ASUS RAMPAGE III EXTREME BIOS - V1601 - Updated OROM MOD

[Stahab]

Hi Stahab,

thanks for support. You describe my Situation correclty.

Any Change in Drive Xpert, Nprmal, Backup or Super Speed Mode Change Nothing in de Drive Xpert view. Only Sata 0 is in the list.

With 1502 i see both drives.

Thanks a lot for supporting.

Hi rattyto,

Check if both drives are shown in Marvel BIOS screen (black screen-white letters showing during POST and before main BIOS).
If both drives are shown, then go into main BIOS, then go to Drive Xpert menu and select Super Speed mode, save changes and reboot.
During second POST and when at Marvel BIOS screen, press ctrl + M keys together to go into Marvel RAID configuration and you should be able to create a RAID array.

Unfortunately I can't test this now because I need two empty drives to do it (to not lose the data from my drives when configuring test RAID). If you decided to use the slow Marvel controller for your RAID 0, I can test tonight and let you know.

[pir8man]

I should have some time this weekend to do some Marvell OROM testing. I have not had a need to use the Marvell controller since I originally retired this board from my main workstation. It is now a NAS server and only needs the Intel sata ports. So my testing was only to connect one drive and do basic I/O tests. I guess I need to build a raid to see what you are talking about.

Thank you Stahab for the clear description. Your picture is sort of helpful. I can see your circle, but the connectors appear identical in color to me. color blindness is wonderful :~

[rattyto]

I should have some time this weekend to do some Marvell OROM testing.  I have not had a need to use the Marvell controller since I originally retired this board from my main workstation.  It is now a NAS server and only needs the Intel sata ports.  So my testing was only to connect one drive and do basic I/O tests.   I guess I need to build a raid to see what you are talking about.

Thank you Stahab for the clear description.  Your picture is sort of helpful. I can see your circle, but the connectors appear identical in color to me.  color blindness is wonderful  :~

Thanks for support. Here are some pictures about that what i meen. My currect Drive Xpert mode is super Speed. I can create a Raid0 on Marvel and in BIOS i see only one drive.

You say the Intel Controller is better for my SSD Raid. Can i connect my Optical Drives to the Marvel controller? because i use all of my sata ports.

[Stahab]

I found some free time tonight, along with a couple of empty SSD drives and I played with Marvell RAID. Before doing that, I first disconnected all other drives to not corrupt the boot sector of my OS SSD.

There are two ways to create a RAID 0:

The easy way is to create it from within BIOS, by selecting "Update to Super Speed" under Drive Xpert Configuration menu. Save and Exit.
The created virtual drive has no name and its stripe size is 32K.

The other way is to do it manually. You should first enter Marvell BIOS by pressing ctrl + M right after POST screen. Select "HBA: Marvell 0" and press enter. The message "Configuration Wizard" appears. Press enter again. Then you should select both drives to include them into the RAID array (a * should show before each drive). After that you select the type of desired RAID (0 or 1), you can name the array and set its stripe size (32K or 64K).
When you're done, F10 to save changes and exit.

No matter which way one has decided to use, after reboot you should enter BIOS, go to BOOT tab and set the Marvell virtual drive to boot from.

It worked for me, even if only one drive was shown in the Drive Xpert configuration menu within BIOS.
I have attached some pictures of the procedure.

That said, I would never use Marvell for RAID 0, having such a slow write speed. But I would consider it OK for non-SSD RAID 1.


@ rattyto

How many SATA devices on your system? (SSDs / Disk Drives / optical drives)

You should better have all SSDs connected to the Intel controller (faster). As other members in this thread have mentioned before, Marvell is only good for non SSD disk drives. But keep in mind that you can use only one device on the Marvell controller.

Asus says (NOTE at bottom of page) that Marvell doesn't support ATAPI devices. For an optical drive you should use the JMicron controller instead (black single SATA connector on motherboard + external SATA connector on the back I/O).

[rattyto]

Hi Stahab,

thanks for your help. My OS is on Revodrive X3 over PCIe. I have 2x Samsung 840 SSD. 3x BlueRay Optical. 3x WD HDD. All my Sata Ports are pluged.

My Raid works with Marvel Configuration Wizard. My wonder is that DriveXpert shows only one SSD although both are present and Raid also works.

[Stahab]

Hi Stahab,

thanks for your help. My OS is on Revodrive X3 over PCIe. I have 2x Samsung 840 SSD. 3x BlueRay Optical. 3x WD HDD. All my Sata Ports are pluged.

My Raid works with Marvel Configuration Wizard. My wonder is that DriveXpert shows only one SSD although both are present and Raid also works.

I also wonder why this is happening.

[SoulRipper]

Hi,

I just got a R3E + W3690@4.4GHz + 48GB Kingston Blu 1600MHz DDR3.

Attached drives :
- 1x Samsung 950 Pro NVMe
- 1x Seagate 1TB
- 1x LiteOn ODD

So far, everything works brilliantly with BIOS S21i, thanks for that pir8man.

Just a question: POST takes a long time on this board (about 8-10 sec black screen before seeing anything, only with CPU + RAM). Is it the same for you?

[Stahab]

Hi,

I just got a R3E + W3690@4.4GHz + 48GB Kingston Blu 1600MHz DDR3.

Attached drives :
- 1x Samsung 950 Pro NVMe
- 1x Seagate 1TB
- 1x LiteOn ODD

So far, everything works brilliantly with BIOS S21i, thanks for that pir8man.

Just a question: POST takes a long time on this board (about 8-10 sec black screen before seeing anything, only with CPU + RAM). Is it the same for you?

When I increased my RAM from 6GB to 12GB, I also observed that POST time increased.

It may be due to longer memory checking. And you have a lot of memory! :-)

[SoulRipper]

Hi,

I just got a R3E + W3690@4.4GHz + 48GB Kingston Blu 1600MHz DDR3.

Attached drives :
- 1x Samsung 950 Pro NVMe
- 1x Seagate 1TB
- 1x LiteOn ODD

So far, everything works brilliantly with BIOS S21i, thanks for that pir8man.

Just a question: POST takes a long time on this board (about 8-10 sec black screen before seeing anything, only with CPU + RAM). Is it the same for you?

When I increased my RAM from 6GB to 12GB, I also observed that POST time increased.

It may be due to longer memory checking. And you have a lot of memory! :-)

Hi Stahab, you are right, thank your for your feedback

[rattyto]

Hi Stahab, hi pir8man,

i suspect that i have an OROM memory Problem. As described above i use an OCZ Revodrive X3 for my OS.

If i try to use the Intel Raid and set the BIOS to Raid, then my System and BIOS doesnt detect my OCZ drive.

If i switch to AHCI then my BIOS detect the OCZ drive and i cant use the Intel Raid.

Am i Right?