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    Intel HDD drivers

    Discussion in 'Alienware M11x' started by camp, Mar 13, 2011.

  1. camp

    camp Notebook Enthusiast

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    Hi all,

    I just did a fresh install of Windows 7 on my M11X R1 and I was wondering if I should download the drivers for Intel Matrix Storage Manager.

    Here is the description page for it: Intel Matrix Storage Manager

    I read through it and I'm not familiar with RAID so I would like to get an opinion from one of you guys who know what you are talking about =P Should I install?

    Also on the Dell drivers page for M11X, there is a driver for "Intel Rapid Storage Technology". Not sure what that is either as no real description is provided. Dell lists it as optional.

    Thanks for any insight!

    Camp
     
    camp, Mar 13, 2011
    #1
  2. cappielloa

    cappielloa Notebook Consultant

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    RAID is a technology for storage that utilizes more than one physical hard drive, so it is not relevant to your m11x.

    I believe that the general consensus has been that Rapid Storage is a minimal improvement, if any, and you can safely ignore it.
     
    cappielloa, Mar 13, 2011
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  3. tommyxv

    tommyxv Notebook Evangelist

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    You have an SSD or spinner?
     
    tommyxv, Mar 13, 2011
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  4. camp

    camp Notebook Enthusiast

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    It's a spinner.
     
    camp, Mar 13, 2011
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  5. djjosherie

    djjosherie Notebook Consultant

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    This is a very good question. I'm a all-in kind of guy, so I have all drivers and alienware apps installed... system still runs freaking sweet. But was kind of curious what a Matrix RAID driver is doing on a non-raid system...
     
    djjosherie, Mar 13, 2011
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  6. camp

    camp Notebook Enthusiast

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    I think I remember the Intel Matrix Storage Manager being installed on my previous drive. That was the one that came with the system from factory so the drivers were pre-installed.

    I ran that system for a year and never saw any applications of the driver or it's associated program (besides being listed in the control panel). Could have been running something in the background though, I think it ran on startup and I never turned it off because I wasn't sure what it was.
     
    camp, Mar 13, 2011
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  7. djjosherie

    djjosherie Notebook Consultant

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    After further research, The driver provides AHCI support for our hard drive to Windows providing full speed for the drives. For maximum performance, use the driver.
     
    djjosherie, Mar 13, 2011
    #7
  8. jeremyshaw

    jeremyshaw Big time Idiot

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    The Intel Rapid Storage Technology driver has gone through some 10+ renames in the past few years, and yes, Matrix thingy was one of the names.
     
    jeremyshaw, Mar 13, 2011
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  9. cappielloa

    cappielloa Notebook Consultant

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    cappielloa, Mar 13, 2011
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  10. camp

    camp Notebook Enthusiast

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    Thanks for the info. After reading this thread, I think I'll leave it uninstalled for now. Seems like it may provide a very marginal difference (if any) in performance at the cost of resources.
     
    camp, Mar 14, 2011
    #10