Solved Is IRST good for Samsung SSDs?

[Cris1]

I have a Samsung 850 EVO 128GB SSD, does IRST help with the speed? I already installed Samsung Magician with AHCI enabled and Maximum Performance option.

 

[Megahertz07]

The Samsung 850 EVO is seen as a SATA disk. Intel IRST is most used to manage RAID and cache disk. As you have a Intel chipset is good to use it. I also have a GA-Z68 with a Samsung 850 PRO for OS and programs and a HDD for data (Users folder is on my D: drive).
I found that Samsung Magician can be more part of the problem than part of a solution. I don't use it.
Did you move the users folder from C: to D:?

 

[fireberd]

I have an 840 EVO and an 850 EVO. I tried the Samsung Magician tweaks and found they screwed up my custom setup (including my power settings) that I had for using my PC as my recording studio system. I restored my system to how it was before the Magician tweaks and I now only use the Magician to check for firmware updates.

 

[Digerati]

I think it is important to note that Windows knows how to use SSDs just fine without any outside help.

Like the others, I found Samsung Magician causes more problems than anything else. You don't need it. It consumes extra resources needlessly. It has been known to hose your sleep settings. And again, Windows already knows how to optimize and use SSDs without any help from 3rd party apps or us users interfering.

 

[Layback Bear]

I once had a EVO 840 500 GB and used Samsung Magician and all hell broke loose.
After many days trying to fix the problem, I found the answer.

Wipe the Samsung SSD and give it away. Problem solved. The new owner had to send it back to Samsung and get it replaced. That took many weeks.

To be honest I also had a Intel SSD go bad. The power connection melted to the SSD.
The difference is: I had a brand new (not refurbished) Intel SSD in my hand in less than a week.
I don't know if the connection or the SSD cause the problem. What I do know is Intel didn't care and just got me a new SSD and did it quickly.

Jack

 

[Cris1]

How come Samsung Magician breaks your settings? I'm not running any RAID setting, I have 2 drives SSD for OS and HDD for Programs and Games. Should I still keep IRST and Samsung Magician?

 

[fireberd]

I don't need the fast boot that is sets up. I had custom power configuration settings and the magician changed it to a different configuration. I don't know what else it changed but as I didn't need or want the fast boot and it changed the power configuration I dumped it. I have a specific application with a recording studio system. Although most techies on the forums I visit do not use it except to check for firmware updates, if you are happy with it go for it.

 

[Megahertz07]

My suggestion: keep IRST and uninstall Samsung Magician

 

[Digerati]

I don't even see any reason to keep IRST. I know of no one else who uses it. Windows has it own AHCI or RAID drivers. And the OP does not even use Intel drives. So I say why use something if you don't need it?

I don't need the fast boot that is sets up.

I think it important to note that even without Magician, boot times are extremely fast with SSDs - especially with W10 and DDR4 RAM. And wake from sleep times still amaze me even after using SSDs for years now. My computer is fully awake and ready to go from sleep in less than 10 seconds and half of that time is waiting for my monitors to wake and me to enter my Windows password. From full Shutdown takes about 15 seconds and I have several things loading at boot too. And again, some of that time is waiting for my monitors to sync up and me to enter my password.

To speed up boot times, I found that Magician simply disables and resets your Power Options to prevent some of the sleep mode features. First, that really irritated me because it did not ask if I wanted to make those changes and it makes no sense to me - especially with modern hardware which is designed to conserve energy in sleep mode, but still wake quickly. This is particularly true of DDR4 RAM which uses a "low power" state to keep data "alive" when the computer is in sleep mode so it can wake much more quickly and be ready to go.

Magician is very much like the big, bloated resource hogging "suites" of junk and fluff your printer maker wants you to install. In most cases, all we need is the basic drivers. Same with the big anti-malware suites. We don't need all that extra stuff taking up RAM, CPU cycles and disk space.

 

[Cris1]

The final question before marking this as solved, Should I keep Samsung Magician?

 

[fireberd]

I keep it so I can check for firmware updates for my 840 and 850 EVO's.

 

[Digerati]

I say, get rid of it! Then see how things go. There is nothing from stopping you from downloading the latest version of it again from Samsung if you decide you want it back.

 

[Ranger4]

Just to add confusion to your decision Cris1, I use both IRST & Samsung Magician & I don't have any problems.