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

[Fernando 1]

Originally Posted by Hellhammer

Okay, fixed it. It was an error in my end (apparently, none of my Windows installs were configured properly for RAID so I had to reinstall Windows). Hex editor method showed that TRIM works, now trying with our method...

That is good news.
Thanks for your feedback, which explains, why the TRIM test didn't work for you at first try.

@ all:
Since even Hellhammer got the TRIM support at least into his Intel P67 RAID0 array, it seems, that the Intel RAID ROM file named "8086-2822_v11601702_mod_for_P67+Z68.bin", which I have modified and uploaded yesterday, really brings TRIM support for all P67 and Z68 chipset RAID0 systems.
What we still need is the feedback from RAID0 users with another Intel 6-series chipset (H67 or H67).
Maybe it will be possible to enable the "TRIM in RAID" feature for Intel 5-series chipsets too (H55, H57, P55, Q57, X58).

@ Sylver123:
If you are interested in testing that for X58 RAID0 systems, please run Dufus' "SATA ID" tool and post the alternate deviceID of your Intel SATA RAID Controller. Then I will modify the Intel RAID ROM v11.6.0.1702 and offer a "Special ROM for X58 RAID0 systems" and hope, that TRIM will work within your RAID array.

[Hellhammer]

Just a quick question for the article; do you need to recreate the array with OROM 11.6 or will TRIM work if you created the array with an older OROM?

[ney2x]

Originally Posted by Hellhammer

Just a quick question for the article; do you need to recreate the array with OROM 11.6 or will TRIM work if you created the array with an older OROM?

From win-lite.de by Fernando.

Important remarks:

Originally Posted by Fernando

4. Furthermore the "TRIM in RAID" feature may require a freshly created RAID0 Array by using the updated Intel RAID ROM Utility, if the existing array has been created with an older RAID OROM version than v11.5.x.xxxx (credits go to ney2x).

[Fernando 1]

Originally Posted by Hellhammer

do you need to recreate the array with OROM 11.6 or will TRIM work if you created the array with an older OROM?

The knowledge about that question is very little.
Usually the recreation of the RAID array is not needed to get TRIM support.
Nevertheless there are some users, who reported, that TRIM only worked after they had rebuilt the RAID array by using the new Intel RAID ROM Utility. This is obviously only valid for RAID arrays, which have been constructed with an outdated Intel RAID ROM Utility lower than v11.x.x.xxxx.

[Brahmzy]

I did NOT have to recreate my array.

It was originally built on OROM 10.5.x.x. Then flashed to this new 11.6.x.x OROM, and TRIM works great.
I get my 2 new 840 Pros today and will be benching and testing TRIM speeds behavior and will post my findings.

[Evildeffy]

@Fernando 1:

The SATA ID tool doesn't work for me as an Asus Rampage II Extreme user.

It will give me the following:

Controller id: 2822
Alternate id: 0

The Asus Rampage II Extreme is an X58 board.
Whilst it may be old, it is still very good.
And having TRIM would be nothing short of win.

Is there any other way to obtain this info?

[Fernando 1]

@ Eveldeffy:
Thanks for your willingness to test a modded Intel RAID ROM, but we should know the alternate DeviceID of your special Intel X58 chipset SATA RAID Controller.
There are 2 options to get it:
a) Dufus is able to update his tool for the detection of your SATA Controller.
b) There is another hardware diagnostic tool, which will show it. You may run an actual version of AIDA64 and look for "Devices" > "PCI Devices > "Intel SATA RAID Controller". Maybe it shows more than the general DeviceID 2822.

[Evildeffy]

This should be what you're looking for?

[Fernando 1]

@ Evildeffy:
Thanks for your quick reply.

Originally Posted by Evildeffy

This should be what you're looking for?

Yes, but it only shows the general DeviceID 2822, which is valid for all Intel SATA RAID Controllers from ICH8R up to the 7-series chipsets.
What we need for the RAID ROM modification is the special alternate DeviceID of your SATA RAID Controller.

[Evildeffy]

Is it not the ID below it?

[Fernando 1]

Originally Posted by Evildeffy

Is it not the ID below it?

No, the Subsys specification is something else.
The alternate DeviceID of your SATA RAID Controller, which is shown by AIDA64 as "Intel 82801 HB/IB ICH8/ICH9-SATA RAID Controller", may be 2925 (= ICH9R SATA RAID Controller) or 3a05 (ICH10 Family SATA RAID Controller), but I didn't find the alternate DeviceID for your special ICH8/ICH9 SATA RAID Controller.

To be honest I don't believe, that you will get TRIM within your RAID by just a small modification of the Intel RAID ROM module. Maybe it will be possible for RAID systems with an "5 Series/3400 Series Chipset SATA RAID Controller", but not for an ICH8/ICH9 one.

[Evildeffy]

Originally Posted by Fernando 1

No, the Subsys specification is something else.
The alternate DeviceID of your SATA RAID Controller, which is shown by AIDA64 as "Intel 82801 HB/IB ICH8/ICH9-SATA RAID Controller", may be 2925 (= ICH9R SATA RAID Controller) or 3a05 (ICH10 Family SATA RAID Controller), but I didn't find the alternate DeviceID for your special ICH8/ICH9 SATA RAID Controller.

To be honest I don't believe, that you will get TRIM within your RAID by just a small modification of the Intel RAID ROM module. Maybe it will be possible for RAID systems with an "5 Series/3400 Series Chipset SATA RAID Controller", but not for an ICH8/ICH9 one.

I know it is identified as ICH8/9 there, but i'm pretty sure no X58 chipset was ever manufactured using ICH8 or ICH9 SATA technology.
I'm pretty damn sure it's ICH10R, as the specsheet aswell states ICH10R by ASUS and Intel.

However i will hopefully believe that it should be possible as all ICH10R used by P55 and higher are derivatives of the X58 chip, so .. it SHOULD be possible.

[m0reilly]

awesom thread! another x79 owner hoping for raid trim...

[davidm71]

Originally Posted by Dufus

Thank you Engineer and MaxICH, appreciate the feedback. Although I was not expecting it to work on older systems it's interesting you got that message, thanks.

I've updated it so hopefully it should work even on the older boards. davidm71 maybe you would try this on your X58

Hellhammer, I understand you have your own testing method and that is fine. I'm not trying to knock it, just providing some info on trim and GC as well as appreciating that you already know what to expect when trim is working with your own methods.

What should I try? Anyhow I'm going to take the chance on my Z68 system and see if it works. Bestbuy had a couple Intel 520 180gb drives on sale so I picked them up. Wish me luck!

Thanks.

PS: Given up on the X58. Don't think it will ever work!

[davidm71]

Originally Posted by Evildeffy

I know it is identified as ICH8/9 there, but i'm pretty sure no X58 chipset was ever manufactured using ICH8 or ICH9 SATA technology.
I'm pretty damn sure it's ICH10R, as the specsheet aswell states ICH10R by ASUS and Intel.

However i will hopefully believe that it should be possible as all ICH10R used by P55 and higher are derivatives of the X58 chip, so .. it SHOULD be possible.

If you guys are wondering what the device ids are for the X58 just boot in Linux CD and run LSPCI. I'm pretty sure its 3A25 anyhow..

[Evildeffy]

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...Drivers/page20

Check it out... X58 given up hope? MEBBE NOT!

[Fernando 1]

Originally Posted by Evildeffy

url]http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?282039-Raid0-and-TRIM-Support-on-Intel-11.5-OROM-and-Latest-v11.5.0.1184-RST-Drivers/page20[/url]
Check it out... X58 given up hope? MEBBE NOT!

Yes, it was me, who asked him, how he managed it.
By the way: The user zoson has an Intel ICH10R Southbridge, but you an ICH8/ICH9 one (if AIDA64 detected it correctly). So I don't think, that the Intel RAID ROM, which has been modded by zoson, will work for your system too.
Check the alternate DeviceID and then we will see, what happens.

[davidm71]

Originally Posted by Evildeffy

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...Drivers/page20

Check it out... X58 given up hope? MEBBE NOT!

It looks like he modded the Alt Id of 3A16 or dev id of the 8086 LPC Interface controller and not the raid controller. So I'm a little confused how he got it working. Maybe it needs a raid array reset and the latest 12.x beta intel rst drivers. On brighter side of news I was able to patch my bios with 11.6.1702 for an Asus Z68 Deluxe Gen 1. Cool thing is the bios is also modded to support apple OS's if any one wants a copy though there are sites that cater to OSX modding if your into that sort of thing.

Thanks.

[Fernando 1]

Originally Posted by davidm71

It looks like he modded the Alt Id of 3A16 or dev id of the 8086 LPC Interface controller and not the raid controller.

You are right, that usually cannot work.

So I'm a little confused how he got it working.

He means, the he got TRIM into his RAID, but I haven't seen a proof for that.

[Evildeffy]

Originally Posted by Fernando 1

Yes, it was me, who asked him, how he managed it.
By the way: The user zoson has an Intel ICH10R Southbridge, but you an ICH8/ICH9 one (if AIDA64 detected it correctly). So I don't think, that the Intel RAID ROM, which has been modded by zoson, will work for your system too.
Check the alternate DeviceID and then we will see, what happens.

As i said Fernando, i think it's an AIDA inconsistency.

No X58 was ever made IIRC that had ICH8/ICH9, and Asus lists my board, which is the pre-decessor of Zoson's as ICH10R aswell.
They are identical in general, the difference is that R3E has SATA6 and USB3 from Marvell and NEC IIRC.

So if it works on him, it should work on mine aswell.

[davidm71]

This is awesome! Trim is now working on the Asus P8Z68 Deluxe! Way cool!

Thanks!

Edit: Verified before and after with HxD trim test. Need driver 11.6.2.1002 along with modded 11.6.1702.

[Engineer]

Originally Posted by Fernando 1

This verifies, that you are currently running your HDD/SSD in AHCI mode.

Yep, just testing. Now I'm thinking of strongly getting a new Corsair Force GT 180GB to mate with the one in here or get two new ones to place in here and RAID 0 them. Money...money....money...

[Dufus]

Originally Posted by davidm71

I'm a little confused how he got it working.

He didn't get it working. What is shown in his screen shots is metadata in the MFT. If the text file is small enough it can be kept within the MFT entry. When you delete a file Windows trims only the clusters associated with the file outside of the MFT. The MFT entry does not get trimmed, only updated i.e. flagging the file as deleted.

IOW he created file "testing.txt" at 27/11/2012 03:04:27.56 UTC and after deletion the metadata was overwritten by another file that was created "Local State.~RF187d1b.TMP" at 27/11/2012 03:06:32.99 UTC. Add/subtract local time difference to/from UTC to get local time.

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.

In case anyone is wondering, for my own testing with text I used raw sectors between the MBR and file system, sectors which are outside the file system and not touched by the OS. The OS trim command was sent manually.

Anyway, the reason for starting this thread was to show it's possible to have trim on 5 series and 6 series, which think I've done, so time for me to move on. Thanks to all those who showed their appreciation.

Cheers.

[Fernando 1]

Originally Posted by Dufus

Anyway, the reason for starting this thread was to show it's possible to have trim on 5 series and 6 series, which think I've done, so time for me to move on. Thanks to all those who showed their appreciation.
Cheers.

Hello Dufus,

if that should mean, that we cannot expect any future statements and advices from your side regarding the topic of this phantastic thread, I want to say thankyou for everything you have done putting some light into the darkness of Intel's TRIM in RAID secrets. We have to be very grateful, that you took the time to demonstrate us how it goes and to lead us into the right direction.

At least I have a personal off-topic question: Do you allow to store your very useful SATA ID tool on an FTP server and to offer it within other Forums (without forgetting the credits to you)? This would be an enormous relief for users, who don't know the SATA Controller details of their system and for me giving support regarding the choice of the suitable SATA AHCI or RAID driver.

Thanks again!
Fernando

[Dufus]

Thank you for reminding me Fernando as it seems I forgot to put the copyright notices in. Please use this one. Should be self explanatory, no need for credits.

Sata ID

Also added a little extra to show Sata mode, for those who are not in RAID.