I hope you do get answer on this, since doing RAID is pretty common out there.

No, drives still testing slower than I think they should be, could be age and usage. I did notice some interesting things though during testing. I found that regardless of sata cable or sata slot, the ssd's would sometimes show they were connected at sata 2 speeds, after a reboot, they would show connection at sata 3 speeds. After another reboot it would be back to sata 2. This was read from the intel RST tool as well as HWInfo. I have some new SSD's on the way, which will verify if the drives are the issue or not.

New drives show the same results as the old ones. The issue appears to be with the way the stinger handles the drives. Real world usage its not noticeable, but  when looking at bench marking numbers it is.

If you have access to other SATA cables, you may want to try those too and verify that it is not cable related.

Maybe EVGA can do an in-house test with RAID 0 on the Stinger board, preferably with Samsung drives, to confirm there is no issue (board or BIOS).

What does magician say about the status of the evo?  Are you using the latest firmware for both the drive and the board?  Have you used the Samsung restore utility on the drive?

Once you set the bios you shouldn't be forced back into it at each start.  Are you using the latest intel rapid storage driver?

I am having a similar, if not the same issue in my new build. No RAID in my case, but a Samsung 840 Pro and Z97 Stinger WIFI. Firmware is all up to date, latest BIOS, etc.
 
I neglected to install the Intel SATA AHCI driver initially, as the default one Windows 8.1 installed seemed to be working fine, until I happened across a long list of warnings in the event log. (Event 153, IO operation at logical block blah blah. It had no noticeable effect on system stability, but I'm not one to ignore warnings that could turn into problems later on.)
 
So I installed the proper driver, banishing the IO warning, and what was reported as, and benchmarked as SATA III is now SATA II. Uninstall driver, SATA III. Install driver, SATA II. Boot into a linux live usb, and look at that, it really is SATA III even as Windows reports and performs as SATA II. Drive seems fine, cable seems fine, port seems fine. Back into Windows 8.1 with the Intel driver? SATA II. (Note: Port 1 and 2, my data drives, were completely unaffected and happily operating in SATA III the whole time, and at this point I'm afraid to touch them.)
 
At each step I was checking what interface Windows reported the port operating at, and benchmarked it to see if it was lying (using a couple different tools just in case). The drive is healthy, in AHCI mode, and has been tested as 100% fine in other systems (with no Event 153 warnings in sight.) I've tried other SATA cables, pulled from known working systems, to no avail. I wish I had more drives I could wipe and test as system drives, to see if it's any drive that's acting the system drive, if it's only when it's on port 0, or if the board + driver combination really hate Samsung SSDs in particular.
 
If it weren't for that IO operation warning, I'd just stick with the default Windows driver and enjoy that SATA III 6Gb/s goodness. (I'm lying, I can't tell the difference in day-to-day operation, but while I could live with it, I don't see why I should. )
 
So yeah, my guess it's a driver/firmware issue.
 
(I'm tired and frustrated from all the testing and switching components back and forth between systems, so I apologize if this doesn't make any sense.)

Vipadex
Would you mind walking me through the process on what you did to revert back to the original windows drivers? (installation, downloads, etc.) I assume that is what you did, however your problem does seem a bit more complicated in comparison mine. To this regard, my problems outlined are; I cannot boot unless overridden in BIOS to windows boot manager (Not a boot option for some reason?). Windows auto repair and a bunch of other buttons are missing from advanced start-up. Only SSD (Samsung 840 EVO 1TB) is running at SATA 2 speeds (Samsung magician says 6GB/s but Intel RST begs to differ + the speeds are bottle-necked. *Verified as a non-cable issue.* I haven't tested this drive in my friends rig yet but I will soon... I anticipate that his will work perfectly and this is simply some software related problem but windows is not very good with that sort of thing.

I rolled back the driver in Device Manager. Device Manager -> expand IDE/AHCI ATAPI controllers-> selected the SATA AHCI controller -> Right click, select properties -> Driver -> Roll back driver.
 
Your boot problem sounds a LOT more serious to me. When you say Windows Boot Manager isn't an option, do you mean under Set Boot Priority, or in UEFI Boot Drive BBS Priorities, or both?

kcantrell

Vipadex
Would you mind walking me through the process on what you did to revert back to the original windows drivers? (installation, downloads, etc.) I assume that is what you did, however your problem does seem a bit more complicated in comparison mine. To this regard, my problems outlined are; I cannot boot unless overridden in BIOS to windows boot manager (Not a boot option for some reason?). Windows auto repair and a bunch of other buttons are missing from advanced start-up. Only SSD (Samsung 840 EVO 1TB) is running at SATA 2 speeds (Samsung magician says 6GB/s but Intel RST begs to differ + the speeds are bottle-necked. *Verified as a non-cable issue.* I haven't tested this drive in my friends rig yet but I will soon... I anticipate that his will work perfectly and this is simply some software related problem but windows is not very good with that sort of thing.

I rolled back the driver in Device Manager. Device Manager -> expand IDE/AHCI ATAPI controllers-> selected the SATA AHCI controller -> Right click, select properties -> Driver -> Roll back driver.
 
Your boot problem sounds a LOT more serious to me. When you say Windows Boot Manager isn't an option, do you mean under Set Boot Priority, or in UEFI Boot Drive BBS Priorities, or both?

New update: the driver rollback worked thx ;) But now Intel RST isn't working... not to much of a problem but I'm gonna fiddle with it a little... haven't tried rebooting and the boot option for "WBMP0:S8E1TB" still isn't there.

Vipadex
New update: the driver rollback worked thx ;) But now Intel RST isn't working... not to much of a problem but I'm gonna fiddle with it a little... haven't tried rebooting and the boot option for "WBMP0:S8E1TB" still isn't there.

Yeah, Intel RST installs the driver, so it kinda needs it. ;) I'd give refreshing Windows a try, and a total wipe and reinstall if it doesn't help. I know it's a pain, but something is not right there.
 
For my little problem... I am beyond frustrated. I have tested installing Windows with the drive connected to every port on the board. I have tried preloading the intel driver while installing Windows, in case there was some issue with later updates/drivers. It's the same every time. Intel SATA AHCI driver = C:\ operating as SATA II. Meanwhile, the data drives happily operate at SATA III, no matter what port. I'm out of ideas.
 

Is this a related issue for Wifi only or both wifi and non ?

Hello! Can confirm this issue with Z87 Stinger + 750 EVO.
Lots of hours trying to debug WTH is going on... Its crazy!

• Z87 Stinger + 750 EVO = Sata2 Speeds.
• Z87 Stinger + CS1311 = Sata3 Speeds.
• Z87 Stinger + 840 EVO = Sata2 Speeds.
• Z87 Stinger + 500GB HDD Seagate = Sata3 Speeds.
• Z87 Stinger + 500GB HDD Samsung = Sata3 Speeds.
• ROG Gen IV + 750 EVO = Sata3 Speeds.
• ROG Gen IV + CS1311 = Sata3 Speeds.

zografos_k
Hello everyone,
I've just bought a Stinger Z97 Core3D and i'm facing the same problem.
 
I have a 840evo and a 2.5'' 500gb which both were tested with 6 different cables in order to exclude the possibility of being the cables the cause of the problem.
Also I have changed the position of the drives on the mobo several times.
 
RST installed ---> SATA 3Gb/s at both disks - Windows boot fast (not very high though) but other software programs have a significant delay when are about to start.
RST uninstalled ---> SATA 6Gb/s at SSD, 3Gb/s at HDD - Windows boot at ultra slow speed (the keyboard remains unresponsive many times at login screen) but other software programs are loading fast.
 
What can i do? Does anyone has solved the problem?

Im 100% sure that this is Intel's driver fault. Believe me, I spend 14 days (5 hours each day) trying to fix this problem. Unfortunately both Intel and EVGA dont really care about this issue. It is in their best interest to sell new stuff  .
Thread created at Intel Forum >> https://communities.intel.com/thread/108210

zografos_k
Thank you pgdm for the quick response.
I've just read the topic you made in Intel's forum and i have to say that i agree with you that the problem is being brought about by RST driver.
But i have to put some responsibility on EVGA too. I tested the same 840 evo on Impact VIII and there was no problem at all. Same windows 10 iso, same RST driver, same cables. All went excellent.
I assume EVGA has to publish a patch/fix, i don't know what, to solve this issue because it's happening to their mobo. I didn't face any kind of problem on a Shuttle SZ87R6 that i had before, on the Impact VIII (friend's of mine) and on Asrock Extreme3 990FX. (same driver, same SSD)

Unfortunately we depend on the good will of both Intel and EVGA. And I dont think we will get any of that...
It is sad, but how we gonna put them under some kind of pressure? We are in the "old hardware" session of the forum.

Again, it is better for them to just ignore us...