mSata + 2.5" gaming rig

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Outlaw85

[H]ard|Gawd
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Feb 7, 2012
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I have a slightly modded Node 304.
I only have 2-3 storage locations I can use;
1- mSata on bottom of board (looking at a few listed below 240-256GB)
2- 2.5" mounted to inside front bay 1 (not really a bay)
2- 2.5" mounted to inside front bay 2 (not really a bay)

I definitely need to go mSata. This is going to be the OS/App drive. Budget is a concern, nothing over $130USD
Options found;
Used PM830 256GB - 100 shipped
New Crucial M500 240GB - 120 shipped
New MyDigitalSSD 240GB - 120 shipped
New Mushkin Enhanced 240GB - 124 shipped


On top of it, I currently have a 3.5" 7.2K 500GB drive as my everything drive. I was looking to replace it with a 2.5" flavor. Decent deal was found on the 600GB Raptor drives. Was looking to get 1 or 2 of them for a raid 0.

I think this would make a good overall system. If I can get the wife to go along with it to get this build completed, I may just pick up the 2 raptors and the PM830 unless there is something comparable to the PM830.

Thanks,
Outlaw
 
What actually is your question? Are you asking which SSD you should buy?
I would not use Raptors anymore. They are really loud and not that much faster than 7200rpm drives.
Did you look at 512 GB SSDs like the MX100? They are incredibly cheap and maybe you can replace your 500GB HDD with one of those and use it as OS drive at the same time.
 
Sorry.

yes, I am looking for help on the SSD/mSata side and if it is worth the raptors. I like the speeds they offer (near ssd) with the large storage availability. With large steam files, the 500GB could be eaten pretty quick. 240/256 SSD OS + 1TB (raid0) game files.

Right now my 3.5" is just a WD RE3 enterprise drive. With the games I play more often only installed, I am at 100GB used (6 games) + if I throw The Sims 3 on here for the kids, I think that is about 30+ GB by itself.

OR, and this is where I start to drive myself crazy

I can suck it up with the 1 mSata or 2.5" SSD for the 115-120$ and buy another 2TB or 2 for my storage server (which I keep putting off). Currently running on crossed fingers and no backups.

OR

I can suck it up with the 1 mSata or 2.5" SSD for the 115-120$ and buy 2x8GB RAM for this thing if I find it for the right price(currently 2x4GB). If I keep it clean, I could probably get away with a 128GB OS drive. Too bad I missed the awesome deals on SSD's someone had a couple months ago.


Wow, actually the price of that 512GB Crucial MX100 for $210 seems like a really good deal. I won't be able to run it at the same time as the 3.5". There is no room for that. Actually the 3.5" doesn't even fit. I am running it without the front panel on atm.

Thanks for the point out to the 2.5" SSD!



*edit*
Looking in the FS section, I could even look at a 128GB mSata OS and a 7.2K or 10K for everything else and keep it around a 100 for both. Then look to get the 2TB/s OR more RAM. If i keep it clean, I could prob run a 128GB OS drive... too bad I missed out on the awesome deals a couple months ago in the FS section

I couldn't find much detail on a 512GB mSata - Samsung MZMTD512HAGL, found for 195 shipped
**Found it could be somewhere along the line of PM830-PM851

Oh, was also looking for a 24+port gigabit for home, those aren't too expensive, but as you can see, my list is bigger than my budget.
 
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10k rpm drives are not even close to modern SSDs. They may have good sequential speed, but newer 5400 rpm drives can have 150 MB/s and some 7200 rpm drives exceed 200 MB/s.
And they MUCH worse compared to SSDs in random accesses.

What I meant was just get a single 512 GB 2.5" SSD and no mSATA at all. From what you pointed out the space would be enough.
The 512 GB MX100 is very fast compared to some of the best SATA SSDs on the market in some benchmarks. It is really sad that there is not a 1 TB version.
You could buy a cheap external case for the 3.5" drive and use it as a backup drive.
Unless you have a recent mainboard (haswell gen) there is a high chance the mSATA slot is only SATA2.
So you won't even get the full sequential speed from that (if you care about that).

EDIT: Okay, I read your sig, the mSATA slot is most probably SATA3.
 
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thats why i was looking at the raid 0 for the 2.5 mechanicals. they get close to ssd's while retaining the larger capacities. I could look at the 2.5 7.2Ks too.

yes, The few I found in the 512GB size were 190-200 which isn't bad at all since that capacity is what I'm at now.

I just had to look up the mSata, Per ASrock, it is Sata3.

This is how it sits on my desk- As you can see, there is next to no space left. Even where the 3.5" drive is, that cavity isn't even an inch at the widest point.plus the cables have to fit in there too.
20140905_192218 by outlaw8505,
 
omniscence said:
What actually is your question? Are you asking which SSD you should buy?
I would not use Raptors anymore. They are really loud and not that much faster than 7200rpm drives.
Did you look at 512 GB SSDs like the MX100? They are incredibly cheap and maybe you can replace your 500GB HDD with one of those and use it as OS drive at the same time.
Click to expand...

The more recent generations of the Raptors (Obviously those are VelociRaptors) are much quieter than the previous ones. Mine are no louder than any of the other 7200RPM drives I own.

That ~4ms seek time is still pretty impressive for a mechanical drive, and they absolutely smoke every one of my 7200RPM drives. In most games I'm loaded right behind the people with SSDs. I also own several SSDs and real world they are only slightly better all around, and they are far more expensive per GB.
 
Thanks for the info. think it would be worth the setup I was looking for with raid, or just go with the 1 and 1?
 
Outlaw85 said:
thats why i was looking at the raid 0 for the 2.5 mechanicals. they get close to ssd's while retaining the larger capacities.
Click to expand...

They aren't even remotely close to a SSD. Not by a looooooooong shot. As stated earlier the sequential speeds can be not too bad but everything else is still abominable and only good for storage.
 
Hmm benchmarks I read for raid were close. Any single drive including raptor was stomped. It is something I could replace mechanicals later. A single raptor doesn't seem to be much faster in benchmarks but raid doubles speeds. Either I get the msata and 2.5 mechanical. I'd like to be able to stretch the budget and get what's still need/want but want to get a good performance increase.

My last hdd upgrade was from a 1tb green drive to the 500gb re3.
 
When you look at those benchmarks pay close attention to the latency. You can make a huge RAID array which will stomp any SSD in sequential speeds but the SSD will still blow it out of the water for everything else.
 
Long over due reply. Thanks again for all the input. I did decide to save some of the money and went with a 2.5" 256GB Samsung 830 for now and will upgrade later to the mSata. The 256GB sata can be used in this or other rigs around the house.

Thanks again,
outlaw
 
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