How to Enable & Configure SATA3 RAID on the Rampage III Black Edition Marvell 9182

[TrickMasterPC]

How to Enable and Configure SATA III RAID0 on the ASUS Rampage III Black Edition Marvell 88SE9182 SATA III Controller.

Pre-install Instructions:
1) Ensure you do not have a CD/DVD Drive hooked up to the Marvell Controller
2) DO NOT use an ICYDOCK or any other 2.5 to 3.5 HDD Converter device. Hook your SSD directly to the Marvell Port using a SATA III 6Gb/s cable of 18" or less. If you already have a SATA III cable, and you've been having issues I recommended that you swap it out.
3) Check your power & SATA III connections to ensure they are solid on both ends.
4) Update the firmware for your SSD drives. You must have the drives hooked up to an Intel SATA Controller to flash. Updating is critical especially if your drives have the SandForce 3 Controller in them. Click Here for Corsair Force GT Firmware Updates. I do not recommend any OCZ 3 series drive. Corsair Force GT or Intel SSD's only. OCZ firmware is no good. If you don't believe me go to their user forums for their 3 series drives. They have about a 54% BSOD rate among their users.

Note* If your SSD drives don't show up in BIOS check your firmware version again and follow the flash, secure erase clear CMOS steps as outlined by the drive manufacturer.

1) Download the Rampage III Black Edition BIOS 0602 from the Asus Website: http://support.asus.com/download.aspx?SLanguage=en&p=1&s=29&m=Rampage+III+Black+Edition&os=&hashedid...
2) Drop the BIOS file onto a secondary HDD or USB memory stick
3) Flash your BIOS using ASUS eZ Flash (located in your BIOS menu)
4) Reboot and re-enter the BIOS
5) Under Onboard Devices Enable and set the Marvell SATA III controller operating mode to RAID. Set the Intel SATA II, and Jmicron eSATA controllers to AHCI. (If you're also running RAID on the Intel controller that's fine)
6) Reboot again and after POST, press CTRL + M to access the Marvell Configuration Utility.
7) Create the desired array. The RAID options on the Marvell 88SE9182 controller include: RAID 0,1 ** Stripe Sizes of: 32KB, 64KB, 128KB ** (recommend 128KB for 2-4% better overall performance) Write Back Cache On/Off (recommend On for 5-10% higher performance).
😎 Reboot and re-enter the BIOS. Under Hard Disk Drives re-order the drives so that the newly created array is the first disk in the list.
9) Download the Marvell RAID/AHCI Drivers WHQL 1.2.0.1032 . Extract the folder and copy it to a USB memory stick. I do not recommend using oder version as your Read/Write performance will suffer.
10) Initiate Windows install
11) The install will not see the "disk" just created, click on "Load Driver" and browse the memory stick for the appropriate driver. During Windows install load the driver from this directory: \driver\SCSI storport driver\amd64
12) After the RAID0 is recognized by Windows, click on "Drive options (advanced)". Then click on "New" to create your new system partition. It should make a 100MB partition and the rest will be allocated for your system C drive. The system reserved 100MB partition must exist or Windows will fail install every time.



I performed all of the steps as outline above and was able to install Windows 7 Professional an all updates without any problems. I ran the Intel Burning Test and passed with flying colors. I also ran the ATTO Disk Benchmark application and was pretty happy with the results. Basically I was able to achieve 780MB/s Synchronous Read and 600 MB/s Synchronous Write using two Corsair Force GT SATA III 120GB SSDs in RAID 0. A huge improvement in RAID0 speeds over the 9128 controller and over using Intel's onboard SATA II controller which maxed out at 550MB/s Read and Write. I was expecting to achieve near 1000MB/s Read/Write, but I don't think that's possible with only a 2 Lane PCIe Bus which is the max PCIe Lane Utilization of the Marvell 9182 controller.

Note: The Windows TRIM command for SSD Optimization is not supported in RAID mode. After windows installation and all windows updates. Download and install Diskeeper 2012 Professional with Hyperfast. Right click on you C drive and select "SSD Volumes" indicate which drives are SSDs. The program can't tell if the drives are in RAID mode. After that right click on the C drive and select "Optimize". This is the best SSD optimizer program I was able to find. Run it once per week. Or if you install or remove large programs or files run it afterwards. It maintains drive performance and clears up lots of space.

[krazy]

thanks TrickMasterPC for this thread, i have almost the same setup as you and couldn't figure why those ssd's kept crashing in raid0.

[jcoles7]

Hi TrickMasterPC,

No worrys finally found a copy on Intel's website of all places.

Link here

Also for those of you who can not be bothered to do a clean install of Windows here is a work around.

1) Install 0501 Bios
2) Install your new HDD's and setup a Raid 0 array
3) Boot into Windows on exisiting single disk install and load the above drivers for the raid controller and then create a partition in Disk Management.
4) Now take an image using something like Symantec Ghost to another drive or partition.
5) Restore the image to your Raid 0 volume and set the boot priority in bios to boot from your new array.
6) Boot into Windows

I am now getting Read speeds of 718 and write speeds of 586

Cheer Jason

[Retired]

jcoles7 wrote:
Hi TrickMasterPC,

No worrys finally found a copy on Intel's website of all places.

Link here

Also for those of you who can not be bothered to do a clean install of Windows here is a work around.

1) Install 0501 Bios
2) Install your new HDD's and setup a Raid 0 array
3) Boot into Windows on exisiting single disk install and load the above drivers for the raid controller and then create a partition in Disk Management.
4) Now take an image using something like Symantec Ghost to another drive or partition.
5) Restore the image to your Raid 0 volume and set the boot priority in bios to boot from your new array.
6) Boot into Windows

I am now getting Read speeds of 718 and write speeds of 586

Cheer Jason

Thank jcoles7. With the 1003 driver I'm getting ~200MB/s faster speeds over 1006 and ~100MB/s faster speeds over 1002. I don't understand how they could have crippled the 1006 driver, but its slower for some reason.

[Retired]

jcoles7
let us know what your speeds are when you get everything sorted out with the Corsair drives, I have the Force GT 120 drives.
read 750
write 600
with the 1003 driver
I still using the 1.2 firmware,

Corky

[TrickMasterPC]

Guys I recently had two system crashes. On reboot the Marvell Status screen just after POST stated that my RAID was "OFFLINE". I had to power the PC down and power it back on again to get the RAID working. Everything is fine and windows error reporting doesn't have any insight except the typical Kernel Power Lost.

This happened to me two days in a row after about 1 hour of playing Call of Duty Black Ops. The Blue Screen has no error codes on it which makes it difficult to tell what the problem is.

The only change I made to the system was a BIOS mod on my GTX 590's to overclock the Core, Shader and Memory equating to a 7% overclock. The graphics cards seem stable enough. They pass the 3DMark vantage test with flying colors and there doesn't seem to be any errors coming from the cards or the nvidia drivers. I am a little suspect that my graphic card overclock may be causing the issue, because the BSOD with the RAID being offline on reboot never happened before not even once and I could play COD for 8 hours straight without error.

If anyone has a BSOD and see's their RAID0 offline on the Marvell controller please let me know.

[DarkStalker980x]

Gigabyte gives you 1002 with miniport folder... Station Drivers gives you 1006 with miniport folder ... Intel download site gives you 1003 WITHOUT much needed miniport folder for floppy64 folder so Windows 7 will find your raid array ... amd64 folder drivers work on all 3 of the above ... I NEED TO FIND 1003 WITH MINIPORT FOLDER but cannot find it anywhere 😞

[TrickMasterPC]

So find out that the crashes have nothing to do with the Rampage III Black Edition. The constant BSODs are related to my OCZ Vertex-3 SSD drives. I was running on firmware version 2.09 which had a few BSODs per month. I upgraded to firmware version 2.11 because they said it was resolve BSOD issues. Then I started having BSODs about two times per day. They released v2.13 earlier this week and when I upgraded to 2.13 I started having BSODs every couple of minutes rendering my computer useless. There are hundreds of Vertex 3 users having the same issue. I will receive two new drives soon and will report back if the drives work.

[TrickMasterPC]

So I received my two new Vertex-3 drives earlier this week and the problem persisted. OCZ is giving me my money back for the drives. I puchased two Corsair Force GT drives. They have been running stable for a several days now, but just gave me the same BSOD problem that the Vertex drives had. Basically one of the drives just drops off the RAID. I have to shut the computer down entirely and power it back up for the drive to re-appear.

I'm not sure if this issue is related to the motherboard 9182 controller because this issue with one of the drives disappearing is happening to a lot of people using Vertex-3 drives and some people using the Corsair Force GT drives. The commonality between these drives is that they both use the SandForce 3 controller. Perhaps ASUS just needs to release a BIOS update which supports RAID for these types of newer drives.

I sure hope something is done, or I'll have to move my SATA III RAID 0 over to the Intel SATA II controller. (LAME!!!!). I paid nearly $600 for this motherboard specifically for the SATA III controller.


Update!
Any drive with a SandForce 3 controller will exhibit the BSOD problem regardless of what SATA controller you are running the drives on. Currently Corsair's Force 3 GT drives with the SandForce 3 Controller seem to be the most stable. After flashing to firmware version 1.3.2 released Sept 30th I haven't had a single BSOD. Corsair is working very closely with SandForce under NDA to smooth out the BSOD issues. OCZ still has major issues with all of their 3 series drives.

[Retired]

TrickMasterPC wrote:
How to Enable and Configure SATA III RAID0 on the ASUS Rampage III Black Edition's Marvell 88SE9182 SATA III Controller.

1) Download the leaked 0501 BIOS for the ASUS Rampage III Black Edition: http://www.mediafire.com/?t5ef3v45u9yb94e
2) Drop the BIOS file onto a secondary HDD or USB memory stick
3) Flash your BIOS using ASUS eZ Flash (located in your BIOS menu)
4) Reboot and re-enter the BIOS
5) Set the SATA III controller's operating mode to RAID. Set the Intel SATA II, and jmicron eSATA controllers to AHCI.
6) Reboot again and after POST, press CTRL + M to access the Marvell Configuration Utility.
7) Create the desired array. The RAID options on the Marvell 88SE9182 controller include: RAID 0,1 ** Stripe Sizes of: 32KB, 64KB, 128KB ** (recommend 128KB for 2-4% better overall performance) Write Back Cache On/Off (recommend On for 5-10% higher performance).
😎 Reboot and re-enter the BIOS. Under Hard Disk Drives re-order the drives so that the newly created array is the first disk in the list.
9) Download the Marvell 88SE91xx driver 1.2.0.1003 WHQL from the Intel's website. Extract the folder and copy it to a USB memory stick. Do not use driver version 1002 or 1006 your performance will suffer.
10) Initiate Windows install
11) The install will not see the "disk" just created, click on "Load Driver" and browse the memory stick for the appropriate driver. The driver should be in this directory: \marvell_91xx_1.2.0.1003_whql\1.2.0.1003-WHQL\storport\i386\ (if for some reason these drivers didn't work, try the Marvell RAID Windows Preinstall Driver v1.0.0.14 from Gigabits website )
12) After the RAID0 is recognized by Windows, click on "Drive options (advanced)". Then click on "New" to create your new system partition. It should make a 100MB partition and the rest will be allocated for your system C drive. The system reserved 100MB much exist or Windows will fail install every time.
13) After Windows install. Since ASUS has no Marvell 9182 drives and or software on their website for the Rampage III Black Edition, you can download them from Gigabit's website. The Gigabit G1.Assassin has the same 9182 controller as the Rampage III Black Edition: http://www.gigabyte.us/products/product-page.aspx?pid=3752&dl=1#dl
Specifically You'll Want:
- Marvell RAID Utility v4.1.0.1905
- You may also need: Marvell RAID Windows Preinstall Driver v1.0.0.14 (this is only if the driver from Station Drivers mentioned in step 11 didn't work)

If your SSD's still don't show-up you may have to update your SSD firmware! Check your manufacturer's website for the latest SSD firmware release.

I performed all of the steps as outline above and was able to install Windows 7 Professional an all updates without any problems. I ran the Intel Burning Test and passed with flying colors. I also ran the ATTO disk benchmark application and was pretty happy with the results. Basically I was able to achieve 780MB/s Synchronous Read and 700 MB/s Synchronous Write. A huge improvement in RAID0 speeds over the 9128 controller and over using Intel's onboard SATA II controller which maxed out at 550MB/s Read and Write. I expect to achieve near 1000MB/s once ASUS releases an official BIOS greater than 0404 along with officially supported Marvell drivers.

Hello, i just bought the Ramgpage 3 BE, i followed this post. When i get to the windows instill the Marvell 88SE91xx driver 1.2.0.1003 WHQL doesn't work, and i couldn't find Marvell RAID Windows Preinstall Driver v1.0.0.14 anywhere. I used some AMD64 driver, witch was the only driver out of meny i could find. I was able to instill windows (i for get what driver it was because i was up really late tring to get it to installed to test the 2 ssds i have one is Corsair Force Series GT 120gb and the other is Corsair Force 3 Series 120gb. once i instilled anyting and test the drive in raid 0 i'm only getting 350 read and 330 write. Is there something i'm doing wrong, or missing?

[TrickMasterPC]

1) Ensure you do not have a CD/DVD Drive hooked up to the Marvell Controller
2) DO NOT use an ICYDOCK or any other 2.5 to 3.5 HDD Converter device. Hook your SSD directly to the Marvell Port using a SATA III 6Gb/s cable of 12" or less. If you already have a SATA III cable, swap it out.
3) Check your power connection to ensure it's solid on both ends. I would also recommend measuring the voltage and amperage with a volt meter to rule out any potential issues with fluctuations. These drives are very sensitive to fluctuations.
4) Set your Marvell Controller in BIOS under Onboard Devices Enable then to AHCI or RAID mode
5) Ensure you are running Force GT firmware version 1.3.2 for the 120GB drive. Must flash these drives on the Intel SATA controller.
7) Use the Marvell 88SE91xx driver 1.2.0.1003 WHQL (most stable, best performance). During Windows install load the driver from this directory: \SATA3_allOS_1.2.0.1003_PV\SATA3_allOS_1.2.0.1003_PV\storport\amd64\
😎 Update your ATK0110 ACPI Utility Driver (found under Utilities Section). Confirm the update within the Device Manager. The date should read 2009 and not 2004.
9) If using AHCI mode install this Microsoft AHCI Fix (resolves many BSOD issues in AHCI mode)
10) Download ATTO Disk Benchmark and marvel at the SPEED! With two Force GT drives you should see 760MB/s Read and just over 600MB/s Write. Up your PCIe bus speed from 100MHz to 103Mhz (little bump in drive performance and graphic performance with complete stability).

Note: after windows installation and all windwos updates. download and install Diskeeper 2010 or 2011 Professional with Hyperfast. Right click on you C drive and select "SSD Volumes" indicate which drives are SSDs. The program can't tell if the drives are in RAID mode. After that right click on the C drive and select "Optimize". This is the best SSD optimizer program I was able to find. Run it once per week. Or if you install or remove large programs or files run it afterwards. It maintains drive performance and clears up lots of space.