You need to make sure your two SSDs are on the Intel SATA connectors (the ASUS P8Z77-V has so many SATA connectors it isn’t funny and two controller. One by Marvell and the other by Intel). Also you need to have 6GB capable SATA connectors. These look different from the vanilla 3GB ones, then you need to load the Intel RST RAID driver and push all kinds of buttons.
AnandTech – Intel Brings TRIM to RAID-0 SSD Arrays on 7-Series Motherboards, We Test It
Intel officially confirmed that the ATA TRIM command now passes through to RAID-0 SSD arrays on some systems running Intel’s RST (Rapid Storage Technology ) RAID driver version 11.0 and newer. The feature is limited to Intel 7 series chipsets with RST RAID support and currently only works on Windows 7 OSes, although Windows 8 support is forthcoming.
AnandTech – Intel Brings TRIM to RAID-0 SSD Arrays on 7-Series Motherboards, We Test It
In the case of Windows 7, a TRIM command is sent whenever a drive is formatted (all LBAs are TRIMed), whenever the recycle bin is emptied or whenever a file is shift + deleted (the LBAs occupied by that file are TRIMed).
The SSD doesn’t have to take immediate action upon receiving the TRIM command for specific LBAs, but many do. By knowing what pages and blocks no longer contain valid data, the SSD controller can stop worrying about preserving that data and instead mark those blocks for garbage collection or recycling. This increases the effective free space from the controller’s perspective, and caps a drive’s performance degradation to the amount of space that’s actively used
RAID0 & The SSD – TRIM And Building RAID0 – The SSD Review
Install the latest Intel RST Package. Now is a good time to install the RST package that you downloaded which should have been placed on a separate media for installation.
9. Enable Write Back Cache In RST. At this point, your system is running in RAID and you will be getting great performance from your RAID. Simply, we want to take you from great to amazing performance. If you go into Programs on your menu you will find a new folder called Intel. Go there and then go into the Intel Rapid Storage application. From there:
- Click on ‘Manage;
- Click on Advanced;
- Click to enable Write Back Cache; and
- Click ‘Yes’ To Continue.
RAID0 & the SSD – Optimization and RealSSDx4 – The SSD Review
10. Enable Write Caching on Device and Turn Off Write Cache Buffer Flushing. This particular point made the largest difference in performance as you will see.
- Press the Win7 Start Orb;
- Left Click ‘Computer’
- Right Click on Your RAID Drive;
- Select Properties;
- Select Hardware;
- Double Click on Your RAID volume;
- Click on Policies; and
- Check Both Boxes.
