Hello all,
i have resolved the matter. i was of the opinion that IRST starts up slow on my pc because of the CONSOLE. but it's not true, in fact, the drivers themselves take a moment to kick-in like what megahertz said. what i was looking for was a way to test with a NO GUI version, if it exists, - it does in fact exist, so that i can find out if driver loading times would speed up.
in future if anyone wants to install IRST without console, the switch is "-NOIRSTGUI". For older Intel Matrix Storage Manager, the switch was just "-NOGUI".
my ICH-series host controllers are not BIOS raid-capable, but that does not stop me from operating OS Raid if i have at least 3 physical drives in my system (1 for non-raid OS, 2 tied in winraid 0 striping).
i'm not sure if Microsoft's default AHCI is better for stability & compatibility, i beg to differ maybe that warrants further discussion because i do not have sufficient knowledge on sata-operation to discuss that matter. there is however sufficient mention online to support the fact that IRST operates as good drivers for oem sata-operation which do not come with their own specific AHCI drivers. since AHCI is just a management interface, especially if i am opting for a system to operate a specific Win 7 build with no further win update (i do not intend to update past Win 7 Ultimate 6.1 Build 7601 SP1).
i think for this reason in older systems OEM supplies IRST in their bunch of recommended drivers. it should be noted that i did not seek out IRST drivers on my own initially, but was in fact installing the one provided OEM.
Now however, i downloaded the most recent driver applicable to my i7 generation. This forum site & topic was particularly useful to me :-
Forum - Intel RST/RSTe Drivers (newest: v16.5.5.1040 WHQL/v5.5.0.1334 WHQL)
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now, i start my machine, takes about same time to load into desktop 4-5 secs (not that bad for true quadcore [4 actual physical cores] i7, 16gb patriot viper, SSD from slower optical drive slot but still pretty ok), but the IRST in system tray still takes some time to 'ready', as before. at least several minutes. as i mentioned my system is AHCI winraiding, the IRST console matters little to me, it would be more of a diagnostic tool since i am not really open to any real raid options. so good, i got rid of the GUI. and i feel, i got better.. more applicable.. newer drivers.
the driver loading times however, no choice i guess.