Maybe I'm missing something, but with the new Z97 motherboards that just came out (BTW I got a Gigabyte Z97X-UD5H and it kicks ass!) all the review sites (including AnandTech) are going crazy for the new "high-speed" storage options that are being included on these new boards.
Unless I'm missing something, I don't see what the big deal is. Sure the M.2 SSDs & PCI-E connections on these boards combined with the appropriately fast drives for these connections are going to be faster than your average SATA SSD (about 50% faster), but 770MB/s as opposed to 550MB/s Read is still not much to get excited about.
If you want REALLY fast storage, here's what you do:
- Use your Z87 mobo instead of buying a Z97 board
- Buy yourself a nice Areca RAID controller (about $300 for one w/a single SFF-8087 to 4 SATA - OR - about $430 for one with 2 SFF-8087 to 8 SATA ports)
- Buy 4 or 8 decently fast SSDs (128MB @ $80 ea. X 4 = $320)
- Combine them into a RAID 0 array on the Areca controller for about 1500MB/s - 2000MB/s Read
Sure my solution is more expensive, but it's much faster and move expandable (not limited to 1 or 2 drives like the onboard M.2 or PCI-E connections.
I only bought the Z97X-UD5H because I was building a new system & wanted to be ready for the 5th-gen Haswell (i7-4790K), and I wanted something new. I will be getting an Areca controller & 4 SSDs for a RAID 0 as soon as I can scrape together some more funds.
Any thoughts?
PS: Back up your RAID 0 array.
Unless I'm missing something, I don't see what the big deal is. Sure the M.2 SSDs & PCI-E connections on these boards combined with the appropriately fast drives for these connections are going to be faster than your average SATA SSD (about 50% faster), but 770MB/s as opposed to 550MB/s Read is still not much to get excited about.
If you want REALLY fast storage, here's what you do:
- Use your Z87 mobo instead of buying a Z97 board
- Buy yourself a nice Areca RAID controller (about $300 for one w/a single SFF-8087 to 4 SATA - OR - about $430 for one with 2 SFF-8087 to 8 SATA ports)
- Buy 4 or 8 decently fast SSDs (128MB @ $80 ea. X 4 = $320)
- Combine them into a RAID 0 array on the Areca controller for about 1500MB/s - 2000MB/s Read
Sure my solution is more expensive, but it's much faster and move expandable (not limited to 1 or 2 drives like the onboard M.2 or PCI-E connections.
I only bought the Z97X-UD5H because I was building a new system & wanted to be ready for the 5th-gen Haswell (i7-4790K), and I wanted something new. I will be getting an Areca controller & 4 SSDs for a RAID 0 as soon as I can scrape together some more funds.
Any thoughts?
PS: Back up your RAID 0 array.