I got this new Z87-Pro MB from Asus with an i7-4770K and had the same results with a H87M-E board.
My problem is the Intel RAID controller turned my insanely fast computer into a very slow to react machine.
I use an SSD as primary HD to boot and I wanted to create a RAID 1 for storage with 2 WD Black 2TB HDs.
All HDs are plugged in the Sata ports of the same Intel RAID controller in RAID mode, but I can create an array with only the 2 HDs and leave the SSD to boot. I have to put the SSD on the controller in RAID mode since there is only one Intel controller on the board, but it doesn't seem to affect the speed of the SSD at all when benchmarking it.
If I use a Western Digital 2TB Hard Disk and the Intel controller is in RAID mode, boot time slows down by about 13 seconds and waking up from sleep takes 17 seconds instead of about 4 seconds.
I don't even have to put the HDs in the array. Just plugging them makes my BIOS screen show up after 24 seconds before handing off to the OS instead of showing the screen much sooner (this is when not in UEFI because of course when I tested with UEFI, BIOS handoff was faster even if still much slower when a 2TB disk is plugged).
If I remove the HD or use a 1TB Western Digital Black, the delay is much shorter. This is normal since the 1TB is ready much faster than the 2TB ones.
I know that WD 2TB and higher Black HDs have a long time to ready, but I don't understand why Intel controller has to slow everything down and keep me locked for 17 seconds before I am able to resume for sleep. This is totally unacceptable in today's world of "instant on" that my desktop takes 17 seconds to resume when my laptop takes not even a second. Why can't I use these disks as data disks without having all the computer so tied to them that it can't resume operation before they are completely ready ? They are not even boot disks and are not even formatted! Could the computer just boot or resume while it starts to spin?
If I use the SSD only, boot time is less than 10 seconds with UEFI (without the fast startup hibernate file gimmick of Windows 8.1) and resume is less than 4 seconds too (I don't know exactly because my monitor takes a few seconds to come back).
If I still use the same setup (1 or 2 2TB Hds) but using AHCI instead of the controller being in RAID mode, then boot time is 13 seconds faster and waking up from sleep is less than 4 seconds.
So it is really plugging one or two of these 2TB HDs when the controller is in RAID mode even if the disk is not used nor configured or even if I configure everything and initialize the array that slows everything down.
The effect is much less important with the 1TB HD.
I reproduced it with any of the 4 2TB I have. Some are FAEX and others FZEX models, it doesn't make a difference. Plugging any of them creates the problem.
But if I use AHCI, the controller never waits as much, 13 seconds less in fact!
It is not a driver problem because I can see the handoff of the BIOS to the OS clearly by looking at the BIOS screen appearing only after 24 seconds when the HDs are plugged. Also, I don't understand why even if it needed to detect the drives for longer, it would resume from sleep in 13 seconds more time too and only if the controller is in RAID mode.
I tried all possible combinations of software too for the resume from sleep problem (with or without Intel Rst).
Any light on this issue? Intel, you should consider that today's computers are instant on when designing your next RAID controller. I fear it is something that can't be fixed and unfortunately my dream computer turned into a nightmare slow turtle and I will have to create a costly external NAS for storage to avoid this issue.
Yes WD is to blame for making such a slow to be ready drive (I think they brag about it that it spins up slower for reliability), but I am not sure why AHCI could resume even if the drive isn't spinning fully but not RAID. You are afraid they would drop from array, maybe?