SSDs in RAID 0

[dannite]

I am working on this mobo and have two of these drives.

The original plan was to RAID 0 these drives using the onboard RAID controller. However I am having some doubts after some googling about. My concerns are as follows:

1) Apparently my mobo will only do RAID on the 3gbps SATA ports and not the 6gbps ones (why? stupid!). So I will lose some of the SATA III awesomeness of these drives when RAIDed.

2) I have read conflicting reports about how good RAID 0 is on SSD. Some say the improvement is as little as %15.

3) Lack of TRIM support. This factor is not huge since the Corsair drives are supposed to be able to do this on their own (or something analogous). Also I will be imaging the whole drive to a large RAID 5 array on my network, so if I lose performance I will just secure erase, reformat and re-image. However, still a concern.

4) I read some people ripping on onboard RAID saying its not worth it unless you are using a dedicated RAID controller.

So based on these factors (and any other yall are aware of) should I still go with RAID 0, or just put the two drives on the 6gbps ports and use one for OS and one for games and relish the still-awesome performance of these drives?

[Drdeath]

1 x SSD is quite fast. IMO, there is no need for raid0. I see no reason why you cannot do raid0 on the 6G ports but remember the performance between 3G and 6G sata is the same with SSD's. Most will not use all the bandwith.I will say lack of Trim support keeps me from going raid..


Why not get a revo drive. I hear Stan just got one and wants to give it away.......

[Deton]

1) Apparently my mobo will only do RAID on the 3gbps SATA ports and not the 6gbps ones (why? stupid!). So I will lose some of the SATA III awesomeness of these drives when RAIDed.
this must be new that's something I'm not aware of

2) I have read conflicting reports about how good RAID 0 is on SSD. Some say the improvement is as little as %15.
it's definitely not double the performance.

3) Lack of TRIM support. This factor is not huge since the Corsair drives are supposed to be able to do this on their own (or something analogous). Also I will be imaging the whole drive to a large RAID 5 array on my network, so if I lose performance I will just secure erase, reformat and re-image. However, still a concern.
IMO, with the current price, it's not worth to doing RAID

4) I read some people ripping on onboard RAID saying its not worth it unless you are using a dedicated RAID controller.
It's not true, they are getting better now. It's not like few years ago, of course a dedicated RAID card will be better but are you willing to disc out a couple hundred dollars more to get this controller card.

So based on these factors (and any other yall are aware of) should I still go with RAID 0, or just put the two drives on the 6gbps ports and use one for OS and one for games and relish the still-awesome performance of these drives?

if you want trouble free then no RAID and extreme perform is a must then Revo is the best suite for it. It kicks any standard SSDs in RAID setup.

Why not get a revo drive. I hear Stan just got one and wants to give it away.......

you must be dreaming.....your daddy is not giving it up.

[Caleal]

I am working on this mobo and have two of these drives.

The original plan was to RAID 0 these drives using the onboard RAID controller. However I am having some doubts after some googling about. My concerns are as follows:

1) Apparently my mobo will only do RAID on the 3gbps SATA ports and not the 6gbps ones (why? stupid!). So I will lose some of the SATA III awesomeness of these drives when RAIDed.

I'm pretty sure you can, but you have to switch the Marvel controller to ACHI mode in the bios for the board, then set up the RAID array in the Marvel bios that pops up after you restart.

[Drdeath]

I'm pretty sure you can, but you have to switch the Marvel controller to ACHI mode in the bios for the board, then set up the RAID array in the Marvel bios that pops up after you restart.

It's definite you can but there is no Trim support for raid. The SDD's may degredate faster with no Trim. I know my Johnson degredates with no trim.

[Deton]

trim or no trim your Johnson has been gone a long time.....

[dannite]

Thanks for the opinions.

I built the system out last night and didn't do any RAID. Performance is still pretty good. This is my first serious rig (I have been a Mac guy forever), but I have never had a machine be so responsive and snappy. I assume this is largely due to the SSD.

I was a little surprised that the Windows Experience Index only gave the hard drive a 6.8 though. Anyone know what hardware is needed to improve that? The rest of the system is coming in at 7.5+.

[smduff]

Windows index scores don't mean squat, I wouldn't worry about it.

[Deton]

did you read our Sticky how to improve its performance?

[Drdeath]

Make sure you select AHCI not IDE in your BIOS on the SATA ports you use.