Building a pc w/ 2xSSD in Raid0. Can i still use my HDD?

matrnelson · Jul 3, 2013

Hey I'm new to RAID configurations and have one question.

I plan to setup RAID 0 on 2 SSD's. But I want to know if i can still use my 2TB HDD. Can I, for example, use the 2 SSD in RAID0 for the OS and important applications...but still keep my HDD installed as a secondary drive; separate from the RAID configuration?

cin19 · Jul 3, 2013

Yes, you can and also you can use two of RAID config. or one single drive + one RAID0 config. too.

Sorry what OS do you use?

DarkSable · Jul 3, 2013

Yes you can.

That being said, putting SSDs in RAID0 is just a bloody awful idea. Because SSDs already have magnificent access times, you're going to see basically no benefit from putting them in RAID. On top of that, SSDs get faster as you buy larger drives, which means that you might actually end up seeing MORE speed out of a single, larger drive. Finally, why in the world would you take the doubled risk of losing all your data? It just makes no sense.

Also, why are you putting them in RAID? You surely don't need that much storage space. My guess is that you think you do, but let me make a few points:

1) An install of windows 7 or 8, along with office and other applicable programs will take up about 40GB.

2) Most games gain no benefit from being on an SSD. If you have battlefield 3 or CoD (7? 8?) on your SSD, then yes, you load into the map first. Big whoop. It does not affect your framerate at all. The games that actually are nice to have on the SSD are MMOs, to get rid of loading screens, and immersive single player games like Half Life or Bioshock, for the same reason.

3) Given this, you really only need a single 128GB SSD, or a 256GB one if you're going to be using multiple operating systems. Anything more than that is just a waste of money.

MC_K7 · Jul 3, 2013

DarkSable has a good point and I was going to ask the same question. Why would you want to put 2 x SSD in RAID 0? What are you going to do with this computer?

You know Tom posted an article on this recently:

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/ssd-raid-benchmark,3485.html

Basically, in most real life scenarios you'll have a hard time noticing the difference between one or two SSDs. Plus all the problems that could arise by using RAID, I would avoid to do it. Buy one larger SSD instead.

gmkos · Jul 3, 2013

DarkSable :

Yes you can.

That being said, putting SSDs in RAID0 is just a bloody awful idea. Because SSDs already have magnificent access times, you're going to see basically no benefit from putting them in RAID. On top of that, SSDs get faster as you buy larger drives, which means that you might actually end up seeing MORE speed out of a single, larger drive. Finally, why in the world would you take the doubled risk of losing all your data? It just makes no sense.

Also, why are you putting them in RAID? You surely don't need that much storage space. My guess is that you think you do, but let me make a few points:

1) An install of windows 7 or 8, along with office and other applicable programs will take up about 40GB.

2) Most games gain no benefit from being on an SSD. If you have battlefield 3 or CoD (7? 8?) on your SSD, then yes, you load into the map first. Big whoop. It does not affect your framerate at all. The games that actually are nice to have on the SSD are MMOs, to get rid of loading screens, and immersive single player games like Half Life or Bioshock, for the same reason.

3) Given this, you really only need a single 128GB SSD, or a 256GB one if you're going to be using multiple operating systems. Anything more than that is just a waste of money.

This. Buy one larger SSD.

J_E_D_70 · Jul 3, 2013

"If you're planning an upgrade and want to know whether to buy a couple of 128 GB drives and put them in RAID 0 or just grab a single 256 GB SSD, for example, the answer still seems clear enough to us: just grab the large drive and use one."
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/ssd-raid-benchmark,3485-13.html

This is, of course, unless you have a specific task you know shows a tangible benefit.

matrnelson · Jul 3, 2013

cin19 :

Thanks. I am using windows 8

matrnelson · Jul 3, 2013

Thanks for the responses.

Im not attempting to affect access times. My reason for using RAID 0 is to have the SSDs share the workload; thus doubling the read/write speed.

My question is can i have 2 SSDs in RAID 0 while simultaneously having an HDD installed (separate from the RAID config). And will this affect the benefit of the RAID config? I believe Cin19 addressed the first Q.

DarkSable · Jul 3, 2013

We already addressed this: yes, you can have two SSDs in RAID 0 and also have a hard drive installed.

However, and I repeat: it's a really really bad idea. You will gain pretty much nothing, while having TWICE the chance of failure. You will NOT notice it being any faster; the reason you put drives in raid is to reduce the access time, not double the read/write speed. It doesn't work like that, and your read / write speeds are just fine.

Have you used an SSD before? There is absolutely no reason for you to need that.

Buy one, larger SSD if you really need the space, and you'll have a WAY more reliable storage setup that will be just as fast.

MC_K7 · Jul 6, 2013

It seems like you've been ignoring our replies and didn't read this Tom article we posted:

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/ssd-raid-benchmark,3485.html

I also think this is a bad idea to do RAID with SSDs. Just get 1 x 256GB SSD instead and forget about RAID.

matrnelson · Jul 13, 2013

MC_K7 :

No, I read the replies and the Tom article. However, it seems like you've ignored my original question.
I wasnt asking whether it was a good idea to do RAID with the SSDs.

Solution to the question = Yes

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Building a pc w/ 2xSSD in Raid0. Can i still use my HDD?

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