G1.Sniper z97 and Intel Rapid Start

[Sven]

Greetings.
I will recieve this mobo on monday, and it will replace my good old MSI Z77A-GD65. I have read the complete manual for the Sniper, and I have 1 question from the manual:
 On page 84 is this printet
If the motherboard Chipset supports RAID, EZ Rapid Start will force the Intel® SATA controllers into
RAID mode. If not, the Intel® SATA controllers will be forced into AHCI mode

What does that mean? I'm not running RAID and I will not run RAID when installing the new mobo next week. Of course I will run AHCI. Will that be a problem for me?

Also, my old MSI mobo just uses Intel standard driver to Intel Rapid Start (enabled in BIOS of course), and with this You just have to make a partition on the SAME amount as the ram you have (i.e. 16 gbyte ram equals 16Gbyte IRS partition). Why do Gigabyte need 2 extras gigabyte on the partition?
Will this Sniper mobo work with Intels standard driver for Intel Rapid Start?

[shadowsports]

Sven,
Each MB manufacturer implements a vendors feature in slightly different ways.  Gigabyte's implementation of Rapid Start requires 2 additional GB of space.  The logic in the chipset is controlled by these factors.  BIOS settings and the drivers installed at the OS level.  The BIOS settings determine the "operate mode" of the controller.  The drivers control how the hardware interacts with the OS. 

If you are using an SSD for your OS, it doesn't get much faster than that.  I wouldn't bother with rapid start or smart response. 

[Sven]

Well, Intel rapid start is in fact a lot faster, than a normal boot (On MSI mobo at least!), as the mobo don't go through POST at all when switching power on. When booting, even with Fast Boot on, most mobos uses minimum 10 seconds on POST before starting to boot from SSD/HDD, and in these 10 seconds of POST, my PC is up and running with active desktop.
I have been using Intel Rapid Start from the start of the life of my MSI Z77 chipset, and with a Samsung 840 EVO SSD, from power on and until active desktop is around 9 second. That is impossible with a normal boot, especially if you have some sort of Security package installed.

Smart response is a total different thing though, not much (allmost nothing) gain there, but Intel Rapid Start is really a nice thing, if you can set it correct up with DISKPART in an admin CMD.

I'm not sure I like the idea, that Gigabyte has made difference to the standard Intel Rapid Start, not that the 2 Gbyte is a problem, but why change something that works superb?? I guess that also means I can't use Intels Default software for Rapid Start on a Gigabyte mobo??

[autotech]

Probably not as you have to install gigabyte app center to use it on a gigabyte board.  I have rapid start on mine and I was able to choose if I used Raid or AHCI. In the beginning I used AHCI then I put in another SSD and now I have it in raid 0 and I don't use rapid start anymore.

From power button to desktop is 18 seconds for me.

[Sven]

Thanks for the answer. It seems like I can get it to work in AHCI then.
You use raid and 2 SSD's 18 seconds.
I use IRS and 1 SSD 9 seconds (MSI). I'm looking forward to see if G1.Sniper is slower or faster with this, as they have fiddeled around with the software

So now we are all using what we want 

[shadowsports]

Sven,
And I am 22 sec from cold boot to desktop with my RAID 0. (for comparison)  That's fast enough for me.     I've always looked at these "features" as marketing gimmicks or a glorified hibernate.  I'm sure they are more stable.  9 sec is great and I'm not knocking your choice to use the feature, but I do have a question.  What back up software do you use? In my experience, most BU software can't/doesn't see the partition used for RAPID Start / SR correctly.  Always seemed like you were adding another layer of complexity to the mix.  I'd appreciate hearing what both of you think.

[Sven]

Well, 2 things, with backup comming first.
Backup program, I use Acronis 2014 ( NOT 2015!!!!!), as this backup can make a "Drive"backup, and not just a "disk"backup. The difference is, that a "drive"backup is a COMPLETE backup of the complete physical drive, all logical disks (c:,d:,e:, aso ), bootsector, hidden system partitions, partitiontable aso. If you are really paranoid/afraid Acronis can make backups on sector-level, that means, that every sector is read and backup'ed nomatter if it has any (known) data or not.

Intel Rapid Start does not work at all with this Gigabyte mobo  It says, that I don't have any SSD's in my system!!! Funny enough Windows 8.1 can find 2, TWO, SSD's a Samsung 840 EVO 250Gbyte and a Samsung 830 256Gbyte. So right now I don't know how to get it to work. I have tried Intels standard driver (as I did for my MSI) but Gigabyte has screwed it up, so that can't be done either.
Now I know why you Gigabyte-people don't like Intel Rapid Start, if there is so much troubble getting it to work. What a bummer. Right now I wish I stayed with MSI.

Anybody know how to let Gigabyte software find a drive as a SSD instead of a HDD?? TIA

[shadowsports]

I'm an Acronis MVP    Screen Name "Ricochet" on the Service and Support forums which is why I was asking about your back up preference.  I am familiar with "Full Disk Image Back Up", sector by sector copy and the power of the software.  Its helpful for me to gather this type of feedback from real world use cases to better assist others.  I'm glad to hear 2014 is working reliably for your needs.  2015 Build 5539 was just  released in Sept.

I'm a long time Asus user, who is switching to Gigabyte.  I'm not against using the rapid start feature, just curious to learn more about its implementation.  If you're not able to get it to work with Intel's drivers, you may need to use Gigabytes.  Just a thought.  

Also, this is a fresh install right?  You aren't trying to migrate your MSI install to the Sniper are you?  That's not going to work.  Not even Acronis Universal Restore would likely work in this case.  Why....  Because of Rapid Start.  Hopefully you are starting anew      

If so and the SSD is not being detected, it is either not partitioned properly, or the operate mode for the controller is probably not set right in BIOS.  My best guess.  However, you likely have more experience with this set up than I.