SM951 as OS boot device information

The only version of Intel RST that shows as compatible with Windows 10 is 14.6, even if I try to manually install 13.1 on Windows 10 it wont take it.

Ok looks like there are 2 of us doing this now. 

Ronzer wrote: I successfully installed Intel RST 13.1 on Windows 10, I had been trying to update the Disk Driver instead of the Storage Controller Driver.  Now Windows wont boot and I'm having to re-install. I've got an issue open with ASRock.   Appreciate all the help Parsec!

Thanks for the help but you must now reinstall Windows again?!?!  

Earlier today I was thinking what if something like that happens. Sorry that happened, and I know you did that at your own risk... right... right??

As I told someone else that asked about using two SM951s, we are among the first to do this, and at the mercy of the hardware and software available. When I say that I'm referring to Intel, the manufacture of the Chipset, CPU, and IRST software.

I received my Skylake CPU, CPU cooler, and DDR4 memory today. Tomorrow I should have the Z170 Extreme7+ board and my second SM951. Knowing me I'll have that PC running by Sunday at the latest, if nothing goes wrong. I'm prepping the PC case and ready to mount the board.

For your technical reading pleasure, a few quotes from the IRST 14.6 Release Notes, specifically from the KNOWN ISSUES section, and my comments:

Intel RST driver v14.5.0.1059 cause BSOD Critical_Process_DIED during Sx (Windows 10-64)



RAID0 created using legacy OROM missing metadata on one of the drives (Windows 8.1-46)

*** Metadata is data about data, or in this case it is either the data about the drive itself, or the RAID metadata needed to create the RAID array when the PC boots. This is a scary one. Did you keep the CSM Launch UEFI Storage OPROM Policy setting like this? Or did you install Windows 10 with CSM Disabled? I'm wondering if this is affecting you. ***

PCIe NVMe SSD 2DR0 (2-disk RAID 0) performance lower than pass-through single SSD

*** Yes it states NVMe and two disk RAID 0, but sounds familiar? As IRST beta testers apparently, if this is only a driver problem or Windows installation configuration problem, I'll be relieved!! ***

parsec wrote: If you have problems installing Win 7, let us know. If you are using CSM Enabled, do you know you need to set the CSM option, Launch Storage OpROM Policy to UEFI Only, and maintain that setting just like maintaining the SATA mode as RAID? Or if you are going the CSM Disabled route, you must perform a small hack on the Windows 7 installation files configuration to get the EFI boot loader in the right place?

I'm glad you understand, and am not surprised you do.

Sounds like a good idea installing Windows on a SATA drive and then testing the SM951s. If each of them seem to run fine individually, you could then try a two SM951 RAID 0 array and test that also.

Speaking of using a SATA drive, and just checking, but you know you must use the ASMedia SATA ports for the SATA drive. When three M.2 drives are used, none of the Intel SATA ports will be usable, since the resources they use are shared.

The M2_1 port is shared with Intel SATA3 ports 0 and 1, M2_2 port is shared with Intel SATA3 ports 2 and 3, and M2_3 port is shared with Intel SATA3 ports 4 and 5.

Although the Z97 boards had only two M.2 ports, only one was an Ultra port, PCIe 3.0 x4. The Ultra port did not use any SATA resources. The non-Ultra port is PCIe 2.0 x2, and is shared with two Intel SATA3 ports.

That is a major difference between the Z97 and Z170 chipset. The downside to the Z97 configuration was the loss of PCIe 3.0 lanes for video cards when the Ultra M.2 slot is used. Both Haswell and Skylake processors provide 16 PCIe 3.0 lanes. While PCIe 3.0 x8 is plenty for a single high end video card, there is no SLI on Z97 boards if the Ultra M.2 port is used. That would only leave two slots at x8 and x4, not enough for SLI.

Imagine 12 PCIe lanes used for three Ultra M.2 ports, leaving one x4 slot for a video card. Personally I would not choose a board like that for gaming anyway, but a manufacture cannot make a product that "niche" without loosing sales. I would buy it but others would not.

Intel went to 20 PCIe 3.0 lanes in the Z170 chipset, and now has "DMI3" or Direct Media Interface version 3 for the SATA resources. As we know now, those are the resources used for the Ultra M.2 ports.

That should be an improvement for SATA bandwidth for multiple SATA drive RAID arrays, but the question is, is it the same for PCIe M.2 drives as the PCIe lanes from the CPU. That is what we will be learning once all the smoke clears from our testing.