Intel RST RAID1 mode with Optane acceleration

[TDene]

I have an ASUS Prime Z370-A II motherboard containing Intel Z370 chipset and the latest BIOS version. It seems that Optane acceleration can be used only for non-RAID drives and vice versa RAID groups cannot be accelerated by Optane memory. Is it possible to set RAID1 mode for two 1.8TB hard disks along with Optane acceleration somehow? (It was possible on my old ASUS Z87-Plus motherboard with Intel Z87 chipset using SSD instead of Optane memory.)

[n_scott_pearson · Accepted solution]

Your old motherboard had support for Intel Smart Response Technology (SRT), which supported SATA-based SSDs to be used for SATA-based HDD acceleration (and including RAID arrays). You current motherboard does not have Intel SRT support; it was replaced by the Optane support.

Intel SRT, RST RAID and RST Optane support cannot be enabled (or used) simultaneously.

Sorry,

...S

[TDene]

Let me ask one more question. Why cannot RST RAID and RST Optane be enabled simultaneously? Is it a limitation of the hardware (chipset) or only the appropriate firmware/software is not developed yet? So should I wait for a new version of BIOS and RST software or should I buy a new motherboard when it will be available? I think it is quite logical to use the two technologies simultaneously, because they can combine data safety with high speed as it was possible by some old chipsets (e.g. Z87) in the past.

[n_scott_pearson]

I have no idea; the documents simply say that they are incompatible. My opinion is that they did this on purpose to avoid its performance being directly compared with Optane.

...S

[TDene]

Dear n.scott.pearson,

Thanks for your detailed answers.

Best regards,

Tamas