Raid 0 SSDs

Techen · 16 Sep 2014 at 20:43

Hi all, I've just made two of my samsung 500GBs raid 0 so it gives me 1TB of storage. However my windows are on my old ssd 128GB and when I tried to boot on RAID it bluescreened. So I went back to ACHI and it boots fine but windows wont display my new "1TB" ssds.

Do I need to be on RAID intead of ACHI to use the 1TB ssds? and would this mean I cant use my 128GB SSD since it uses ACHI?

zola25 · 16 Sep 2014 at 20:54

You will need the controller in RAID mode for your striped SSDs to work. However, you can get your O/S drive to work in RAID mode too without reinstalling, you just need to "tell" it to load the RAID driver.

Instructions can be found here http://www.overclock.net/t/1227636/how-to-change-sata-modes-after-windows-installation

As an aside, why did you feel the need to RAID the two 500Gb SSDs? Performance gains will only likely show up in benchmarks, and a single drive failing will mean you loose the whole 1Tb of data.

Techen · 16 Sep 2014 at 22:01

zola25 said:
You will need the controller in RAID mode for your striped SSDs to work. However, you can get your O/S drive to work in RAID mode too without reinstalling, you just need to "tell" it to load the RAID driver.

Instructions can be found here http://www.overclock.net/t/1227636/how-to-change-sata-modes-after-windows-installation

As an aside, why did you feel the need to RAID the two 500Gb SSDs? Performance gains will only likely show up in benchmarks, and a single drive failing will mean you loose the whole 1Tb of data.

Don't game loading times benefit from raid SSDs other than benchmarks??

Techen · 16 Sep 2014 at 22:02

Also in your link there is no windows 8.1 guide, only 7 unless it still works?

Terrier_Jimlad · 16 Sep 2014 at 22:08

Techen said:
Don't game loading times benefit from raid SSDs other than benchmarks??

1-2 seconds tops, does not justify the waste of a 500GB SSD and the associated risk(s) mentioned above.

Techen · 16 Sep 2014 at 22:13

Terrier_Jimlad said:
1-2 seconds tops, does not justify the waste of a 500GB SSD and the associated risk(s) mentioned above.

Samsung seems like the best company to go with for SSDs, I have a old OCZ thats been running for the past 2 years with zero failure rate. So... Unless samsung has a rep for being terrible what should I be worrying about?

On Holiday · 16 Sep 2014 at 22:16

Samsung are incredibly reliable for SSDs yep.
OCZ have, without a doubt, the worst reliability of the lot - not sure if the recent models are better, only time will tell.

RAID 0 SSDs are pointless for consumer-usetbh, wouldn't bother.

Techen · 16 Sep 2014 at 22:19

Archeum said:
Samsung are incredibly reliable for SSDs yep.
OCZ have, without a doubt, the worst reliability of the lot - not sure if the recent models are better, only time will tell.

RAID 0 SSDs are pointless for consumer-usetbh, wouldn't bother.

Hm...

So whats the best course of action?

I want to install my windows 8.1 onto the samsungs, cause well. Being how old my OCZ is I want my OS on something brand new.

Thing is, My samsungs dont show in windows anyway when set to ACHI when not raid 0? But it shows up in intels rapid??

Techen · 16 Sep 2014 at 23:08

Nevermind all good now!

On Holiday · 17 Sep 2014 at 04:13

Nice

Yeah, ideally you need the SATA controller set to AHCI - if you try to change it once Windows is installed you'll more than likely blue-screen/have issues.. And don't defragment them!

I think win8 stops it automatically though.

3t3P · 17 Sep 2014 at 05:52

I thought raid 0 didn't get you more capacity it got you performance.

So is it RAID 1 he did?

Furyus · 17 Sep 2014 at 06:22

I've got my 2 Samsung evo 120gb in RAID0 and notice a increase in boot times and loading games. But I know it limits the life span, so I might unraid them.

On Holiday · 17 Sep 2014 at 10:28

3t3P said:
I thought raid 0 didn't get you more capacity it got you performance.

So is it RAID 1 he did?

Generally like this;

RAID 0 (2x 500GB) Gives you a total of 1TB. The data is striped, so the data is split between disks. With SSDs it tends to give double the Read/Write performance, but still unnoticeable and impractical for consumer-use. For HDDs it may be worth it. But buying good performance drives (WD Blacks) in the first place is the way I'd go.

RAID 1 (2x 500GB) Gives you a total of 500GB space. The data is mirrored, very little (if any) performance difference.

I'm pretty sure having the drives in RAID 0 doesn't actually decrease the lifespan, it just offers no redundancy, aka one drive fails - all data is gone.

zola25 · 17 Sep 2014 at 17:10

Sorry for the delay looks like you have it sorted, but for what it's worth..

Techen said:
Don't game loading times benefit from raid SSDs other than benchmarks??

Very, very little as others have said. You get a big jump going from HDD to SSD, but then only a tiny fraction more from striped SSDs.

Techen said:
Also in your link there is no windows 8.1 guide, only 7 unless it still works?

Yes, it also works on Windows 8/8.1, apologies I should have mentioned that

dangel · 17 Sep 2014 at 17:15

I used to run SSDs in RAID 0 but split the drives back a year or so ago - first I don't notice the difference in practice and second most RAID controllers don't allow forwarding of TRIM commands so the drives can end up being slower. Then there's the complexity and risk involved. Stick with single drives.