Not sure which SATA drivers should I use?

Discussion in 'Operating Systems' started by Smough, Aug 16, 2020.

  1. Smough

    Smough Master Guru

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    This post may not be too relevant, but I like to get all of the performance I can from my PC and well, if I can also optimize the I/O, even better.

    I've tried 5 SATA drivers and all of them are, well, different. If I use the ones Windows Update gives via device manager, I get some recent ones (right now, I have 2, one from 2019 and from 2020, called Intel R C220 series, this from hitting update device driver a couple of times). These 2 drivers make the boot slower, even on an SSD. I've tested this and happens without a shadow of a doubt. Then I downloaded a couple from Win-Raid where Fernando posted different SATA drivers and tests: https://www.win-raid.com/t25f23-Which-are-the-quot-best-quot-Intel-AHCI-RAID-drivers.html

    I downloaded 2 he recommends for 4th gen and 5th gen Intel systems; with these drivers the system boots faster than with the Windows Update drivers, but these 2 drivers seem to have a small bug: They make my secondary HDD park its head after 128 seconds and I can hear them parking, no matter what I configure, so any operation related to HDD storage will make it click because it powers up again. This does not happpen with Windows Update drivers or Microsoft Standard storage driver. This does get fixed if I use any program to manage APM in Windows so the clicking stops, but does not change the fact that I get that bug with those drivers.

    However, the fastest boot time happens with the "bare" MS Standard ACHI driver, so should I just keep this one? I really can't see any new functionalities on newer SATA drivers and the ones Windows Update gives me make boot slower, which for me looks like a downgrade? Or maybe they load more stuff and features to make things faster?

    Thanks in advance anyone who wishes to discuss this topic.
     
    Last edited: Aug 17, 2020
  2. CrazY_Milojko

    CrazY_Milojko Ancient Guru

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    Can't remember what IRST SATA AHCI draivers I was using backthen when I was having Z87/C220 based motherboard (gotta look into my drivers archive) but still have a lot of Asus S56CA and S550CA laptops based on i3 and i5 Ivy Bridge-U CPUs and HM76/C216 chipset/southbridge and these love IRST 12.9.4.1000 SATA AHCI drivers. All of them (5 pcs) are upgraded with different SSD's inside (some of them are even using 2 or 3 SSD's at once: 2.5" SATA + another 2.5" SATA into DVD+/-RW caddy adapter + mSATA SSD as a third one) and this one I'm typing right now (Asus S550CA-CJ122H, Core i5-3337U, 2x 4GB DDR3L 1600MHz CL9 13.5V...) using SK Hynix 128GB SSD (model HFS128G32TND-N210A) as a boot drive boots the Win10 Pro 64bit Build 2004 in no more than 5 seconds after pressing the Power button on laptop using 12.9.4.1000 drivers, pretty fast if you ask me. IRTS 12.9.4.1000 SATA AHCI drivers are installed as a barebone using:

    SetupRST.exe -Noservice -NoIRSTGUI -Notray

    Looking into INF of these 12.9.4.1000 these should support 8gen Intel chipsets too:

    PCI \ VEN_8086 & DEV_3B29 & CC_0106.DeviceDesc = 'Intel (R) 5 Series 4 Port SATA AHCI Controller "
    PCI \ VEN_8086 & DEV_3B2F & CC_0106.DeviceDesc = 'Intel (R) 5 Series 6 Port SATA AHCI Controller "
    PCI \ VEN_8086 & DEV_3B22 & CC_0106.DeviceDesc = 'Intel (R) 5 Series / 3400 Series SATA AHCI Controller "
    PCI \ VEN_8086 & DEV_1C02 & CC_0106.DeviceDesc = 'Intel (R) Desktop / Workstation / Server Express Chipset SATA AHCI Controller "
    PCI \ VEN_8086 & DEV_1C03 & CC_0106.DeviceDesc = 'Intel (R) Mobile Express Chipset SATA AHCI Controller "
    PCI \ VEN_8086 & DEV_1D02 & CC_0106.DeviceDesc = 'Intel (R) C600 Series Chipset SATA AHCI Controller "
    PCI \ VEN_8086 & DEV_1E02 & CC_0106.DeviceDesc = 'Intel (R) 7 Series / C216 Chipset Family SATA AHCI Controller "
    PCI \ VEN_8086 & DEV_1E03 & CC_0106.DeviceDesc = 'Intel (R) 7 Series Chipset Family SATA AHCI Controller "
    PCI \ VEN_8086 & DEV_8C02 & CC_0106.DeviceDesc = 'Intel (R) 8 Series / C220 Chipset Family SATA AHCI Controller "
    PCI \ VEN_8086 & DEV_8C03 & CC_0106.DeviceDesc = 'Intel (R) 8 Series Chipset Family SATA AHCI Controller "
    PCI \ VEN_8086 & DEV_9C02 & CC_0106. DeviceDesc = 'Intel (R) 8 Series / C220 Chipset Family SATA AHCI Controller "
    PCI \ VEN_8086 & DEV_9C03 & CC_0106.DeviceDesc = 'Intel (R) 8 Series SATA AHCI Controller Chipset Family'

    PCI \ VEN_8086 & DEV_2822 & CC_0104.DeviceDesc = 'Intel (R) Desktop / Workstation / Server Express Chipset SATA RAID Controller "
    PCI \ VEN_8086 & DEV_282A & CC_0104.DeviceDesc = 'Intel (R) Mobile Express Chipset SATA RAID Controller'


    Also still have one HTPC using Z97 based motherboard and using HDD as a boot drive and that one is full boots into Win8.1 Pro 64bit around 7-8 sec after pressing Power button using IRST SATA AHCI drivers 14.8.1.1043, also barebone install using: SetupRST.exe -Noservice -NoIRSTGUI -Notray
    14.8.1.1043 also supports 8gen Intel chipsets:

    PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_8C02&CC_0106.DeviceDesc = 'Intel(R) 8 Series/C220 Chipset Family SATA AHCI Controller'
    PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_8C03&CC_0106.DeviceDesc = 'Intel(R) 8 Series Chipset Family SATA AHCI Controller'
    PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_8C82&CC_0106.DeviceDesc = 'Intel(R) 9 Series Chipset Family SATA AHCI Controller'
    PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_8C83&CC_0106.DeviceDesc = 'Intel(R) 9 Series Chipset Family SATA AHCI Controller'
    PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_9C02&CC_0106.DeviceDesc = 'Intel(R) 8 Series/C220 Chipset Family SATA AHCI Controller'
    PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_9C03&CC_0106.DeviceDesc = 'Intel(R) 8 Series Chipset Family SATA AHCI Controller'
    PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_9C82&CC_0106.DeviceDesc = 'Intel(R) 9 Series Chipset Family SATA AHCI Controller'
    PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_9C83&CC_0106.DeviceDesc = 'Intel(R) 9 Series Chipset Family SATA AHCI Controller'
    PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_9D03&CC_0106.DeviceDesc = 'Intel(R) 6th Generation Core Processor Family Platform I/O SATA AHCI Controller'
    PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_A102&CC_0106.DeviceDesc = 'Intel(R) 100 Series/C230 Chipset Family SATA AHCI Controller'
    PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_A103&CC_0106.DeviceDesc = 'Intel(R) 100 Series/C230 Chipset Family SATA AHCI Controller'
    PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_8D02&CC_0106.DeviceDesc = 'Intel(R) 9 Series Chipset Family SATA AHCI Controller'
    PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_2822&CC_0104.DeviceDesc = 'Intel Chipset SATA RAID Controller'
    PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_282A&CC_0104.DeviceDesc = 'Intel Chipset SATA RAID Controller'


    Not a single issue either with 12.9.4.1000 or 14.8.1.1043 here on my side on any of these 6 machines.
     
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  3. mbk1969

    mbk1969 Ancient Guru

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    I do not bother with SATA drivers at Win10. Generic one works good.

    PS Hey, @CrazY_Milojko, nice to see you here giving expertise. Like old times!
     
    Last edited: Aug 16, 2020
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  4. Smough

    Smough Master Guru

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    Are these the ones? https://downloadcenter.intel.com/do...nology-AHCI-for-Windows-7-8-8-1-for-Intel-NUC

    EDIT: Just got them from the Win-Raid forum from Fernando's post and I installed them, damn! Fastest boot time I have seen by far, hands down. I guess I will keep these, this boot felt like good old Windows 7 days, around 7 seconds. Amazing. Thanks a lot!!

    Well, another set of drivers for my collection lol.
     
    Last edited: Aug 17, 2020
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  5. EdKiefer

    EdKiefer Ancient Guru

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    I am on an older Z77 platform but I use Intel 12.9.0.1001, boots up fast, like 6 sec.
    I don't know on actual transfer rates results compared to other drivers but they seem good.

    PS: never tried the default Win10 as I installed driver pre Win10.
     
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  6. Smough

    Smough Master Guru

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    Does not matter, "new" drivers Windows 10 seems to install look to be pretty bad and not fully adequate for older hardware. Just from the fact that boot times can vary depending on the driver shows how clueless MS can be at times. At least the generic SATA controller is decent.
     
  7. EdKiefer

    EdKiefer Ancient Guru

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    If you got win10 pro, disable driver updates in Group policy editor.
     
  8. Smough

    Smough Master Guru

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    I use a program called O&O ShutUp10 to stop all unwanted Windows stuff running in the background, including driver updates.
     
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  9. EdKiefer

    EdKiefer Ancient Guru

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    Yup, I use it too.
     
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  10. KissSh0t

    KissSh0t Ancient Guru

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    Wouldn't the drivers that come with the motherboard or that are available for the motherboard via it's support hub online be what you want?
     

  11. Smough

    Smough Master Guru

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    Not all motherboards manufacturers have SATA drivers at their website, sucks, but it is what it is.
     
  12. KissSh0t

    KissSh0t Ancient Guru

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    What is the motherboard make and model? or going from you're profile is it ASUS H81M-A?
     
  13. Smough

    Smough Master Guru

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    Yep, that's the one lol.
     
  14. KissSh0t

    KissSh0t Ancient Guru

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  15. Astyanax

    Astyanax Ancient Guru

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    if you want your pc to crash, sure.
     

  16. KissSh0t

    KissSh0t Ancient Guru

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    I'm using ethernet, audio & sata drivers from the support hub for my motherboard, it's also a Asus motherboard, has not crashed.

    Perhaps I am the luckiest person alive?
     
  17. Astyanax

    Astyanax Ancient Guru

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    perhaps, since the mainboard vendors stop updating after X point leaving various issues unfixed, ie, 14.x had an ODD issue where putting a disk in would first send the system into a stuttery mess and finally bsod once the disk was finished being read.

    unfortunately Intel started including a storage filter with 11.5 and windows 10 changes have historically broken it, only recently did a windows build get blocked for using outdated iastor drivers because of a startup bsod.

    https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/ne...e-blocked-by-old-intel-rapid-storage-drivers/


    Here are the known and resolved issues for the Asus provided driver
    https://downloadmirror.intel.com/24501/eng/IRST_14.5.0.1081_releasenotes.html

    There is no vendor specific optimizations in SATA or Chipset packages to bother limiting yourself to just what they provide, check with the winraid forum instead as they do testing to identify the best performing AHCI/RAID driver of a given major branch.
     
    Last edited: Aug 18, 2020
  18. Smough

    Smough Master Guru

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  19. KissSh0t

    KissSh0t Ancient Guru

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    I see what you mean now, that is impossible to find an official driver for...... that sucks.
     
  20. Smough

    Smough Master Guru

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    Yeah, its pretty bad, but at least the ones CrazY_Milojko recommended seem to be quite good.
     
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