Solid State Conundrum (RAID)

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Lewiswatson55

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Sep 17, 2014
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Okay so,
I decided to buy an SSD to run my operating system. I wasn't really thinking when I ordered a 240gb Drive. I installed my operating system and found I couldn't install all of my programs and decuments (Was really just a test). I'm now back to running of my Western Digital 1TB HDD. I still wan't to run my OS from an SSD. Unfortunatly I now cannot return my too small SSD (Don't really want to anyway). Should/could I connect my 240GB SSD with a 480GB as a RAID to get 720GB storage? Will it be faster? Is it dangerous? Anything I should know (Not familure with RAIDS)?

Do the SSD need to be the same brand e.g. Can I mix my Kingston SSD with a Sandisk SSD?
Is running an OS on SSD raid just a bad idea?

Finally, whats best for this 'setup' RAID (0,1,?)

Thanks for reading :)


 
Solution
USAFRet
Stop

RAID does not work like you're thinking.

It is not fully additive.
RAID 0 - Striped - 240GB + 480GB = 480GB RAID array
RAID 1 - Mirrored - 240GB + 480GB = 240GB RAID array


OS and applications on your SSD is the much preferred way to go.
RAID (of any flavor), not so much.

A 240/250GB drive is plenty for the OS and applications.
Games, maybe not
A lot of movies? Probably not.

Have those things live on other drives.
For how to automagically do that, read here:
Win 7 & 8: http://www.tomshardware.com/faq/id-1834397/ssd-redirecting-static-files.html
Win 8.1 & 10: http://www.tomshardware.com/faq/id-2024314/windows-redirecting-folders-drives.html
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Multipack

Multipack

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Sep 5, 2016
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Why not get another 240gb SSD of the same brand and use them as RAID 0 to install Windows on, using the 480gb drive? You would have to take regular backups as RAID 0 has zero data protection, but it's the mode I install my OS in. Then you could install a lot of programs onto the secondary 1tb HDD. They dont all have to be on the SSD.

 
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USAFRet

USAFRet

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Mar 16, 2013
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Stop

RAID does not work like you're thinking.

It is not fully additive.
RAID 0 - Striped - 240GB + 480GB = 480GB RAID array
RAID 1 - Mirrored - 240GB + 480GB = 240GB RAID array


OS and applications on your SSD is the much preferred way to go.
RAID (of any flavor), not so much.

A 240/250GB drive is plenty for the OS and applications.
Games, maybe not
A lot of movies? Probably not.

Have those things live on other drives.
For how to automagically do that, read here:
Win 7 & 8: http://www.tomshardware.com/faq/id-1834397/ssd-redirecting-static-files.html
Win 8.1 & 10: http://www.tomshardware.com/faq/id-2024314/windows-redirecting-folders-drives.html
 
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Lewiswatson55

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Sep 17, 2014
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4,510


AH okay thank you :}
 
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Multipack

Multipack

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Sep 5, 2016
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But the seq write rates with large files are awesome for the impatient among us :lol: (Even if you lose a few blinks of the eye in speed with system IOPS)

 
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USAFRet

USAFRet

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Mar 16, 2013
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Out here in the real world, your OS and applications don't live sequentially.
You've read this, right? http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/ssd-raid-benchmark,3485.html

 
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Multipack

Multipack

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Sep 5, 2016
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Yes of course. Like I said, the IOPS and system files are affected negatively, but I deal with a lot of large video files and transferring them via SSD/NVME etc is a lot quicker. I dont mind sacrificing very slight (not noticeable from my experiments) slowdowns and access speeds in system operations. RAM is infinitely faster than an SSD and that seems to have the most impact on OS/sotfware speed in my experience.
 
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