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RAID 0 w/ no TRIM. Thoughts?

T

TemjinGold

Diamond Member
So I'm not about to just trade up my mobo just so I can get RAID 0 TRIM. But I really am itching to get a pair of current gen SSDs for RAID 0. I know a couple of guys are working on modded OROM stuff to make TRIM work but I don't really want to mess with that either.

Given all of that, which SSD out there would actually be best off if I couldn't get TRIM due to my mobo? Vertex 4? M4? M5P? Intel 520? 840 Pro? Not looking for a reliability of drive argument here. Want speed and hurt least by TRIM. I'll take my chances with everything else.
 
What drives?

Some controllers do a little of that on their own.

how long would you rock the array ?

If you reinstall often- or set a back up on server or disc you could always hard erase it to all blank and reinstall quick enough... every few months to restore optimal performance.

But performance and life of SSD in RAID 0 should last a while and be way faster than a single SSD
 
Is there any actual real world performance gains in raiding SSD's? In my experience for general use, file transfer speeds would be limited by what you are transferring from or to.
 
Yes.

As for trim...if you have good GC, forget about trim. And read the billion other threads regarding the subject.
 
Been in RAID 0 since beginning of the year. Synthetic benches are still close very close to my theoretical maximum.

As to benefits in real-world use? Slim to none.
 
Just trying to get a straight answer as to which drives would be best for that. It's not for something mission critical, I'm just bored and want to play with a couple of drives. Not looking for the "you shouldn't do it cuz there's no benefit" posts. Glad you guys care enough to look out for people but that's not what I'm asking.

So with all of that said, can someone just answer the simple question: If I want to throw together a RAID 0 and not use TRIM, which drive on the market has the best GC to compensate for that?
 
With the new Intel toolbox (v3.1) and Intell SSD's in RAID-0 with a Z68 chipset the drive will TRIM with the "optimize" TRIM command within the toolbox.
I have (2) 320's in a RAID-0 array and this does work with the latest toolbox version.
 
Back in September I put a Kingston v200 in my wifes Toshiba M400 laptop using raid. So far its worked really well and no real noticeable drop in performance over the last few months. Hopefully it holds up with no trim support. All the sensitive and important stuff gets stored on my computer so if it does poop out nothing of consequence will be lost.
 
TemjinGold said:
Just trying to get a straight answer as to which drives would be best for that. It's not for something mission critical, I'm just bored and want to play with a couple of drives. Not looking for the "you shouldn't do it cuz there's no benefit" posts. Glad you guys care enough to look out for people but that's not what I'm asking.

So with all of that said, can someone just answer the simple question: If I want to throw together a RAID 0 and not use TRIM, which drive on the market has the best GC to compensate for that?
Click to expand...

No GC can really compensate for lack of TRIM because the firmware doesn't understand any filesystem layouts. When a file is deleted most fileystems just mark those blocks as free or possibly overwrites them with some other data, but either way the firmware on the drive has no way to know that the blocks are now free so it can't do anything with them without risking dataloss. Especially when you consider how things like encrypted volumes, compressed files and the myriad of filesystems available.

So the best you can really count on is the normal wear leveling with whatever spare pool was included with the drive and the little bit of GC that can be done as data is overwritten and replaced.
 
Over about about 18-20 months, I never had any issues using various incarnations of RAID-0 and SandForce based SSDs on 2-3 different Intel controllers.

EDIT: Make that 24-30 months.
 
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Wow that's really awesome of you, thanks!

I'll wait till the second half of December when work dies down before trying since I need this computer to work for my job.
 
I've also been running SSD raid for years now without issue. Some earlier firmwares(regardless of mfgr) needed a bit more TLC to keep near fresh speeds intact.. but TRIM is VERY heavily over rated for newer gen SSD, IMHO.

I do know for fact that the V4 and the new Vector are awesome drives for trimless environments. Pretty tough to slow them down no matter how hard you actually try to do it.

And compared to the competition.. they get even better when their too full and/or overtaxed since the firmware's algorithms are tailered that way.
 
My Vertex 3 240 array ran great with no TRIM for well over a year. However, it is defnitely nice to have TRIM now with my P67 board(s)!
 
Brahmzy said:
My Vertex 3 240 array ran great with no TRIM for well over a year. However, it is defnitely nice to have TRIM now with my P67 board(s)!
Click to expand...

curious as to why that is, bud?

maintains faster overall speeds in heavier workflows than without it?

or just nice to know that wear leveling may become more efficient at the controllers level?
 
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