Extreme7 Gen3 Intel Option Rom 10.8.0.1303

[Undermoose]

The Extreme7 Gen3 has Intel Option Rom 10.8.0.1303, it's a good version for it's generation.

1. Is it always best to upgrade to the lastest Intel RST software version (currently 11.7, although only 11.2 seems to work) or stick with the matching version to the motherboard ROM?

2. Is there a way to upgrade this Intel ROM? I'm hearing there is better SSD support for RAID and TRIM in newer versions.

Thanks in advance for any replies.

[parsec]

Re: Extreme7 Gen3 Intel Option Rom 10.8.0.1303

In general, Intel states that the OROM does not need to match the version of IRST. Users routinely update IRST with no updates to the OROM. Whether or not it is always better to update the version of IRST is a much to general question, without defining what "better" is, and without considering all the details of the system, what OS it uses, changes to IRST for a new OS (like Windows 8), etc.

The OROM code is a part of the BIOS/UEFI code, and is only able to be updated through a BIOS/UEFI update. I have never seen a non-BIOS update program for the OROM. Mother board manufactures rarely include OROM updates in their BIOS/UEFI updates, some occasionally do, others never include a new OROM.

A few technically savvy users have learned how to literally modify a BIOS file and insert a different version of the OROM code. The new OROM code is extracted from a BIOS file, and inserted into the BIOS file of target mother board to be given the new OROM.

Given the capability of some Intel platforms to support TRIM on RAID 0 arrays of SSDs (Intel 7 series chipset that support RAID, except for X79) when using a version 11 OROM and version 11 IRST driver (there is some debate that the OROM must be version 11.2 or greater, as well as the version of IRST), users of earlier chipset platforms (ie, Intel 6 series) have become more interested in a modded BIOS with these OROMs. Other "small" modifications to the BIOS and OROM were found to be necessary in order for TRIM in RAID 0 to work on the earlier platforms. There is also the factor of determining that RAID 0 TRIM does function on platforms with the modded BIOS and OROM, with apparently both success and failure.

Searching on "modded BIOS" or "modded OROM" will give you an idea what exists, and you may even find a modded BIOS and OROM for your board. Use at your own risk, of course.

[Undermoose]

Re: Extreme7 Gen3 Intel Option Rom 10.8.0.1303

Best practice in general to upgrade or not is more the question than any specific version vs another. In my case I don't seem to be able to upgrade past 11.2, when I install 11.6 or 11.7 the service won't start and there's Intel threads on the topic without conclusion.

I emailed Emily asking if there's an OROM upgrade for my board, no response as of yet. I think it's one of the reasons to buy Intel vs 3rd party, I think 3rd party licenses specific versions for their product and doesn't update unless Intel discovers a flaw that permits a freebee. I'm not sure of this, but I suspect it. Of course the reason to buy 3rd party is the nice feature sets they offer like ASRock does :)

I always thought 10.8 was up to date enough for all modern SSD operations, but I'm learning this may not be the case. For my board I do SSD caching of my UEFI boot raid10 (4 x 2tb enterprise disks), not sure if I care or not, but not being able to keep my IRST current is a bit annoying for a high end motherboard.

Very thoughtful reply parsec, thank you.

[parsec]

Re: Extreme7 Gen3 Intel Option Rom 10.8.0.1303

Now I see what you mean about 11.7 (and 11.6) not working. That's a known bug (to some of us) with IRST 11.6 and 11.7. When your boards Marvell or ASMedia add on SATA chipset is enabled, the IRST Windows GUI won't run, correct? Only the GUI is affected.

The workaround for this is to disable the Marvell or ASMedia in the BIOS. Of course, if you use those ports it's not really a great workaround. BTW, this problem does not happen when using Windows 8, with which the 11.6 and 11.7 drivers are compatible.

When an OROM update is done, it is always listed in the release notes (er, comments) for the BIOS, as in "Update OROM...". It seems you know how to check your version...?

I prefer IRST 10.8.0.1003 on my P67 board, but for purely performance reasons. That is, it gives better benchmark results, which I am finding in many cases have little relationship to real world results.

Are you doing a true UEFI boot? My ASR Z77 board has a different IRST OROM (11.6) for the UEFI boot, but I have no idea what your board's UEFI uses.

[Undermoose]

Re: Extreme7 Gen3 Intel Option Rom 10.8.0.1303

Yes, that's the bug with 11.6 and 11.7. I use the ASMedia ports for a utility disk and DVD drive.

I have 11.2 installed and happy with it for now. I was thinking about Windows 8 but don't have a practical reason to upgrade to it...

When the PC boots I see the Intel Raid version on the system post screen: 10.8.0.1303.

I prefer to keep up to date with system software as it generally fixes issues, and thus avoid the joy of experiencing those issues.

I use UEFI boot, my raid10 is a 4 x 2TB volume with a C & D partition, SSD caching the entire raid10 volume with an OCZ Vertex4 64gb SSD.

[parsec]

Re: Extreme7 Gen3 Intel Option Rom 10.8.0.1303

Your RAID setup, with caching sounds great, the Vertex 4 is a good SSD. I'm glad to see you can UEFI boot on your board, ASRock did not blow that off. Not many people UEFI boot AFAIK.

As you have seen with IRST 11.6 and 11.7, not all new versions of software are always better. Such as IRST 11.5, which has a memory leak and was pulled by Intel for use for RAID, and was only available as an AHCI driver, if it still is.

I learned recently that a UEFI type BIOS can have different versions of the RAID OROM, one for BIOS booting, the other for UEFI booting. My Z77 EX 4 board has the 11.2...(?) OROM for BIOS booting, and recently added OROM 11.6.1702 for UEFI booting. That was apparently for UEFI booting with Windows 8. UEFI booting with Windows 8 includes the Ultra Fast boot option, which skips all OROM displays, uses all UEFI code for POST, and is the fastest POST and booting I've ever seen. They even added the Intel OROM UI as an option in the UEFI itself, which I have never seen before.

Unfortunately, as soon as a new generation of chipsets and CPUs are released, support for the previous gen dwindles away to almost nothing. I would not expect any new UEFI updates with new OROMs, unless you get lucky.

For Windows 8, I really think you'd need a version 11.6 OROM, for UEFI booting anyway. So you present system might now work with Windows 8, since only IRST 11.6 or greater is spec'd for Windows 8.

[Undermoose]

Re: Extreme7 Gen3 Intel Option Rom 10.8.0.1303

They just posted BIOS 2.33A for the Extreme7 Gen3 motherboard, and for me it's the best BIOS since Ivy Bridge CPU's were released. Totally stable.

The 2.33A BIOS is for Windows 8 support, adds the Ultra Fast boot support, but no clue what would happen if I tried to upgrade my UEFI boot SSD cache array to Windows 8. I suspect it would just "work".

I wanted redundancy and performance in my spindle boot disk hence raid10, and to be able to cache the entire array with an SSD. I could have made two volumes, one under 2TB so I could boot MBR and the rest a GPT, but SSD caching only works on one volume. By doing a UEFI boot on a single 3.6TB volume (raid10, 4 x 2TB drives) with two partitions (C & D drives) I get caching on the entire array. You need GPT to get a volume over 2TB and you need UEFI to boot GPT :).

I'm well aware of the out with the old and in with the new tech race, I'd upgrade to a Z77 but I haven't found one that holds a candle to the Extreme7 Gen3 when using 3 AMD cards in Trifire. The Extreme7 Gen3 has the NF200 chip which specifically helps with PCI lanes on a tri-video card setup, though questionable for dual card rigs due to added latency of the NF200 chip. I haven't figured out if the new tech of the Z77 makes this issue entirely mute or not, but I suspect not. When the official AMD 7990 is released I plan to upgrade to it and will consider a Z77 then since it'll be a single video card rig.

It's interesting to hear that they may have snuck in the updated OROM to the UEFI boot for Windows 8, how would I check?

[zslawek]

Re: Extreme7 Gen3 Intel Option Rom 10.8.0.1303

Hi
I have a similar mb and also a new beta BIOS 2.223 fir WIN8. J have extracted Raid ROM and found that Option ROM for dev 8086-2822 is 10.8.x.xxx; for dev 8086-282a is 11.0.0.xxx and the RAID OROM for UEFI booting is 11.5.0.xxx

[Undermoose]

Re: Extreme7 Gen3 Intel Option Rom 10.8.0.1303

Hi zslawek,

I'm not sure what dev 8086-2822 vs dev 8086-282a vs UEFI references, three different OROM's in the same BIOS?

If you wouldn't mind downloading the bios from ASRock for the Extreme7 Gen3 mobo and taking a look at what you find?

http://www.asrock.com/mb/overview.us.asp?cat=Download&os=Beta&Model=Z68 Extreme7 Gen3

It's version 2.33A

Thanks in advance if you can ;)

[parsec]

Re: Extreme7 Gen3 Intel Option Rom 10.8.0.1303

Undermoose, to check the OROM version you have start up the Windows IRST GUI, and click on the Help button. A new window will appear with all the help documentation, which is quite useful. In that you'll see a button title System Report. Click on that and you'll see something like this:



The "dev 8086-2822 vs dev 8086-282a" are multiple OROM versions, that are apparently left in the UEFI by "sloppy" programmers. That is at least what one of the guys that know how to extract and replace OROMs into a UEFI/BIOS, called them. Given what I have read, he is likely correct. IIRC, the 2822 and 282a entries identify different chipsets, such as P67 and Z77 (just an example, not the actual IDs.) That actually was one the "hacks" that had to be done when getting TRIM in RAID 0 to work on Intel 6 series chipsets, since apparently the only thing blocking TRIM in RAID 0 on chipsets like the P67 is the code itself checking for an allowed chipset. It is likely more complex than that, so don't take my statements as the full reality.

I'll try to find the links I have to the tools and instructions for viewing a UEFI/BIOS file, I think you would be able to use them.

[Undermoose]

Re: Extreme7 Gen3 Intel Option Rom 10.8.0.1303

[parsec]

Re: Extreme7 Gen3 Intel Option Rom 10.8.0.1303

There ya go, nice. That's your OS volume, correct? At the introduction of chipsets like the P67, IRST 10.... was the latest and greatest. I don't know if any mobo manufacture has changed the OROM on 6 series chipset boards to an 11 version, but it can be done with a modded BIOS.

There is a recent thread in this forum about a guy trying to create a RAID 0 volume of two, 2TB HDDs, and use it as his OS/boot drive. He knows he must be formatted in GPT, and UEFI boot, and uses Windows 7. He has an AMD system. He can't get the RAID volume to be GPT formatted during the Windows installation, which I think is due to not having the UEFI booting enabled, and his installation medium is not quite right. Did you do anything special to your Windows 7 installation media, like described in SevenForum, if you are familiar with that? How do you enable UEFI booting on your board? Via CSM, or Secure Boot settings?

[zslawek]

Re: Extreme7 Gen3 Intel Option Rom 10.8.0.1303

8086 means vendor intel - 2822 defining chipset generation
282a that's a mobile intel generation device
UEFI OROM wich is used when starting Win8 in UEFI mode
for more you can go to that site AHCI/RAID ROM modules for BIOS modding - already extracted - BIOS/BIOS-Modding - Win-Lite Forum
and the software for modifying BIOS you can find here http://www.win-lite.de/wbb/board208-...ix-award-bios/

[Undermoose]

Re: Extreme7 Gen3 Intel Option Rom 10.8.0.1303

There ya go, nice. That's your OS volume, correct? At the introduction of chipsets like the P67, IRST 10.... was the latest and greatest. I don't know if any mobo manufacture has changed the OROM on 6 series chipset boards to an 11 version, but it can be done with a modded BIOS.

There is a recent thread in this forum about a guy trying to create a RAID 0 volume of two, 2TB HDDs, and use it as his OS/boot drive. He knows he must be formatted in GPT, and UEFI boot, and uses Windows 7. He has an AMD system. He can't get the RAID volume to be GPT formatted during the Windows installation, which I think is due to not having the UEFI booting enabled, and his installation medium is not quite right. Did you do anything special to your Windows 7 installation media, like described in SevenForum, if you are familiar with that? How do you enable UEFI booting on your board? Via CSM, or Secure Boot settings?

It's my C & D drive, and the BIOS has to be set for UEFI to install to it, after all it's going to run that way. It's been well over a year since I created this. Recalling, I am sure I created the 100mb EFI partition first, but the trick is to create an EFI boot installation USB stick. You need to boot the Windows7 installation via UEFI for it to recognize that it's installing UEFI and be able to target a GPT disk for installation. Looks like the same holds true for Windows8, I just found this: Creating a UEFI boot USB stick: UEFI Bootable USB Flash Drive - Create in Windows. I haven't read this proc in full, but basically you also need to create this UEFI boot USB stick and copy the installation media files to the USB stick and walla, UEFI enabled installation via USB.

End result: Capacity and Performance, and for a chipset that supports SSD caching, it's a cache over the entire raid10 array since it's one single GPT volume. :) This has repeatedly saved me the urge to spend over $1000 for a dual large SSD mirror lol. I'm very happy with boot times no nearing SSD speeds, and happy with the overall performance of my storage. Sure if you haven't used a program in a while it has to get into the cache, OK I can live with that. Next project, upgrade the 2tb to 4tb drives :)

FYI, great free for home use tool for resizing partitions: MiniTool Partition Wizard Home Edition 7.7 My C drive was 1tb until recently when I needed to expand my D's library space. The array is constructed of 3gb/sec SATA Seagate Enterprise class disks, I don't use anything but enterprise class for arrays frankly after system lock ups while tinkering were generating reallocated sectors on lesser disks, but not these. Disk1 and Disk2 are also enterprise class 6gb/sec utility disks (one on the Intel controller and one on the ASMedia controller). I don't worry about redundancy on these and mount as folders off my D drive.



zslawek I'm a bit nervous about modding my BIOS myself as I don't want down time from a screw up, and ultimately I'd only be buying a touch of SSD performance, perhaps, on an SSD cache system. If I had a large boot SSD I'd be eyeballing it with more intent. Doesn't mean I won't when I get bored enough though LOL :) Thank you for the information.

[zslawek]

Re: Extreme7 Gen3 Intel Option Rom 10.8.0.1303

Hi zslawek,
If you wouldn't mind downloading the bios from ASRock for the Extreme7 Gen3 mobo and taking a look at what you find?

http://www.asrock.com/mb/overview.us.asp?cat=Download&os=Beta&Model=Z68 Extreme7 Gen3

It's version 2.33A
Thanks in advance if you can ;)


zslawek I'm a bit nervous about modding my BIOS myself as I don't want down time from a screw up

I have checked you have the same Raid rom and sata as I have.
Option ROM for dev 8086-2822 is 10.8.x.xxx; for dev 8086-282a is 11.0.0.xxx and the RAID OROM for UEFI booting is 11.5.0.xxx
I also didn't successfully inserted any RAID ROM into my BIOS because of what parsec wrote

The "dev 8086-2822 vs dev 8086-282a" are multiple OROM versions, that are apparently left in the UEFI by "sloppy" programmers. That is at least what one of the guys that know how to extract and replace OROMs into a UEFI/BIOS, called them. Given what I have read, he is likely correct.