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

[Foonus]

Intel may be the only choice for High performance X86 in 6-7 years if AMD doesn't find a miracle.

And no doubt they will integrate the new controllers in an even more proprietary non upgradable manner as per the way they will make the new CPU's soldered directly to the mainboard. Extremely convenient for Microsoft's announcement of yearly OS updates... Looks like they will want to sell us new PC's at the rate ignorant consumers are buying smart phones and tablets.

.
As for Intel, they deserve to be stoned to death for this immoral practice of intentionally putting artificial limitation on prodcut not even a year old to force upgrade to newer chipset... Shame on you Intel! :thumbsdown:

Amen. Preferably a public stoning.

.
...By the time my rig is 100% obsolete in 6-7 years, thechnology will have progressed so much anyway, I'll be able to buy a rig 10 time more powerful for half the price, no matter who manufactured it. And believe me, Intel WON'T be my choice.

Likewise, sadly at this rate in 10 years you won't even be able to pronounce the manufacturers name unless you can read Chinese and it will cost you $10,000 USD thanks to environmental levies coupled with the inflation brought on by the private run for profit federal reserve and the abuse of their fractional reserve banking system.

 

[Fernando 1]

However Latest Intel RST service won't start with error 1067

This is a wellknown Win7 issue (doesn't happen on Win8) in combination with any Intel RST(e) software v11.6.x.xxxx or v11.7.x.x.xxxx and has nothing to do with the Intel RAID ROM module.
The Intel RST service start problem may be solved by replacing the file named ISDI2.dll by an older one, which you can download from >here<. For details you may look >here<.

Edit:
Reloaded the driver over the latest one. Did the check. Nothing. Rebooted and got all zeros. Yay. Working I guess.
I'm glad because this thing boots soooo much faster than a single drive.

Congratulations! I am glad, that TRIM is active at least even within your RAID0.

I fired up Ubuntu and ran lspci to try to understand what my alternate device id might be on my X58. Lspci reports for the raid controller [8086:2822] with a subsys of [8086:3A20].

The subsys of a Device ID is just a mainboard specific variation of the device and not the Alternate Device ID you need to get TRIM activated.

Furthermore Intels' document lists ports 4 + 5 as belonging to the 3A26 device id. So I tried swapping sata cables such that my raid was on 4 + 5 and still trim was not working with all of those device ids injected into the orom. So I guess I'm giving up. Was fun while it lasted!

With your special X58 chipset Intel SATA RAID Controller, detected by a hardware diagnostic tool as an ICH8/ICH9 one, it was a good decision to give up at least. Dufus, who knows a lot more about these things than we others all together, has written this sentence (see post No 149):

If the X58 is showing 0 for the alternate ID then it's likely that it will not work with OROM modification and would instead need the actual BIOS firmware to be modified to have a chance.

 

[davidm71]

Then would '0000 0000 07' work?

Edit:Nevermind. Doesn't work even with lpc id thrown in there..

 

[Presjar]

I just wanted to say a HUGE THANKS to everyone who put their effort into this!

For me, it worked first time, no issues. Great!

I have a Asrock Z68 Extreme4 Gen3. I used the mod ROM from ftp://thoosa.no-ip.org/ and didn't even need to rebuild the RAID Array from the one created using OROM 11.5.0.1414.

The tests on http://www.station-drivers.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=32&t=4023 worked great also!

 

[garikfox]

Update: Added all GIGABYTE Z68/Z77 BIOS's, Also added a few MSI P67/Z68 BIOS's with TRIM support for RAID

 

[Fernando 1]

Update: Added all GIGABYTE Z68/Z77 BIOS's, I'll be adding MSI P67/Z68 BIOS's with TRIM support for RAID in the next day or so

Hi Garik,
it would be nice, if you would mention within your overclock.net threads where you got the TRIM modified ROM file. This way you may prevent posts like >this< one.

Kind regards
Fernando

 

[garikfox]

Fernando: I updated the first post, thanks

 

[TooYellow]

@ Ramon Zarat

Thanks for the feed back. The Agility 3 definitely supports TRIM. Good question on the RAID drivers. Win 7 needed additional RAID drivers to install but Win 8 didnt, could be that they're included it??

Here is the string i was searching for:
wç5hÛqJR&#8221;ù¬©i&#381;×

Delete permanently and after one reboot the sector data was the same. After TWO reboots it looked like this
.Î...2.......¿*.
HxD shows the vast majority of the HEX values as 00 but not all? Mean anything?

I'm going to try goin back to the 11.6 drivers in stead of the 11.7 and see if that makes a difference.

 

[deltazor]

Hello I can not do the trim work on my PC,

1 installed new win7x64
2 installed intel chipset_9.3.0.1026
3 installed intel_rst_11.6.2.1002_whql+ Uptdate
I followed this guide: http://www.station-drivers.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=32&t=4023 but with my configuraziione not function.
someone knows how to help me??: Oops:

This is my configuration:
1)- Windows 7 x64;
2)- Mainboard Arock Z68 Fatality Gen3- Flash Bios 2.20 - Orom v11.6.0.1702_mod_by_Fernando_for_P67+Z68
3)- Driver Intel Rapid Storage 11.6.2.1002 WHQL;
4)- 2 SSD Smsung 830- RAID 0;

 

[Fernando 1]

@ deltazor:
Welcome at AnandTech Forums!

I followed this guide: http://www.station-drivers.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=32&t=4023 but with my configuraziione not function.

What means "not function"?
What exactly have you done regarding the TRIM test and what happened?
Does the Intel RAID ROM Utility (CTRL+I) show v11.6.0.1702?

 

[deltazor]

@ deltazor:
Welcome at AnandTech Forums!
What means "not function"?
What exactly have you done regarding the TRIM test and what happened?
Does the Intel RAID ROM Utility (CTRL+I) show v11.6.0.1702?

What means "not function"=not do the work
the Intel RAID ROM Utility (CTRL+I) show v11.6.0.1702 Yes
I have read and done as you read the link:http://www.station-drivers.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=32&t=4023

 

[Fernando 1]

@ deltazor:

Thanks for answering my questions.
I have no idea why the TRIM test failed with your Z68 RAID0 system.

 

[Murjuk]

Hello, is there any chance of TRIM support on 4 series boards? I have an EP45-UD3P board with latest intel rom.

 

[Fernando 1]

Hello, is there any chance of TRIM support on 4 series boards? I have an EP45-UD3P board with latest intel rom.

I doubt, that there is any chance by using the actually available Intel RAID ROM modules and RST(e) drivers.
The ability of a special Intel SATA RAID Controller to let the TRIM command pass through into the RAID array requires much more than the change of just a few Device ID hex codes of the RAID ROM file.
Dufus has detected the hex code sequence within the Intel RAID ROM file, which enables resp. disables the TRIM in RAID0 support for some actual Intel SATA RAID Controllers, but the basis for this feature has to be implemented somewhere else. We know now, where the TRIM in RAID0 "on/off switch" is, but we don't know, where and how Intel has implemented the TRIM in RAID0 technique itself.

 

[Smilen]

I finally got it working on my MSI board. In the end I had to resort to flashing with the MSI forum flashing tool instead of the official flasher that comes with MSI bios's. The official flasher extracts the rom from itself each time a flash is performed. I could confirm this as an empty USB would have the vanilla .P60 bios on it after a flash, regardless of the supplied bios.
The forum flasher on the other hand does what a flasher should, flashes with the specified bios.

Running OROM 11.6 now, TRIM verified with WinHex.

Thanks to all involved!

 

[Murjuk]

I doubt, that there is any chance by using the actually available Intel RAID ROM modules and RST(e) drivers.
The ability of a special Intel SATA RAID Controller to let the TRIM command pass through into the RAID array requires much more than the change of just a few Device ID hex codes of the RAID ROM file.
Dufus has detected the hex code sequence within the Intel RAID ROM file, which enables resp. disables the TRIM in RAID0 support for some actual Intel SATA RAID Controllers, but the basis for this feature has to be implemented somewhere else. We know now, where the TRIM in RAID0 "on/off switch" is, but we don't know, where and how Intel has implemented the TRIM in RAID0 technique itself.

Thank you for detailed answer.

 

[Fernando 1]

@ Brocius, Schmide and Smilen:

Thanks for your feedback with the report, that you got TRIM working at least within your RAID0.
This is really good news for other Intel 6-Series chipset RAID0 users, who are still unsure regarding the use of a modified Intel RAID ROM.

 

[Foonus]

Double post

 

[Foonus]

...still unsure regarding the use of a modified Intel RAID ROM.

Unsure!?!, every day when I wake up I check your post on win-lite.de and this thread to see if there was progress on the x58.. running what was $500 supercomputer board with 6 SSD drives across 2 arrays. Wish TRIM was even an option, considering that the latest boards don't even have a controllers on board that does 6xSATA 3.0 RAID. This is why I believe Intel gimps this firmware to sell the new garbage controllers, because 2x SATA 3 hardware support alone isn't enough to get users to switch, thus they add TRIM to try and get people to upgrade that way.

As you can see (http://vip.asus.com/forum/view.aspx...=P6T7+WS+SuperComputer&page=1&SLanguage=en-us)I have been trying to deal with this crap since 2010... This machine has got a 980x (12x4G) CPU in it and plan to use this thing as a NAS later but as long as they don't give us access to TRIM support, it makes the configuration not viable for any long term storage and basically a waste of money. Shame that the new boards don't support this CPU either, in preference for the newer (slower) power saving garbage.

Basically leaves TRIM as the only feature worth upgrading for, and Intel marketing knows it. Give us a board with something worth upgrading to.. IE 6-8 SATA3.0 on ONE CONTOLER (like even an old ICH10R had...), and do it without castrating out the features in your Enterprise RAID ROM. Considering Intel sells SSD drives, you would think they would jump at the idea of having users buy 8 of them per system. Though they are greedy enough, the idiots appear to be too short sighted to see this.

Like I said earlier... "unsure?!?".. I wish it was even an option for us x58 users.

 

[Makaveli]

Unsure!?!, every day when I wake up I check your post on win-lite.de and this thread to see if there was progress on the x58.. running what was $500 supercomputer board with 6 SSD drives across 2 arrays. Wish TRIM was even an option, considering that the latest boards don't even have a controllers on board that does 6xSATA 3.0 RAID. This is why I believe Intel gimps this firmware to sell the new garbage controllers, because 2x SATA 3 hardware support alone isn't enough to get users to switch, thus they add TRIM to try and get people to upgrade that way.

As you can see (http://vip.asus.com/forum/view.aspx...=P6T7+WS+SuperComputer&page=1&SLanguage=en-us)I have been trying to deal with this crap since 2010... This machine has got a 980x (12x4G) CPU in it and plan to use this thing as a NAS later but as long as they don't give us access to TRIM support, it makes the configuration not viable for any long term storage and basically a waste of money. Shame that the new boards don't support this CPU either, in preference for the newer (slower) power saving garbage.

Basically leaves TRIM as the only feature worth upgrading for, and Intel marketing knows it. Give us a board with something worth upgrading to.. IE 6-8 SATA3.0 on ONE CONTOLER (like even an old ICH10R had...), and do it without castrating out the features in your Enterprise RAID ROM. Considering Intel sells SSD drives, you would think they would jump at the idea of having users buy 8 of them per system. Though they are greedy enough, the idiots appear to be too short sighted to see this.

Like I said earlier... "unsure?!?".. I wish it was even an option for us x58 users.

I wish to use trim as much as the next guy but you are making it sound like your system is garbage without it!

Have you checked to see that your SSD's in Raid 0 don't have an idle garbage collection when left long enough?

Also from Westmere to Ivy there is almost a 20% increase in IPC and much lower power consumption those two reasons alone are enough for some to switch. Granted for me it wasn't enough it doesn't change the fact.

And it has nothing to do with being short sighted it called planned obsolescence. Intel only competes with themselves how are they to make you upgrade if they don't gimp past products? Trust me I hate it but that is how this industry works.

How many people run 8 SSD's?? Your rant went from having some good points to you just being angry and getting silly.
Intel may very well release something in the future that may get this to work so don't give up hope just yet.

 

[Foonus]

Double post again.. dont know why selecting edit is producing a second post the past couple days.

 

[Foonus]

..Again

 

[Foonus]

... it called planned obsolescence. Intel only competes with themselves how are they to make you upgrade if they don't gimp past products? Trust me I hate it but that is how this industry works.

This is is true, and a reflection of what users have accepted for so long that it has become reality,I remember back in the day Adaptec controller cards, especially SCSI destroyed anything that Intel had on the market. There are still some cheap brands out there but none offer reasonable performance until you switch into the server storage RAID cards. Peronally I would love to see AMD buy Promise and come out with an alternative that put an end to Intel's monopoly here but I don't think they are in the financial situation to do so. You persuade users to upgrade by adding features, such as support for more than 2x SATA3, even the ICH10R had support for 6 (SATA2 at the time).

How many people run 8 SSD's??

Likely every user that has 3-4 old 60-120G SSD's that are being discarded like yesterdays dinner and wants to put them to some use still. Besides that I said that it would give Intel the opportunity to sell a user 6-8 drives which based purely on marketing is a no brainier. As it sits now its not even an option for them because you can't physically hook them up! Perhaps Intel wants to sell you the new 800G SSD instead of make your old ones still viable.. dunno.

.. does everyone use 4X SLI??, no but that doesn't stop Nvidia from marketing it and letting people decide themselves, this includes working with mainboard manufacturers to ensure that they do indeed offer models with 4x SLI capable slots.

I am beginning to wonder if the 2x SATA3 hookup was done purely due to the limitations of the bandwidth on the controller itself. Most users know that with the older controllers there came a point that no matter how many drives you added performance wouldn't increase due to the bandwidth available from the controller. Would be interesting if the newer controllers can only manage enough bandwidth to run 2 SATA3 drives at once, and if this is the deciding factor for only 2 connectors. Can anyone comment on this?

The time has come and gone long ago where users stop arguing with each about this stuff between themselves and start to pressure the company instead.

Threads like this and the Anandtech post calling Intel out are the solution. Unfortunately not many review sites have the balls to do it or they wont get any more review hardware from Intel so they will be downplaying the situation or not mentioning it at all.

That leaves things to us... Would love to see every user that has posted or stopped by here with a X58 based system to post what is happening via social media for word to get out in an effort to shame Intel out of abusing the monopoly they have over the market, as well contact Intel support with those links showing them that word is getting out despite their best efforts, lastly, don't forget to whinge about it to them directly while you've got their attention

 

[Schmide]

Sad news. It seems to be very random. It really doesn't work for me.

I installed windows 8, loaded the driver and it didn't work. Went back to the windows 7 version and it didn't work.

Man windows 8 is annoying

 

[davidm71]

I doubt, that there is any chance by using the actually available Intel RAID ROM modules and RST(e) drivers.
The ability of a special Intel SATA RAID Controller to let the TRIM command pass through into the RAID array requires much more than the change of just a few Device ID hex codes of the RAID ROM file.
Dufus has detected the hex code sequence within the Intel RAID ROM file, which enables resp. disables the TRIM in RAID0 support for some actual Intel SATA RAID Controllers, but the basis for this feature has to be implemented somewhere else. We know now, where the TRIM in RAID0 "on/off switch" is, but we don't know, where and how Intel has implemented the TRIM in RAID0 technique itself.

Did you say you know where the trim on off switch is? Then why not turn it on for everyone instead of putting in alternate ids?

Thanks