Intel Smart Response Technology User Guide

[MarshallR@ASUS]

http://rog.asus.com/81692012/guides/...gy-user-guide/

SSD ‘Smart Response Technology’ is simply using a small SSD drive to cache system data, while still having all your files actually stored on a traditional mechanical hard drive (HDD). What that means is you get the best of both worlds: speed and capacity. Great access speeds for day to day usages via the SSD as it fills with commonly used files, and the bulk storage benefits of your traditional HDD for all your applications and files.

SSDs do not suffer from the noticeably latency that hinders mechanical hard drives as any data in their NAND Flash chips can be accessed instantly. Comparatively, just think of a HDD as an old vinyl album, where the pick up arm has to physically travel to a precise point on a particular track before it can play the song.



Installing and setting up a SSD as your system cache is simple and this guide will walk you through the process in logical steps. The first couple of steps are done in the BIOS and the reminder will be completed in your Operating System. To enable Smart SSD cache will requires that the SATA controller be set to RAID mode via the system BIOS. And that you install the Intel Smart Response Technology which is an Intel Rapid Storage Technology (RST) caching feature. It allows a user to configure computer systems with an SSD used as cache memory between the hard disk drive and system memory.



System Requirements
For a system to support Intel Smart Response Technology it must have the following as a minimum requirement:

Intel Z68, X79* and future 7 series Express Chipset-based desktop board
LGA 1155 or LGA 2011 Intel Core Processors compatible with the above chipset.
System UEFI BIOS with the SATA mode set to RAID
Intel Rapid Storage Technology software 10.5 version or later
Single hard disk drive or multiple drives in a single RAID volume
Solid State Drive (SSD) with a minimum capacity of 18.6GB (post format)
Operating system: Microsoft Windows* Vista 32-bit Edition and 64-bit Edition, Microsoft Windows* 7 32-bit Edition and 64-bit (here at ROG we always recommend Windows 7 64-bit given the choice)
*Requires an Intel driver update due 2012.



Part I: Configuring the UEFI BIOS

1. Press the F2 or Delete key during boot up to enter the BIOS setup menu.



2. Go to the Advanced Tab and SATA Configuration.



3. Select the setting for SATA Mode and change the value to RAID.

4. Press the F10 and select yes to save settings and restart the system.

[MarshallR@ASUS]

Part 2: Operating System
5. You may now begin installation of the operating system on the drive (or RAID volume).



6. Install all required device drivers.



7. Install the Intel Rapid Storage Technology software version 10.5 or later.



Part 3: Intel RST Settings
8. Run the Intel RST software through the All Programs menu or the task bar icon.

9. Click Enable acceleration either under the Status or Accelerate menu.



10. Select the SSD to be used as a cache device.



11. Select the size from the SSD to be allocated for the cache memorybetween 18.6 and 64 GB

12. Select the drive (or RAID volume) to be accelerated. It is highly recommended to accelerate the system volume or system disk for maximum performance.

13. Select the acceleration mode. By default, Enhanced mode is selected. There are two options, Enhanced mode: Acceleration is optimized for data protection, and Maximized mode: Acceleration is optimized for input/output performance.

14. Click OK. The page refreshes and reports the new acceleration configuration in the Acceleration View.



Your system is now successfully configured with the Intel Smart Response Technology.

[Area 66]

Nice tutorial. I use RST and I'm very happy with the results, I don't see too much difference in speed if I compare with my other PC using a pure SSD.

Something I did 2 days ago :

If you want to use the Windows restore utility from a Full System backup you made with Windows himself, or a Restore from WHS 2011, you have to go first disable the RST in the Intel Raid Bios ctrl + I . You simply enable it back with the Intel software in windows.

[Cygnitr0n]

Yeah, took me awhile to figure it out on my own. But this tutorial is nice!

I had a dedicated SSD for my OS. But never tried the SSD Caching. The result is almost the same.

[fatsqo]

Any idea when the the Intel SRT will support the X79 chipset? 2012 is a little open-ended!

[MarshallR@ASUS]

We require Intel to release the drivers for this sorry.

[HalfBit]

Hello guys.

I have a Maximus IV Gen-3/Gen-Z motherboard and I'm unable to see the Accelerate icon on the SRT, plus I see a "Create" Icon (Criar) that I don't see on tutorial image.

There are 2 disks in my rig: a 180 GB SSD and a 750 GB HD.
The SSD has a 150 GB partition where Win7 is installed, and I left 30 GB unpartitioned to create the SRT cache, but I'm unable to.....
Maybe I´m just trying to trick SRT, but of what I've read I don't see why it can't work like this.

I have tried leaving the 30 GB like: unpartitioned, as a RAW partition, NTFS formatted but none made the Accelerate Button show up.
Plus, I have that "Create" button...
Anyone knows what's going on?

UEFI/BIOS version: 3305
SATA Mode: RAID
Windows 7 64 bits Pro, fresh installed
Intel SRT downloaded from ASUS motherboard page - version 10.8.0.1003
Disk0: OCZ Agility3 180 GB
Disk1: Seagate 750 GB



Thanks!

[HalfBit]

Well,

It´s confirmed: You can't use the same SSD to install the OS and accelerate the HD.

I made some resizing in my HD to create a 60 GB partition and Install Windows7, whilst still having a 670 GB data partition on it.
It was just a matter of installing Windows7 on the HD and the SRT driver to have the Accelerate button available.

So, no go for my idea of having one single SSD to install the system ( to have maximun OS performance) and use some spare space on it to accelerate the HD what a bummer!

So, for my use, I think the most comfortable configuration is setting the entire SSD as a single OS drive, and not using the SRT.
I don't like the idea of having a lot of parition... I see no use for having a C - OS partition - and a D somehow fast, and a "ubber fast" E....
Anyone have use SRT for some time would tell I´m being foolish?

---

I just would like to point ou that the SRT software has a very outstanding bug!
When creating the Acceleration partition, I chose it to have 18.6 GB. Even though, the partition was created with the MAXIMUM size of 64 GB.

At first, I though I made something wrong and that it was my fault, so I destroyed the acceleration partition and made the setup again, choosing 18.6 GB again.. no effect, the acceleration partition was created with 64 GB again!

I would like to be able to choose a custom size for this partition, but the software shows only two options: 18.6 GB ( minimun ) or Maximum, which was 64GB because my SSD is large ( and it will go to maximum anyway ).

[Hard2Kill]

How do you get this to work if you already have an SSD as your primary drive with you OS on it?

I wanted to use the SRT software on my 2TB hd to speed it up but after changing it to RAID in the BIOS it wont boot I can access a menu in the BIOS by pressing Ctrl+I but am not too sure how to set it up from there any help would be great.

[Zenoss]

Well,

It´s confirmed: You can't use the same SSD to install the OS and accelerate the HD.

I made some resizing in my HD to create a 60 GB partition and Install Windows7, whilst still having a 670 GB data partition on it.
It was just a matter of installing Windows7 on the HD and the SRT driver to have the Accelerate button available.

So, no go for my idea of having one single SSD to install the system ( to have maximun OS performance) and use some spare space on it to accelerate the HD what a bummer!

So, for my use, I think the most comfortable configuration is setting the entire SSD as a single OS drive, and not using the SRT.
I don't like the idea of having a lot of parition... I see no use for having a C - OS partition - and a D somehow fast, and a "ubber fast" E....
Anyone have use SRT for some time would tell I´m being foolish?

Hiya, this is my first post here, so my apologies if this has been covered elsewhere, but I was stalking this thread and wanted to clarify that it IS possible to have the one drive as both your OS drive and your SRT cache. It's just that the process is... irritating, to say the least.

This is how i did it.

I plugged in a spare 160GB HDD i had lying around to use as a temporary drive, as well as my 120GB SSD

I set my SATA mode to RAID, the same as in the first post on this thread.

Installed Windows on to the HDD first.

Installed all the drivers I needed off my mobo CD, which happened to include the 2 bits i needed from Intel, Intel Rapid Storage Tool and Intel AHCI/RAID Drivers.

Opened up the IRST and told it to use my SSD to accelerate the 160GB HDD. (in my case i used the "full 64gb".
I then deactiveted the acceleration, because this was not the HDD I was planning to cache. Doing this still allocated the 64GB to be used later.

I used the Intel AHCI/RAID Drivers Tool to create a driver disk on a USB stick.

I then shut down and removed all other SATA devices apart from my SSD, and started to install Windows on it. The drive did not show up until i provided it with the drivers off the USB i created. It then appeared as a 47 GB drive, so I knew it worked, as I could the that the 64GB cache had been allocated at a controller level.

Once windows was on the machine i installed drivers as per usual, Ran all my Win updates etc, then shut down and reinstalled all my other SATA devices. (the HDD to be cached has to be on the same controller as the SSD of course)

Once that was going I installed the IRST software again, and the accelerate tab was available to me. Clicked the button, and my 64GB cache is now accelerating my 2TB HDD, and the remaining 47GB is holding my OS + AV.

Sorry for the wall of text, I thought it was best to lay it out step-by-step in case someone else was going to attempt this