Asus Formula Z RAID UEFI on Disabled CMS

[DemolitionManHD]

Hi All,

If you enable RAID on this board and change the legacy boot rom option to UEFI and disabled CMS, how can you configure the RAID arrays.

This option is available on the Asrock boards and you can configure the RAID arrays from within the BIOS itself.

The other question is if you get passed this point, install Windows 8 and drivers from AMD direct, why does the OS no longer TRIM on Windows Defrag with the SSD's in RAID?

Any feedback would be grateful, and maybe Asus will start to keep up with these facilities like Asrock does.

Thank you

[DemolitionManHD]

Anyone

[HiVizMan]

Hi David and welcome mate.

If you follow the guide for the RAIDR you will see that as the RAIDR unit is not on the SATA ports there is no need to set RAID as the SATA mote.

This does confuse quite a few folks I have noticed.

As per the guide you need to set legacy first and then set up the type of RAID you wish to use and there after you change how you boot to OS.

[DemolitionManHD]

So, set RAID and legancy mode. Define RAID array(s), then switch back to CSM disabled?

Would you recommend either RADI 1 / 5 or 10 on 4 SSD, two Corsair Force 3 and two Sandisk Extreme, all same size and reads according to info.

Is 128k stripe recommend or 64k? Intel say 16K but nothing for AMD.

IS Trim now support? And will Windows 8 see drives as SSD with AMD 13.9 drivers instead of old Asus drivers?

Do you recommend manual setting the Secure boot keys from the Windows 8 installation DVD/USB?

Thank you for any feedback.

[HiVizMan]

I prefer RAID 5 and a 64 KB stripe is what I choose for AMD.


For RAID 0, 5, and 10 logical drives, the stripe block size value can be set to 64 KB or 128 KB.
Your choice will directly affect performance. There are two issues to consider when selecting the stripe block size.


• Choose a stripe block size equal to or smaller than the smallest cache buffer found on any physical drive in your logical drive. A larger value slows the logical drive down because physical drives with smaller cache buffers need more time for multiple accesses to fill their buffers.

• If your data retrieval consists of fixed-size data blocks, such as some database and video applications, choose that data block size as your stripe block size.

Generally speaking, email, POS, and webservers prefer smaller stripe block sizes. Video and database applications prefer larger stripe block sizes.

[DemolitionManHD]

This will be for OS/Apps/Games and VM.

Do you have the issue when Windows 8 in RAID does not see the RAID array as SSD, so trim (defrag) does not work or is AMD RAID now trim compatible?

[timmytwitch]

I don't think his question was answered correctly. If I read correctly he is not using a RAIDR card but actually trying to raid his drives using the UEFI drivers. I know on Intel board once you enable to UEFI drive instead of the legacy drivers an option shows in the UEFI to configure the RAID array. The issue is once you enable to UEFI drive on the Formula Z board no such option show up. How do you set up the raid using the UEFI drivers with SSD or HD?

[HiVizMan]

I will have a look today. I have the Crosshair V board on my bench.

[timmytwitch]

Any update on this HiVizMan?

[HiVizMan]

It is next but one on the list. Had a long day with some OS issues and Intel XTU.

Check back in two or three hours I should be done.