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Storage Upgrade - RAID & SSD Options

Tags:
  • NAS / RAID
  • Storage
  • SSD
Last response: in Storage
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March 29, 2014 7:40:48 PM

Hello!!

I'm currently in need of more drive space all around. With my mobo I have too many options for how to set it up so hoping for some input.I need more room for games, work(game dev), and torrent storage.

On my main rig I'm down to 2x120gb Vertex3s. Used to be in RAID 0 but are right now just split up.

Mobo is Ausu P8P77 Premium, important specs:
Quote:

Intel® Z77 chipset :
2 x SATA 6Gb/s port(s), gray
3 x SATA 3Gb/s port(s), blue
1 x mini-SATA 3Gb/s port(s) with onboard 32GB SSD, black
Support Raid 0, 1, 5, 10
Supports Intel® Smart Response Technology, Intel® Rapid Start Technology, Intel® Smart Connect Technology
Marvell® PCIe 9230 controller :
4 x SATA 6Gb/s port(s), navy blue
Support Raid 0, 1, 10


So as you can see, I can do pretty much whatever I want. I even have a 32gb on-board SSD(only 3gbs) on one of the Z77 ports, meaning I could use that with SRT if I wanted, or for some other purpose I can't think of.

I'm leaning toward buying large HHD for torrent storage, or perhaps an array of smaller ones. Maybe even RAID 10? Although I don't see needing the mirror as that data is not crucial, so perhaps a RAID 0 with quality drives.

I'm also leaning toward getting a Samsung 840 256gb as the main drive. For OS, Unity, Dropbox, and assorted apps. Some of this data will be somewhat crucial (un-committed work for example) so I was thinking a mirror here might be the best use of one.

Games obviously I want on SSD. Was thinking about a RAID 0 for the existing Vertex3 drives, would give me about 200gb for game libraries(Steam, Origin, whatever). And would not need a mirror really as save files and the like save to the main drive(being the Samsung from above). Is there any performance benefit from putting these in a RAID 0? Would I be better just running games off the Samsung?

Sorry for being a bit vague in what I'm asking here. Basically hoping for some input on what to get and what controllers to hook it all up to, etc. I've shied away from SRT but am still open to thoughts on it, which btw, the Marvell controller can also use SSD Cashing from Asus.

More about : storage upgrade raid ssd options

a c 318 G Storage
March 31, 2014 6:26:04 AM

Well, I would recommend a large HDD and backups to any version of RAID. RAID is no substitute for backups.
SSD in RAID0 is an appealing idea in theory but not very practical, see http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/storage/display/kigsto... , for example. Most games can be installed on a specified drive other than your system drive, which suggests to me that you could keep the OS on an existing 128 GB system drive and install games to the other SSD, or the larger one that you are considering buying. Simpler and, in my mind, less risky.
I don't see any reason to cache SSDs, which is essentially what you would be doing with SRT.
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