![[H]ard|Forum](/styles/hardforum/xenforo/logo_dark.png){kind=logo}
I'm just starting on a new high-end PC build, and have decided to use SSD this time around. I've resisted RAID in the past for many reasons, including noise. The idea of having silent, low-power SSD that's also fast has been enough to prompt me to build a new system.
I have a few questions:
-- What's the best RAID level for SSD? RAID-5 seems like the obvious choice (or maybe RAID-6), since having the parity blocks spread out among all drives would distribute the wear from disk writes. RAID-1 or -10 doesn't seem good, since their performance benefits are largely due to offsetting rotational delay, which doesn't exist in SSD. No rotational delay would also seem to offset one of the big perf-related disadvantages of RAID-5, provided the controller has enough horsepower to do the XOR calculations quickly.
-- I've read that formatting the drives with a size that's less than the size of the device can help with performance. In fact, the X25-E apparently reserves more free space than the -M, as one of its Enterprise features. Is it enough of a gain to be worth doing? Maybe only use 64GB out of 80GB, the same as the -E?
-- What's the optimal NTFS cluster size for SSD? With 4KB blocks and 512KB pages, it seems like something larger than the Windows default of 4KB would help reduce the number of files sharing each page, and thereby help reduce the number of pages that need to be erased during updates.
-- What's the optimal strip (or stripe) size for SSD? With Intel's 10 parallel internal channels, it seems like multiples of 10 * 4KB might be optimal per-drive (strip) size, even though most controllers only seem to support powers of two.
-- Has anyone tried using SSD for a database? If so, how does the write load impact device lifetime?
-- Is there a performance impact of mixing reads and writes on the same drive?
-- How much does the RAM cache on a typical RAID controller really help? Is 2GB really better than 512MB? Maybe it helps more for Windows than for a database? In the past, I've often seen better DB performance when I disable the cache.
-- Any ideas on how to pack SSDs into a 5.25-inch drive bay? I saw those 4-to-1 hot-swap bay adapters for sale at Newegg, but they don't look very well made. They're nice in part because you only have to provide a single power cable, instead of one per drive. Are there any higher-quality manufacturers out there?
-- Since they use relatively low power, do SSDs need active cooling (fans)? Or is just a little air space around them enough? Or do they even need the air space at all?
I have a few questions:
-- What's the best RAID level for SSD? RAID-5 seems like the obvious choice (or maybe RAID-6), since having the parity blocks spread out among all drives would distribute the wear from disk writes. RAID-1 or -10 doesn't seem good, since their performance benefits are largely due to offsetting rotational delay, which doesn't exist in SSD. No rotational delay would also seem to offset one of the big perf-related disadvantages of RAID-5, provided the controller has enough horsepower to do the XOR calculations quickly.
-- I've read that formatting the drives with a size that's less than the size of the device can help with performance. In fact, the X25-E apparently reserves more free space than the -M, as one of its Enterprise features. Is it enough of a gain to be worth doing? Maybe only use 64GB out of 80GB, the same as the -E?
-- What's the optimal NTFS cluster size for SSD? With 4KB blocks and 512KB pages, it seems like something larger than the Windows default of 4KB would help reduce the number of files sharing each page, and thereby help reduce the number of pages that need to be erased during updates.
-- What's the optimal strip (or stripe) size for SSD? With Intel's 10 parallel internal channels, it seems like multiples of 10 * 4KB might be optimal per-drive (strip) size, even though most controllers only seem to support powers of two.
-- Has anyone tried using SSD for a database? If so, how does the write load impact device lifetime?
-- Is there a performance impact of mixing reads and writes on the same drive?
-- How much does the RAM cache on a typical RAID controller really help? Is 2GB really better than 512MB? Maybe it helps more for Windows than for a database? In the past, I've often seen better DB performance when I disable the cache.
-- Any ideas on how to pack SSDs into a 5.25-inch drive bay? I saw those 4-to-1 hot-swap bay adapters for sale at Newegg, but they don't look very well made. They're nice in part because you only have to provide a single power cable, instead of one per drive. Are there any higher-quality manufacturers out there?
-- Since they use relatively low power, do SSDs need active cooling (fans)? Or is just a little air space around them enough? Or do they even need the air space at all?
Last edited: