Got another SSD for xmas... RAID 0 or sell 1?

[DisgruntledVirus]

Got the Phoenix Pro 120 gb last month on sale at Newegg. For xmas I got the 120 gb Agility 2. Both are 120 gb Sandforce 1200 SSD's. I don't see a need to install in any of my other systems, so the question becomes either to sell one of them and then use the $ towards other computer stuff OR do I RAID 0 them and lose TRIM support?

Any thoughts?

 

[hclarkjr]

Got the Phoenix Pro 120 gb last month on sale at Newegg. For xmas I got the 120 gb Agility 2. Both are 120 gb Sandforce 1200 SSD's. I don't see a need to install in any of my other systems, so the question becomes either to sell one of them and then use the $ towards other computer stuff OR do I RAID 0 them and lose TRIM support?

Any thoughts?

I may be showing my stupidity here but don't they have to be same make and model to use in raid? both intel, ocz etc.?

 

[taltamir]

@DisgruntledVirus: sell it... or image your current drive to it and sell the one you bought earlier (that way you can tell the person who gifted it that you are using it and its great with a straight face).

@hclarkjr: not at all, you can raid anything you want. but when you do each drive will appear to be the size of the smallest drive in your RAID, and will behave as the slowest of all drives, it just makes sense to raid identical drives, otherwise the more expensive one (bigger, faster, etc) is not working at its peak and is essentially wasted.
However, the two drives are same controller and same size... they are the exact same drive only rebranded. the difference between them is literally the sticker.

 

[hclarkjr]

thanx, i learned something. been thinking about getting another 80gb g2 to go with the one i have to try raid for the first time.

 

[corkyg]

Why RAID 0? Why not add a second SSD for data?

 

[DisgruntledVirus]

@DisgruntledVirus: sell it... or imagine your current drive to it and sell the one you bought earlier (that way you can tell the person who gifted it that you are using it and its great with a straight face).

Why do you say sell it? RAID 0 performance increase not worth it?

Although I would sell the Phoenix drive and use the Agility most likely.

Why RAID 0? Why not add a second SSD for data?

I have most of my games on my SSD that I currently play. The only ones that aren't on it are my Steam games since I have well over 200 gb of games on there, so those are on my 1 TB Caviar black drive. So I couldn't have all of them installed like I do now if I used it for data.

I mean I could throw one in my gf's system, but honestly she wouldn't really see the performance increases due to what she uses it for (really only photoshop).

 

[God Mode]

I think a SSD is nice for photoshop. You notice a big difference if you use a ssd for a bit and try to go back to regular drives.

 

[Mfusick]

I may be showing my stupidity here but don't they have to be same make and model to use in raid? both intel, ocz etc.?

i think size is more important

 

[DisgruntledVirus]

i think size is more important

In this case they are the exact same drive. The only difference is the label and who the profits get sent to. The core drive though is the same, with the only possible exception being the amount of spare space on the drive (SSDs are actually larger than rated to account for bad flash, so that you actually get say 120 gb's for multiple years in addition to helping with garbage collection).

 

[Burner27]

Why RAID 0? Why not add a second SSD for data?

+1

RAID isn't worth the minimal performance increase you will perceive. I had 2 x 80GB Intel G2s in a RAID 0 array and while the performance increase showed on benchmarks, it was not enough for me to continue to keep the RAID going. Also, since I was using it as my OS drive (had a 120GB partition setup for it), I was only using 30GB for my OS and Apps. 90GB was going to waste. So I broke the array and I am using each drive separately. One for my OS/Apps and one for my VMs.

VMs on an SSD = nice and fast!!!!

 

[taltamir]

Why do you say sell it? RAID 0 performance increase not worth it?

not with only 2 drives. you lose out on trim, which costs performance (not as much as you gain, but enough), and SSDs are very expensive right now and its hard to justify the performance increase of a second one.
Going from 1HDD to 1SSD about doubles sequential performance and increases random performance ~100x (this is what all the fuss is about). Going from 1SSD to 2SSD in raid0 increases sequential performance by about 50% while having no effect on random performance.
And because regular HDD ~50$ and SSD about 200$ each, you are looking at 150$ for first upgrade and 200$ for second... so you pay more, you pay another 200$, and you barely get anything back out of it.

 

[DisgruntledVirus]

not with only 2 drives. you lose out on trim, which costs performance (not as much as you gain, but enough), and SSDs are very expensive right now and its hard to justify the performance increase of a second one.
Going from 1HDD to 1SSD about doubles sequential performance and increases random performance ~100x (this is what all the fuss is about). Going from 1SSD to 2SSD in raid0 increases sequential performance by about 50% while having no effect on random performance.
And because regular HDD ~50$ and SSD about 200$ each, you are looking at 150$ for first upgrade and 200$ for second... so you pay more, you pay another 200$, and you barely get anything back out of it.

Thanks for the rationale behind it.

So, use it for apps/games (which my current 120 isn't full so apps/games drive seems useless). Or, put it in the gf's system (which I'd rather wait until drives are cheaper to do this). So it looks like sell one of them is the best option.

Thanks all.

 

[Makaveli]

not with only 2 drives. you lose out on trim, which costs performance (not as much as you gain, but enough), and SSDs are very expensive right now and its hard to justify the performance increase of a second one.
Going from 1HDD to 1SSD about doubles sequential performance and increases random performance ~100x (this is what all the fuss is about). Going from 1SSD to 2SSD in raid0 increases sequential performance by about 50% while having no effect on random performance.
And because regular HDD ~50$ and SSD about 200$ each, you are looking at 150$ for first upgrade and 200$ for second... so you pay more, you pay another 200$, and you barely get anything back out of it.

Great post!