SSD Raid 0 vs Single SSD

J

jsilva

Guest
I have (1) Crucial M4 128GB and (2) Micron RealSSD C300 128GB. All with latest firmware.

Currently I am using the M4 as the main boot/programs drive. I am looking to get the best performance I can from my system so I am wondering if it will be better to do a Raid-0 with the two C300's and then use the M4 for secondary storage.

I have been reading a lot about the Trim vs GC debates but still I see lots of people are going for the SSD Raid-0 setup and (according to them) without performance degradation issues so far after 6 to 12 months.

a few specs:

Win7 64bit
Intel 2120
AsRock Pro3 Gen3
16GB DDR3
 
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Do you have a reason, anything more than "Epeen"? Load starcraft II faster? Maybe you need really fast reads or writes for a database?

You should get better performance with R0 C300's than a single M4. Be sure to take the time to update firmware before you get entrenched.

In general, I can't tell the difference between a single M4 and RAID0 M4's, other than on benchmarks. Just personal opinions. RAID is extra complexity, extra things to go wrong, and one more thing that could be a problem.
 
hotcrandel said:
Do you have a reason, anything more than "Epeen"? Load starcraft II faster? Maybe you need really fast reads or writes for a database?

You should get better performance with R0 C300's than a single M4. Be sure to take the time to update firmware before you get entrenched.

In general, I can't tell the difference between a single M4 and RAID0 M4's, other than on benchmarks. Just personal opinions. RAID is extra complexity, extra things to go wrong, and one more thing that could be a problem.
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Thanks for your reply. I really don't have a "specific" reason other than what I said, getting the best performance I can get out of my system. To be honest I got the two C300's for FREE after doing some part-time security work in a tech convention. They gave away a lot of stuff to us at the end of it, Iphones, Androids, computer parts etc. Since I am not a big fan of cell phones I decided to get the ssd drives. The only drive I bought was the M4.

I have another system with two Caviar Black 640's in Raid-0 and its been almost 2 years and not one issue yet. I know ssd's are a completely different ball game, so that's why I'm asking.

This new computer I just built is for me to use in my home production studio, and I do a lot of heavy track sequencing, sample editing, vst instruments, so I thought doing the raid will give me an extra edge on the system. But I can't complain about the performance of the M4.
 
Unless you have a very fast CPU you're not going to be held back by 1 SSD vs 2 SSD's in RAID 0
 
Real world gains are minimal or non existant. But if you've already got the pair of drives and have the technical knowhow to make it work, why not? Just don't expect miracles, a single modern SSD is pretty bloody fast for a single user.
 
I am looking to get the best performance I can from my system so I am wondering if it will be better to do a Raid-0 with the two C300's and then use the M4 for secondary storage.
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Sounds like a plan....Go for it! :)
 
gjs278 said:
ignore the haters, raid your ssds
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just read this. :D

anyways thanks for all the comments guys. im a go ahead and do the raid with the C300's after I do an image backup (acronis) of my system partition to different drives to play it safe.
 
I never believed in Raid 0 as real world gains.

Sure you increase your read and write speeds on the set up, but you're adding something in between the hdd (ssd), and your cpu which is a raid controller. Raid controllers add latencies which can slow down access between your ssd and your cpu.

Personally, I would just go with the fastest single drive I could get. Why not try one of those PCIx ssds?
 
HDGamer, are you "nirvanaguy" on slickdeals ranting like a child and giving questionable advice as absolutes? The guy there is claiming to be you and linking to the post, but I'm guessing its an imposter.

Opinions are completely irrelevant. Install HDTune and look at benchmark results. This factors in latencies and CPU and the like and demonstrates clearly that this is a non-issue on modern systems. I noticed considerable performance increase with my SSDs in RAID0, as will most drives.

The downside is that TRIM functionality will no longer work, and you have a slight increased risk of data loss from drive failure but really should have a backup regardless making the issue moot. Some drives though even of the same model are listed with higher performance in larger capacities than their smaller brothers, so that is something to check for any particular drive you are looking to buy. For me it was a no-brainer as I was just upgrading my laptop's single SSD to a larger unit, and tossed the leftover in RAID with an identical unit in another machine.
 
Opinions are completely irrelevant.
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There have been several benchmarks that show the real world application performance gain is minimal even though the large file sequential read / write performance nearly doubles.

Install HDTune and look at benchmark results.
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Does HDTune measure 4K reads and writes or IOPs?
 
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drescherjm said:
There have been several benchmarks that show the real world application performance gain is minimal even though the large file sequential read / write performance nearly doubles.

Does HDTune measure 4K reads and writes or IOPs?
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That is silly. Even in "real world" type benchmarks-scenarios RAID 0 has advantages. Granted it won't scale 100% but it's still a nice bump. Here is RAID 0 2x Intel 520's versus a single:

Ugg I think hardware Canuks has some sort of anti-image linking crap. Anyway look at all the real world tests.

Lol there is some lame URL changing crap going on here. Anyway just google: Intel 520 240GB SSD RAID 0 Performance Review

It's the first hit.
 
I had my vertex 3s in a RAID 0 array for over a year. The benchmark numbers were pretty awesome - over 1000 mb/s on sequential reads/compressible writes. I decided not to RAID them in my latest build and, truthfully, I can't tell the difference in windows or games. The only difference I can see, is during start up, I don't have to wait for the RAID array to intialize.

Edit: Don't take this as advice not to use RAID 0; do whatever you like. I'm more just pointing out that *I* could not tell the difference.
 
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