Do I need Intel Rapid Storage Technology when I have onboard RAID support?

[Matt_Stevens]

The more I research, the more confusing this becomes. My MSi P67A-GD65 mb has RAID support and currently I have two hdd's in a RAID 0 and two in a RAID mirror. They were set up through my mb (Cntrl+I when booting). This is not a Windows software raid.

Then this afternoon a friend of mine tells me I should not have Intel Rapid Storage Technology installed on my computer because my hardware handles the RAID. Huh? I was under the impression that Intel's software is there to monitor the RAID for troubles.

Can someone please clear up the confusion on this? Pretty please?

I Googled and read but am just more confused by what I came up with.

I should also mention I have an Intel SSD as my OS drive.

 

[Nothinman]

If you set it up using an Intel chipset on your motherboard then it's still software RAID, it's just slightly more transparent and handled by an Intel driver instead of the MS software RAID driver. I believe not having the Rapid Storage Technology software would just remove your ability to monitor and manage the RAID set. Although since it's RAID0 there's little point anyway since if the array degrades you'll just lose all that data anyway.

 

[nk215]

the Intel software lets you expand the array (add disk)- which is a very nice feature. It also provides limited choice to switch from one RAID level to another.

I think Intel Rapid Storage software overwrite your setup in the BIOS. For example, you can setup 4 disks in a RAID volume first then later on add drive 5 and use Intel tool to add disk 5 into an array (raid 5 for example). In the BIOS, drive 5 is still showed as not being part of the array

 

[Emulex]

every raid controller can be managed by bios and o/s software (and OOB sometimes) - you also get notifications when jobs are happening/done/errors.

so yeah intel RST complements intel ICH/R and should be used.

plus it upgrades your driver to be the latest and greatest

 

[Matt_Stevens]

Okay, so it basically says, "Hey your RAID is here and it's cool and I'm watching it." But my MB continues to do the horsework?

 

[tweakboy]

YES YES YES!

You must use it.

 

[Nothinman]

Okay, so it basically says, "Hey your RAID is here and it's cool and I'm watching it." But my MB continues to do the horsework?

With onboard RAID the "horsework" is done by the driver, i.e. it's mostly equivalent to software RAID. Since you're using Windows I'd recommend sticking with this form of software RAID since Windows' implementation is so inflexible, but if you were on another OS like Linux you'd really want to use it's software RAID.

 

[VirtualLarry]

The BIOS handles the RAID for the purpose of booting. You MUST install the RAID driver into Windows, in order for Windows to access the RAID.

I seem to recall Win7 shipping with some early Intel RAID driver, but it's a good idea to update to the latest RST driver from Intel.

IOW, Tweakboy is right on the money.

 

[taltamir]

if your motherboard uses an intel SATA/RAID controller then you need to use RST.

 

[Emulex]

hell i install RST with ICH (ssd/no raid) too.

 

[groberts101]

I don't know where most of this info is based from but it is NOT required to install the RST driver at W7 install. Windows uses it's own MSAHCI driver that IS compatible with raids. Some use the F6 RST driver at install which comes without the raid mgr app while most just run the RST exe file afterwards which includes the driver bundled with the raid app.

It should also be pointed out that ALL new Intel raids have caching off by default. To enable it the user must either have the raid mgr app installed to set the "write-back caching" to on OR use the similar control within device mgr/drive properties. This etting will be checked by default but is NOT active on an array. You must untick>click ok>retick>click ok, to activate it. Here's the screen showing the settings that control the same Intel caching.



So while the RST drivers are usually superior in performance.. they are not mandatory to run the raid or enable W7 to see it.

 

[taltamir]

So while the RST drivers are usually superior in performance.. they are not mandatory to run the raid or enable W7 to see it.

The RST is just intel's name for storage drivers, having the latest driver is a good idea for both bug fixes and performance. Will it work without him installing it? obviously, it is working right now.
But his question wasn't "can it work without it?", it was "should I install it?". The answer to that question is yes.

 

[groberts101]

I was responding to all the "have to have it for Windows to operate" posts. which is why I posted "So while the RST drivers are usually superior in performance.. they are not mandatory to run the raid or enable W7 to see it"