I'm thinking of buying two 32GB SSD and have them as RAID0

[Onceler]

is this the way to do it?
I want to install all the OS and applications on the SSD but have all the pics,videos, and other files on the harddrive

 

[Denithor]

What two drives? Read the most recent SSD update on the main page. The only drives worth having right now are the Intel X25-M (or E) and the OCZ Vertex. All the others suffer from the stutter problems associated with random 4K writes (which your OS does constantly in the background).

 

[Mothergoose729]

The effects of the stutter problem are supposed to be greatly reduced in a RAID 0 array from what I have heard. If you can though, it is defintely better to get to SLC flash based SSD, as they have increased performance and little or no stutter problem. However, two patriot 32gb drives in RAID 0 would be much cheaper. If you do do this, however, make sure to turn of some windows settings like archiving and automatic backups, to reduce random writes. A guide can be found here:

http://www.ocztechnologyforum....showthread.php?t=47212

 

[taltamir]

raid0 is NOT a fix for the stutter problem, reducing stutter from a second to half a second is still unacceptable.

Read the anandtech review:
http://www.anandtech.com/storage/showdoc.aspx?i=3531

 

[Mothergoose729]

Originally posted by: taltamir
raid0 is NOT a fix for the stutter problem, reducing stutter from a second to half a second is still unacceptable.

Read the anandtech review:
http://www.anandtech.com/storage/showdoc.aspx?i=3531

I know of people who run their OS just fine on a couple of SSD. If you don't want to pony up the cash for a quality SLC drive, then putting to in RAID 0 and making the necessary windows tweaks can greatly reduce if not eliminate stuttering.

 

[Idontcare]

Originally posted by: Mothergoose729

Originally posted by: taltamir
raid0 is NOT a fix for the stutter problem, reducing stutter from a second to half a second is still unacceptable.

Read the anandtech review:
http://www.anandtech.com/storage/showdoc.aspx?i=3531

I know of people who run their OS just fine on a couple of SSD. If you don't want to pony up the cash for a quality SLC drive, then putting to in RAID 0 and making the necessary windows tweaks can greatly reduce if not eliminate stuttering.

Its not the Raid-0 that makes the situation acceptable - it's the fact the stripe size is usually 64KB if not 128KB (so even your 4KB writes are hitting the drives as 64KB writes, bad for write amplification but good for stutter mitigation) in addition to the fact that most non-mobo integrated raid chipsets incorporate some level of cache.

Mine has 2GB of cache, a more typical consumer-level raid card will have anywhere from 128MB to 512MB of cache, this drastically buffers the random writes and gives the controller the time it needs to reorder the random writes into sequential writes. Further reducing the likelihood of sending the drive into a stutter event.

You could accomplish this same effect with a single SSD on a raid controller with cache by configuring the drive as a pass-thru drive. The board's cache will continue to buffer the read/write requests.

 

[taltamir]

but those start getting expensive quick. why use it when you have things like the vertex and the intel x25-M.

 

[magreen]

Mothergoose: you keep mentioning SLC drives as if they're the only SSDs to not suffer from stuttering. Why?

Surely you're aware that the Intel MLC drive and the new OCZ Vertex MLC drive do not suffer from the stuttering? You can read all about it on the front page of AT.

 

[Cookie Monster]

SLC's tend to have a much longer lifecycle compared to MLC based SSDs. These stutterings eventually do happen, whether its an intel product or OCZ product. Its just that Intel drives seem more "complete" and stable compared to whats on the market today.

 

[magreen]

Originally posted by: Cookie Monster
SLC's tend to have a much longer lifecycle compared to MLC based SSDs. These stutterings eventually do happen, whether its an intel product or OCZ product. Its just that Intel drives seem more "complete" and stable compared to whats on the market today.

Maybe most MLC's tend to have a shorter lifecycle, but the intel MLC is different. http://www.anandtech.com/cpuch...howdoc.aspx?i=3403&p=4

I don't know about the lifecycle of the OCZ.

And I don't know what you mean about "eventually" suffering from stuttering. Never seen any mention of that. The only eventual thing I've read about is the partial slowdown after the drive gets full, until you do a secure erase. But that's different from stuttering, and it's not a showstopper for most people.

 

[taltamir]

Originally posted by: Cookie Monster
SLC's tend to have a much longer lifecycle compared to MLC based SSDs. These stutterings eventually do happen, whether its an intel product or OCZ product. Its just that Intel drives seem more "complete" and stable compared to whats on the market today.

the lifespan is irrelevant, you don't lose any data when it runs out (it simply becomes write only), and by then it will be completely obsolete.

And the stuttering is due to low 4k random write speeds. And intel X25 and the vertex both beat out any SLC drive on the market except the intel X25-E in terms of 4k writes, so you are wrong in asserting that eventually it will stutter.

They will degrade in performance a bit, and then level off, it has been measured and anandtech explains why, how, and why it will level off, and they were tested in this final state and still beat out the SLC drives and didn't stutter.

 

[zlejedi]

Originally posted by: taltamir
raid0 is NOT a fix for the stutter problem, reducing stutter from a second to half a second is still unacceptable.

Read the anandtech review:
http://www.anandtech.com/storage/showdoc.aspx?i=3531

I have one of those "worthless" SSD drives and after you do all the tweaks and remove most of background write operations to ramdrive or classic HDD it is good disk considering it costed below 100 euro.

Now it might be problematic if you use it as your only disk in notebook or try to do heavy multitasking but for my needs (read: gaming 😀 ) it is good drive.

Also being able to get pair of jmicron 60 gb drives for few bucks more than 60 gb vertex doesn't make it so obvious decision.

 

[Snakebitten]

I have 2x OCZ 30gb core drives in Raid 0 and they perform very well. All I did was make the raid partition 128bit stripe, disabled windows search, indexing and superfetch. (Which I also did with my WD640AAKS's)

I've never noticed any stuttering of any kind. Everything works pretty smoothly.

 

[taltamir]

Originally posted by: zlejedi

Originally posted by: taltamir
raid0 is NOT a fix for the stutter problem, reducing stutter from a second to half a second is still unacceptable.

Read the anandtech review:
http://www.anandtech.com/storage/showdoc.aspx?i=3531

I have one of those "worthless" SSD drives and after you do all the tweaks and remove most of background write operations to ramdrive or classic HDD it is good disk considering it costed below 100 euro.

Now it might be problematic if you use it as your only disk in notebook or try to do heavy multitasking but for my needs (read: gaming 😀 ) it is good drive.

Also being able to get pair of jmicron 60 gb drives for few bucks more than 60 gb vertex doesn't make it so obvious decision.

is it as good as a 640GB two platter WD drive? that costs even less?

Do you realize how much faster would your 640GB drive go if you had done all those tweaks? (spindle drives also don't like 4k random writes).

You basically state that they are "good" when in fact they are not, they are more expensive, smaller, and worse performance than a spindle drive, if you convinced yourself that is "good" I have a bridge to sell you. And a single 60GB vertex annihilates two jmicron drives.

 

[zlejedi]

It's noticeably faster in usage compared to WD6400AAKS at least for games loading.
Before putting OS on my Warp i checked Bioshock, DMC4, Crysis, ETW and TLR benchmark.
Bioshock noticed around 25-30% faster loads, DMC4 and TLR also felt faster , while ETW and Crysis showed no gains.

So yes Jmicron SSD is faster than good HDD and it also removes source of noise from your rig - is it worth paying for everyone has to decide on their own.

 

[taltamir]

I can't hear my drive, I had noisy drives before, but not my current one.
And yes, it would have 20-30% faster load tmes (Sequential read), but it will have atrocious performance elsewhere, (random writes) which give an unacceptable performance level.