Z170 Extreme7+ / Samsung 950 Pro

Whether or not you can use two NVMe PCIe SSDs in a RAID 0 array is mainly dependent upon the Intel IRST RAID driver and EFI storage Option ROM.

AHCI PCIe SSDs (SM951) can be configured into a RAID 0 array using the Z170 Extreme7+ board. I've done that myself. I haven't done that with NVMe SSDs, and am not aware of anyone that has done that yet.

But it is easy enough to test for yourself. Ideally you would have Win 10 installed on another drive besides one of the 950s. Win 10 would have been installed in RAID mode, and the CSM sub-option in the UEFI, Launch Storage OpROM Policy set to UEFI Only. Or Win 10 installed in RAID mode and CSM disabled. You will also need to enable the RST PCIe Storage Remapping options for the M.2 ports you are using.

Then in the Advanced screen, an entry for the IRST utility should be shown. That is where you can create a RAID 0 array of the 950s, if it is possible. If the 950 Pros are not listed as drives that can be used in a RAID array, then it can't be done yet with the current IRST driver and software.

You can also try to create the RAID 0 array using the IRST Windows program, with all of the above requirements of course.

Here is what it looks like with the Samsung 950 Pro's installed,  Slot 1 and 3 should be filled.

You won't see any entries in the UEFI for NVMe PCIe SSDs when they are in a RAID array or not, when you have RST PCIe Remapping options enabled for the M.2 ports you are using. The only listing of your 950's will be in the IRST utility in the UEFI, and the IRST Windows program.

We are now using two different storage protocols in one board, SATA and NVMe PCIe. Currently the two different storage protocols don't have their own configuration screens, if that is even possible with the current AMI UEFI firmware. The NVMe SSDs work fine but the multiple storage protocols used at the same time is difficult to deal with. Hopefully that will be improved and we will have better listings of the different drives.

When you created the RAID 0 array, did you use the default 16K stripe size? If so, I learned with some other PCIe SSD users that you must use the 128K stripe size to get the best performance.

Another thing we learned is if you clear the CMOS/UEFI, or update the UEFI to a new version (both set all options to their default values), when you start the PC after either of them, the RAID 0 array will fail. That does not happen with SATA SSDs in RAID arrays.

If you want to use your RAID 0 array as an OS drive, be careful and always have a way to restore your OS installation easily, or you will be installing from scratch.

Yeah,  i've seen it wipe out the Raid already once.  Lol. debating if i should take one of them out until a Bios can stabilize it?

DooRules wrote: I have this board, also looking at a couple of 950 pros to play with. Some good info here parsec, thanks much... Surely there can't be two parsecs running round the net with this much raid info... good to see you again.

OMG, DooRules, is that really you?!?!?!

You've been MIA from the OCN SSD forum for a long time now, I was worried you drove your snow mobile off a cliff... seriously!!!

You gotta know it's me man, cuz it is. Great to see you are still in this game too!!

Be careful with RAID 0 of these PCIe SSDs, you MUST use the 128K stripe or performance is terrible. Plus the IRST 14.6 driver is... the first one that really works with these SSDs, and is still a little flaky.

Otherwise, lets see what YOU can do with these SSDs and ASRock board (??)