Step-by-step guide to setting up SSD caching on Z68 and Z77

DigitalMonkey said:

Noob Question:
Would it be better to have a SSD cache the OS SSD or have it cache the storage HD?

Click to expand...

If you have an SSD for the OS, then you don't want to cache that with anything at all.

If you have just one SSD, and are trying to decide between making it a volume to place the OS on instead of caching your HDD, then that's a harder call. Basically, I would suggest that depends on the size of SDD.

If it's 60GB or smaller, then use it to cache your HDD and put everything on the HDD (which will act faster than a normal HDD, and is super easy to deal with, since it's one big partition).

If it's larger than 60GB, then you're better off probably just using it as your boot drive, and placing your OS on it directly, and not caching your HDD at all. (Only 64GB max can be used for caching by IRST, so if you choose to use a larger SSD, you'll have to specify how much is cache, and how much is an extra pure SSD partition).

If you've got more than one SSD, use a big one for OS, and a small one to cache your HDD.

For caching, ideally you have your OS and storage on the same drive on diff partitions so you can accelerate everything. It sounds like you dont so you have to choose if you would rather have faster boot time or faster load times on games or whatever you are storing.

DigitalMonkey said:

Noob Question:
Would it be better to have a SSD cache the OS SSD or have it cache the storage HD?

Click to expand...

Do you have to partition the HD, or can you keep it at 1.5 TB?

You can keep it all one big partition. It's still unclear to me whether it's even possible to tell iRST to limit itself to caching a given partition. You configure it to "cache a HDD" - which implies all partitions on that drive.

But to be clear: you don't need to partition it at all, for certain.

Hey all,

Not too long ago I built myself a new computer. I was (still am) new to SSD and buying my SSD for the first time. I remember it took me about 10 Windows installs to ever get my SSD drive to work properly. What would happen is, I said my SATA to RAID in bios, I install Windows and then install RST. Accelerate and set my SSD to caching drive, to cacche my main drive. Would work fine, but on reboot it would not boot up again it would tell me the boot drives have changed (as it says in the OP) and it would show my SSD and RAID as "Disabled"

I'd then have to hit CTRL-I for the RAID utility, and reset the raid..start over.

So I some how finally got it working and been great ever since, but recently we had a storm and I left my computer on and the power went out and something happened and I needed to reformat. So I did, but now am having same problem again and I cannot remember how I fixed it back then.

I'm guessing it might be the boot order..that's the first thing I will try, but since I am stuck at work I figured I'd post and ask if that's what it sounds like?

Someone else mentioned they had to install RAID drivers manually during Windows install..but I don't remember having to do that..

Thanks in advance.

You should never go into the Ctrl-I raid config. You can even disable this from showing up in your BIOS (unless you're *also* running a separate raid in addition to your RST).

The boot order can change - but if that happens, you only need to go into the BIOS and change your boot order to ensure that your caching HDD is listed as the first boot device.

That's it!

Mordachai said:

You should never go into the Ctrl-I raid config. You can even disable this from showing up in your BIOS (unless you're *also* running a separate raid in addition to your RST).

The boot order can change - but if that happens, you only need to go into the BIOS and change your boot order to ensure that your caching SSD is listed as the first boot device.

That's it!

Click to expand...

When the problem I described happens, you have to o to the CTRL-I screen to get Windows to boot. I normally don't go to that screen. I was asking if the boot order could be what's happening..does it sound like that is my problem? I will know when I get home (have to install Windows again first)

Yeah - boot order.
When you first add in your SSD, before you've enabled acceleration, the BIOS might switch to trying to boot to the SSD. Simply enter the BIOS, force it to BOOT from your HDD instead.

After running the IRST utility & enabling acceleration, my BIOS says that the boot target is "RAID WDC..." - i.e. a raid that IRST created containing my Western Digital HDD. I never had to set that as the boot target - but your process may be slightly different.

Again - you cannot mess with the RAID from the Ctrl-I config bios, so avoid that.


Here's the steps I discovered worked for me:

I figured it out (after 5 failed installs or so).

Steps:

1. Attach your HDD, but NOT your SSD.
2. Boot into Z68 BIOS and set Intel SATA controller to RAID mode (not AHCI or IDE).
3. Set BIOS to boot to your HDD.
4. Install Windows 7 to the HDD as normal.
5. In Windows, install Intel RST software. (http://downloadcenter.intel.com/Sear...age+Technology)
6. Turn off PC
7. Install your SSD.
8. Boot back into Windows**
9. Fire up the Intel RST (from the tray), and choose "Accelerate" button.
10. Choose the SSD + HDD you wish to make into your IRST pair (typically, the HDD you installed Windows onto, and the SSD you just installed).

NOTE: ** If you get a boot failure here, go back into BIOS and force it to boot from your boot HDD, not the SSD (which sometimes happens).

When I get home I will try this. It sounds right. I do remember that part of my solution was unplugging my SSD when I installed windows. But then I can't remember what I did. What you posted does sound similar, I bet that's how I did it.

Thanks and I will let you know tonight...bout 3 hours.

We've got similar computers btw, I have i5 2500k, 8Gb Ram, I almost got a HAF932 but ended up with a Graphite 600t case (love it) and I have an HD6970.. still..similar. Asus Z68 board.

I can also confirm caching for non-OS drives.

My OS is running on a 256GB M4. I have a 64GB C300 caching a 1.5TB mechanical drive. I can't really comment yet on performance, but setup was easy and done after OS installation.

Mordachai said:

Yeah - boot order.
When you first add in your SSD, before you've enabled acceleration, the BIOS might switch to trying to boot to the SSD. Simply enter the BIOS, force it to BOOT from your HDD instead.

After running the IRST utility & enabling acceleration, my BIOS says that the boot target is "RAID WDC..." - i.e. a raid that IRST created containing my Western Digital HDD. I never had to set that as the boot target - but your process may be slightly different.

Again - you cannot mess with the RAID from the Ctrl-I config bios, so avoid that.


Here's the steps I discovered worked for me:

I figured it out (after 5 failed installs or so).

Steps:

1. Attach your HDD, but NOT your SSD.
2. Boot into Z68 BIOS and set Intel SATA controller to RAID mode (not AHCI or IDE).
3. Set BIOS to boot to your HDD.
4. Install Windows 7 to the HDD as normal.
5. In Windows, install Intel RST software. (http://downloadcenter.intel.com/Sear...age+Technology)
6. Turn off PC
7. Install your SSD.
8. Boot back into Windows**
9. Fire up the Intel RST (from the tray), and choose "Accelerate" button.
10. Choose the SSD + HDD you wish to make into your IRST pair (typically, the HDD you installed Windows onto, and the SSD you just installed).

NOTE: ** If you get a boot failure here, go back into BIOS and force it to boot from your boot HDD, not the SSD (which sometimes happens).

Click to expand...

Worked Flawlessly. Printed this out just in case I forget it in the future

Thanks so much, saved me a ton of hours messing with this.

I'm glad it helped someone. I mostly wrote it up so I could refer back to it myself!

fatguy said:

I can also confirm caching for non-OS drives. My OS is running on a 256GB M4. I have a 64GB C300 caching a 1.5TB mechanical drive. I can't really comment yet on performance, but setup was easy and done after OS installation.

Click to expand...

Excellent! There was quite a bit of debate about that recently. Someone there was pretty sure you could cache any drive, but confirmation was missing. Now you've provided it.

Mordachai said:

I'm glad it helped someone. I mostly wrote it up so I could refer back to it myself!

Click to expand...

On the down side, I keep my Windows on Flash drives, and I forgot I had made a 32bit OS for my mom's computer when she had trouble...and I used it to install with instead of my 64bit one.

Now I have to reinstall, again At least I caught it before I installed all my stuff back on here, lol..I had only done a few of them.

Couple questions about SRT. Putting a build together for him tomorrow and wanted to make sure i set up SRT correctly for him.


Procedure:
1) Plug your caching SSD and storage HD (the one to accelerate) into the Intel SATA ports. Does it matter the order of the SATA ports?
6) Enable acceleration, select your OS/storage drive as the accelerated drive, select enhanced or maximized mode. Enhanced is the most secure, maximized is the fastest. I have a 1 TB HDD and a 64 SSD. The 1 TB HDD will be selected for acceleration?

The port order doesn't matter (but it's much easier to get right if you wait to attach your SSD until after you've installed Windows).**

You'll select both the SSD and the HDD that go together. It's pretty simple interface, but yeah, you'll select what SSD to use for acceleration, and what HDD that acceleration applies to in the Intel SRT utility in Windows.

** NOTE: If you've only got a few few SATA III ports, and more SATA II, then that will probably be what's genuinely important to you. i.e. if your SSD is SATA III, you probably want to use one of the SATA III ports for it. The HDD won't get much, if any, benefit from SATA III regardless of whether it has a SATA III interface, so depending on whether you think you'll want to add more stuff in the future that needs your other SATA III port (or if you have extras to spare), you may want to put the HDD on a SATA II port.

Mordachai said:

The port order doesn't matter (but it's much easier to get right if you wait to attach your SSD until after you've installed Windows).**

You'll select both the SSD and the HDD that go together. It's pretty simple interface, but yeah, you'll select what SSD to use for acceleration, and what HDD that acceleration applies to in the Intel SRT utility in Windows.

** NOTE: If you've only got a few few SATA III ports, and more SATA II, then that will probably be what's genuinely important to you. i.e. if your SSD is SATA III, you probably want to use one of the SATA III ports for it. The HDD won't get much, if any, benefit from SATA III regardless of whether it has a SATA III interface, so depending on whether you think you'll want to add more stuff in the future that needs your other SATA III port (or if you have extras to spare), you may want to put the HDD on a SATA II port.

Click to expand...

Thank you very much.

Another question.

When my friend brought over all his parts for me to build, I noticed he bought a 120 gb SSD. Would it be better to skip SRT (since its 64 GB only) and manually install windows and games on the SSD and keep the regular HDD as a storage drive?

Nobody can answer that for you!

You have at least two options:

1. Dedicate part of the SSD for cache + HDD, and the remainder will be a very fast SSD drive in Windows.

2. Dedicate the entire SSD as a drive in Windows (and put your OS there!), and use your HDD only for larger / longer-term storage (such as videos, documents, programs who's speed you don't care about).

If you/your friend thinks 120GB is probably enough for Windows + most of your games, then #2 is probably best.

If you/your friend thinks "I don't want the hassle of worrying about filling up that 120GB! What a PIA that would be!" then go for using it as SRT in #1.

bit of a problem

so from what i've seen everything is working. BUT when i go to accelerate the array ends up just putting the SSD by itself and doesn't seem to pair up with my HDD.

Is there somewhere i can check to see if the raid driver dled and installed for the HDD? i did the registry trick and it was already set to 0.

I'm not sure what you mean?

If you've installed Intel Rapid Storage Technology (IAStorUI.exe), then you get an icon of a HDD with a checkmark on it in your system tray.

If you double click on that, you get an image such as the attached (below)

You'll see there that the SSD is attached to a RAID, although the listing is odd, because it shows the HDD as separate (but they are in fact conjoined).

You use the IRST in order to configure your accelerated array using the buttons at the top.

Sorry if I'm misunderstanding you?

yeah mine doesn't look like that. it doesn't have the little clock accelerate thingy by the HDD and when i pair them it just doesnt even mention they are paired. like it give me the option enhanced or maximized and whichever i choose it comes out like if i didn't even accelerate instead it just makes it look like theres an invisible drive matched with the sdd.