Hell AT community,
I have a new Alienware A51R2 Desktop system (I know Dell but it was a free item) that runs a modified Intel x99 chipset in it (Im not sure the exact model of x99 but maybe someone more tech savvy can find this out for me). This pre-made system came with just an 2TB HDD in it so I immediately installed a Samsung Evo 850 to use at an OS boot drive and for all programs and just want to use the HDD for storage. Upon clean booting the system I notice that my SSD and HDD appeared under the Intel SATA RAID controller and only my built in optical drive was under the SATA AHCI (see image below)
This was a problem for me because, from my understanding, my SSD should always be under the SATA AHCI controller when not running any RAID setup for maximum performance. Can you confirm if I'm correct in this assumption?
I then began to attempt to figure out ways I could move the SSD and HDD to the SATA ACHI controller for better performance, and unfortunately the Alienware BIOS is extremely limited and locked down so I you cannot turn on or off AHCI or RAID mode from the BIOS like with most mobos. Thus, the only way I was able to move the SSD and HDD to the AHCI controller was by physically moving the SSD and HDD SATA ports from 1-3 and plugged them in at ports 4-6, and upon doing this all 3 drives (SSD, HDD, and optic) appeared under SATA ACHI now and the Intel RAID option in device manager disappeared (see image below).
Do you by chance know why it would appear under SATA AHCI in device manager only if moved to SATA ports 4-6 but in the past worked in ports 1-3? As far as I know, all the ports should be identical but is this not the case?
In then did a clean install of the OS and in installing the drivers from my PC manufacturer (the Dell support driver page) ran into the problem of installing these two Intel Rapid Storage technology drivers (which I know you're an expert on) see image below:
One of these is just a zip file and I dont know how to install it (maybe you could help) and the other is an Intel Rapid Storage technology driver suggested for my system, but when I attempt to install IRST software it says "The setup program ended prematurely due to this platform is not supported error" and I only got this error after I moved my drives off the Intel STA RAID controller onto the SATA AHCI controller. My question is, is this IRST driver/software necessary for my system for best performance? From what I understand, the IRST driver/software seen in the image above is primarily a monitoring tool or for RAID setups, but I don't want to miss out on any performance features for either my SSD or HDD in not having it installed. What will allow me to install the IRST drivers/software you see in the image above is if I move the HDD to SATA ports 1-3, then the Intel RAID controller will appear in the device manager with the HDD drive listed under it and I can install the driver/software, but if i don't need the IRST software/driver for best performance and the AHCI controller you see in my images provides all of the best performance features for my drives, under your advisement, I will keep all 3 drives under the SATA ACHI controller. Moreover, I know that in reading much of your research concerning the Intel drivers it really depends on which version of the driver/software you have and which model mobo you have, so I wanted to have you check out my specific setup so you could best recommend the absolute best performing setup for me. I have often just been told that I don't at all need to have the Intel Rapid Storage Technology driver for max performance, but I want to pass it by an expert first. You can see in the device manager images posted above that it says Intel c610/x99 chipset, so please reference this to make sure for me, as I know you have mentioned something bad about the IRST drivers for Intel C600 series boards.
Lastly, I'm a bit OCD so I always plug in my main drive (the SSD OS boot drive) to the first SATA port # and my HDD/optic drive to the numbered ports behind it (e.g., my SSD is on SATA port 4, HDD on port 5, and optic on port 6 now), but does performance or anything matter based on which device is in which SATA port at all when they appear to all be identical to me? If I had my HDD in SATA port 1 and my SSD OS drive on SATA port 4, would this at all be bad/negative in any way?
Thank you so much for everything in advance, and I hope you all are having a wonderful holiday season.
cross-posting is not allowed
Markfw
Anandtech Moderator
I have a new Alienware A51R2 Desktop system (I know Dell but it was a free item) that runs a modified Intel x99 chipset in it (Im not sure the exact model of x99 but maybe someone more tech savvy can find this out for me). This pre-made system came with just an 2TB HDD in it so I immediately installed a Samsung Evo 850 to use at an OS boot drive and for all programs and just want to use the HDD for storage. Upon clean booting the system I notice that my SSD and HDD appeared under the Intel SATA RAID controller and only my built in optical drive was under the SATA AHCI (see image below)
This was a problem for me because, from my understanding, my SSD should always be under the SATA AHCI controller when not running any RAID setup for maximum performance. Can you confirm if I'm correct in this assumption?
I then began to attempt to figure out ways I could move the SSD and HDD to the SATA ACHI controller for better performance, and unfortunately the Alienware BIOS is extremely limited and locked down so I you cannot turn on or off AHCI or RAID mode from the BIOS like with most mobos. Thus, the only way I was able to move the SSD and HDD to the AHCI controller was by physically moving the SSD and HDD SATA ports from 1-3 and plugged them in at ports 4-6, and upon doing this all 3 drives (SSD, HDD, and optic) appeared under SATA ACHI now and the Intel RAID option in device manager disappeared (see image below).
Do you by chance know why it would appear under SATA AHCI in device manager only if moved to SATA ports 4-6 but in the past worked in ports 1-3? As far as I know, all the ports should be identical but is this not the case?
In then did a clean install of the OS and in installing the drivers from my PC manufacturer (the Dell support driver page) ran into the problem of installing these two Intel Rapid Storage technology drivers (which I know you're an expert on) see image below:
One of these is just a zip file and I dont know how to install it (maybe you could help) and the other is an Intel Rapid Storage technology driver suggested for my system, but when I attempt to install IRST software it says "The setup program ended prematurely due to this platform is not supported error" and I only got this error after I moved my drives off the Intel STA RAID controller onto the SATA AHCI controller. My question is, is this IRST driver/software necessary for my system for best performance? From what I understand, the IRST driver/software seen in the image above is primarily a monitoring tool or for RAID setups, but I don't want to miss out on any performance features for either my SSD or HDD in not having it installed. What will allow me to install the IRST drivers/software you see in the image above is if I move the HDD to SATA ports 1-3, then the Intel RAID controller will appear in the device manager with the HDD drive listed under it and I can install the driver/software, but if i don't need the IRST software/driver for best performance and the AHCI controller you see in my images provides all of the best performance features for my drives, under your advisement, I will keep all 3 drives under the SATA ACHI controller. Moreover, I know that in reading much of your research concerning the Intel drivers it really depends on which version of the driver/software you have and which model mobo you have, so I wanted to have you check out my specific setup so you could best recommend the absolute best performing setup for me. I have often just been told that I don't at all need to have the Intel Rapid Storage Technology driver for max performance, but I want to pass it by an expert first. You can see in the device manager images posted above that it says Intel c610/x99 chipset, so please reference this to make sure for me, as I know you have mentioned something bad about the IRST drivers for Intel C600 series boards.
Lastly, I'm a bit OCD so I always plug in my main drive (the SSD OS boot drive) to the first SATA port # and my HDD/optic drive to the numbered ports behind it (e.g., my SSD is on SATA port 4, HDD on port 5, and optic on port 6 now), but does performance or anything matter based on which device is in which SATA port at all when they appear to all be identical to me? If I had my HDD in SATA port 1 and my SSD OS drive on SATA port 4, would this at all be bad/negative in any way?
Thank you so much for everything in advance, and I hope you all are having a wonderful holiday season.
cross-posting is not allowed
Markfw
Anandtech Moderator
Last edited by a moderator:
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