Hi Fernando,

First of all, let me thank you for all the great work you do on this forum, you really know a lot on everything related to AHCI/RAID/SSD and always take the time to explain things to your audience. I've been reading various topics for a while and could use your advice on the following.

I have a Asus Z87 Sabertooth mobo, with BIOS 2103 and using the UBU tool 1.8.17 (thanks for that, SoniX! ) I succesfully modified the BIOS, with updated Intel OROM and EFI SataDriver to 13.5.0.2164. I use 2 SSD's, both as single drives, in UEFI boot setup running Windows 8.1 x64.

My questions:

Is the updated OROM/EFI SataDriver used at all in this mode, or is it only active when using RAID mode, even when using the SSD's as single drives and thus not in a RAID array? I thought I read in a post from you somewhere that the OROM does nothing when running in AHCI mode, but I might be wrong.

Is TRIM still supported when running in RAID mode, since the SSD's would not be running in an array but independently?

Is it safe to assume that matching the OROM branch version to the same driver branch (v13.5) would yield better and more reliable performance, than mixing a v12 OROM with a v13 driver?

Thanks for your time and wisdom

Regards,
Sander

HI,
I managed to mod my bios. Thank you!


First of all thank you for this forum and knowlade shearing.
Im using ASUS rampage IV Gene board with 64bit W7.
It is X79 board with 3960x *Sandy Bridge.
I have connected only 2 SDD 840 evo in raid0.
I`m using last asus bios 4901 with some mods.

Bios was modded to:
OROM IRST 12.9.0.2006
OROM IRSTE 3.8.0.1029
EFI IRST 12.9.0.2006

At the moment I can see in the bios Raid0 on 12.9.0.2006. And with 12.9 drivers I got the best results in crystal mark. I understend that on x79 I should not go for orom 13.X as i will get worst performance. Am I correct?

From another treat I know that the best option would be try enterprice drivers but how to change in bios to use 3.8 instead 12.9??

ECS H81H3-M5 H81H3-M4 B85 H87 Also apply

Zitat von Fernando im Beitrag #1175

---

@ Sandoz:

The Intel RAID ROM resp. EFI SataDriver BIOS modules are only used, when the Intel SATA Controller has been set to "RAID" mode.

---

Zitat von kanikia-CN im Beitrag #1177

---

ECS H81H3-M5 H81H3-M4 B85 H87 Also apply

---

even with UBU 1.8.17 there's no RST UEFI ROM MODULE 13.5.0.2164 for x79... why is this?

*Yes I can add it manually* just wondering why it isn't included in UBU :) Thanks!

Zitat von SoniX im Beitrag #1117

---

Zitat von bolts4brekfast im Beitrag #1116

---

---

I have 2 questions.
1) Which RAID mode is used?
2) What is the mode you have full UEFI or Lagacy?

---

I haven't actually done any comparison tests on my X79..
I only did a single test just now.. and I posted the results on the thread you sent me to. :)

Just asking - why isn't 13.5 module suggested for X79?

Understood. Thanks!

@SoniX

Found something about those 3.xx ASMedia OROMs. They might have something to do with new generation of SSD, like I posted in this thread. The situation is already covered by UBU, since it offers both 0.954 and 3.70, leaving users to test and choose on their own. This might explain why users with separate card could update to 3.02, while onboard controllers had problems.

I notices you removed Haswell GOP. I guess you had good reports from users and was [CodeRush Approved] ™ ? (Hope he doesn't mind this little joke, I will remove it if so.)
Because it might be more to it than just updating GOP. The VBT and IntelSaGopDriver might be also involved. As an example, this is the VBT header:



For Haswell GOP we have VBT version smaller than 180 / 0xB4 and the chipset is always set to 0x16, while with Haswell-Broadwell (or maybe Haswell-Haswell_Refresh) we have VBT > 180 and chipset 0x15 for Haswell, chipset 0x16 for Broadwell.

Moreover, let's take Asus GRYPHON Z97 board. If we compare IntelSaGopDriver between BIOS versions, we will get the following:
- 0801 and 0901 have the same code.
- 1008 is updated, the changelog mentions support for Haswell Refresh.
- 1008, 1103, 1202, 1304 is the same.
- 2012 is updated, Broadwell GOP is added.

So, for new GPU there is also an update in IntelSaGopDriver, plus VBT update. Haven't check the rest of the drivers to see what else is needed. I know that IntelSaGopDriver gets the data from VBT, but what driver does the parsing to obtain the GOP settings? If it is the GOP itself, then we can hope for some backward compatibility. But if it is from another driver, then users will get into troubles, sooner or later.

Have you noticed that some ASUS Z97/X99 boards have a second GOP? Asus has done this in the past, by duplicating microcodes, or VBIOS in padding. But with the second GOP placed in Volume Boot, is this something to be concerned?

Finally, something not UBU related (yet). In Asrock X99 WS-E10G there are two Intel Undi EFI drivers, one being for 10G. By analysing this board and also Intel Lan CD, I noticed there are only 3 patterns needed to cover all versions: start_match + 0x1D, start_match + 0x2D, start_match - 0x23.

Not sure if I have already mentioned it before, but I have found an old Intel GOP 5.0.1012 with error on displaying the version. Please excuse me if I already posted it.