Performance: 2 x Sata 2 HDD in Raid 0 vs 1 x Sata 3 HDD + SSD Caching

b.cummins

b.cummins

b.cummins

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Hi all,

I haven't had any luck trying to find an answer to this one so I thought I'd pick the local brains.

I'm currently running 2 500gb Sata 2 drives in a RAID 0 configuration, which I have been for some time. Using the intel controllers and now on the Z77 chipset, I always ensure I have write back cache enabled, etc.


I am now considering the possibility of changing the configuration for a few reasons. First of all, Sata 2 is older technology, I also think there is a reasonable boot delay if you have a Raid configuration on the controller, then there's the fact that RAID 0 is inevitably less reliable. So i'm wondering with the addition of intel smart response technology, would i do just as well in performance by getting a 1TB Sata 3 drive paired up with a 60/64gb SSD drive acting as a cache?

I had also heard Sata 3 is a bit of a gimick as the controller limitations barely move beyond Sata 2 bandwidths?
 
sata 3 vs sata 2 on hdd's doesn't matter. sata 2 limitation is around 275mb's PER DRIVE, hdd's don't come remotely close to that, the best of the best at the fastest point of the platter is maybe 160mb's, and random performance is sub 1mb's. Sata 3 hdd's will gain you nothing at all over sata 2, caching the array of a single drive will offer a significant performance improvement, booting should stay faster, but there is only so much cache and it depends somewhat on your usage, if you open the same two programs and the same two games you'll get a good boost, not sure how useful it is if you open a different 10-20gb game every day and rarely use the same data.

Personally I'd simply get, well for the cost of a 64gb ssd and 1tb drive you can get a 128gb ssd, use that as your main drive, put the os on it, a few games, and use the raid 0 array as the secondary drive for less important games and storage.
 
b.cummins said:
First of all, Sata 2 is older technology
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That wouldn't be a limitation if you're only dealing with spinning disks.
b.cummins said:
I also think there is a reasonable boot delay if you have a Raid configuration on the controller
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About 3 seconds on my Z68 board.
b.cummins said:
Would i do just as well in performance by getting a 1TB Sata 3 drive paired up with a 60/64gb SSD drive acting as a cache?
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You would lose the high sequential write speeds (200MB/s vs. 100MB/s), but you would gain on much lower acess times and much higher read speeds (500MB/s vs. 200MB/s) - better for booting windows / loading apps / games.
b.cummins said:
I had also heard Sata 3 is a bit of a gimmick as the controller limitations barely move beyond Sata 2 bandwidths?
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Happily not true!
 
Thank you all for the clarifications, that's a lot of things I didn't know!

I feel I may have led you with a bit of a red herring but not explaining the configuration I already have in place.

I already have a 64gb Samsung 830D SSD as well as my 1tb Raid 0 array composed of the 2 x 500gb Drives.

I currently have the OS on my SSD, and I use the raid drive as my secondary for most of my games, files and applications.

My main uses are web applications, games and occasion hd video & media playback.

With this in mind i thought my options would be on the lines of what I originally set out up there. I'd even have scope to buy a bigger SSD for my OS and switch the 64gb samsung to a caching drive.
 
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