RAID Question on SSD's

[Big Lar]

OK, On the Intel ICH10R controller, or any Sata controller for that matter, do the drives paired/tripled/whatever in RAID need to be Exactly the same like regular HDD's, SCSI drives etc ? In other words, for instance if I had 2 different Brands of SSD but they both used, say the SF 1200 controller and were both the same size, say 50gb each, could they be run together compatibly in say RAID 0 ?

A for instance would be say the OWC 50gb and say a OCZ 50gb, would they run together? Never heard a yay or nay on this and thought I would ask.

Larry

 

[ElenaP]

Even with a regular HDDs it is possible to configure to different (completely different, like different brand and even RPM) hard drives in RAID0 and the system will work OK in a sense that no data loss will occur. The speed gain is however another matter. The requirement to have exactly the same drives in the array is associated with speed and latency issues; if you use "different enough" hard drives, it is possible that you do not get any noticeable speed boost at all.

If you mix two different model SSDs, there will be no data loss. I've never tried benchmarks of any sort on this setup, but I suppose the difference in models would be less of the issue with SSDs because SSDs have no rotational latency and other complex stuff.

 

[Old Hippie]

do the drives paired/tripled/whatever in RAID need to be Exactly the same like regular HDD's, SCSI drives etc ?

Neither mechanical or SS drives need to be the same.

The array just falls to the specs of the lowest performing and smallest drive being used.

 

[Big Lar]

Thanks for the info/input folks. I do run RAID0 now with SCSI drives and do know I can run JBOD if the controller permits. I should be a bit more specific, I am waiting for an OWC 50gb RE ssd to show and with the new ssd's dropping in price I am debating picking up another Sandforce controlled ssd of either 50 or 60gb and trying them out in RAID0 off the ICH10R on my mobo.
I believe they will run ok together, but was wondering as to compatibility issue's.

Larry

 

[Old Hippie]

I believe they will run ok together, but was wondering as to compatibility issue's.

You should be OK but the array will follow the specs of the slowest, smallest drive which will still be in the screaming catagory. 🙂

 

[Big Lar]

You should be OK but the array will follow the specs of the slowest, smallest drive which will still be in the screaming catagory. 🙂

🙂 Thanks! Yes I think they will be fast, may just bite the bullet and buy another OWC after the first gets here, then there would be no question. Took down my scsi Raid setup and am missing the speed allready. Shrug.

Larry

 

[Big Lar]

Here's a funny one, I looked up OWC sales and they are located about 5 miles from my house, need to go shopping soon!

Larry

 

[pjkenned]

Just as a thought, I have done the semi heterogeneous array with Indilinx drives. No real issues, but two of the drives used different flash. Array sequential speed was about 98% of the slowest drive's speed and was slower than the homogeneous Indilinx array based on the faster drives.

I would be willing to bet this would be similar for SandForce drives. Realistically these guys are just buying SandForce, Indilinx, and JMicron controllers, flash, sticking them on PCB probably at the same CM somewhere in China. Big differences are really casing, stickers, and warranty/ support at this point. From what I have seen, if you buy drives around the same time, the flash is not going to be THAT different (i.e. not like a 30% drive to drive difference in performance).

 

[Big Lar]

As long as I have this thread opened, Question; The drive I have on the way showing today is formatted for a Mac. Is it as easy as just deleting the partition in win7 or will win7 not see it and I will need to pop the dvd in and format it from there? Or??
Thanks for the replys.

Larry

 

[Big Lar]

Got it all figured out, nice fast responsive drive.

Larry