Do I really need Intel Rapid Storage Technology?

[octiceps]

Title says it all. Do I need the Intel Rapid Storage Technology driver in my G73JH? Does it provide any benefits or performance increase? I can't seem to get a definitive answer based on my research. Some people say that it's only for people who've set up RAID on multiple hard drives, others say it provides benefits for single hard driver users as well. I've only got a single hard drive at the moment.

Reason I'm asking is that after recently updating my Intel INF chipset drivers to the latest version, the Intel RST service is suddenly, inexplicably eating up my CPU usage. I won't be doing anything at all and my task manager will show that "iastordatamgrsvc.exe" is using up 25% of my CPU just sitting there. My Intel RST driver is from about 5 months ago, but if this isn't needed, I'll just disable the service so it stops wasting resources.

[BrodyBoy]

I responded to your same post on NBR, so I'll just copy it here:

In non-RAID systems, the RST is essentially an alternate SATA AHCI controller. Intel claims that it enhances performance and power management (for the hard disks). It also offers a nice interface for disk information and status.

As such, it isn't essential. I include it in all my installs....installing it right after the chipset. I don't check the "Install Intel Control Center" option, and after my installation is finished, I go back and tweak the RST's GUI. In "Preferences," I disable all notifications, as I don't want the taskbar icon or pop-ups about what it's doing.

I've never had any issues with it or problems with resource usage.

[HiVizMan]

I like to have the RST installed on all the system I work on.

When I update my INF I also update my RST same time. Sort of the tick tock of chipset drives if you like.

[codename47]

I noticed something strange today - idle temperature of processor was 55-57C and saw at resource monitor that Intel Rapid Storage is using 10% of CPU. After deinstallation of IRS now temperature is 45C and don't have such cpu usage as before.
P. Maybe that has something common with the fact that I install latest Intel Chipset Driver with -overall command: http://forum.notebookreview.com/asus-gaming-notebook-forum/530384-how-install-latest-intel-chipset-d... but I did't check temperature before.

[JRd1st]

codename47 wrote:
I noticed something strange today - idle temperature of processor was 55-57C and saw at resource monitor that Intel Rapid Storage is using 10% of CPU. After deinstallation of IRS now temperature is 45C and don't have such cpu usage as before.
P. Maybe that has something common with the fact that I install latest Intel Chipset Driver with -overall command: http://forum.notebookreview.com/asus-gaming-notebook-forum/530384-how-install-latest-intel-chipset-d... but I did't check temperature before.

The same exact thing happened to me, so I no longer use RST. BTW I never noticed any decline in performance with the native drivers.

I really doubt that -overall has anything to do with it. It only forces the chipset driver installer to update/overwrite all of the chipset driver files.