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Gaming Storage (Personal Debate)

K

Krystm

Weaksauce
Joined
Mar 8, 2012
Messages
122
Hey everyone so I have a problem and not sure what my best options are.

Currently I am running the following:
Intel 3770K
ASUS Z77 Sabertooth
8 GB of Team Xtreem Ram @ 2100
1x 256 GB Agility 4 SSD (OS)
3x 500 GB 7200.12 Seagate Drives in R0 - This is my problem.
2x 670 FTW SLI

So I noticed the other day that transfers were taking exceedingly long times whenever transferring from the Raid 0 to anything. Talking 5-10 MB/s at most. Sometimes it would spike to 30-40 then taper back to 5-10. So I looked in the Crystal Disk and I see that one of the drives is marked "Caution" with Reallocated Sectors Count being the issue. So from what I have read this is the HDD failing (To be expected these are about 5-6 years old now). Now The ATTO is showing a different story but I also just unloaded a bunch of data from the array so this may also be why one of my games has worse performance than the others due to the failing drive just now being used.

Either way. Since these are starting to show their age I was curious what my best bet was. I was looking at doing a Single 500 GB SSD since I use maybe 600 GB of the storage anyways and that was with games I never played. However the cost would be almost 4-500 for gaming which everything I read doesn't really matter all that much anyways.

So what I am thinking is 2x SATA 6\GBs Drives in Raid 0 (nothing fancy 500 GB would be fine) instead of a single SSD but I don't know what the best performers are or if it makes a difference since Raiding them would be. Is there a huge difference from what I have to what's out now?

This is used for GAMES Only of which I play or most likley will play the following:
Bioshock
FFXIV - if good most time will be here.
Battlefield
NFS Series
Grid
Payday

So FPS, Racing, MMOs etc.

Budget - Would like to keep under $125 a drive. I could also just replace all 3 with SATA II not sure what my best course is here. (I wasn't really prepared for a $3-400 price point of the SSD but I could if it would be ideal)
Can you help me out?!

Also not sure if anyone has any exp with this either but the Z77 Board has 2 on board SATA III controllers. The Intel and then the ASMedia. For this to work I would need to use the ASMedia so I could properly RAID them. Will this be ok?

Z77 Motherboard Specs

Intel® Z77 chipset :
2 x SATA 6Gb/s port(s), brown
4 x SATA 3Gb/s port(s), black
Support Raid 0, 1, 5, 10
Supports Intel® Smart Response Technology, Intel® Rapid Start Technology, Intel® Smart Connect Technology *4
ASMedia® ASM1061 controller : *5
2 x SATA 6Gb/s port(s), gray
2 x eSATA 6Gb/s port(s), red

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Why do you need Raid0 HDD's for games? Just use an SSD for games/programs. Either uninstall games not played and get a 256 GB, or get a couple of them. SSD's are not really that expensive anymore, and getting a bunch of HDD's to Raid 0 solely for the purpose of launching video games is not useful.

The ideal thing to do is to buy the biggest SSD you can afford for the maximum amount of storage you need to have on it at all times. Only really need a fast HDD for production purposes. All other data needs, namely media storage, can be met with the slower "green" drives.
 
Yeah that is what I figured but at the same time, I mean for gaming wouldn't I be spending like double the amount for 1 SSD drive vs the Mechanical getting (granted not the "same" performance) but would that really matter?

I know they have come a long way but what about al the rewrites that MMOs and other online games do? Will that substantially lower their life or is that pretty much a null issue now?

I like the idea of just the one because I could put it on the Intel Controller which is great for SSD from everything I have heard. I just don't want to discount the RAID 0 option if it is still feasible.

Any suggestions on brand / model? Probably a 256 / 512 GB.
 
SSD life is a non issue with a modern SSD. Actually a modern 256GB drive is expected to last longer than a hard drive so you should not really spend time worrying about it.
 
Before the Crucial M500 came out (in April) I would say wait 2 weeks and pick up a 256 GB M4 when it goes on sale for $150 to $160. It seemed to hit that sale price every 2 weeks or so. Now I would look for the M500 or the Samsung 840 non pro.
 
drescherjm said:
SSD life is a non issue with a modern SSD. Actually a modern 256GB drive is expected to last longer than a hard drive so you should not really spend time worrying about it.
Click to expand...

Yeah I kinda figured on that, Any brand preference?

I saw Intel, OCZ, Samsung, Crucial and Kingston were top rated with Cruical and Intel being among the favorites. Is that still true?
 
Get an OCZ 450 drive. Super fast and slightly cheaper than the Samsung 840's
 
I saw the new 450 supposed to be out soon. I anyone else? I may be able to get a discount on an Intel 520 is that any good or have they dropped off a bit?
 
The Intel 520 is a decent SSD but I'd recommend getting a more up-to-date SSD like the Samsung 840, Samsung 840 Pro, or Crucial M500. I wouldn't recommend OCZ at all due to their customer support history.
 
Samsung, Intel and Crucial are the big three. Samsung and Intel have very nice management software for their SSDs, Crucial does not. While OCZ's latest line of SSDs appear to be good, the company has some serious financial crap going on which may threaten its continued survival and a ten-year-long history of poor customer service.
 
Ok ill see what I can find maybe a sale soon get a deal. I I saw Samsung have been on and off sale.

Thanks for your help guys!! Any other suggestions are also welcome haven't locked down to anything yet. I although hdds are Probably out now.
 
I would go with a Samsung SSD. Best combination of track record and software as others mentioned. There is absolutely no reason to use Raid 0 in your scenario. Typically, all you need are two drives, assuming you don't use a NAS: an SSD big enough for your games/programs/OS, and an HDD for media storage.
 
I'll be looking at the Samsung Right now. Just missed the sale from Dell for 274 but I am sure there will be others. My Current setup is "working" but I know it could go at anytime. So just going to watch for sales. Is there anything coming out that could be "better"? Probably not at this time I would think but I know lots of still always coming out.
 
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