RevoDrive x2 on a GA-X58A-UD3R

[Dark Mantis]

No problem Allan. Just keep us in the loop as far as your fun with OCZ.

[Aussie Allan]

    UPDATE!

  In the interest of someone else taking advantage of my little nightmare, with the W7 faulty install disc fiasco behind me and a new copy on a USB-Drive  ... I finally got Someone at OCZ California out of bed with the "Go and Try this" short answer, Effectively the Revodrive x2 is 4 SSD drives in the one PCB package... (Reads as 23Gb each)... with an assortment of controllers onboard pre-configured to Raid0..........On boot, Press F4 or Ctrl+S (I think) which takes you to Revo-Bios.../...Break Raid.../...highlight first of 4....(they run 0,1,2 and 3) format each one individually...once completed.....use Linux pre-configured Flash tool with firm already installed in the root...to take the card to the latest FW 1.33..it's all on the first home screen, once done reboot.../...enter card Bios again (F4) ...config Raid0.../...save.../...reboot and install OS as per usual.........Well thats the plan anyway.......will post my results late tonight or the suicide note!

  P.S When you get to the install screen when loading Vindows , nothing will be there until you load the drivers, on completion of Revo driver install, Revo will appear in the window as a possible OS location to install windows.

 Aussie Allan

[Aussie Allan]

 Put off suicide for another night anyway......Will post in the morning all the gory details but got the firmware loaded and Windows back-on.

 New firm seem to have improved read from 790 to about 825mbs......write a tad down to 600ish  .... once you have done all the wrong things in installing this card the Flashing and installation is rather straight forward ..........Linux on a DVD or USB key to boot off is mission critical to flash and configure this card properly........Effectively being 4 SSDs in raid0 , you must break the raid set to do anything......And OCZs "Toolbox" does not work with this card..........part of the reason It got buggered up in the first place, ...that and pilot error.

 Aussie Allan

[Aussie Allan]

 Update for install and config of these Awesome drives.....A few simple do and Don't list for The OCZ Revodrive x2

 NOTE: These drive come pre-configured and will install out of the box if your happy to have the firmware that's installed on shipping.

 These finding are only what worked for me on a GA-X58A-UD3R ver2 board with Bios FG

 Do put the Revo in the Bottom blue slot
 Do have no other drives present in your system when installing and as little USB clutter as humanly possible
 Do have your board set to AHCI, AHCI is mission critical to format properly and a successfully bios flash
 Don't try and OCZ Toolbox as it can brick the card
 Don't try and use windows to perform any changes
 Only use the recommended Linus (What I used ) or Ubunti to effect changes of your card........On the OCZ site you can download the latest 1.33 FW already installed in Linux root drive that can be put on usb stick or burnt to DVD (ISO)

 After all my mistakes this is what worked for me!

 In mother board Bios, press F4 or Ctrl+S ( only F4 worked for me) to get to revo raid bios......CRITICAL   break raid set so 4 x 23gb is displayed in bottom right virtual drive window/ reboot with Linux and wait till loaded........go to secure erase and use internal secure erase after highlighting each drive in turn .... ONLY use the NULL command when prompted, do not imput your own password as It breaks the software.. this only takes four or five seconds each........once done reboot to Linux again..........this time hit Flash Firmware and follow prompts.......let command screen run.........when finished reboot and when prompted hit F4 again..........follow the prompts to config, Auto or manual Raid set.....you can actually run all four SSDs in raid0....two sets of 2 in raid 0...raid1   ext,ext ....once done ....save and reboot to load windows normally.

 When you come to the install drivers at the very start of windows install the screen will be blank.......this is Normal!........press load drivers and or browse to driver folder you downloaded earlier from OCZ and have on stick , floppy or CD....click load.........At the end of load drivers your RevoDrive should appear in the window as a location to load windows.....if it states 93Gb.......your ready to blast off..........if it reads 23Gb, the raid set has fallen over........Go back to start, do not collect £200 and miss a turn.

 Note : remember to load all driver that you intend to use that are deemed F6 .... because  as you don't have these drives connected at the early part of the install the bios is not smart enough to understand that these will be added later and some drivers will need to be installed before OS

 Aussie Allan

.......P.S........... Once Windows is up and Stable add hardware one piece or set at a time.........Enjoy!
 

[Dark Mantis]

Glad to see that it is finally finished  and working Allan. It has been a bit of a long haul though.

[Aussie Allan]

 Lets see! build computer, put new floor, shirting boards and paint  in Girls room,install quad shower and vanity in on-suite, tile, ....Yeh! it takes time!!!

[Aussie Allan]

Short Update

 Still running every thing at stock speed and settings while I tweak the RevoDrive x2........

 Once I disabled page-file (as I have ample Memory on-board) write speed to a big , erratic hit, enable write back flush and cache flush saw a marked improvement (do not if you do not have a UPS....Raid0 is extremely unforgiving with this set-up without a UPS) the biggest improvement was with a Microsoft stability update that loaded in the last couple of days........see result after update.........will keep you informed as I progress.

 Also a new design gold wired heat sink I'm toying with at the moment ... seem to work bloody well but a real pain to make....enjoy

  

[Dark Mantis]

Like the heatsinks but just watch out that the wife doesn't see all this gold and diamonds going into the computer or it's likely to be gone next time you look! 

Where did you get all that gold wire from anyway ? Must have cost a fortune. Nice bit of weaving though.

[Aussie Allan]

Like the heatsinks but just watch out that the wife doesn't see all this gold and diamonds going into the computer or it's likely to be gone next time you look! 

Where did you get all that gold wire from anyway ? Must have cost a fortune. Nice bit of weaving though.

  Yes, it costs a living fortun..........Naaaaaaaaaaa only joking, 24 carat gold gilt copper wire.......I'll dig up some details later for you as it's rather cheap........I think I paid about £12 for a 100metres odd and come in everything from .1mm right up to 2mm odd.......improved the performance of the passive sink a fair bit going off the little test rig I set up.....later....AA

[Dark Mantis]

I did wonder if it was only plated. Even so it is a good idea and must help somewhat with heat transfer. Did you use your patented diamond paste under the heatsinks ?

[Aussie Allan]

 No ... to spensive for everything, besides would need to change the recipe to the mark II which is epoxy based, can be disastrous ...have pulled mosfets off boards in the past (you do everything at least once) got onto a couple of different suppliers of double sided thermal tape, the best one with extreme performance is a pig to work with as it's less then .1mm but holds better then any double sided I've used as long as your cleaning pre- install is fastidious ..Out of the States on A4 for a song........better then the cow-boys here on flea bay asking 50x the price I paid .again will send some detail over if you want this as well.

 Aussie Allan

[Dark Mantis]

Yes please Allan. It is always good to know reliable suppliers that don't charge an arm and a leg.

[Aussie Allan]

*
For option ROM problem you have a solution if you wish not boot with the HighPoint card

Use HPTFlash and test with Reallocate EBDA or INT 13 support options

Pierre

*
You can found HPTFlash with FirmWare / BIOS to this page

http://www.highpoint-tech.com/USA_new/series_rr600.htm

Pierre.......when and if you get this........looks like you were spot on with this advise, Many thanks........ unfortunately life has had me doing other things around the house including  renovating for some Aussie visitors due next week,........ and my ability with DOS ........Well, is Zero!.... but I'm having a go.

 It's something I've never had to explore till now, necessity is truly the mother of invention..........I've burnt about 25 drink coasters (dead DVDs) trying to combine the Flash bios utility (RocketRaid 640)  with the Dos boot file then burn the ISO.........non system disc error every time....Grrrrrrrrrrrr!  burn utility keeps telling me successful burn 

 I did have some success using the pre-configured Ubunti/Linux boot disc I made with the Revodrive x2 flash bios utility to boot off and then replace with the bare extracted RocketRaid 640 bios flash disc.......then use line command in linux..........can see the files (3) but my no knowledge of DOS kicks in as no matter what I type....."Incorrect command" is the result every time.

 One other small worry in the back of my mind is ....does it make any difference if I have drives (4) connected to the raid card and configured for raid 0 when trying to flash...... or should I be breaking the raid, strip out the drives (disconnect all sata cables) and set to IDE or ACHI to attempt the preconfigured flash...........sorry for all the questions but still a lot of variables to go through with trial and error

 Any help from any party more then welcome DM or world wide for that matter.

 Aussie Allan

[F5BJR]

*
For the HighPoint you have a possibility with HPTFlash and WINDOWS ( exactly as with DOS but with load.exe )

Pierre

 

[Aussie Allan]

 Thanks Pierre for getting back so quick, ... got to here some times back (Your images), controller field window remained blank but it let me into the config side..........I set time to 2 seconds, Reallocate EBDA to disabled, ... INT 13 Support to disabled and max array to 4, ...but with nothing in the controller window, flash is not an option.........on reboot setting reverted to the original defaults, Can't even get to windows now without a option ROM errorand then a BSOD ....... the error code disappears in a blink and reboots to recovery option screen..........not being able to get into windows was why I was going the DOS route..........Any suggestions

 Aussie Allan