SSD - RAID 0 Which controller?

H@mmer

H@mmer

H@mmer

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Hi I'm running 2x60gb OCZ Vertex in RAID 0. I'm getting very low on storage space here now as my daughter has installed a few games on them (C: Drive).

I'm looking at getting a couple of 120gb drives to put in RAID 0, but which controller do I go for that will do garbage collection via Windows 7? Or do any newer drives support Trim in RAID via Windows 7?

Do I stick with the SF-2281 or go for something newer? Speed is important so I don't want any low speed write drives. I'm also open to SSD recommendation.

My mother board is an Asus P8Z68-V Pro.

Cheers H.
 
Buy a single 250GB or 500GB 840 Evo and be done with it. Once you enable RAPID (uses system RAM to cache reads and writes at the block level), you are significantly exceeding the speed of a SATA 3 interface. Check out the reviews, it is pretty amazing.

Much safer than RAID 0, simpler, your machine will boot a lot quicker without a RAID controller, you will have guaranteed Trim, and definitely cheaper (you won't have to buy another RAID controller).
 
rotor said:
Buy a single 250GB or 500GB 840 Evo and be done with it. Once you enable RAPID (uses system RAM to cache reads and writes at the block level), you are significantly exceeding the speed of a SATA 3 interface. Check out the reviews, it is pretty amazing.

Much safer than RAID 0, simpler, your machine will boot a lot quicker without a RAID controller, you will have guaranteed Trim, and definitely cheaper (you won't have to buy another RAID controller).
Click to expand...

I'll have a look but I'm not to sure about it. I think if you machine goes off when using RAPID (writing) it can screw your drive. We have had several power cuts hear lately. I think due to the hot weather. So far my RAID has booted back up with no problems.
 
the latest rapid storage drivers should support trim in raid 0

the Samsung 840 series are decent drives,upto you whether you choose the non pro 250gb drives or the smaller pro 128gb drives

but should work fine on the intel sata3 speed ports

not sure if you need the latest bios oprom,sorry don't know much on raid
 
Z68 raid is a hassle i think offically u want Z77 really or need a custom bios z68 and using asus flashback so prepare for a bit of reading.

You need Bios orom 11 onwards and a bios that has a orom above that too and Intel RST driver suite above 11 also.I would reccomended looking for Z68 11.2 or 11.5 version so double check on this.These guys can help u out though u need to ask or google for the Z68 page.

http://www.overclock.net/t/1244232/asus-asrock-msi-gigabyte-bioss-with-updated-raid-orom
 
Last edited:
H@mmer said:
I'll have a look but I'm not to sure about it. I think if you machine goes off when using RAPID (writing) it can screw your drive. We have had several power cuts hear lately. I think due to the hot weather. So far my RAID has booted back up with no problems.
Click to expand...
It doesn't screw your drive at all. You may lose a small portion of a file (if you happened to be writing at exactly the moment when the power was cut), but to me that is still vastly preferable to increased risk of losing all your data if a single disk dies in RAID 0. The reviews I've seen note that the RAPID software is very aggressive in writing all the data to the disk (which is going to the much faster portion of the Evo anyway) by consolidating multiple small writes to fewer large writes. So yes, it definitely is a risk, but a very low one, and even when it happens, the impact will be small because it will only be the relatively small outstanding writes at the time.

I'm super psyched about the Evo, can you tell?! =)
 
Rofflay said:
Z68 raid is a hassle i think offically u want Z77 really or need a custom bios z68 and using asus flashback so prepare for a bit of reading.

You need Bios orom 11 onwards and a bios that has a orom above that too and Intel RST driver suite above 11 also.I would reccomended looking for Z68 11.2 or 11.5 version so double check on this.These guys can help u out though u need to ask or google for the Z68 page.

http://www.overclock.net/t/1244232/asus-asrock-msi-gigabyte-bioss-with-updated-raid-orom
Click to expand...

Lots to read through there, thanks.

rotor said:
It doesn't screw your drive at all. You may lose a small portion of a file (if you happened to be writing at exactly the moment when the power was cut), but to me that is still vastly preferable to increased risk of losing all your data if a single disk dies in RAID 0. The reviews I've seen note that the RAPID software is very aggressive in writing all the data to the disk (which is going to the much faster portion of the Evo anyway) by consolidating multiple small writes to fewer large writes. So yes, it definitely is a risk, but a very low one, and even when it happens, the impact will be small because it will only be the relatively small outstanding writes at the time.

I'm super psyched about the Evo, can you tell?! =)
Click to expand...

I'll look for some reviews, cheers.
 
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