PlanetSmasher Posted April 13, 2018 Posted April 13, 2018 I want to get this... I want to install Win7 on it. I realize, I'm going to have to have drivers and stuff ready for Windows during the installation.... However, I'm starting to wonder if it's even possible. Does anyone have any information on how I would make this work? Here's what I want to use the drive on: OS: Win7 Pro / Linux (usually Kubuntu, but I might try mint this time) Mobo: Asus X99-E WS RAM: Corsair Dominator Platinum DDR4 64GB (four sticks) Graphics: EVGA GeForce GTX 1080 Ti (one - not in SLI. No plans for SLI for this system) Storage: Four WD Raptor (10,000 rpm) SATA drives in RAID 5, in external enclosure via eSATA port. (This is a temporary arrangement until I got the above AIC SSD drive). Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ir_cow Posted April 13, 2018 Posted April 13, 2018 I'm pretty sure the 1.6 and 2TB version actually show up as 2 drives in windows because its raided in the software and not on the board. This might be hard to use a boot drive. Since its a PCIE NVMe drive, you need to make sure the BIOS supports it and you have the appropriate drivers for windows. Honestly you are better off just using a normal SSD as a boot drive. Dump those Raptor drives since they aren't any faster than a (2017-2018) large mechanical drive or much larger than a SSD. A single 1TB SSD for $250 will be larger and faster. A cheaper solution than that pricey enterprise drive is to get a 1.2TB Intel 750 on ebay. I keep seeing them for $450. That will show up as one drive, but you still need drivers and BIOS support. Third option is get ASUS HYPER M.2 x16 PCIe Expansion Card . Slap 4 M.2 NVME drives in that and you have an insane drive for cheaper than that Intel DC. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
PlanetSmasher Posted April 13, 2018 Posted April 13, 2018 The mother board has an M.2 slot (or maybe two of them?), so, the mobo supports these drives. Where did you read that it shows up as two drives? I want to read about that. Can you give a link to the article? Its hard to get info on these drives. I know it's way fast, which is why I wanted to get it, but I didn't see any of that other info on anything I read about it. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ir_cow Posted April 13, 2018 Posted April 13, 2018 I don't remember where I read about it. I first came across it when someone on ebay listed with a screen shot of it showing up as 2 drives. Than I did some digging and found out its a enterprise data drive and never intended to be a boot drive. Maybe Intel fixed it in a firmware update because it has a been a few years since I looked into buying one. DC 3600 - 2014 Controller: Unknown (Pre Intel) NAND: Intel 20nm Sequential Read (up to) 2600 MB/sSequential Write (up to) 1700 MB/sRandom Read (100% Span) 450000 IOPSRandom Write (100% Span) 56000 IOPS 750 AIC - Late 2015 Controller: Intel CH29AE41AB0NAND: Intel 20nm 128Gbit MLC Sequential Read (up to) 2100 MB/sSequential Write (up to) 800 MB/sRandom Read (8GB Span) (up to) 420000 IOPSRandom Write (8GB Span) (up to) 210000 IOPS DC 3608 - Late 2015 Controller: IntelNAND: Intel 20nm Sequential Read (up to) 4500 MB/sSequential Write (up to) 2600 MB/sRandom Read (100% Span) 850000 IOPSRandom Write (100% Span) 80000 IOPS DC 3700 - 2016 Controller: IntelNAND: Intel 20nm 128Gbit MLC Sequential Read (up to) 2800 MB/sSequential Write (up to) 1900 MB/sRandom Read (100% Span) 460000 IOPSRandom Write (100% Span) 90000 IOPS It seems like the DC 3600 was a test run. It doesn't use a Intel controller which makes the drive much slower for writes I/O and garbage collection. Edit: The enterprise drives are all over the price. From what I can tell each series is good for different things, like one has high I/O writes and another higher I/O reads. Only thing for sure is the 3500 is pre NVMe and 3600 was a beta tester of it. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
PlanetSmasher Posted April 17, 2018 Posted April 17, 2018 (edited) So, I did a whole lot more research, and it seems that Intel won't make it easy to use. It's all command prompt, and the drivers barely support Win7.... I didn't find anything that said that Windows sees it as multiple drives, nor that it used software RAID, but I did see that the download tools (the software) is what you would use when inspecting and configuring a RAID of these drives. Does that mean it is a software to manage a hardware RAID or a software to manage configure a software RAID? I don't know. I was looking at Intel's website and reading the details of the downloads (software drive management tools, drivers, firmware updates). To get Win7 support, you have to go back to older versions of the drivers, and even then, you don't get complete support for Win7. DC P3600 is discontinued, as far as Intel is concerned, even though you still find them for sale, everywhere. I started looking at the 4TB DC P4500. It also has limited Win7 support. The "enthusiast" line of product absolutely only supports Win10, so it's a no go.... In then end, I guess I will not get the Intel Fultondale 3 DC P3600 AIC 2TB PCI-Express 3.0..., nor the DC P4500 model, either. I guess I'll start looking at M.2 drives. I just hope they've gone up in capacity. Believe it or not, 500GB is not enough space for me. LOL That's how big they seem to make them. EDIT: LOOK WHAT I FOUND!! https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA12K6CC1961 2TB! Now all I have to find out is if it's compatible with Win7 and my mobo.... EDIT 2: So, my mobo is compatible, and so is Windows 7!! https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/articles/000005967/memory-and-storage/enthusiast-ssds.html Edited April 18, 2018 by PlanetSmasher Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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