Help me decide, SSD purchase

[felang]

So I decided to finally purchase my first SSD and use it as my main OS drive. I´m thinking 128gb should be more than enough.

I have decide to get a drive with an Indilinx controller as they seem the best at the moment price/performance wise. The difference in price seems negligible (about $10 more for 2x64gb), especially if the performance is a lot better.

My question is, should I get 2x64gb rated at 200mb read and 150 mb write and set them up in raid 0 with my ich9r mobo or 1x128gb rated at 250mb read and 200mb write?

Will I be able to notice any speed differences? Keep in mind this is for a gaming and general internet and MS office pc. The most disk intensive task I do is unraring files (I plan to unrar from ssd drive to my 2 x WD Black raid 0 storage array) although most of this takes place automatically while I am away from my pc.

By the way, I just noticed the OCZ Agility 120gb drive is currently at $270 at newegg, seems like a great price.

 

[solofly]

If you gotta backup drive then Raid 0 is the way to go if you crave speed...

 

[sgrinavi]

My RAID 0 SSD array is noticably faster in everyday use than a single was. Are you going to convert your RAID 0 storage array to RAID 1?

 

[felang]

Originally posted by: sgrinavi
My RAID 0 SSD array is noticably faster in everyday use than a single was. Are you going to convert your RAID 0 storage array to RAID 1?

No, I think I´ll keep it as is, nothing I have on there is really to important, so if I ever lose a drive it won´t be too bad, I Back up my most important stuff to an external drive anyway. Good to know you can actually feel a difference with the Raid array, makes me leen towards getting 2x64gb... thanks a lot

 

[fleshconsumed]

I thought about it, but from what I read RAID controllers will ignore TRIM command, so you won't be able to take advantage of it. This is probably not a problem if you're going to go with OCZ Vertex with newer garbage collection firmware.

 

[felang]

Yeah, that´s exactly what I´ve been thinking. From what I understand it is the RAID controller driver that has to support the trim command, although I could be wrong.

OCZ seems to be the best when it comes to firmware updates, I´ve been lurking around OCZ´s forums and support seems great, although Crucial does give a five instead of three year warranty and has lower prices, and I´m hoping they will at least release firmware updates to enable worthwile improvements (trim for example). Also, OCZ´s performance tool (user initiated garbage collection) does seem to work with other brands of SSD´s with Indilinx controllers.

 

[AbRASiON]

I am about to own 2xAgility 120gb drives in my setup, I'm hoping it's pretty damn quick.

 

[BaboonGuy]

How long do RAID controllers take to load at startup? That'd be a huge factor for me. If it was longer than 2 seconds then I say heck no.

 

[EarthwormJim]

Originally posted by: BaboonGuy
How long do RAID controllers take to load at startup? That'd be a huge factor for me. If it was longer than 2 seconds then I say heck no.

5-10 seconds.

 

[BaboonGuy]

Originally posted by: EarthwormJim

Originally posted by: BaboonGuy
How long do RAID controllers take to load at startup? That'd be a huge factor for me. If it was longer than 2 seconds then I say heck no.

5-10 seconds.

Wowee, thanks for that info. Never knew it took that long. As an overclocker I really wouldn't like that (frequent restarts ).