Asus Rampage Gene IV (Raid Bottleneck at 800mb/s)

[ace2289]

I just recently got an asus rampage gene iv motherboard. I have been very pleased with the 2011 socket. I just sold my intel 980x with 4 way sli build for something lighter but still faster. I saw that the motherboard offered two way raid on the sata 3.0 (6GB/s) so I got two corsair force gs ssds. The speed for each SSD is rated at 560mb/s read sequential and 530 write. So I raided them together, updated bios, downloaded latest drivers and saw that it is working. However when I go to benchmark it I am only getting 800mb per second tops in sequential read in Crystal Benchmark and I am just trying to understand if I am missing some setting or something I might be overlooking to not be getting the most out of this build. All input is appreciated. I will leave with you guys with the specs:

Asus Rampage Gene IV Motherboard 2011 Socket
G Skill RAM 32GB (4x8gb) 1866mhz DDR3 10-11-10-30 @ 1.5V
Intel i7 3890 3.6Ghz @ Stock Speed with Corsair H80 Cooling it. Idle temps around 37C
Asus GTX 660Ti 2GB Video Card
Rosewill 750 Watt 80 Plus Platinum PSU (All rails are working above spec, so no issues there)
Corsair Force Series GS SSDs 256GB (Raid 0 = 128GB x 2)

I have already tried everything I could think of. I work in IT but I very seldom get to deal with Raid systems.

Also to add to the note: My raid results me in only 226GB in Windows. Which I found to be un-usual. I donot know if this is a problem of a faulty hard drive. But I had two OCZ SSDs in the past and they were both 120GB & I got 239GB out of them in Raid Stripe setup. So I don't know if this is a Red Flag or not.

 

[cin19]

I think you use the ASMedia SATA III ports for the raid0 set up, double check the manual you should use the intel SATAIII ports, because the native Intel Controller works better than the 3rd party controller like the ASMedia one.

I am not sure the 226GB in your raid0, yes it should has the 239GB space, do you have the most up to date firmware in your SSD?

 

[ace2289]

I have checked the corsair website and I did not find any updates for the SSDs. As far as the raid I didn't use the ASmedia, I used the Intel RAID. And Intel picked it up as two 119GB SSDs. I have already updated the ASUS bios. I had them plugged in the ASMedia Ports for raid wouldn't work. So I really don't know what I might be doing wrong. But I don't think that either of the SSDs are bad either.

 

[cin19]

We know SSD is very picky for the drivers, so make sure SSD use intel ahci, update all the drivers, bios, and firmware.

Do you download the new intel drivers from intel website?
X79 chipset http://downloadcenter.intel.com/Detail_Desc.aspx?agr=Y&DwnldID=20622&lang=eng&wapkw=chipset+driver
AHCI driver http://downloadcenter.intel.com/SearchResult.aspx?lang=eng&ProductFamily=Software+Products&ProductLine=Chipset+Software&ProductProduct=Intel%c2%ae+Rapid+Storage+Technology+(Intel%c2%ae+RST)

 

[ace2289]

Alright good air, will try and let you know. I know I have it set to raid, but I will change it to AHCI and let you know if anything changes. And I will also verify all that you asked me to check. Expect my update within an hour.

 

[ace2289]

We know SSD is very picky for the drivers, so make sure SSD use intel ahci, update all the drivers, bios, and firmware.

Do you download the new intel drivers from intel website?
X79 chipset http://downloadcenter.intel.com/Detail_Desc.aspx?agr=Y&DwnldID=20622&lang=eng&wapkw=chipset+driver
AHCI driver http://downloadcenter.intel.com/SearchResult.aspx?lang=eng&ProductFamily=Software+Products&ProductLine=Chipset+Software&ProductProduct=Intel%c2%ae+Rapid+Storage+Technology+(Intel%c2%ae+RST)

I don't know if I can setup these drives in RAID with AHCI mode. I am unfamiliar with the differences of AHCI mode. However, long story short I had to way to validly try it.

As far as the drivers are concerned I made sure they are up to date. So I am kind of getting nervious with this situation. And also another point to keep in mind. I look at my drives from the Intel Raid Management and it is showing both SSDs with 119GB usable. So I feel like something is up with the RAID that I might be doing wrong.

 

[cin19]

Which windows do you use?

In the intel RST, they will only show the space is total storage space, so the 119GB is the right #, but the RST shows the two of SSD that is raid0 or not?

 

[ace2289]

Yes it does show raid 0 for them. In ahci I couldn't raid them in anyways in windows setup. Tried loading raid drivers and all that stuff during windows 8 setup. So that was a no go. Wanted to go back to te basics and decided to run mem test all night too so I could observe if there were any hick ups with the memory at all. But I have had a few bad bootups where the bios wouldn't even load. So I am starting to think something might just be up with the board. Until unless the x79 chipset can't push more than 800mb per sec in raid 0. Which kind of sounds low. Because I had two sata 2 (3gbs) ssds on my Evga x58 motherboard and I got their combined speed without any hiccups.

 

[cin19]

In windows installation, you need use the raid mode, but after installation, for win7 you can change to ahci mode to boot up but win8 you can.

800MB/s is lower for the raid0, sorry I can't help if there is not the drivers or something else, maybe it is like you say that cause by MB.

 

[ace2289]

Which windows do you use?

In the intel RST, they will only show the space is total storage space, so the 119GB is the right #, but the RST shows the two of SSD that is raid0 or not?

Also, I wanted to update that I am getting ridiculous speeds when I am extracting from a zip file and I am getting like 20-150kb per second! It is pathetic speed testing my patience. Also this is with me trying the Raid with stripe size to 64kb instead of the 128kb I had it on till now. I am switching it back to 128kb. The extracting files from zip files was still slow but not this slow as the 64kb. I just wanted to update you, but I don't know if it is the board or not. I am about to install Windows 8 on a spare laptop hard drive I have and test each SSD individually. That is eliminating the SSDs as problem source.

 

[ace2289]

In windows installation, you need use the raid mode, but after installation, for win7 you can change to ahci mode to boot up but win8 you can.

800MB/s is lower for the raid0, sorry I can't help if there is not the drivers or something else, maybe it is like you say that cause by MB.

Also I installed Win8 on a temporary hard drive and ran the comp in AHCI mode and tested each hard drive. I was not even able to get above 400mb per second in read. I tried different cable and also tried hooking it up to the ASmedia ports as well. I also verified the firmware on SSDs. It is up to date, even more so than on the corsair forums. And I tried the second set of SATA III cables (6GBps) cables and actually lost write speed. So I am very confused as to what the issue was.

What I know isn't the issue for sure is:
RAM - Did two full passes overnight on the 32GB at stock speeds using XMP profile.
PSU - All voltages are up to spec if not above.
CPU - I haven't had a single hiccup out of it.

Tried calling Asus tech support but got voicemail.