What's the 'right' way to set up RAID 0?

nogoodreason

nogoodreason

nogoodreason

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I have two sets of identical SSDs so figure it makes sense to run them in RAID 0. I get the impression that nowadays there are several ways to create a RAID array so I want to make sure I'm not making any mistakes.

In the past I've gone into BIOS, changed SATA mode from "AHCI" to "RAID" which has given me an extra dialogue box as the computer boots up. Created the array from there with recommended settings, then booted into Windows and formatted the new "disk" Windows finds. (I'm never entirely sure whether to format it as MBR or the other one if it's just a storage drive.)

Is this the best way to go about creating an effective RAID 0 setup? Or am I missing something/should be looking into software, etc?

Any and all advice welcomed.


Motherboard:
ASUS Z97-K Intel Z97 (Socket 1150) DDR3 ATX Motherboard

Proposed C:
2x Samsung 256GB SSD 850 PRO SATA 6Gbps 3D NAND SSD

Proposed D:
2x Intel X25-M 160GB
 
Thanks for the reassurance.

I need to initialise my D: array before I can access it. Should I go with MBR or GPT?

(I am curious to try out Intel Rapid Storage - is this something I can utilise the older SSDs for? Have never used it before.)
 
nogoodreason said:
Thanks for the reassurance.

I need to initialise my D: array before I can access it. Should I go with MBR or GPT?
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I would format as GPT. There are some advantages to GPT over MBR, and it is a bit more resilient to file system corruption. It's recommended if you're booting under UEFI.

nogoodreason said:
(I am curious to try out Intel Rapid Storage - is this something I can utilise the older SSDs for? Have never used it before.)
Click to expand...

The way you've done it is fine. The other way is just to set the BIOS to RAID, install Windows to one drive, then just add the second drive and convert to RAID 0.

Bear in mind you may not see a massive speed increase with SSDs as they are already fast, and you might just end up saturating the drive controller or PCIe lanes. RAID 0 also has the potential to lose all your data if one of your drives goes down. I only mention it as you seem to be wanting to install as RAID 0 because it's there, rather than because you need it.

Intel RST is usable with older SSDs, just make sure you use one of the new versions (version 14 +), not whatever has been sitting on Asus' website for the last two years. I'm currently using 14.8.1.1043 on my Asus Z87 board. RST is quite versatile and allows you to administer the firmware RAID from inside Windows.
 
Thanks Steampunk. This is a point I see raised whenever talk of RAID 0 and SSDs comes up - to be honest I mostly want to do it to see if I notice a difference. Plus the older SSDs aren't very big so I'd find it convenient to have it seen as one 320GB.

I'm most curious about its effect on big, high quality computer games. Previously I had Windows, Steam and Photoshop on the SSD, but all their related game and image files were on an older, bigger drive.

Given the choice between having Steam and the game files installed together on one big RAID 0 SSD array, and having two separate SSDs - one with software, the other with files - which would you choose and why?
 
nogoodreason said:
I'm most curious about its effect on big, high quality computer games. Previously I had Windows, Steam and Photoshop on the SSD, but all their related game and image files were on an older, bigger drive.

Given the choice between having Steam and the game files installed together on one big RAID 0 SSD array, and having two separate SSDs - one with software, the other with files - which would you choose and why?
Click to expand...

Well games will obviously load faster, and there are some settings you can tweak (buffer writeback) that will improve some things by letting RST handle caching rather than Windows. In the end, you'll see a faster load and faster streaming of assets. This may or may not have an effect, depending on things like whether the game streams assets, or loads everything into RAM at the beginning, whether you have things like AMD card's shader cache (which mitigates streaming hiccups for incoming data) etc. So it basically depends on what you play, at what settings, and how much RAM you have in your PC and on your graphics card.

I don't think you'll see a massive difference between two SSD drives as RAID 0 and two separate drives as in both cases the data needs to go through the same controllers and PCIe lanes as it still fundamentally two drives where the data goes across the same hardware. I'd be surprised if the difference is more than a few seconds at most, and that will be down to caching.

It's only if you have to move outside those fast devices to a slow one where you'll see a difference. In your example, Photoshop would be fast to load, but then as soon as you need to get your data from a HDD, you bottleneck down to waiting on a relatively slower mechanical drive.

I personally would go for two separate drives, just because I don't like the idea that one drive could fall over or go bad and you lose all your data off that RAID 0 array. If you're serious about backups or use RAID 0+1, it may not be an issue to you. If you are only going to store Steam games and are happy to re-install down a fast internet pipe if you lost those drives, then give RAID 0 a go just to get a larger logical drive.
 
Appreciate your input, thanks very much.

You're correct about the fast internet and not-majorly-important game files. Perhaps I'll start out running the older Intels in RAID 0 but leaving the Samsungs alone.

Would I be at any disadvantage by doing that? I know a few things don't like to work when your motherboard's not in AHCI mode. Unsure about Intel Rapid Storage and what the best way to implement that would be.
 
I use 2x Samsung Evo 512GB 850s in raid 0 for games / windows / apps and have everything else on backup drives / external

Everything loads insanely fast and had 0 issues.
 
i was gonna do a raid 0 set up on my 2x960gb SSD's but went against it coz to many people on the internet said it was pointless if used for gaming, not much of a difference, so Im gonna get a PCIe SDD when it becomes a bit cheaper....
 
Use one drive for windows and the other to accelerate your mechanical drive. I do this with with 2 x 1tb wd black in raid 0. I have been using raid 0 for over 10 years never had a problem.

Only drive to fail on me was a 2tb wd green
 
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