Latitude E6400 Owner's Lounge, Part 2

What exactly do the matrix drivers do? When I installed win7 I only installed things I absolutely had to have to minimize latency problems and the matrix drivers weren't on the list of things that were must have.

 

Correct me if I am wrong, but you only need the matrix drivers if you run your machine in SATA mode opposed to AHCI or IRRT.

Speaking of which, IRRT just "sounds" faster. Is that the case of those three modes? I am running a 160gb Intel G2 SSD.

 

IRRT is to setup a RAID.. I saw an increase in performance by going AHCI.
AHCI is SATA but allows you to be hot-swappable... meaning you see that eSATA port on the side of the laptop? If it was at SATA mode, you would need to shut down the computer before connecting or disconnecting a drive to that port. IRRT has that feature as well.

No mater which mode you pick Intel Matrix Drivers are needed.

 

I didn't have to install any drivers with Windows 7 x64. In fact when I download and try and install those drivers, it says there is nothing to install/update.

I'm going to run some tests with IRRT vs. AHCI.

 

Strike that, I was looking at the HECI and SOL/LMS drivers and not the Matrix drivers under Storage Controllers. I updated the stock Windows 7x64 drivers with the latest ones from Dell's site. Here are the results.

IRRT mode and drive is an Intel 160gb G2 SSD.

Drivers loaded with 7x64


Latest from Dell's site


Results are mixed. Write speeds seem to be better across the board. Seeing as I don't move around a ton of big files, I think it is an improvement. Crazy what a driver can do.

Just waiting on TRIM to see what happens then!

 

Really? It's been running just fine in AHCI mode with two drives (SSD boot drive and another in the caddy) without ever installing the matrix drivers.

http://www.intel.com/support/chipsets/imsm/sb/CS-020784.htm

All I see are claimed improvements, nothing reporting that installation is required.

 

You don't need to install the IMSM drivers as Windows will install it's own when you've set your laptop to AHCI when installing windows. There will just be a "standard AHCI controller" under storage controllers

 

no one ever said that it was required. nothing is required. you could decide not to turn on your machine. what people were trying to tell you is that it is an improvement.

 

Except goodbytes who said "No mater which mode you pick Intel Matrix Drivers are needed."

Please try getting the facts of the discussion right before throwing in your sarcasm and condescending " what people were trying to tell you" like I was some sort of imbecile.

 

I found an interesting thing in HWmonitor's website. You can send e-mails to the author of the program with an HWmonitor log file to add support to your laptop (warning: he specifically says he does not guarantee he will add any particular model).

I sent him a log of my E6400 and he says he will soon send me a beta version to test! This should allow us to see fan speeds etc on HWmonitor

I asked him if he would agree that I share that version here at NBR. If he allows that, I'll post a link here as soon as I get it.