Worth the change from RAID0 VelociRaptor's to an SSD?

Redgie

Redgie

Redgie

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REVIED THREAD: See post #12

Hi guys!

Currently got 2 x 300GB WD VelociRaptor's in RAID0 which achieve speeds of around 220mbps, just wondering if it's worth changing to an SSD? I reckon I could get £140-£150 for my drives, so could afford a 120GB OCZ bigfoot for a little extra dosh.

Do you reckon it's worth it? I'd lose A LOT of space but I don't use that much anyway, am I going to notice that much a speed change in gaming / programming / file transfers?

REVIED THREAD: See post #12
 
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I went from one 300Gb velociraptor to one of the OCZ 60GB SSDs and was really disappointed. Perhaps I was just unlucky but for me the SSD had way too many unexplainable pauses, that just never occur on a regular drive. I am back with two 300GB velociraptors in raid now, which I am happy with.
 
Currently got 2 x 300GB WD VelociRaptor's in RAID0

Do you reckon it's worth it?
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I had 2 x 150GB Velociraptors in RAID0 and I went to an 80GB Intel X25-M G2 SSD and thought it was worth it...

Perhaps I was just unlucky but for me the SSD had way too many unexplainable pauses
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Interesting experience here...
 
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jbloggs said:
I had 2 x 150GB Velociraptors in RAID0 and I went to an 80GB Intel X25-M G2 SSD and thought it was worth it...
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I currently have 2x 150GB VelociRaptors in RAID0 and am thinking of getting the Crucial RealSSD C300 256GB. It's a lot to spend on a HDD, hope it is worth it :)
 
Redgie said:
Do you reckon it's worth it? I'd lose A LOT of space but I don't use that much anyway, am I going to notice that much a speed change in gaming / programming / file transfers?
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It sounds like you're a pretty heavy user, so if you're not needing a great deal of space go for it (wait for the new gen to arrive which should be any week now).

Easiest way I guess to think about it is that however much of an improvement you feel your velociraptors gave you over a normal drive, an SSD will be ten times as noticeable. i.e if you don't notice any difference with a velociraptor , SSD won't have a big impact, but if you did feel they made a difference, SSD will have a huge impact.
 
I got a crucial m225 ssd and wish I had 2 of the largest raptors instead because the weird pauses and really slow unpack time for rar files annoys me. Plus I can only fit like 1 large MMO on the drive with the os. Its faster to boot windows but thats about all.
 
Hmm the next gen of SSD's interest me.

I'd probably be picking things up second hand anyway, but I suppose waiting might push prices down anyway.

Are there likely to be many differences between the current and new SSD's?
 
Do you care about noise, heat and power consumption (elec bill).

If not then probably best to wait. If yes then maybe take a look.

I have never run raptors but I have run SCSI 15k drives in the past and now run 2*60GB OCZ Vertex II drives in raid0 off an Adaptec controller.

My machine POST is slow but boot up in to windows is fast when it is past the POST. Game and app loads are also fast and my setup is not optimum by any means. My machine is also pretty quiet and cool but I cannot tell how the loading is going by hard drive noise any more which is like loosing the ability of telling if you car has issues due to engine noises.

SSDs are nice, make sure you have a machine that can make the most of them. I believe Raptors are like my old Seagate cheetahs, fast, hot & noisy but I still loved them...

If you have no big need then wait for the next gen.

RB
 
Thought I'd best revive this rather than open a new one.

Nearly 2 years on I'm looking at switching again, the tech has moved a lot further forward now so it seems like a more sensible move. I was leaning towards Revo's but the reduced space is too much for me to handle. On a budget of around £200 I'd be looking at either

Agility RAID: http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=BU-112-OC&groupid=1657&catid=2101&subcat=2106
or Vertex RAID 2 x http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HD-106-OC&groupid=1657&catid=2101&subcat=2103

Do you guys think I'll notice much going from my VelociRAID to either of these, and if so, what are your thoughts on the difference between the two, and for that matter, any other SSD's you guys like?

Thanks folks :)
 
I also tried SSDs again, mainly due to the fall in prices. I now have two Agility 120GB 3s in RAID and kept the two raptors as storage, again in RAID.

The SSDs are much faster. There is a lot of advice on here about which SSDs to go for, and I am looking at maybe moving to the new Samsung 840 256GB.
 
morfmedia said:
I'd just get one Samsung 830 256gb and skip raid and ocz.
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So pay the same price for half the speed? How do you justify that? :o

Pandobear said:
I also tried SSDs again, mainly due to the fall in prices. I now have two Agility 120GB 3s in RAID and kept the two raptors as storage, again in RAID.

The SSDs are much faster. There is a lot of advice on here about which SSDs to go for, and I am looking at maybe moving to the new Samsung 840 256GB.
Click to expand...

Sadly if I was going to do this I'd need to sell the Veloc's to fund it, not that that's a problem really, I'd rather have everything the fastest possible place anyway, I store all my documents and whatnot on my server which has 8TB :)
 
Redgie said:
Do you guys think I'll notice much going from my VelociRAID to either of these, and if so, what are your thoughts on the difference between the two, and for that matter, any other SSD's you guys like?
Click to expand...

Wait... are you asking whether you'll notice a speed difference between something that can do maybe 200 IOPS vs something that can do 80,000? Let me spell that out: a Samsung 830 SSD can do 400 random transactions in the time it takes a Raptor to do ONE!!! Multiply that by tens of thousands of RANDOM transactions (as Windows boots, as an app launches, as you surf the web), and the difference is dramatic; not to mention power consumption, heat and noise.
 
Also, there is absolutely no need to RAID0 SSDs. You are risking your data, and there is no benefit.
 
I'm not asking for the on paper difference, it doesn't take a genius to figure out that x > y :p

What I'm asking is from an experience point of view, people who have made the switch and can make a proper comparison. Anybody using RAID'd VelociRaptors will know that loading times aint exactly long...or present, half the time, thus my inquiry :)

rotor said:
Also, there is absolutely no need to RAID0 SSDs. You are risking your data, and there is no benefit.
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No benefit from a speed increae?...ehh?

And don't worry about the data, all saved games, files and settings are stored on a domain server, nothing to lose but installations :)
 
A single SSD will absolutely blow away your RAIDed velociraptors.
 
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Just found an interesting benchmark (that coincidentally, includes a Raptor in the results).

http://www.hardwarecanucks.com/foru...-520-240gb-ssd-raid-0-performance-review.html

There definitely are *measurable* benefits to an SSD RAID0 configuration, but given the SSD is so much faster than a mechanical drive, my argument is that the *perceived* benefits just aren't there. And I'm a HUGE enemy of RAID0 under any circumstances, which hopefully explains my position a bit better.
 
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