2 x SSD in R.A.I.D0 VS M.2 PCI-e

Goucho

Goucho

Goucho

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Ok guys I have a build shopping list in another part of the forum and my choice of storage may not be the best. I have been offered 2 different choices.
1. run 2 x SSDs in raid0
2. Use an M.2 pci-e drive

I am looking for around 250GB so which is the best all round. I mean which is stable/fastest read/write?

I am using it for Gaming/recording footage/editing/editing.

Thanx in advance you guys are so helpful!!!
 
Samsung XP941 by a country mile if you can buy one...and your motherboard supports 4 lane PCIe M.2

Samsung SM951 are like hens teeth and a further step forward, rumours are that people are removing from notebooks and flogging on ebay...hopefully Samsung will start selling them properly soon.

Seems like its still going to be a few months before M.2 PCIe x4 products start appearing in full.
 
A single modern SSD can saturate Sata 3..although the smaller 250GB have less memory channels/performance..but raiding SSD for a consumer applications seems inefficient and unelligant....
 
Sin_Chase said:
Dont.
Raid.
SSDs.
Click to expand...

Valid a couple of years ago but somewhat missing the point today.
- TRIM is supported
- Firmware rarely needs to be updated (SSD is a more mature tech than it was - other than 1 issue with Samsung degradation, I have heard very little)
- Manufacturers themselves are pushing for higher sequential speeds (i.e. M.2 and PCI-E SSDs which are normally RAID'ed anyway)
- Provides single consolidated storage space (instead of 2x 1TB SSD drives, you can have a single 2TB Volume for all your Steam library)
- 2x SATA drives can be more easily reused than an M.2 drive ever will (e.g. can be carried over to 2 separate rigs, put into older PCs etc - will M.2 have longevity or is it just an interim solution?)

To provide some kind of balance though:
- 2 smaller drives rarely cost less than 1 big drive
- potential for more to go wrong



The major benefit of SSDs is Access Time, not sequential large file read/write speed.
Click to expand...

And if OP wasn't interested in sequential read/write, he wouldn't be looking at M.2 Drives? More to the point if Sequential speed didn't matter, then the industry wouldn't have moved to M.2 to surpass the limits of SATA?



Personally if I was the OP, I would just buy a single 500GB Samsung and be done with it.
 
Armageus said:
Valid a couple of years ago but somewhat missing the point today.
- TRIM is supported
- Firmware rarely needs to be updated (SSD is a more mature tech than it was - other than 1 issue with Samsung degradation, I have heard very little)
- Manufacturers themselves are pushing for higher sequential speeds (i.e. M.2 and PCI-E SSDs which are normally RAID'ed anyway)
- Provides single consolidated storage space (instead of 2x 1TB SSD drives, you can have a single 2TB Volume for all your Steam library)
- 2x SATA drives can be more easily reused than an M.2 drive ever will (e.g. can be carried over to 2 separate rigs, put into older PCs etc - will M.2 have longevity or is it just an interim solution?)
Click to expand...

- TRIM has been supported for ages, but is entirely besides the point
- Look at the Samsung EVOs, required a Firmware update for performance recovery
- Huge sequential read/write and IOPS, as in PCI-E Drives, has no place in a desktop/gaming grade system. That's enterprise level stuff. The reaosn it was developed is for enterprise applications. For example - High demand database serving. Just because you can, does not mean you should
- Consolidated space? Who really cares? Steam allows you to manage multiple Librays and present them to you, in actual usage, as one - Totally flawlessly.
- I never suggested he bought a PCI-E drive. I just suggested he did not raid SSDs

It's all as relevant now as it was years ago. There is absolutely no benefit to RAID SSDs over a single SSD that warrants doing it. Even without any/few downsides, however minor they are perceived, why even bother?

The OP does not need the read/write speeds beyond what a modern SATA-3 SSD can offer. What video capture will be be performing that writes at 500GB/second? None is the answer. What supporting hardware does he have that will allow him to edit footage that will be bottlenecked by SATA-3 SSD speeds? Ultaimtely PCI-E drives are numbers in bright lights for bragging rights. They are useful in mobile applications, such as laptops, where form factor is king. I doubt anyone outside of the enterprise environment can justify such ridiculous numbers.

The same end advice applies from this end. Get a single large SSD and be done with it.
 
Last edited:
Sin_Chase said:
- TRIM has been supported for ages, but is entirely besides the point
- Look at the Samsung EVOs, required a Firmware update for performance recovery
- Huge sequential read/write and IOPS, as in PCI-E Drives, has no place in a desktop/gaming grade system. That's enterprise level stuff. The reaosn it was developed is for enterprise applications. For example - High demand database serving. Just because you can, does not mean you should
- Consolidated space? Who really cares? Steam allows you to manage multiple Librays and present them to you, in actual usage, as one - Totally flawlessly.
- I never suggested he bought a PCI-E drive. I just suggested he did not raid SSDs

It's all as relevant now as it was years ago. There is absolutely no benefit to RAID SSDs over a single SSD that warrants doing it. Even without any/few downsides, however minor they are perceived, why even bother?

The OP does not need the read/write speeds beyond what a modern SATA-3 SSD can offer. What video capture will be be performing that writes at 500GB/second? None is the answer. What supporting hardware does he have that will allow him to edit footage that will be bottlenecked by SATA-3 SSD speeds? Ultaimtely PCI-E drives are numbers in bright lights for bragging rights. They are useful in mobile applications, such as laptops, where form factor is king. I doubt anyone outside of the enterprise environment can justify such ridiculous numbers.

The same end advice applies from this end. Get a single large SSD and be done with it.
Click to expand...

im hoping that M.2 PCIe x4 is not for bragging rights..but a meaningful step forward.

They shouldnt be more costly to produce, they perform better, they free up a sata port if the mboard supports....whats not to like...just hurry up and start selling them already....:-)
 
Sin_Chase said:
- Look at the Samsung EVOs, required a Firmware update for performance recovery
Click to expand...

One High profile update in a long time - SSDs are now a mature technology - they do not need constant firmware updates. I have SSDs in both of my PCs at home - have never felt a compulsive need to update them other than when they were first installed. Again at work, we have SSDs in some 30 Desktop PCs - the firmware has never been updated.

Sin_Chase said:
- Consolidated space? Who really cares? Steam allows you to manage multiple Librays and present them to you, in actual usage, as one - Totally flawlessly.
Click to expand...

I apologise for that as don't use Steam frequently enough to know about that.


ginjaninja said:
im hoping that M.2 PCIe x4 is not for bragging rights..but a meaningful step forward.

They shouldnt be more costly to produce, they perform better, they free up a sata port if the mboard supports....whats not to like...just hurry up and start selling them already....:-)
Click to expand...

They shouldn't cost more as there is less to them, perform better - apparently no one needs them to. As for freeing up Sata port - not really, just means than manufacturers have to make space (potentially compromising board layout to do so), when most boards already have 6 SATA ports.

Not to mention that you can't hot swap them, won't be able to use them as external drives (e.g. usb caddies), and no guarantee future boards will have them (so no keeping your expensive storage drives between upgrades).

Sounds like a stop gap solution to me. SATA Express is the other technology that should be implemented, but I don't recall seeing any drives yet - as far as I know, at least it is forwards/backwards compatible with SATA.
 
Well i have had a major rethink as there was a lot of info thrown about. I already have 2 x ssd's and 2x sata3 HDD's so will make do with them but i have a cunning plan ...... my new system will have 32GB DDR4 Quad channel ram @ 2400Mhz before OC so i will setup RAMDISC for my video editing software and game maps etc. That will sort the speed issue once and for all ;)

Thanx so much for all the replies i found this quite interesting and informative :)
 
not really, just means than manufacturers have to make space
Click to expand...

see your point, but im buying an X99 motherboard with 10 Sata Ports and 1 M.2 PCIex4 port, so by using M.2 i still get 10 sata ports..and i will use every one of them...
 
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