GA-P55A-UD3 r1, SSD Drive Issue

[zecora]

Hello,

Here is my current Setup.
GA-P55A-UD3 r.1, Bios F11.
i5-750
2x2gig (CORSAIR XMS3  DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Model CMX4GX3M2A1600C8)
Evga GTX460 1gig

I recently just purchased 2 SSD (OCZ Agility 2) Drives & 2x4gig (Corsair memory, To Replace current memory) as an upgrade. I have 3 questions and wondering if you guys would be able to help me out.

1) How do I get my memory to run at the correct speeds without overclocking the CPU?

2) I've read that Gigabyte doesn't recommend running 2xSSD drives in Raid0. Is this still recommended? Are any of you doing this setup and have you encountered any issues?

3) When I tried to install Windows 7 Pro 64bit. I get to installing the OS and if fails on the second part. Currently in my Bios I don't have Raid selected and just AHCI.

Thank You,
~Zec

[Dark Mantis]

Hi and welcome to the Gigabyte Forum.

1) Well if you memory has an XMP attached you can use that to set up the memory or you can go into the BIOS and manually enter the settings and voltage to give you the extra speed.

2) Generally it isn't recommended to run two SSDs in RAID0 configuration especailly off the Marvell 9128 controller. You can try it off the Intel ICH10R controller but depending on your throughput it might not be 100%.

3)This could be because of a number of reasons, from a lack of power, or no RAID driver installed to using an optical drive on an AHCI mode controller.

[zecora]

Thank you for the Reply Dark,

The Memory I'll take a look and see, shouldn't be too difficult.

For the SSDs, what are my options? What I've tried is Raid0 and just trying to install Windows on a standalone drive. Both have failed on the second step in the Windows 7 Install.

I pretty sure I should be alright on power, is there a way for me to check?

[Dark Mantis]

If you list all the main components of your system, makes/models I will be able to give you my opinion on it.

[zecora]

Dark Mantis,

Here is my current Setup. Hopefully I'm not forgetting anything.

-Rosewill Xtreme Series RX850-S-B 850W Continuous @40°C ,80 PLUS Certified, ATX12V v2.2 & EPS12V v2.91, SLI Ready CrossFire Ready, Active PFC "Compatible with Core i7, i5" Power Supply

- GIGABYTE GA-P55A-UD3 LGA 1156 Intel P55 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard
+ Rev 1, Bios Version F11

- OCZ Agility 2 OCZSSD2-2AGTE120G 2.5" 120GB SATA II MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)

- Western Digital RE4 WD5003ABYX 500GB 7200 RPM 64MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive
+ I have 2 of these Drives (Used to be Raid0) turning them into a Raid1 config.

- HITACHI Deskstar H3IK10003272SP (0S02860) 1TB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive
+ Extra Storage

- EVGA 01G-P3-1370-TR GeForce GTX 460 (Fermi) 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card

-CORSAIR XMS3 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model CMX4GX3M2A1600C8
+Currently Installed in my system

-CORSAIR XMS 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model CMX8GX3M2A1600C9
+Will Be swapping this Memory for my current memory.

Thx,
~Zec

[Dark Mantis]

The power supply should be big enough you would imagine and was my thought but as I started to look into it I found there have been a massive failure rate reported 20+% within weeks and the other thing I didn't like was that it has the 12V power lines broken into four seperate ones of only 20A each. Sometimes this is just not enough especially on boot up.

The other thing with these boards is that sometimes they don't like to boot off the Intel controller so try moving your boot drive to the Marvell controller instead. Keep your optical drive off the controller which is set to AHCI.

[zecora]

Dark Mantis,

I've had this power supply for almost a year now and don't see it to be the issue but I could be wrong. I have tried putting the SSD drives on the Marvell SATA ports 6/7 and same thing as before. Start installing Windows and fail on the second step.

Thank You,
~Zec

[Dark Mantis]

My guess would be then that it is down to the fact that you are trying to run two SSDs in RAID0. I think you will just have to split them as two seperate drives. Set them on the original controller and to AHCI. It does give you the added benefit of being able to use TRIM which is not possible under RAID. Make sure the optical drive is on the other controller and set to IDE mode.

[zecora]

Dark,

I've tried to boot up on a single drive and still nothing. It will start installing and fail on Expanding Windows Files.

Thx,
~Zec

[Dark Mantis]

Well I would think that it is possibly a memory problem then. Try downloading Memtest86+

Memtest86+        http://www.memtest.org/

Insert one stick of memory in slot 1 and run Memtest on it for at least 10 loops and if there are no errors then swap it over with the next one and continue untill you have checked all  modules.

If you have any errors the module is faulty.

If you have any faulty modules you will have to return the whole kit as they are matched.

Post back when you have done that with the results.

I will be offline for a day or more now while I do a complete rebiuld/upgrade.

[zecora]

Dark,

I haven't upgraded my system to the new memory yet since purchased my new SSDs. With the current memory in my system I've run MemTest for a good 12hours and didn't receive any errors. I did this a couple months back. Do you think it'd be a good idea to run MemTest again?

Thx,
Ben

[Dark Mantis]

I know that you have already run the test but unless you ran it exactly like I suggested I think it would be worth checking again.

[zecora]

Dark,

Thank you for your help on this. I was able to get my SSDs working by disabling everything in the Bios that I could (LAN, Audio, etc.). Thank you again for your help and I hope for anyone else having a similiar issue this will save them some time. I also used this as an excuse to upgrade my system.

Thank You,
~Zec

EDIT 1: When I did get it to work it was in Raid0 on SATA ports 0/1, with everything in my Bios disabled that could be.

[Dark Mantis]

Wel I am glad that you got there in the end. It is often a bit of a trade off when trying to get things to work when they don't want to.

[NFAUS]

On a X58 UDR3 I now have 1 SSD and 2 WD Blacks on the ICH10 (latest Intel drivers) under ACHI.  I have an optical drive on the GSATA (IDE) and have disabled the Marvell controlle.  This seems much better than other options I tried (WEI of 7.7 on the SSD).  Note: no RAID used.