2 x Crucial RealSSD M4 128GB in RAID?

Rich-Ando · 4 Sep 2011 at 21:45

ok, having read everything and listening to the suggestions it would seem that most are opting for the Crucial RealSSD M4

i currently am using 2 x 150Veloci Raptors so i might as well get
2 x Crucial RealSSD M4 128GB 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Hard Drive [CT128M4SSD2]

i have an

Asus P6X58D-E
12G or corsair Dominator
2 x 1TB drives for important storage

question, as i can't seem to find out how to turn the raid off on the mobo yet (lost book) i was wondering if anybody had any reason why i shouldn't raid 2 of these up for OS?

Rich-Ando · 4 Sep 2011 at 22:23

thanks for those replies.

i'll give that last suggestion some thought as well.

another point i forgot to ask was: -

i tend to leave my rig on 24-7, has anybody heard of these suffering from heat more than HDD's?

Rich-Ando · 5 Sep 2011 at 09:13

1st, i'll have to find out what the hell "trim" is :confused:

before i can understand that reply.

also, why not raid them, everybody else seemed to say that was the way to go?

had a thought about it and if i went for the SSD then even though you say i have a crappy sata3 port (didn't know this), i should still see an amazing improvement according to everybody's replies over SSD speed compared to Raptors.

the other point is the future one. if i change my mobo in the near future for one that has better sata3 ports then i can use these SSD's again.

is it just a case of installing both into the raid and then installing OS as normal or do i have to mess about with them?

Rich-Ando · 5 Sep 2011 at 19:07

right i've read a little on TRIM but can't say i fully understand it.

1) can the SSD's not be defragged as a normal drive?
2) is it only when they are set in Raid0 that the TRIM doesn't work?
3) if i'm using 2 of these drives will i be better off losing out on TRIM and using 2 in raid0 OS/ video editing & games or 1 as OS and the other as editing/games

Rich-Ando · 5 Sep 2011 at 23:38

thanks for that input.

video editing requires a lot of processing and saving/loading of large files.

some of the files i am playing with are around 15-25G in size. i was hoping that the SSD read/write time would improve it.
i will be transferring files to another raid but they are standard 1TB HDD's

i don't care about how much longer it takes to load windows originally cos i hardly ever turn the rig off, hence my concern about the heat performance in relation to HDD's.

if i had them in raid0 i would back them up anyway, seeing as i was stupid enough to not do it this time i have learnt my lesson hopefully.

don't you just hate not being able to make your mind up?

some say get Crucial, some say the others are fine.
some say raid them, some say don't.

it will be windows 7 64 ultimate on the OS so i don't quite know if you meant that was one of the things that work properly or not.

Rich-Ando · 6 Sep 2011 at 09:39

now it's becoming clearer, many thanks for your help.

it will be a fresh Win 7 64 ultimate installation, so no need to worry about TRIM then.

the heat is less of a problem than standard HDD's..that's another worry out of the window then.

the only time i would transfer them to another disc is for backup purposes anyway and when i do that the folders can be up to 300G so i normally just click it and leave it, it takes an hour or so at the moment i think.

my intention is to load and process the files on the same drive as the program & OS thus hopefully giving me the fastest responses i can get.

the only problem i have now is this reason for not using the Crucial ones on Raid0. one drive at 128G is just far too small and the price jumps massively for larger SSD's.
not sure if it is just scaremonger or a real common problem but a lot of members seem to be reporting other drives as suspect for reliability.

maybe 2 of the drives @128G, 1 as storage and the other as OS. probably a bit slower but still faster transfer than i have now?
or 2 reliable recommended drives for raid?

Rich-Ando · 6 Sep 2011 at 16:09

this is the exact reason i come here, a brilliant forum with people willing to offer advise on things i don't know :cool:

so then i am better off buying one drive such as

Crucial RealSSD M4 256GB 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Hard Drive [CT256M4SSD2]

instead of 2 smaller ones. it's a shame they are still outlandishly expensive for the sizes. i'll have to keep it OS & a few main used programmes, the rest can go on the other drives.

just need to find out how to turn the raid off on my board now. read the instructions but i can't seem to get the screen up.

thanks everybody for your input.