RAID0 trim and SRT seems possible on 6-series and 5-Series

[Makaveli]

Did try the earlier 12 series but 11.2 legacy still seems better for my own needs even if it means a slower boot without UEFI GOP and UEFI RST driver.



Hard to remember now, some register info, also tried making up a modified OROM but I have no suitable HW to test on. For instance IIRC ASUS P6T Deluxe V2 BIOS with modified 11.x OROM. Not really knowing what the outcome might be I can understand peoples reluctance to test.

I might be interested on taking you up on that

but how would you get around the orom size limit that prevents loading anything newer than 10.0.8 on my current P6T Deluxe V2.?

 

[Dufus]

how would you get around the orom size limit that prevents loading anything newer than 10.0.8 on my current P6T Deluxe V2.?

Not having the HW myself I am unfortunately not aware of the problems. I can pm you a link for BIOS 1202 modded if you want to try, no guarantee, but I am away from home and the hosting sites are blocked for me. Should be back home next week.

 

[SkOrPn]

Unfortunately it seems Intel may have decided after all to drop supporting pre 7 series. :\

With the way the OROM is currently modified it does not work to give trim for pre PCH. I had hoped to do some further tests with X58 and earlier using a different mod but could not find anyone willing to flash and test so kind of gave up on that.

Hello Dufus, I would be willing to test for you (and me lol). I have a Rampage III Extreme with TWO on board BIOS's (flashed with beta bios 1601 and running better than I ever hoped it would). I am using RST drivers 12.7.0.1018 and ICH10R Sata Raid Controller 12.7.0.1936

I have THREE Crucial C300's in RAID0 (Drive:C) for the OS (Win7x64). I only have 200GB of the space partitioned leaving the rest for the SSD's to do with what they want (my goal is for sheer performance). I also have TWO original Vertex's in RAID0, for a total of 5 SSD's Raided on my ICH10R/x58 board.

Let me know if your still interested in testing the x58 platform. Considering I have a Server to backup data onto and two bios's, three desktops, and three laptops to work with I feel safe testing dangerous mods. If the bios flash goes bad can't I use the second bios to recover anyway?

 

[Dufus]

Okay np, PM'd. I only looked into it because people were asking, I do not have any of these older systems so no real interest for myself.

Most of the time a CMOS reset should put the board into AHCI or IDE default and therefore not load the OROM if it is a problem and then the backup BIOS can be reflashed. Not sure exactly what problems Makaveli was experiencing earlier but sounds like it was a bit more serious than that. I do not know if he tried the link I gave him.

For me I have an external flasher so no worries of a bricked system but I only have a very limited set of HW to test with.

 

[SkOrPn]

Oops, looks like I need 25 posts in order to reply to your PM. Sorry bout that. Below is what I was trying to reply with.

My PM reply:
SWFM Mod? What is that?

Below is the current bios I use with great results by sinders. I'm sure there is no TRIM as of yet, however for what ever reason the last several bios flashes has done something remarkable, at least I think it has to do with the bios flashes. My system just feels faster than it ever has and not by a little, but by a lot. Since I am no longer overclocking these days (it feels like I am overclocked at 4ghz but I am now running stock), and my windows 7 has not been re-installed in a year I have to assume something since OROM 11.5 or 11.6 has been accomplished by Intel. I went from 11.6 to 12.6 about a month ago and could not believe the difference. No other changes at all that I know of other than new drivers. Last year I remember always feeling jealous that my Father has the newer z77 platform and his computer felt so much quicker than mine. However, now mine feels every bit as fast as his and all I did was install OROM 12.6 (and now 12.7). Is there something else at play here I am not aware of? I keep reading that 11.2 is the fastest version to date but I do not remember it that way. I believe the newer oroms have put new life into my system, but I have no proof of that. Or maybe it is just consistently faster, I do not know. Maybe it is just me, but I do not think so. I know my system, and I have not made any changes yet it feels faster than it has ever felt before.

Anyway this is the BIOS's I am using these days. Its custom of course. the 12.6 version is the one that made everything seem quicker. I recently flashed 12.7 and noticed no difference.
OROM 12.6 http://www.bios-mods.com/forum/Thread-Asus-Rampage-III-Extreme-ZioMod-Bios-Latest-1601-S10
OROM 12.7 http://www.bios-mods.com/forum/Thre...1601-sindersMod-2013-06-18?pid=57913#pid57913

What exactly did you do to the BIOS you just linked to me? I will study the recovery procedures before I try yours. I was not expecting you to reply to me so soon, haha. I will report back. Oh and I need you to explain how I test TRIM function please. I never really cared about TRIM which is why I keep my SSD's over provisioned and logoff as often as possible.

Hope to hear from ya soon. Thanks :thumbsup:

 

[Makaveli]

Okay np, PM'd. I only looked into it because people were asking, I do not have any of these older systems so no real interest for myself.

Most of the time a CMOS reset should put the board into AHCI or IDE default and therefore not load the OROM if it is a problem and then the backup BIOS can be reflashed. Not sure exactly what problems Makaveli was experiencing earlier but sounds like it was a bit more serious than that. I do not know if he tried the link I gave him.

For me I have an external flasher so no worries of a bricked system but I only have a very limited set of HW to test with.

hey I haven't had time to try the bios you sent me yet very busy with work this week.

To be more specific about the issue on my Asus board. It has to do with the orom size. I will try to find the information I had before on it. With the newer orom they were greater than 80k more like 120k. I created bioses with the newer roms but the system won't boot from them the only one that worked is 10.1.0.1008 which is 80k in size.

Here is the thread where we were talking about it. There are people with other X58 boards that are able to load the 120k roms but my Asus P6T V2 board isn't one.

http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2296370

Here is a thread I read a while back where fernando mentions the Orom size limit on certain X58 boards.

http://www.win-lite.de/wbb/board208...ules-of-an-ami-phoenix-award-bios/index2.html

 

[Dufus]

Hi SkOrPn, wow that's a lot of posts required to be able to PM.

The file was just the OROM, no BIOS. It's still version 11.6 but I do not think that should matter even if your using a 12.x driver as you can only use legacy. The newer UEFI RAID drivers incorporate an extra ACPI performance table so may have more of an effect than legacy OROMs plus the UEFI drivers can be problematic with pre 11.5 OS drivers.

Yes, 11.2 "Driver" has been best for me so far although I have not run the latest to compare.

SWFM SoftWare Feature Mask are BIOS settings for RAID usually hidden from the user for some reason that enable or disable different RAID types, SRT, Banner etc...

There are some trim testing methods noted in the thread.


Sorry Makaveli, I was just trying to update the thread in case anyone was wondering, not trying to push you into testing if that's how it came across. Not sure why there are problems with the OROM size as there is another module bigger than that in the firmware but I guess the results will most likely be the same in that case so might be better to give it a miss.


Edit: 8-Jul

Just a quick update for you SkOrPn, I finally got hold of a Gigabyte EP45-UD3R with an ICH10R Southbridge plus C2D CPU and can confirm using W7/8 that trim works with the OROM that I had earlier linked for you and others. Not sure if having a core CPU makes a difference but I'm not going to worry about that for now.

Might work for earlier chips as well such as ICH9R but I'm happy enough finally getting confirmation on a pre-PCH chipset after so many months wondering.

I guess as we move further back with older HW it becomes harder, with some BIOS not able to hold the larger OROM or not load it correctly at run time so not sure if this is very useful or not.

 

[TerryMathews]

Where can I find the modded OROM for RAID trim support on ICH10R? I can't seem to find it in this thread.

 

[SkOrPn]

Hi SkOrPn, wow that's a lot of posts required to be able to PM.

The file was just the OROM, no BIOS. It's still version 11.6 but I do not think that should matter even if your using a 12.x driver as you can only use legacy. The newer UEFI RAID drivers incorporate an extra ACPI performance table so may have more of an effect than legacy OROMs plus the UEFI drivers can be problematic with pre 11.5 OS drivers.

Yes, 11.2 "Driver" has been best for me so far although I have not run the latest to compare.

SWFM SoftWare Feature Mask are BIOS settings for RAID usually hidden from the user for some reason that enable or disable different RAID types, SRT, Banner etc...

There are some trim testing methods noted in the thread.


Sorry Makaveli, I was just trying to update the thread in case anyone was wondering, not trying to push you into testing if that's how it came across. Not sure why there are problems with the OROM size as there is another module bigger than that in the firmware but I guess the results will most likely be the same in that case so might be better to give it a miss.


Edit: 8-Jul

Just a quick update for you SkOrPn, I finally got hold of a Gigabyte EP45-UD3R with an ICH10R Southbridge plus C2D CPU and can confirm using W7/8 that trim works with the OROM that I had earlier linked for you and others. Not sure if having a core CPU makes a difference but I'm not going to worry about that for now.

Might work for earlier chips as well such as ICH9R but I'm happy enough finally getting confirmation on a pre-PCH chipset after so many months wondering.

I guess as we move further back with older HW it becomes harder, with some BIOS not able to hold the larger OROM or not load it correctly at run time so not sure if this is very useful or not.

Hello Dufus, I do not know how I lost this thread but somehow I was not aware I had posted here at Anandtech. I didn't even realize I had an account here. So, this morning trying to yet again find this thread I did another search, this time for "SkOrPn modded orom trim" and instantly found this thread with my user name and was LOL right away. Sorry about that error on my part.

Anyway, what I was looking for initially was a modded OROM that would allow TRIM commands to pass through, but after much testing I have come to the conclusion that the newer OROM 12.7.0.1936 modded into beta bios 1601 gives me the best stability in everyday tasks using Samsung and Crucial SSD's. Is it possible for me to mod the 12.7 OROM myself with the TRIM function? Or is this something that is available only on the older orom you speak of? Thanks Dufus, and once again I apologize for the extremely long time since I last posted here. I just turned on notifications so I should be notified if there is a reply.

Thanks again

P.S. Oh and if your curious what BIOS I am currently using with excellent results, here is the link to it.

http://www.bios-mods.com/forum/Thre...ioMod-Bios-Latest-1601-S11?pid=46588#pid46588

 

[Dufus]

Hi Terry,
at the time it was untested so just PM'd to those that asked in case of problems but never got any feedback until trying it on a board myself many months later. By that time this thread is pretty much dead.

I did post it on Fernado's Win-RAID forum but looking at the link again shows it is now expired, no downloads for a while I guess but maybe Fernando kept a copy. He is very good at organizing the things to do with RAID and might be interested in your results if you try it plus has some good guides on BIOS modding. I'll have to look through my storage and dig it up if you still want it and can not find it there.

Hi SkOrPn,
I'm finished with RAID OROM's for now, it was interesting a couple of years ago but now most have moved on and there is very little interst in it. The ICH10R mod is quite a bit more involved than the original changes but with things the way they are at this time I will not be looking at any more OROM mod's, sorry. User OP should help if no trim is available so not the end of the world and sounds like you are happy with your system as it is so that's good.

 

[SkOrPn]

Hi SkOrPn,
I'm finished with RAID OROM's for now, it was interesting a couple of years ago but now most have moved on and there is very little interst in it. The ICH10R mod is quite a bit more involved than the original changes but with things the way they are at this time I will not be looking at any more OROM mod's, sorry. User OP should help if no trim is available so not the end of the world and sounds like you are happy with your system as it is so that's good.

Hello again Dufus. Hope all is well on your side of the world wherever that may be.

Actually, I represent many people who still have this extremely expensive motherboard and probably the best built x58 board of all time. It was designed to physically last 10 years or more, not a mere two. Sinders over at Bios-Mods who has been one of the modders keeping our BIOS up to date is also interested in knowing how to modify the OROM so we can bring TRIM in RAID to this board. I can run 5ghz and 24GB of memory as easily as I can run 3ghz with a simple flip of a switch so my i7 system is no where near at the end of its life, not by a long shot. With all my SSD's this system feels near instant at everything it does so just no sane reason to upgrade any time soon. Even though we have Garbage Collection I feel TRIM maybe the last most important feature that we can bring to this system. True UEFI is very enticing and I do wish we could have found a way to bring that to our boards but it is not possible. Purchasing another $400 or more board just to replace my RIIIE so I can have UEFI/TRIM and a tiny bit more speed out of my PCIe is another insane idea to me. I will need a clear true platform upgrade, not just revision changes as Intel has been doing with i7 and PCIe before I make another expensive leap. A true platform upgrade is possibly years away still.

So, as you see there is need for TRIM in ICH10R. We have dozens of users using a modded BIOS over at Bios-Mods, not just me. What would it take to entice you to at the very least explain to one of our BIOS modders how to modify the OROM so we can benefit from this one last important feature? It sure would be welcomed. Thanks for your consideration.

SkOrPn

 

[SkOrPn]

Anyone have this working modded OROM by chance? I thought I had it but apparently I do not.

 

[TerryMathews]

Anyone have this working modded OROM by chance? I thought I had it but apparently I do not.

If you find it please let me know.

 

[Fernando 1]

I did post it on Fernado's Win-RAID forum but looking at the link again shows it is now expired, no downloads for a while I guess but maybe Fernando kept a copy.

Your speculation was correct. I still have stored the file.
Meanwhile I have sent SkOrPn a PM at win-raid.com with a link to the modded OROM. You got a copy of it.

 

[TerryMathews]

Your speculation was correct. I still have stored the file.
Meanwhile I have sent SkOrPn a PM at win-raid.com with a link to the modded OROM. You got a copy of it.

Can I get a copy of it?

 

[Fernando 1]

Can I get a copy of it?

If Dufus agrees, I will post the link within the Win-RAID Forum.
Note: Since Intel ICH10R SATA RAID Controllers do not belong to the Intel 5-Series and the sort of modification is totally different, this thread would be the wrong place to publish this modded Intel RAID ROM module.

 

[Dufus]

No problem Fernando and thank you. It was posted for users to use how they wish providing they are willing to use it at their own risk.

SkOrPn, if I were a multi billion dollar company with huge resources it wouldn't be a problem but I'm just one person whose is not even a programmer by trade and have other priorities. You can compare it with the original. With some assembler knowledge it shouldn't be to hard to figure out what has been done by comparison but basically the pre 5-series do not contain a valid ID to be queried with the OROM so the mod returns a fake Z77 ID of 1E05 instead. It's a crude mod so hopefully someone there will make a better job of it. GL with the project.

For anyone else looking for RAID and trim information I would highly recommend Fernando's web site, it's called Win-RAID for a good reason.

 

[SkOrPn]

WooHoo, Thank you Dufus. I would like to report I have working TRIM in RAID0. So I thank you for that work you did. Now all I have to do is the research to figure out what you did so I can do it to OROMs that I want to run, specifically OROM 12.7.0.1936 or the very latest.

Below is the TrimCheck tool giving me the good news, lol. I did this check on all my arays and its working great. THANK YOU BUDDY!

 

[Makaveli]

WooHoo, Thank you Dufus. I would like to report I have working TRIM in RAID0. So I thank you for that work you did. Now all I have to do is the research to figure out what you did so I can do it to OROMs that I want to run, specifically OROM 12.7.0.1936 or the very latest.

Below is the TrimCheck tool giving me the good news, lol. I did this check on all my arays and its working great. THANK YOU BUDDY!

Which board do you have Skorpn?

 

[SkOrPn]

Which board do you have Skorpn?

Sorry, I thought I had my signature enabled.

Its the Asus Rampage III Extreme x58 mobo with the ICH10R. I have two different arrays, one is two Samsung 840 Pro's and the other is two Crucial C300's, both are in Raid0. I am quite excited about this even though its not that big a deal.

 

[Fernando 1]

Yes, the work of Dufus (aka CPL0) done in autumn 2012 and its publication here was a breakthrough for many Intel system users, who are running their SSDs as members of a RAID0 array, because his findings brought them TRIM activity into their RAID0 even with Intel chipsets, which officially are not supported by this feature.

The recent tests done by sinders and SkOrPn now have verified, that even Intel 4-Series Chipsets may benefit from Dufus' phantastic job and get TRIM in RAID0 support. That is really amazing!
Since the new TRIM test results with Intel ICH10R systems are somehow off-topic and are based on a ROM modding procedure, which is completely different from what Dufus has written within the first page of this thread, I have started >here< a new thread.

To conclude I want to say thank you to Dufus for his extraordinary work and to all users, who helped to verify his results. :thumbsup:

Regards
Fernando

 

[Makaveli]

Yes, the work of Dufus (aka CPL0) done in autumn 2012 and its publication here was a breakthrough for many Intel system users, who are running their SSDs as members of a RAID0 array, because his findings brought them TRIM activity into their RAID0 even with Intel chipsets, which officially are not supported by this feature.

The recent tests done by sinders and SkOrPn now have verified, that even Intel 4-Series Chipsets may benefit from Dufus' phantastic job and get TRIM in RAID0 support. That is really amazing!
Since the new TRIM test results with Intel ICH10R systems are somehow off-topic and are based on a ROM modding procedure, which is completely different from what Dufus has written within the first page of this thread, I have started >here< a new thread.

To conclude I want to say thank you to Dufus for his extraordinary work and to all users, who helped to verify his results. :thumbsup:

Regards
Fernando

So question will this allow me to get around the OROM size limit on my board?

 

[TerryMathews]

Unfortunately, didn't work for me. Board booted into BIOS fine first time around as the chipset was toggled in Compatability mode. Once I flipped it to RAID mode it would hang on a blinking cursor once it got to the OROM.

I didn't mess around with it further; some people in the Win-Raid thread were talking about messing with the JMicron controller and certain settings letting it boot and others not.

Maybe if someone refines this mod I'll give it another shot.

 

[Fernando 1]

So question will this allow me to get around the OROM size limit on my board?

AFAIK only the mainboard manufacturer will be able to solve this problem by giving the BIOS another internal structure.

 

[bg3mdo]

I am new to the forum, I would like to thank Dufus and Fernando to tell the secret regarding implementation of RAID0 TRIM on Intel 6-series chipset. I am using Gigabyte H67M-D2-B3 Ver1 motherboard which is H67 chipset.

I downloaded the OROM 11.6.0.1702 (>Especially modified Intel RST(e) RAID ROM v11.6.0.1702 with TRIM in RAID0 for P67 and Z68 systems<) from win-raid.com and change the 0001BB20 following hex code of OROM as: 04 1C 00 00 07

That means alternate ID 1C04 LPC ID 0000 Flags 07

Now I get H67 working with RAID0 TRIM.

The array:
OCZ -VERTEX4 128G
Crucial M4 128G