Upgrading Storage: RAID 0 2x256GB SSD

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NightWolfe

Gawd
Joined
Sep 30, 2002
Messages
786
Hey Gawds,

I come seeking advice ... I am upgrading my main/gaming PC and am thinking about going RAID0 with 2 256GB SSDs

Currently I have a Crucial M4 CT064M4SSD2 64GB that is holding my OS and a few various programs ... then I have 4 Seagate 160GB in RAID5 and a 1TB Hitachi Deskstar storing stuff

All my storage is moving to my new NAS I just built (spec in sig) so I was thinking about ditching my RAID5 spinning disks and run 2 256GB SSDs to just install all my programs on ... and then just keep the 1TB drive for whatever various local storage ... the programs for the RAID will be the Adobe Suite and whatever various games (WoW, Elite: Dangerous)

So for the SSDs I don't need bleeding edge performance ... whatever SSD I go to is going to be faster than the spinning disks I have now ... I'm looking at the following 3 drives ... is the Crucial one going to be fine and I can save myself $40 or should I just go with the Samsung or the Intel ... the biggest concern would be longevity rather than flat out performance

Crucial MX100 256GB - $105
Intel 730 Series 240GB - $120
Samsung 850 EVO 250GB - $120
 
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Longevity is not really an issue with any SSD despite lingering FUD from the early days.

Personally I would go with either Intel or Samsung. Crucial would be fine too and you could certainly save a few bucks that way. There are differences in performance and you should be able to find benchmarks showing these drives.

If WOW is anything like RIFT (a similar massive open world RPG) I saw a big speedup in loading times of Zones from moving the game to my SSD.
 
Instead of Raid0 with SSD, my choice would be to get a bigger single SSD
 
melk said:
Any particular reason why? RAID 0 definitely shows significant performance gains.
Click to expand...

However only when doing large sequential operations or very high queue depths. Most games and desktop applications will not read GB sized files sequentially.
 
This may be true.... but I am of the mindset that.... Faster is faster ;)
 
If you want fast then go with a 500Gb 850 EVO and use a little system memory to setup RAPID in the Magician software. That will provide tangible improvement for that small file IO to give the instantaneous responsiveness. RAID 0 provides so little reward vs. risk in a real life desktop environment.
 
I do have a 840 EVO and use RAPID. I wish I could dedicate more than 1GB to it!
 
I have had both single SSD and RAID-0 setups, the RAID does offer a performance gain but in this argument, price is actually the key argument. Usually a 500GB SSD costs more than two 250's, so, have your cake and eat it too.
 
I tried out raid0 w/80gb Intel SSD a while back, I didnt notice any super speed increase from a single SSD.
 
melk said:
I do have a 840 EVO and use RAPID. I wish I could dedicate more than 1GB to it!
Click to expand...

I do as well. Unfortunately, I'm betting it's for limiting data loss in a power-loss scenario.
 
Thanks for all the feedback everyone

Looks like the 850 Evo 500GB can be had for $205 so that's even cheaper than 2 250s ... Looks like I will go this route

Am also going to look into RAPID

Thanks again!
 
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Why give storage spaces a try, you can set it up to just view the two disks at a single 500gb disk. SSDs so the performance will be great, simple because its one disk. You can add more drives later for redundancy (or as MS calls it, resiliency)

I have found almost no reason to RAID SSds, what is it 400MBs cant do for you?


NightWolfe said:
Looks like the 850 Evo 500GB can be had for $205 so that's even cheaper than 2 250s ... Looks like I will go this route
!
Click to expand...

Good call
 
I(illa Bee said:
Why give storage spaces a try, you can set it up to just view the two disks at a single 500gb disk. SSDs so the performance will be great, simple because its one disk. You can add more drives later for redundancy (or as MS calls it, resiliency)

I have found almost no reason to RAID SSds, what is it 400MBs cant do for you?
Click to expand...

One day, people will stop buying Evo's when they realise the saying, You get what you pay for rings very true.

As for SS, no, not in this case. On-board RAID smashes SS, hands down.
 
Lost-Benji said:
One day, people will stop buying Evo's when they realise the saying, You get what you pay for rings very true.

As for SS, no, not in this case. On-board RAID smashes SS, hands down.
Click to expand...

IDK, we buy EVOs at work at do not have any problems with them. What exactly is bad about them?

From my experence, EVOs are fast (not the fastest), reliability has been great so far and there cheaper. We use alot of them at work when someone wants a larger than 256gb drive. 400+Mbps and I hav not seen one fail yet... so who cares. I dont need to pay Samsung for the extra "Pro" marketing.

I just make sure I have backups and warranties :)


Also, from my benchmarks Windows Software RAID is just as fast as simple Intel Software Raid and easier to move from one Windows box to another. (RAID0 is actually faster on Windows Raid from what I have seen) As for storage spaces, its not as fast, but its not super slow either . I get single disk performance, as if those single disks are fast.. well.. cool. I personally just use it for a simple archive solution. Adds another layer of data protection and is easily expandable. Who really cares if its a little slower if it works best for the application.

Lost-Benji said:
As for SS, no, not in this case. On-board RAID smashes SS, hands down.
Click to expand...

On-board RAID Smashes SS????? There completely different tech, for completely different applications. Apples to oranges here...

Onboard raid is pretty worthless and has very few real worl application where its useful. (kids that think its makes there rig better.) Where storage spaces has some really good uses
 
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I(illa Bee said:
IDK, we buy EVOs at work at do not have any problems with them. What exactly is bad about them?

From my experence, EVOs are fast (not the fastest), reliability has been great so far and there cheaper. We use alot of them at work when someone wants a larger than 256gb drive. 400+Mbps and I hav not seen one fail yet... so who cares. I dont need to pay Samsung for the extra "Pro" marketing.

I just make sure I have backups and warranties :)


Also, from my benchmarks Windows Software RAID is just as fast as simple Intel Software Raid and easier to move from one Windows box to another. (RAID0 is actually faster on Windows Raid from what I have seen) As for storage spaces, its not as fast, but its not super slow either . I get single disk performance, as if those single disks are fast.. well.. cool. I personally just use it for a simple archive solution. Adds another layer of data protection and is easily expandable. Who really cares if its a little slower if it works best for the application.



On-board RAID Smashes SS????? There completely different tech, for completely different applications. Apples to oranges here...

Onboard raid is pretty worthless and has very few real worl application where its useful. (kids that think its makes there rig better.) Where storage spaces has some really good uses
Click to expand...

I would like to ask you a few questions about your post.

I am building a new box with some conventional HD's and SSD's. I would like to not use onboard RAID because I want to use a 256 GB 850 EVO for a Hackintosh drive and have it "see" the other drives in the system which means they should be AHCI.

I have 2 1TB 850 EVO's for my Windows drives. I was thinking about RAID 0 or RAID 1, but as mentioned did not want to do RAID ideally. But I had not thought about MS software RAID, hmmm. Now I'm thinking OS on one and files on the other.

I also have a 4TB HGST drive for backup images, mabe a few 250 GB HDD scratch discs.

If you had these drives in a workstation:

1) 1 250GB Hackintosh drive
2) 2 1TB 850 EVO's for Windows 7/10
3) 4 TB Image drive
4) couple 250 GB HDD's, probably use one of these for Linux

I do some 4K video editing, Have a ton of docs/movies/Music/Torrents etc

Some Gaming, not a lot.

How would you set it up? Mainly wondering about these 2 1TB SSD's
 
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