Hardware based RAID controllers and SSD...

[solofly]

I'm getting ready to pickup a couple of SSD drives (most likely Intel's X25-M G2 or OCZ's Vertex) and I'm debating if I should get a hardware based RAID controller along with it instead of using ICH10R onboard controller. I only got one PCI-E slot with 4X lanes free so I narrowed down my choices to either Adaptec RAID 3405 or 3ware 9650SE-4LPML. What do you guys think...(driver support, etc.)
Anyone out there using hardware based controller and solid state drives in RAID 0 and could share their experience...?

 

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You don't need expensive hardware RAID controllers for RAID 0. Especially on ICH10R, which in itself is a fairly capable simple-RAID controller.

Really, at this point, if you were to get a hardware RAID controller for your SSDs, you'd only be throwing your money away. The RAID controllers you linked to are great for parity sets like RAID 5, however.

 

[solofly]

Please have a look at this thread...(for example)

http://communities.intel.com/message/29617

 

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Originally posted by: solofly
Please have a look at this thread...(for example)

http://communities.intel.com/message/29617

I can't claim to have SSDs in RAID 0 with hardware RAID controllers, but if my experience with HDDs in RAID 0 on onboard controllers vs. hardware controllers, there's not much difference. Perhaps there is a big difference that I'm not sure about, or maybe the RAID algorithm is just that much more efficient on hardware RAID controllers, but what it looks like to me is a guy with lots of money spending on a RAID controller just because he can.

Personally, I wouldn't spend the extra $300 for inconsequential performance gains.

 

[solofly]

Here's a guy that's pretty much facing the same dilemma as I am with this SSD purchase...(specifically being a RAID 0 user)

http://communities.intel.com/message/51367#51367

 

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Seems like you're trying to convince me otherwise. You're doing your research, draw your own conclusions.

 

[Idontcare]

(from the intel communities link)

Originally posted by: Theo343
I am mildly put outraged by this decission from Intel!

The forthmost reason I decided to buy Intel G1 myself (despite its high prices), instead of:

- OCZ Vertex
- SuperTalent Ultradrive ME
- G.Skill Falcon
- Patriot Torqx
(Which all have the great 64MB cached Indilinx Barefoot controller and is much cheaper than Intel G1)

Was because Intel was gonna release TRIM in a future G1 firmware!

I spent many months on this decision before i finally went trough with it and bough Intel X25-M80 G1. This drive is indeed very expensive so I could not afford more of them at that time in june 2009. 80GB was not adequate for my needs and my plans were to expand with more G1s later and run them in Raid-0 when TRIM and Windows7 was released. Thanks for making this a big no-go!

Instead of feeling that Ive bought a great product I now feel Ive been tricked, abused and fooled by Intel and that I now have a product which is substantially less worth to me.

I will not anymore recommend any of my contacts, customers or connections to buy an Intel SSD if this is not reconsidered! Before this Intel was on my top recommendation for anyone asking about SSD.

- I am outraged on Intel because of this.
- The second-hand prices will plumit because of this (thanks Intel!)
- Theres is no longer any interest in expanding it with more G1 80GBs to get the needed space.
- I can hardly use it for anything useful because of the small space.
- I wont touch G2 because of this and will inform everyone about this breach of trust.

This is just plain disrespect of your customers!

Regards
39 yo Senior System Consultant.

Wow, this guy sure likes to rage. How on earth did he ever convince himself that G1's were going to support TRIM?

To the OP - no firsthand personal experience with SSD's and raid0 but there were a couple threads here a while back when the G1 first came out discussing the raid0 benches. So there are reviews out there with G1's in raid0 with various controllers.

My recommendation is to search out those reviews and see if they note any issues with hardware controllers. To memory there were no issues reported in those raid reviews regarding G1's and ICHR10 or dedicated raid cards.