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

[Lyian]

OK, thanks to you both.
I'm disappointed that I got mixed up when I was buying my components, but I still have a powerful setup so it's not too bad.
I'll just use the new SSD as the windows/small apps drive. It'll still be a good speed boost for me.

Putting the OS on the SSD makes me . But it also kind of sucks cause i find myself complaining about the speed of my work computer now lol. Its sooooooo slooooww in comparison now. I'll always use SSD's for boot now. In fact when i can afford another one, im going to replace the main drive in my laptop with an SSD. That should speed the crap out of it. Its a core 2 duo with an 8700 GT so its not *too* bad, but the SSD should bring it back up to speed.. so to speak

 

[hokiealumnus]

First off, thank you for this post, it definitely helps a lot! Unfortunately I've reached an impasse. I'm trying to test out SSD caching on a MIVE-z. RAID is enabled, drivers installed, RST installed. The drives are a W/D WD500AAKS and a Corsair F160. When I go into RST to set up caching, it takes my settings but never applies the drive to be accelerated. I go to try and select it again and it just leaves "Accelerated Device: None". Here's a screenshot.



Anybody have any idea why it won't take the selection of accelerated device? I've tried the RST version from ASUS' web site as well as the newest version from Intel; both displayed the same behavior.

Help?

 

[Eldonko]

Did you try and set up raid outside of the rst utility or anything?

Try resetting the SSD (reset to available), format it, and set up caching.

 

[hokiealumnus]

Thanks for the reply. I did not try to set up RAID outside the utility, though changing things with RST shows up when it POSTs and displays the RAID configuration. I disabled, formatted and re-enabled with no luck. Tried both Enhanced and Maximized. These are the steps...maybe I'm doing something stupid. See if you see anything wrong.

Step 1: after formatting, this is the status screen.



Step 2: Go to the Accelerate tab, select options.



Step 3: Should be set up, but instead it fails.



It doesn't seem like rocket science, but apparently I've got something going on.

 

[Eldonko]

Man I have no idea.. something is def wrong but Im not sure what..

 

[hokiealumnus]

Cool, thanks for trying. Shammy's trying @ KPC too. All else fails, I'll skip SSD cache testing on this board (let's face it, this thing is meant to clock, not toy around with SSD caching) and do it on the P8Z68V Gen3 waiting to go on the test bed.

 

[Eldonko]

How come you are caching with a 160GB? Have you tried creating a 60GB partition?

 

[hokiealumnus]

I tried using a 64 gig partition. When it sets acceleration up, it deletes all partitions and creates its own.

Unfortunately I don't have a 64G or lower SSD. The smqllest I have is 100G. Heh...and I'm not buying an SSD just to test caching.

 

[xsuperbgx]

I have to bump this thread up. It is getting hard to find.

I have a question: I set this up on my gigabyte z68. I get a popup on startup "Migration % complete". It never shows a number and never changes. Is it working?

Edit: that seems to be an xhd thing, I will remove that. But I am still not sure that the caching is working right. Will a hard drive benchmark show that? ATTO etc?

 

[Mordachai]

It should show up in the Intel Rapid Storage Technology app.

I was surprised by how little it impacted a recent build's Windows Experience Index. Maybe needed more time for the caching algorithm to figure out what to cache. Maybe the WEI doesn't capture the effect very well?

Do some google searches, or read back in the thread. There were some links to the performance impact, and the comparison between enhanced and extreme modes.

 

[sullivap]

Existing Windows 7 64 bit - can't get RST to cache

Finally succeeded! Had two problems

1. had to set bios to Raid after step 3
2. guessing I was usin wrong SATA ports based on other posts. Connected drives to SATA 1 & 2 on motherboard.

Did go through a few re-boots, but finally got it working.

------------

Have existing Windows 7 64 bit environment, but can't get my OCZ Solid 3 60GB SSD setup as cache for my drive. Running i7 2600K on ASUS P8Z68-V LX.

Do I have to format the SSD drive before it is recognized by RST? NTFS? Other?

Did the following steps.
1) Do not connect the caching SSD yet. First apply the following registry tweak:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Servic es\Iastorv
In the details pane, right-click "Start", and then click modify.
In the Value data box, type 0

This registry change enables the RAID driver in Windows.
2) Next install the raid driver. (Note: install from ASUS driver CD & then powered down)
3) Connect your caching SSD
4) Set up caching with RST util. (Note: do not see Accelerate option).

 

[jotasss]

hey guys , sorry for skipping to the last page and not reading every page, but...

I recently built a new system and the mobo (asus p8z68-v lx) comes with this technology! I also bought a Corsair Force3 120gb to install the OS and my main programs. Only then I became familiar with this technology after reading the mobo's manual, and I was wondering...
Is this better than having the OS and main apps installed directly on the SSD, perfomance wise? I am no pc-guru, but if I had to guess, I'd say having it installed directly and not using the ssd as cache would be faster! I should also say that from my point of view, this technology is great for not having to install/remove what is currently being your "workflow" since it could change (be that gaming, editing, etc.) since SSD's are a quite small and letting it handle your apps and games etc - also great if your buying an SSD for the first time to stick in your already up-and-running system, and can't be bothered to reinstall the whole system.

This is how I see it, but I might be wrong... what better place to ask!?

Bottom line, what is faster? Manually installing and having installed what is most used/needed on the SSD? Or using this technology ????

 

[Mordachai]

Faster = directly installing Windows / OS to SSD.

If you can live within the SSD capacity you have, then that's by far the better approach.

If you want the convenience of a big HDD, then you can use either a small part of an SSD or all of a small SSD to help speed up the HDD (max 64GB of SSD can be used for ISRT). That helps, but cannot possibly be as good as pure SSD.

 

[jotasss]

Just as I suspected....

Thank yoU!!!

Maybe one day I'll try this technology out, see how it compares with my current system.
Currently It's taking me like 15 seconds from pushing the ON button to windows ON (Up and running!)

 

[Eldonko]

FYI this procedure works for Z77 as well..

 

[hokiealumnus]

Edited title to reflect that.

As far as my problems, it wasn't specific to the MIVE-z - the P8Z68-V Gen3 also had the same problem. Had to reinstall Windows to make caching work properly.

 

[Parvic]

So, ahve been trying to get this to work for several hours now.
Gigabyte Z68X-UD3H-B3 board
Samsung 830 64gb SSD
Seagate 1tb HDD

Both disks put into the sata3 intel ports.
Installed on an exisiting win.

Used gigabytes 'EZ Smart Response' installer, and everything got sorted.
But the 'accelerate' tab is not appearing, nor does it show any info about the disks.
Have tried to swap the 2 sata cables.

Attached screenshots.

What can be wrong?

 

[Nebulous]

Um..you do know that you need 2 identical drives to RAID right? You're trying to raid Samsung 830 64gb SSD & Seagate 1tb HDD (mechanical) which is impossible. That's why you can't create the raid. You cannot mix an SDD and a mechanical drive to create a raid array. Not going to happen in this lifetime.

You can use 2 harddrives, but both have to be at least the same size and the same type eg:

2 mechanical drives
or
2 SSD's.

The drives can have different sizes eg:

1-120GB
1-160GB

What will happen is the raid array will be created using the smaller sized drive so it'll be 2x120GB =240GB total

Same goes with the SSD's.

 

[Parvic]

in order to utilize Intel smart response, you'll need the hdd + ssd to be in a raid array.
Gigabyte EZ made all those settings for me.
But, something must be wrong, since it shows as it does in the intel tool.

 

[Nebulous]

Ahh, you're trying to get "Accelerate" to work. My mistake

I see in the RST the Accelerate" tab is not there. Have you tried reinstalling it? I never used it as I use RAID, but I use my SSD as my os drive.