GA-Z170X-Gaming 5 RAID vs AHCI performance

[ramonsmits]

I have a setup of

1x Samsung Pro 950 M2.SSD
2x WD Red HDD


I want to put the two HDD in a RAID1 setup. I configured the BIOS to Win10, disabled CMS, selected RAID and when I have the 950 installed in the lower slot I see all devices listed in the Intel Controller configuration.

The 950 should not be running as in a RAID but as a separate drive.

Will the 950 perform just as fast when it is not participating in the RAID setup?

My primary focus would be the performance of the 950. Alternatively, could to a software RAID1 in Windows. The reason for the RAID1 is redundancy, not performance, on my backup data.

[shadowsports]

Greetings,
Installing the 950 in the lower M2H connector is desired.  (as you have done) 

User Manaul
See section 2-5 Peripherals - starting on page 32 for correct SATA Operate Mode and NVMe Configuration

Then section 3-1 starting on page 38 (C-1) UEFI RAID Config.  Create the RAID set selecting the REDs as RAID members.

The 950 will run as a standalone disk.  You can connect the REDs to any ports SATA3_1~4.  Don't use 0 or 5     

I have configured:

RAID volumes:

1x RAID1 (2x WD Red HDD)

Non RAID volume:

1x Samsung 950 Pro


I boot into the Windows 10 setup via UEFI and can choose where to install Windows 10 but only get the RAID1 volume and not the Samsung 950 Pro.

In the BIOS I don't see an option to do something with the Samsung 950 Pro.

Am I doing something wrong? Do I need to select drivers during Windows setup to get the Samsung 950 Pro listed?

If so, should I use the Intel SATA preinstall driver from: http://www.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=5498#dl

You need to supply the controller driver for proper device detection during OS installation.  I know, its hoakie, but its the only way for UEFI 8/10 install to see the NVMe device from what we've seen.

[ramonsmits]

Indeed, its the driver that was missing. Strange this was that you would expect that the RAID disk would not be listed and the non RAID be visible.

It was the other way around!

Adding the drivers to the USB stick and selecting them at start resolved the issue.

Thanks!

[ramonsmits]

By the way, the answer that you gave here was for http://forum.giga-byte.co.uk/index.php?topic=17318.0 :-).

This topic question is if there is a performance difference between AHCI and RAID for my M2 SSD which is NOT in a RAID configuration.

I have enabled the RAID controller because of the normal HDD's on the SATA ports.

I have run a CrystalDiskMark session:

Code: [Select]

   Sequential Read (Q=512,T= 4) :  2594.796 MB/s
  Sequential Write (Q=512,T= 4) :  1532.235 MB/s
  Random Read 4KiB (Q=512,T= 4) :  1274.172 MB/s [311077.1 IOPS]
 Random Write 4KiB (Q=512,T= 4) :   379.504 MB/s [ 92652.3 IOPS]
         Sequential Read (T= 1) :  2146.618 MB/s
        Sequential Write (T= 1) :   865.326 MB/s
   Random Read 4KiB (Q= 1,T= 1) :    51.991 MB/s [ 12693.1 IOPS]
  Random Write 4KiB (Q= 1,T= 1) :   218.614 MB/s [ 53372.6 IOPS]

  Test : 1024 MiB [C: 9.3% (44.5/476.4 GiB)] (x5)  [Interval=5 sec]
    OS : Windows 10 Professional [10.0 Build 10586] (x64)
 

This is with the i6700K set to 4.6GHz and DDR4 set to 2400.

Maybe if someone has the same mobo with the 950 Pro in AHCI setup they can run the same benchmark and share their results.

[shadowsports]

The NVMe in AHCI will out perform any plattered disks running in RAID 0 or 5.

You would see comparable performance if comparing to a NVMe RAID set running 0 or 5.

Your results look gook. It appears you are getting 2594 MB/s sequential reads on 512mb files which is pure x4 performance.