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Multiple RAID arrays question

T

tx00824

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Jun 20, 2011
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I plan to upgrade soon when haswell will be available and also I plan to buy 2 SSD's and run them in RAID 0 for performance. But I also have two large HDD's which I want to run in Mirror mode RAID 1 is this possible to have two different arrays on the same controller? Has anyone done this?
 
No performance with MIRROR RAID I know I just need to have a constant backup of that drive. Did you mean no noticeable difference with SSD RAID? Why do you think there wont be any difference, I used to have long ago raid of two wd raptors and difference was clear.
 
No performance with MIRROR RAID I know I just need to have a constant backup of that drive. Did you mean no noticeable difference with SSD RAID? Why do you think there wont be any difference, I used to have long ago raid of two wd raptors and difference was clear.
 
Because SSD raid0 does not generally improve low queue depth 4K reads and writes (which are most frequent with desktop software). It does improve large file operations but how often do you read and write 1GB files sequentially?
 
Oh Sorry,

I meant that running more than one RAID set on the card you will hardly notice a difference (in running two different raid configurations at the same time).
 
drescherjm said:
Because SSD raid0 does not generally improve low queue depth 4K reads and writes (which are most frequent with desktop software). It does improve large file operations but how often do you read and write 1GB files sequentially?
Click to expand...
+1

Toms recently did a write up on this and they said that going with a single, larger SSD for "day to day" applications is better than RAID0. The RAID 0 only showed benefit in large QUEUE and large sequential reads, but single drives showed better for low queue, application loads and boot time.

Of course there are plenty of applications where you are reading and writing large files all the time (movie production) or are in a high queue depth environment (sql or file server) where the SSD RAID0 is the way to go.
 
drescherjm said:
Because SSD raid0 does not generally improve low queue depth 4K reads and writes (which are most frequent with desktop software). It does improve large file operations but how often do you read and write 1GB files sequentially?
Click to expand...

I have looked upon what you have said and although benchmarks show massive difference, many have said on their experience there is nearly no increase in noticeable performance and there also comes array failure thing which i believe can happen as it did happen couple times to me on my raptors so i know how anoying this can be. I think I will go with just single fast ssd, no point on wasting money no pointless overkill. My initial desire was based on benchmarks and I know for a fact based on RAM experience this are not to be taken to the letter. Thanks for your input!
 
All of the best ones look pretty much similar not much difference I am thinking about getting Samsung 840 Pro 256gb, any opinions on Samsung 840 pro?
 
I believe that is the fastest consumer drive you can get. Also Samsung has a good track record with reliability.
 
I'm wondering about this too!
There's a computer game I play that is 50gb in size. I don't know how much of that it has to load at one time... but it's the slowest game I've ever owned. 5min to open a save file, and that's on a single ssd. Many, many in-game objects that it has to load. Used to be much worse on the disc drive.

Would 2 ssds in raid 0 help with that?
What about 3?

It also looks like many ssds are cheaper per gigabyte at 250gb instead of 500gb, AND are sometimes faster in certain specs. So you could almost save some money setting up raid0 with 2x250 instead of 1x500, right?
 
oh-- and I ran across an (old-- 2007) article that said motherboard raid controllers were no good, and that for real performance gains you needed a dedicated raid controller card.

Is this still true?

Have an asrock extreme4 motherboard. If it has a perfectly good on-board controller, I'll run with it. If mobo raid controllers are still deficient, give me some recommendations.
 
There's a computer game I play that is 50gb in size. I don't know how much of that it has to load at one time... but it's the slowest game I've ever owned. 5min to open a save file, and that's on a single ssd.
Click to expand...

Think about this in less than 2 minutes a single SSD could load the entire file into memory (assuming you have > 50GB of ram).
 
sadly, said game is only programmed to use 4gb of ram-- even if I do have 16gb.
and there may lie the entirety of the problem.
 
I would look at Task Manager and Resource Monitor Disk and CPU activity during the load. See if it is got any cores that are fully loaded and look at the disk activity.
 
I did so... well, I may as well look again.
CPU was not overloaded, but whatever program I used left it difficult to tell if one core might not be used to capacity.
GPU was not limiting factor.
Memory was not limiting factor.

Disk activity was the hardest. Scores of numbers just jumping all over the place, and I had no real means to interpret them. Is there a good program that might give me some greater insight into whether even faster disks (2 in raid 0) would help-- whether write speeds are what is holding back load times?

The fact is, I'm considering raid 0 anyway, because it looks like 250gb is too small for me, but I already own the one ssd, so it will be cheaper to buy a second 250gb drive than to buy a 500gb drive and attempt to sell the 250.
 
Agreed. If you are worried about the issue, split the arrays onto two different controllers. That will take some of the load off....but I don't think you will see much of a gain.
 
Because SSD raid0 does not generally improve low queue depth 4K reads and writes (which are most frequent with desktop software).
Click to expand...
Toms recently did a write up on this and they said that going with a single, larger SSD for "day to day" applications is better than RAID0.
Click to expand...
There's two opinions but I like my array.

How about linking this article from Tom's?

SSD and mechanical arrays are completely different.

Again, an SSD RAID0 array is a matter of opinion and if you haven't had any personal experience with one, your opinion means nothing. :)
 
I was just reading the above. I read that tom article, and I know what he said but I was thinking on trying to raid 0 anyway. even if in some tasks raid 0 wont matter, in others it will.
how do you guys explain raid 0 in pcie cards, did u guys know that pcie cards are basically two raided ssds drives!? I am looking forward to try it anyways.
oh I have a question for you guys. does trim work on raid 0 arrays?
 
Abula said:
I think he is referring to One SSD Vs. Two In RAID: Which Is Better?.

I dont know what to do yet, i was thinking on twin 840pro 256gb in raid0, but also considering a single 512gb.
Click to expand...

Like I said, it's all a matter of opinion and how you use your machine.

My drives are older units (256GB Crucial C300s) and RAID overcomes their single drive deficiencies.

If you have a problem with back-ups DO NOT bother with RAID0.
 
berninicaco3 said:
I'm wondering about this too!
There's a computer game I play that is 50gb in size. I don't know how much of that it has to load at one time... but it's the slowest game I've ever owned. 5min to open a save file, and that's on a single ssd. Many, many in-game objects that it has to load. Used to be much worse on the disc drive.
Click to expand...

When I first got an SSD, I saw a noticble drop in "pop up" in WoW. It went to almost non existant. However Lord of the Rings Online made little difference. Some games are coded better.
 
cariocadude said:
I was just reading the above. I read that tom article, and I know what he said but I was thinking on trying to raid 0 anyway. even if in some tasks raid 0 wont matter, in others it will.
how do you guys explain raid 0 in pcie cards, did u guys know that pcie cards are basically two raided ssds drives!? I am looking forward to try it anyways.
oh I have a question for you guys. does trim work on raid 0 arrays?
Click to expand...

Well every SSD operates in "RAID0" internally. That's what gives them there bandwidth.
 
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