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Intel® Rapid Storage Technology

Intel® Rapid Storage Technology

The amount of information we create, record, edit, share, and save—from the movies we watch to the pictures we take and the documents we store—has increased exponentially over the years. All of this high-quality digital content demands a responsive, safe, reliable storage solution.

Most of us don’t plan backup storage well in advance. And hard drive failure can be devastating, because it results in irretrievable content. Intel® Rapid Storage Technology1 offers features that improve data reliability, including:

  • Intel® Smart Response Technology
  • Serial ATA RAID 0, 1, 5, and 10 support
  • Intel® Rapid Recover Technology (Intel® RRT)
  • Power Up in Standby (PUIS) support
  • Serial ATA Advanced Host Controller Interface (AHCI)

Maximize your PC for performance, responsiveness, and reliability

Intel® Rapid Storage Technology offers greater levels of performance, responsiveness, and expandability than ever before. Whether you’re using one or multiple SATA drives, you can take advantage of enhanced performance and lower power consumption. Additionally, you can rest easy knowing you have added protection against data loss in the event of a hard drive failure.

Get more information on installation and configuration, compatibility, resources, and utilities for Intel® Rapid Storage Technology >

Download the latest version of Intel® Rapid Storage Technology >

Fast performance. Large storage.1

Intel® Smart Response Technology2 is a feature of Intel Rapid Storage Technology that enables a lower-cost, small-capacity SSD to be used in conjunction with a high-capacity hard disk drive. The combination results in a high-performance, cost-effective storage solution. You still have access to the storage capacity you need to store your movies, games, and other disk-intensive retrieval applications, but now you don’t have to sacrifice speed.

  • Faster boot times
  • 2x faster game launches3,4
  • 2x faster storage I/O performance3,5
  • Quick access to your favorite files

Learn more about Intel® Smart Response Technology >

Performance with protection: RAID Technology

Intel Rapid Storage Technology improves the performance of disk-intensive retrieval applications such as editing home video. By combining from two to six drives in a configuration known as RAID 0, data can be accessed on each drive simultaneously, speeding up response time. Intel Rapid Storage Technology RAID support includes the following levels of performance and reliability:

  • RAID level 0 (Striping)
  • RAID level 1 (Mirroring)
  • RAID level 5 (Striping with parity)
  • RAID level 10 (Striping and mirroring)

Multiple drives in a PC can also provide added protection from disastrous hard drive failures by mirroring all data among two or more drives. This configuration is known as RAID1.

Rapid data recovery

Intel® Rapid Recover Technology (Intel® RRT) provides a recovery point that can be used to quickly recover a system in the event of hard drive failure or data corruption. The clone can also be mounted as a read-only volume to allow a user to recover individual files.

Lower power consumption

Power-Up In Standby (PUIS) reduces HDD drive spin-up, lowering system power consumption and improving performance of Intel® Smart Connect Technology. A PUIS–enabled HDD is required to support this feature.

Faster performance and flexibility

Serial ATA Advanced Host Controller Interface (AHCI), Native Command Queuing (NCQ) provides additional performance and faster boot times, hotplug capability to allow drives to be added or removed with the PC running, and staggered spin-up to reduce power loads on machines with multiple drives.

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Product and Performance Information

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1. Requires a 3rd generation Intel® Core™ processor, enabled chipset, Intel® Rapid Storage Technology (Intel® RST) software, and a properly configured hybrid drive (HDD + small SSD). Depending on system configuration, your results may vary. Contact your system manufacturer for more information.


2. Requires a select Intel® processor, enabled chipset, Intel® Rapid Storage Technology (Intel® RST) software, and a properly configured hybrid drive (HDD + small SSD). Depending on system configuration, your results may vary. Contact your system manufacturer for more information.


3. Software and workloads used in performance tests may have been optimized for performance only on Intel microprocessors. Performance tests, such as SYSmark and MobileMark, are measured using specific computer systems, components, software, operations, and functions. Any change to any of those factors may cause the results to vary. You should consult other information and performance tests to assist you in fully evaluating your contemplated purchases, including the performance of that product when combined with other products.


4. Game Loads Workload: Application and level load times for mainstream games such as Battlefield* 3 and Call of Duty*: Modern Warfare 3 System Configuration: (Desktop) Comparing 2nd generation Intel® Core™ i7-2600K processor (8T4C, 8 MB cache, up to 3.8 GHz), Intel® Desktop Board DZ68DB, memory 4 GB (2x2 GB) Corsair* DDR3-1333, EVGA* GTX 580, driver: 8.17.12.8562 (vendor package 285.62) (BIOS: DBZ6810H.86A.0014.2011.0413.1049, Chipset INF 9.3.0.1019 with the following disk options: 1) Seagate ST31000528AS Barracuda*, 1 TB, 7200 rpm, with Intel® Rapid Storage Technology (Intel® RST) 10.6.0.1002, 2) Intel® SSD 311 series, 20 GB SRT cache, Intel RST 10.6.0.1002, 3) Intel® SSD 510 series, 250 GB, Intel RST 10.6.0.1002.


5. I/O Performance Workload: PCMark* 7 storage score and PCMark Vantage* HDD score System Configuration: (Desktop) Comparing pre-production 3rd generation Intel® Core™ i7-3770K processor (8T4C, 8 MB cache, up to 3.9 GHz), Intel® Desktop Board DZ77GA-70K, memory 8 GB (2x4 GB) Samsung* DDR3-1600, Intel® HD Graphics 4000, driver: 8.15.10.2616 (BIOS: GAZ7710H.86A.1868.R06.1201060946, Chipset INF 9.3.0.1019 with the following disk options: 1) Seagate ST31000528AS Barracuda*, 1 TB, 7200 rpm, with Intel® Rapid Storage Technology (Intel® RST) 11.0.0.1032, 2) Intel® SSD 311 series, 20 GB SRT cache, Intel RST 11.0.0.1032 with Seagate ST31000528AS Barracuda, 1 TB, 7200 rpm.