Advice for storage upgrade

D

DReborn

Limp Gawd
Joined
Aug 11, 2004
Messages
364
I have an aging 150gb raptor and I have been craving an SSD since they came out. Should I go with the new Patriot Torqx reviewed pretty favorably over the Intel in MaximumPC recently? Or should I get two for a RAID 0 setup? If I do RAID 0, will I/should I get a hardware RAID card to get the most benefit? If so, which hardware card?

OR...since I am planning a larger upgrade Q1 2010 when Intel comes out with it's new chips, just wait to see what comes out then?

My poor raptor is just slugging along recently...

thanks!
 
Going with a SSD will be a great upgrade. As far as which one to choose, most of the better performers are based on IIndilinx Barefoot contoller, which means they all have similar speeds. The only real difference is the price and support. I chose the same drive you're looking at. Now as to if RAID 0 is a good idea, while it will give you a higher transfer rate, for most users it'll be overkill.
 
got it, thanks for the reply.

i went to the Patriot website and i am a bit confused as to which one is the best...there are a few Torqx models.

Any advice?
 
The best SSD in the market is the Intel X25-M. That would be best if you want to use only one SSD, but it's also considerably more expensive than other brands/models.

The SSDs that use the IIndilinx controller perform best when you use two or more of them in a RAID 0 configuration.

So the question is: Do you have the money for an SSD setup? You may be better off getting a Western Digital Caviar Black 640GB or 1TB HDD and waiting until your 2010 overhaul before you decide to buy an SSD.

(Second question: What are you doing that makes you feel as if the Raptor's slowing you down?)
 
DReborn said:
got it, thanks for the reply.

i went to the Patriot website and i am a bit confused as to which one is the best...there are a few Torqx models.

Any advice?
Click to expand...

The only difference in Torqx models should be the capacity. From the reviews I've read, it seems the 128GB models are a little bit faster than the 64GB ones, due to there being more memory modules, and therefore more channels. A SSD is basically a RAID set-up of a bunch of flash modules all in one package, which is seen as a single harddrive by the OS. If you do go with a SSD, I really suggest you run Windows 7, mainly for the native TRIM support.

My description of the make-up of a SSD might be wrong, and if it is, hopefully another poster here can clarify it for both of us.
 
If you want more details on the tech behind an SSD, read the Anandtech SSD Anthology.

[Anandtech] The SSD Anthology: Understanding SSDs and New Drives from OCZ
[Anandtech] The SSD Update: Vertex Gets Faster, New Indilinx Drives and Intel/MacBook Problems Resolved
[Anandtech] The SSD Relapse: Understanding and Choosing the Best SSD
[Hard|OCP] SSD RAID scaling under Windows 7

Personally, I went from a 'cuda.10 to a Raptor150 and did not think the performance difference was worth the price premium and space sacrifice. Then I went from a caviar.black640 to a VRaptor300 and again, did not think the performance difference was worth the price premium and space sacrifice. Next I went from a VRaptor300 to an OCZ Vertex 30GB, and yet again, was underwhelmed. Then I picked up a 2nd Vertex 30GB and threw them in RAID0... WOW... I must say, the performance difference is VERY noticeable, but again, the price was pretty steep ($180 total AR in June). Regardless, it was a much bigger performance improvement than any of the Raptors ever were, for even less money than the raptors cost.

I believe the single Vertex was underwhelming because of the slow small random write speeds. As you can see from many tests online, these speeds increase greatly when in RAID0. Since RAID0 is simply striping data across two difference drives, there really isn't any major processing being done, so onboard RAID0 works perfectly fine for up to 650MB/s (around 3 vertex 120GB drives). Here are my screenshots:
http://www.alphaq.org/enginurd/hdd/ocz_vertex.html

As you'll learn from those anandtech articles, the TorqX has a 10yr warranty, and the garbage collection on the most recent firmware is good enough to maintain proper speeds while TRIM support is being worked on.

The Intel X25-M SSDs have fast small random write speeds, but have slower sequential speeds. Conversely, the Indilinx based drives have faster sequential speeds, but slower small random write speeds. When you RAID0 the Indilinx drives, the small random write speeds increase to the levels of the Intel X25-M. For single SSD usage, the Intel is a better choice because of this. One thing to note is that the Indilinx based drives are still faster than mechanical drives, so even in a single drive config, it's still a fast solution (great for laptops/netbooks).
 
Last edited:
Robertus said:
Damnit!
Click to expand...


hahaha!


do you mean that now you need two 30 gb ssd's in raid zero, because of this statement....

OCZ Vertex 30GB, and yet again, was underwhelmed. Then I picked up a 2nd Vertex 30GB and threw them in RAID0... WOW... I must say, the performance difference is VERY noticeable, but again, the price was pretty steep ($180 total AR in June)

---I feel your pain brotha...

big al
 
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