2 SSDs in Raid 0. First time.

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Yero

Yero

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Hello!
I've been browsing and trying read a manual, but this is just too confusing for me for now.
I finished build this build below, installed Windows 8 on on of the hard drives. Now I am trying to put it in Raid 0 to run with the second SSD, that is currently doing nothing.

http://pcpartpicker.com/user/Yero/saved/2gl1

Is there any kind of guide that can help me with a current task based on description and part list?

Thanks!
 
Solution
Dereck47
Connect your SSDs to ports SATA3_0 & SATA3_1. Those are the Intel SATA 3 (6Gb/s) ports.
Connect your HDDs to ports SATA2_0 & SATA2_1. Those are the Intel SATA 2 (3Gb/s) ports.

See page 12 of your motherboard manual for the location of the ports.
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photonboy

photonboy

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Did you mean you installed Windows 8 to the hard drive or the SSD?

Second, I agree you would have to set your SSD's to RAID0 in the BIOS before installing Windows.

1) Read manual, and enter BIOS
2) Change SATA controller to RAID0 mode
3) Make sure the RAID0 setup is your first boot drive (in fact, unhook any other drives except DVD first)
4) Install Windows.

Points:
1) You have two kits of 4x4GB listed (8 sticks total). You said you already built your system though so I guess that's okay.

2) It's a very good idea to have a HARD DRIVE to:
a) create a backup IMAGE of your C-drive to (to restore in case of problems with virus, defective Windows drive etc.)

b) Media etc.

3) If you add another drive later, sometimes it screw up your BOOT ORDER. In this case, you need to enter your BIOS and change it back to the proper boot device (i.e. RAID0).
 
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Yero

Yero

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Can someone take a look at the mother board and tell me which one of those port I should connect my hard drives and ssds to?

Yeah I meant to say ssd instead of hard drive. Anyways:

I have 2 SSDs to run in raid 0, and two more hard drives for Raid 1 (I know that raid 1 isn't the best way to backup files, but I like it for what it does)

I got the bios/uefi part, found a couple of youtube videos specific to my motherboard.

Which one of these sata port should I plug my drives to?
There is gray, dark gray and black.
http://www.asrock.com/mb/Intel/X79%20Extreme9/

EDIT:
So as I found out there is 5 kinds of sata connections on the board
One of them is e-sata which is in the back of the board and we can skip this one as it doesn't relate.

Next if you look at this specific image:
http://www.asrock.com/mb/photo/X79%20Extreme9(m).jpg


The three (actually 6) on the left side has something to do with Marvell Drive. Also the very left one (actually 2) port is all about some kind of x6 something.

Then the three (actually 6) on the right have something to do with the x79 chipset instead of marvel drives.

Where should I be plugin in what, if considering the kinds of drive I described above in this post and raid options I am trying to implement.

Thanks for help!
 
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Dereck47

Dereck47

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Connect your SSDs to ports SATA3_0 & SATA3_1. Those are the Intel SATA 3 (6Gb/s) ports.
Connect your HDDs to ports SATA2_0 & SATA2_1. Those are the Intel SATA 2 (3Gb/s) ports.

See page 12 of your motherboard manual for the location of the ports.
 
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Solution
Yero

Yero

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Looked it up. Got it. Thanks.
I am going to be reinstalling windows in a couple of hours.
Before that I was just wondering what is a point of having those Marvel connections and run them instead of the ones that run straight from x79?
 
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Dereck47

Dereck47

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Current generation SSDs need to be on native 6Gb/s ports for maximum performance. They will work on 3rd party controllers (Marvell, ASMedia), but not as fast.

HDDs cannot spin fast enough to saturate a 3Gb/s port, let alone a 6Gb/s port, so it doesn't matter which controller you use, you will get maximum performance regardless.
 
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Yero

Yero

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Got it. Did it. Installed it.
The only question now is why am I getting twice the amount the GBs. I thought if I run two 250gb ssds in raid 0 it will give me only 250gbs and speed boost. But now i got local disk c that is almoust 500gbs. Did something go wrong or am i not getting something.
 
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Dereck47

Dereck47

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No. RAID-1 is for redundancy. If a drive fails in a RAID-1 array then you can continue to access the array until you get the failed drive replaced.
RAID-0 is for performance (speed); but if a drive fails in a RAID-0 array then your data is lost.

So you should have a backup drive to backup the data on your RAID-0 and your RAID-1 arrays.
 
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Yero

Yero

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I got a little confused.
Just to verify.

Running OS from 2 SSDs (250 GBs each) in Raid 0
will give me a sum of both (so 500 GBs) + that speed boost raid 0 is famous for?
 
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Dereck47

Dereck47

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No, there's nothing about a RAID array that makes a drive fail faster. It's that your odds of drive failure increase with the more drives that you have in a RAID array.

I've had 2 SSDs in RAID-0 since 2009 and 2 HDDs in RAID-0 since 2008 and both RAID arrays are still up and running without failure as of today.

That being said, I have an internal backup drive and an external backup drive to protect me in case of drive failure.
 
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photonboy

photonboy

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You should be using a solution to periodically make a BACKUP IMAGE of your C-Drive. I use Acronis True Image. It's a little confusing at first, but I have it setup like THIS which backs up to a 2TB hard drive:
- automatic backup
- incremental
- weekly
- deletes older backups

I've been VERY GLAD I had this a few times. I do recommend you keep your FIRST BACKUP indefinitely just in case an issue creeps into later backups you can restore the very first one.

So if one of your SSD's had issues, or you got corruption, virus or whatever you can RESTORE from one of the previous backups.

Other:
I'd be surprised if you could tell the difference between a normal SSD setup and RAID0. I bought a new SSD and accidentally had my Samsung 840 Pro running at HALF speed (apparently the SATA cable, not the connection).

I had a 3xRAID0 SSD (900MB/s max), Samsung 840 PRO (550MB/second max) and recently HALF that as I said.

I really can't tell the difference in performance.

GAMES:
If you want the extra speed for GAMES, and use STEAM, I suggest you do the following instead:
1. Setup Windows on one SSD like normal (AHCI in BIOS). Samsung Magician for overprovisioning, and test performance etc.

2. Install STEAM to a hard drive (i.e. "E:/STEAM")

3. Use the 2nd SSD for your currently used games by creating a SECOND STEAM FOLDER (You can backup, delete then Restore backup to move games between HDD and SSD folders if you wish.).

*By NOT installing all your games to a RAID0 setup you also reduce the size of the backup Image. Steam doesn't really need to be backed up anyway. You can always backup games manually, Verify game data, or re-download if you need to. It's really best to keep Windows/apps on a single drive and Steam separately on a different drive if you have MANY games.
 
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Yero

Yero

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Interesting info. I need some time to digest.

I am thinking best option in my case to have an ability to incremental back-up every time before shut-down. I just need to figure out if Acronis True Image has an option of not backing up specific folders. That would be perfect in a situation with games.

I do use my computer for heavy 3d modeling and rendering. This is my studio computer.
 
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photonboy

photonboy

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Your ideal setup by what you said above would actually be:
1) SSD1-> Windows/apps
2) HDD-> STEAM game folder, media, downloads, Acronis backups of SSD1
3) SSD2-> 2nd Steam folder (currently used games)

Why?
1) You can just set Acronis TI to backup your entire C-drive (leaving games on the other drives).

2) RAID0 might be fast, but I challenge you to tell the difference. I did a blind test and couldn't tell a Samsung 840 Pro in RAID0 to a single drive in he slightest.

3) Currently used Steam games can be installed to SSD2 to increase load speed (but avoid backup). You can MOVE games between the main Steam folder and SSD2 as you desire.

4) SSD's actually don't benefit games much beyond loading times (usually 1.5->2.5x speedup). Other hardware actually bottlenecks things which is why the speedup isn't 10x or more so RAID0 would make basically no difference for games over even a slower SSD.

I've been testing this with thirty games. I mainly enjoy the boost in jumping between MAP points in Skyrim but don't think the initial game load time savings of 15 seconds or so alone justify an SSD.
 
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