Samsung 840 Pro performance 2 x 128 vs 256

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mrwill

Limp Gawd
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Dec 26, 2005
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Is there a comparison somewhere of Samsung 840 Pro SSD's where the performance is compared between 2 each 128 GB in Raid 0 compared to 1 each 256 GB?

I know the 256 types are faster, but are they faster than 2 128's in raid 0? I am trying to decide which way to go and read that someone claimed the single 256 was faster, but I am skeptical and would like to see the data.
 
This question has been asked many times in the forum. A quick search will get you the answers you need. You'll get better SEQ speeds in raid0 but that doesn't really mean it'll perform better with what you'll be doing with it. In most home use cases (gaming etc.) it's not really worth the hassle.
 
2 SSDs will get the max bandwidth of 2 SATA channels.
So you increase the maximum throughput.

Single 128GB drives arent quite as nippy as a 256GB because you have half the nand chips and cannot saturate the SATA bus like a 256GB drive does.
With 2 SATA buses and 2 drives, you arent saturating the buses and have twice the max throughput capability.

2 smaller drives cant be slower but can be faster.
But you have twice the risk of drive failure and will lose all your data if it isnt backed up.
Any system crash can damage data on an SSD so if you overclock, dont test the overclock while the drives are running and make sure it is rock stable when using the drives.
If you get new hardware, make sure it is stable before introducing the RAID array.
 
Nenu said:
With 2 SATA buses and 2 drives, you arent saturating the buses and have twice the max throughput capability.
Click to expand...

Could you elaborate a bit on this? What exactly do you mean about "2 SATA buses". Most motherboards have some Intel 6GB ports, some Intel 3GB ports, and maybe a 3rd party controller with a few more 6GB ports.

Are you talking about running two drives in raid:0 connected to completely different controllers? I can't imagine that running one drive from an intel controller and one from a 3rd party controller, or running one drive from a 6GB port and one from a 3GB port would be better than running a single drive from a 6GB port. If you somehow had two intel SATA controllers on the same motherboard that both had 6GB ports, then maybe, but that is not the case.
 
Ah yes, I forgot to cover that, thanks for bringing it up :)
I was talking about using them on a PCI-E RAID controller.
PCI-E RAID controllers with x2 PCI-E 2.0 or higher interface are cheap enough to be viable if you want the extra performance.

Like this 2 port on a x2 PCI-E bus for £66.
http://www.misco.co.uk/product/1994...uo-SSD-Tiering-PCIe-SATA-3-Controller-Adapter

4 port on a x4 PCI-E bus for £85
http://www.misco.co.uk/product/173988/Startech-4-Port-PCIe-SATA-III-Card

Another good feature of using these controllers is that the RAID array can be ported to a new motherboard if you upgrade.
 
Two 128GB Samsung 840 Pro: $260
One 256GB Samsung 840 Pro: $235

Why pay more? Doesn't make sense. You get nothing but negatives and complication, other than maybe showing some better numbers in particular sorts of benchmark. If you were performing real-world tasks where that sort of performance increase made a perceptible difference and actually mattered, you wouldn't be looking at consumer SSDs and you'd be sending these questions to the IT division.
 
small ssds are crap because people are always wrong about how much space they want
 
Stay with the single. Points above are valid, whats not delved into is the good chance of loosing AHCI / Trim in a RAID config as well as the actual slow-down of small file transfers.
Go for a decent single now, get another later for games of bigger apps that will benefit from split drives.
 
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