Is it possible to RAID 0 Two SSDs And Have A Hard Drive At The Same Time?

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ShadowBeats

ShadowBeats

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Title says it all.

I am planning to have two SSDs and 1 hard drive.

However, is it possible to raid both of the SSDs together and leaving my hard drive alone?

Any help will be appreciated!
 
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USAFRet

USAFRet

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Possible, yes.
Worth the hassle? Not even a little bit. http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/ssd-raid-benchmark,3485.html

What specific drives are these?
What do you hope to gain from a RAID 0 with them?
 
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geofelt

geofelt

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Larger ssd devices are faster.
There is no advantage to raid-0 with ssd devices or, for that matter with anything else either.
I know, I tried it.
Raid-0 has been over hyped as a performance enhancer.
Sequential benchmarks do look wonderful, but the real world does not seem to deliver the indicated performance benefits for most
desktop users. The reason is, that sequential benchmarks are coded for maximum overlapped I/O rates.
It depends on reading a stripe of data simultaneously from each raid-0 member, and that is rarely what we do.
The OS does mostly small random reads and writes, so raid-0 is of little use there.
There are some apps that will benefit. They are characterized by reading large files in a sequential overlapped manner.

Here is a study using ssd devices in raid-0.
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/ssd-raid-benchmark,3485.html
Spoiler... no benefit at all.

When you load windows, it will create a hidden recovery partition on any other drive available. That complicates reuse of that hard drive later, hence the recommendation to load windows with ohly the windows drive installed.
 
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ShadowBeats

ShadowBeats

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Kingston Savage 240GB SSDs

I just want to combine them into a virtual 480GB ssd for boot. My hard drive is for storage. I am getting 2x 240gb instead of 1x 480gb just for bragging rights and my red theme
 
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ShadowBeats

ShadowBeats

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Alright, I am getting two just to show off. I am not expecting a performance boost or anything. Just want a nice display.

Can you elaborate more on

"When you load windows, it will create a hidden recovery partition on any other drive available. That complicates reuse of that hard drive later, hence the recommendation to load windows with ohly the windows drive installed."

Do you mean I should install a single ssd first to install windows, and then I add the rest and perform Raid 0?
 
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USAFRet

USAFRet

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2 x 240GB is fine. I have multiple SSD's.
Just do not RAID 0 those things.

2 x 240GB in RAID 0 = 480GB drive space
2 x 240GB not in RAID 0 = 480GB drive space, just 2 different drive letters.

The only 2 things you gain with the RAID 0 is more complexity and greater fail potential.
OS and applications on one drive, other stuff on the other drive.
 
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ShadowBeats

ShadowBeats

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Alright thanks! I guess I'll have one completely empty since I was only planning to boot with them.

**Actually, the 2nd one might be useful for editing :eek:

Thanks again. :)
 
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ShadowBeats

ShadowBeats

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You got a point. But I started coming up with ideas with what I could use one for, so I might get 2 anyways B)
 
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