM V12.7.0.1936
-(Switched to RAID mode IRST) CSM Boot from Storage Devices on UEFI driver first, in BIOS Intel Rapid Storage tab shows IRST 12.7.0.1936 SATA Driver (In this UEFI mode I see no option to switch between IRST and RSTe like before)
-RAID Driver 11.2.0.1006

In Windows the IRST program doesn't show an array, but the drives as separate. If I use CTRL+I the array shows up as it should. In Windows the array shows up as it should, one drive and all seems to work fine. If I change my SATA mode to RAID (either IRST or RSTe) I get a BSOD right after the Starting Windows screen appears. I'm just not sure how exactly the array is working if my SATA mode is set to AHCI, and is it then under IRST or RSTe?


As of now this is all moot as I have new drives I will be using and will be switching to Win 10. My new setup will be 1x Samsung 860 500GB for OS (boot drive), and 2x Samsung 1TB in RAID 0 for other programs/games. I'd like to install Win10 in EFI mode (off of a USB drive, and GPT partition the SSD by console during install). I am trying to figure out what I should do for RAID mode, drivers, and EFI Raid/SATA driver. From what I've read it seems like my best bet would be:

IRST mode (I can't see a way to choose RSTe in UEFI anyway)
RST AHCI+RAID driver v11.2.0.1006 mod+signed by Fernando (latest variant)
EFI BIOS module v13.1.0.2126

Or will the 13.1.0.2126 not matter compared to my current 12.7.0.1936 because the RAID driver will be lower at 11.2.0.1006?

Thank you for the feedback. I was slightly worried my old x79 system may be problematic on Windows 10. I will follow your suggestion and not use the RAID setup. I was also not aware of the new v1809 build, looks like I'll be making my media creation USB again very soon!

Do you suggest I just use the built in Windows Sata drivers then?

Thank you!