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  • tspacie - Thursday, August 16, 2012 - link

    So, there are a bunch of requirements and hoops to get TRIM on Intel RAID, what if you just use the windows disk manager to create a raid 0 stripe? Does that also pass through TRIM commands?
  • Farfle - Sunday, August 19, 2012 - link

    I'd like this confirmed as well. There's no hard evidence on the web I've found that neither confirms nor denies trim support on striped or spanned volumes using dynamic disks in Windows. A lot of people think its enabled, providing the driver used is in AHCI mode, but no one has provided a benchmark like how Anand did with this article to prove one way or the other.

    A confirmation on this would be extremely helpful, as dynamic disks are incredibly easy to use and are hardware agnostic. Their only caveats are not being able to install OS on them, and them being native to windows only.
  • surgex - Saturday, September 29, 2012 - link

    Yes -- TRIM does work with Dynamic Disks.
    The problem is you can't BOOT from a Dynamic Disk stripe (RAID 0) -- you can only boot from a Mirror (RAID 1).

    And also -- even setting up a Bootable Dynamic Disk RAID1 is a PITFA -- you have to first install windows, then convert the disk to dynamic, then add a mirror, then reboot and hope it works. Why don't they just let you set this up from the installer!?

    Also, in my experience -- Dynamic Disk mirroring is rather flaky.

    The performance is OK -- I find RST to have better READ performance (random and sequential) in general with two 830s in an SSD RAID1 compared to Dynamic Disks-- but if you pull drives during I/O, sometimes Windows just hangs -- other times it works. With the Intel RST I can pull drives all day long and my system stays working just fine (aka there's ACTUAL redundancy here).
  • kavanoz - Thursday, August 16, 2012 - link

    Anand,

    You wrote it like 7 series motherboard requirement was a software limitation rather than hardware. If this is the case, I am sure someone will modify the drivers and allow it to work on 6 series motherboards.

    What do you think?
  • Ototin - Thursday, August 16, 2012 - link

    ...and for that matter, what about those of us still on 5 series chipsets? My X58 setup has hung on tenaciously over the past few years while I wait for Haswell...would be a shame to only be able to run my one 830 (over SATA2, even) for the next year and miss out on the cheap performance boost a RAID 0 setup would offer.
  • SlyNine - Friday, August 17, 2012 - link

    Unless you are running your drive to max capacity its not really needed. If you want to restore performance just do one huge sequential write.
  • JonnyDough - Friday, November 30, 2012 - link

    It's been done! :) Not by me...but on another article it's working!
  • iwodo - Thursday, August 16, 2012 - link

    Do Software Raid improves Random Read Write?

    All of a sudden Raid SSD becomes so attractive everybody should be using it instead of buying 128GB SSD!
  • Kristian Vättö - Thursday, August 16, 2012 - link

    Small random reads at queue depth of 1 are not improved, but everything else is.
  • surgex - Saturday, September 29, 2012 - link

    Correct -- this is because for the most part -- the SSD controllers are actually more efficient at small random reads and writes than actual RAID controllers (even a $1000 LSI MegaRAID card) -- be it hardware OR software.
  • mevans336 - Thursday, August 16, 2012 - link

    If the 6 series chipset is capable of it, you're exactly right Anand.
  • Anand Lal Shimpi - Thursday, August 16, 2012 - link

    test
  • Breit - Thursday, August 16, 2012 - link

    Nice! Thank you. ;)

    I thought another requirement for TRIM on the 7-series platform is the presence of the RAID BIOS (Option ROM) version 11.5 or newer?! If thats the case, you have to be lucky to get a decent BIOS update from your board manufacturer which includes this.

    One question though: Should that also work with x79 chipsets?
  • B3an - Thursday, August 16, 2012 - link

    I'd also like to know if this works on X79, or if support is atleast coming...
  • Breit - Tuesday, August 21, 2012 - link

    It seems that X79 chipsets/boards will get RAID TRIM using Intels RSTe drivers later this year: www.hardwarecanucks.com/news/storage-news/intels-trim-support-for-raid-configurations-coming-soon-to-x79/
  • Marlin1975 - Thursday, August 16, 2012 - link

    Ferragamo are awful, do not buy
  • Peanutsrevenge - Thursday, August 16, 2012 - link

    I realise you ran triple drives for your own ease (lazy ass).

    Am I right to assume all is fine with raid 0 for root?
  • DukeN - Thursday, August 16, 2012 - link

    For those of us looking to have multiple drives for redundancy, we'd appreciate your help figuring out what to get...

    Also, it's easier to get close to a TB of space with 4 or 5 256GB SSDs, than one monolithic one.

    Thanks!
  • HisDivineOrder - Thursday, August 16, 2012 - link

    ...more SATA III 6Gbs slots to attach drives to. Far too many 3Gbs, not enough 6 Gbs. In a world where we're going to installing multiple SSD's to get us some pooled goodness, we needs moar of the highest of the high speed SATA ports.
  • Kristian Vättö - Thursday, August 16, 2012 - link

    I couldn't agree more. I have a total of 10 SATA ports in my system (Z68 + two PCIe x1 SATA 6Gbps cards) but I would use more if I could. Kind of disappointing that the X79 didn't have more SATA ports in the end.
  • doylecc - Thursday, August 16, 2012 - link

    Many of us need redundancy for data safety, so would you mind testing with RAID 5?

    Can AMD chipset/drivers pass TRIM to a RAID 0, 1 or 5 array?

    How about a complete test showing the performance differences for single SSD vs RAID 0 vs RAID 5 using a few popular SSDs, say Intel 520, Samsung 830, and OCZ Vertez 4?

    Now that the prices of SSDs have dropped so dramatically, SSD RAID arrays are becoming affordable. So, these questions are becoming important.
  • Etsp - Thursday, August 16, 2012 - link

    I imagine that supporting TRIM commands on RAID 5 would use this brand new support for RAID 0 as a starting point.

    To quote the article:
    "There's a danger in getting rid of data in a RAID-0 array, if a page or a block gets TRIMed on one drive that's actually necessary, the entire array can be shot."

    In RAID 5, not only does that same concept apply for a TRIM, but the parity would need to be touched by it as well. More data to delete, more chance for things to go wrong.

    Also, Intel has not announced support for RAID 5, so I highly doubt this new driver would support it.
  • The Von Matrices - Thursday, August 16, 2012 - link

    Does "all 7-series chipsets" include the X79? It's not specifically confirmed or denied as far as I can tell.
  • Makaveli - Thursday, August 16, 2012 - link

    Wow if the x79 doesn't have support that would be major FU by intel.

    But I feel your pain I was hoping my X58 setup would be able to and thus far denied!

    "giving intel the evil eye right now*
  • cyphersmith - Thursday, August 16, 2012 - link

    I don't believe that the X79 chipset would be included in this. The X79 chipset is a Cougar Point PCH, as evidenced by the fact that it does not have USB 3.0 built into it. Cougar Point is the 6-series PCH.
  • AndiBiront - Thursday, August 16, 2012 - link

    Can you create a SSD array and use it for caching? Or even more complicated... Can I make a RAID0 with 2 120GB SSDs, and use 200GB for an OS installation and the rest to cache the mechanical drives?
  • IronPlasma - Thursday, August 16, 2012 - link

    "The only negative here is that Intel is only offering support on 7-series chipsets and not on previous hardware. That's great news for anyone who just moved to Ivy Bridge and has a RAID-0 array of SSDs, but not so great for everyone else. A lot of folks supported Intel over the past couple of years and Intel has had some amazing quarters as a result - I feel like the support should be rewarded. While I understand Intel's desire to limit its validation costs, I don't have to be happy about it."

    Couldn't agree with you more there. Feels like the same shaft that Intel gave to us P67 users with Intel SRT. Artificially limiting it to only Z68 chipsets, later only making an exception if you happened to own an Intel branded P67 motherboard. Leaving all other partners/customers (Asus, Gigabyte, MSI, etc.) out to dry.
  • jacknhut - Thursday, August 16, 2012 - link

    So does this also work on X79 chipset? I'm shocked if they only include the Z77 chipset only since X79 is the highend end platform they got to offer and they don't support it.
  • neogamerdrew - Friday, August 17, 2012 - link

    The Intel site lists:
    Intel® Desktop Board DZ68BC
    Intel® Desktop Board DZ68DB
    Intel® Desktop Board DZ68ZV

    Am I lead to believe that the Z68 chipset is supported? Isn't that a 6 series chipset?
  • neogamerdrew - Friday, August 17, 2012 - link

    I know z68 supports Ivy Bridge as well as Sandy Bridge. Does that mean I can only use it if I have a Ivy Bridge CPU?
  • tpi2009 - Friday, August 17, 2012 - link

    In principle no. The X79 platform uses Intel's Rapid Storage Technology Enterprise (RSTe) drivers, and to my knowledge they don't support his feature. The C600 / X79 chipset also dates back to the 6 series chipset, so it's a good question as to whether they will bring this functionality to the X79 platform.

    There could be a way to try and see if it work: some people have manually and forced the installation of previous versions of RST's driver only, and claimed that they worked and actually provided better performance than Intel's RSTe. So, if someone is willing to try, it would be interesting to see if this new version will also work, and especially if TRIM works in RAID-0 SSD arrays.

    For those interested, Intel did release a new version of RSTe, version 3.2.0.1135, which can be downloaded from here:

    http://downloadcenter.intel.com/Detail_Desc.aspx?a...

    I can confirm that two of the bugs mentioned in the release have been solved. It now reports my system as being in AHCI mode instead of RAID, and the Intel's SSD Toolbox, along with other utilities that read S.M.A.R.T. data, like HD Tune, can now report that data, and you can run Intel's SSD Optimizer.

    Just a note: the version installed is 3.2.0.1126, instead of the package version 3.2.0.1135, which is eventually the version for the C600 chipset. This difference in version numbers was already there in the previous version.
  • jacknhut - Friday, August 17, 2012 - link

    Way to go Intel... You charged through the roof for the "elite" platform X79 and yet you failed to include support for it.
  • Per Hansson - Friday, August 17, 2012 - link

    You write that RAID-1 should already be supported but I have seen no mention of this anywhere else and in the documents released by Intel about this a long time ago they where only speaking about RAID-0 support

    Can you confirm that it works with RAID-1?
  • etamin - Friday, August 17, 2012 - link

    "Intel eventually added TRIM support in its RAID drivers for RAID-1 (mirrored) arrays, but RAID-0 arrays were a different story entirely."

    I was wondering the same...
  • ArntK - Thursday, September 13, 2012 - link

    TRIM support in RAID drivers for RAID-1. What is the status of this? Please help!
  • johnsom - Tuesday, August 21, 2012 - link

    Has anyone tested RAID-1 TRIM support with the Intel chipsets/drivers?

    I was under the impression that TRIM did not work with RAID-1 (mirroring).
  • AnybodyM - Tuesday, November 26, 2013 - link

    I tried this on an Intel Q87 board and the latest Intel drivers from August 2013 and trimcheck says there is no TRIM on the RAID1 volume while there is working TRIM on the single boot SSD. Strangely though trimcheck also says there is no TRIM when the two RAID SSDs are configured as RAID0...

    Very sad the state of TRIM so many years after it became available. Intels RSTe driver for server boards (and the X79) does officially support TRIM in RAID1 though - I will test this soon.
  • coachingjoy - Wednesday, August 22, 2012 - link

    Right now I'm using two Intel 330 180G as a boot raid0 and two 2TB HDD as raid1 storage. This uses all the internal connections so the DVD is eSATA on top of my mITX Shuttle box...with a Asus P8Z787-I Deluxe MB. Sweet. with dual 180Gb SSD's it borders on making the 2Tb raid1 kind of optional.....around 335Gb's is almost enough for a system...almost.

    My 1156 Intel mITX mb has 5, yes, 5 internal connections with a software raid bios. it also has a 5x chipset so TRIM is a no-go. Hoping for Intel to show some love for older mb's, time will tell.

    Great article, made my day.
  • wackypete - Tuesday, September 25, 2012 - link

    After reading this article I setup a Raid-0 array (2 x 240GB Intel SSD 520) on my system (Gigabyte Z77X-UD5H). I'm running Intel RST 11.6.0.1030 which supportsTrim. But what about Intel's Solid-State Drive Toolbox? That program contains a "Intel SSD Optimizer" which, when I try to run, says: "The selected drive is part of a RAID array. This feature is not supported on a RAID member." This optimizer is supposed to optimize the SSD using TRIM. Any thoughts?
  • Nittenti - Thursday, September 27, 2012 - link

    "This optimizer is supposed to optimize the SSD using TRIM"

    No

    It optimizes the SSD using the Garbage Collector
  • quendi - Sunday, October 7, 2012 - link

    Hi what is the difference between RST and the enterprise version RSTe and which version should I use on an x79 platform, i7 3930K processor

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