SSD and HDD in Raid 0?

Toggle sidebar Toggle sidebar
M

mike186

Honorable
Oct 2, 2013
20
0
10,510
Hey,

I recently got a second 120GB SSD and I was wondering if it is possible to run it in RAID0 with a 2TB HDD, So I could have the capacity of the HDD with the faster speeds of an SSD (or close to the speed).

I am not worried about losing data as I back up all important work regularly.

Thank you
 
Solution
R_1
during normal usage it will use no little to no ram.
say you upgrade to 64 GB ram but only ever use 58GB during the heaviest use, then you could use the RAM that is unused as a RAM cache, but it is optional.

you can download a 180 day trial of an older version called fancycache that does not do the RAM trick if that is more your liking, if you like it then you can buy a key.
Sort by date Sort by votes
R_1

R_1

Expert
Ambassador
Sep 8, 2015
8,440
632
49,290
you are thinking about SSD caching. capacity of HDD, speed of SSD
the ssd will be a cache for the most used data on the drive, changing on the fly to whatever you use the most.
in simplest terms, the stuff that you use the most will be on the SSD, automatically.
Primocache is software that does exactly this, it loads before windows and combines the two drives into one. you will only see the HDD, in windows as the ssd is a cache. primocache will allow you to set RAM as a cache for the SSD, if you have tons of ram this is handy.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
M

mike186

Honorable
Oct 2, 2013
20
0
10,510


Ok, thank you for that information, looks like it would be a bad idea to try it.

Thank you
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
M

mike186

Honorable
Oct 2, 2013
20
0
10,510


Thank you, I might look into using my second SSD as a cache rather then trying RAID in that case.
Will caching the SSD require RAM or is that an option I can choose as I only have 16GB of RAM?

Thank you
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
R_1

R_1

Expert
Ambassador
Sep 8, 2015
8,440
632
49,290
the ram is an optional. I prefer SSD caching to SSD's alone. easier and just as fast, in benchmarks the difference is so close as to be the same.

if you had 8 GB ram on Windows 7-32, it will allow you to turn the unseen ram into a cache.
http://www.romexsoftware.com/en-us/fancy-cache/
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
M

mike186

Honorable
Oct 2, 2013
20
0
10,510


I'm more looking for both capacity and speed (as good as I can get it anyway) as I'm often working with lots of files at a time and the HDD tends to slow me down at times.

I'm running windows 10 at the moment and it can be a bit of a RAM hog at times so I would prefer using as little RAM as possible.

here are my Specs if that will help with any other solutions you might know of.

Specs:
OS: Windows 10
SSD_1: 120GB (for OS)
SSD_2: 120GB (not in use)
HDD: 2TB (Main Storage)
CPU: i7 3770K (4.2Ghz)
RAM: 16GB
GPU: nvidia 760 sli
PSU: 650 Watts (planning to upgrade then add another 760 for physX dedicated)

Thank you
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
N

need4speeds

Distinguished
Jan 6, 2009
1,573
41
20,190
To run raid 0 the drives must match. Even down to the same model number. Two will give you a 240gig raid 0 ssd drive. That should be extremely fast.

You need a spare or borrowed sata hdd or ssd to clone your existing 120 boot drive to it.
(most manufaturers have software like seatools, wd tools, Adata has acronis, ect. )

After cloning the drive make the system boot from the hdd you cloned it to. If it`s working, set up your pair of ssd`s to run in raid 0.

Then clone your hdd to the raid 0 ssd drive.

The 2tb hdd is still fairly fast so put your steam folder on it and other data.
Windows will be able to read from both drives at the same time. This still speeds things up.

Also set your virtual memory to run on the speed ssd. I have only 4gb of memory and a 120gig ssd and a 3tb hdd so i set the virtual memory to 24gb.
With 8gb memory you could lower your virtual memory to something like 16gb. 16gb or more memory and you can just leave it as windows managed size.
Windows xp 32 and windows 7 64 can share the same virtual memory file to save drive space. It must be set the the same size in both versions of windows.

 
Upvote 0 Downvote
R_1

R_1

Expert
Ambassador
Sep 8, 2015
8,440
632
49,290
during normal usage it will use no little to no ram.
say you upgrade to 64 GB ram but only ever use 58GB during the heaviest use, then you could use the RAM that is unused as a RAM cache, but it is optional.

you can download a 180 day trial of an older version called fancycache that does not do the RAM trick if that is more your liking, if you like it then you can buy a key.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Solution
USAFRet

USAFRet

Titan
Moderator
Mar 16, 2013
171,751
18,125
184,590
SSD + RAID 0: Read this all the way through before you go down that road:

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/ssd-raid-benchmark,3485.html
realworld_MultiAppStart.png
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
M

mike186

Honorable
Oct 2, 2013
20
0
10,510


Thank you, I will look more into these options and give them a try.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
You must log in or register to reply here.

TRENDING THREADS

Latest posts

Moderators online

Share this page

COMPANY
RESOURCES
FOLLOW
Top Bottom