SSD Raid 0 vs larger SSD

[jwthomas1966]

I currently have a 64GB SSD for my boot drive. But after loading Windows 7, MS Office and Quicken and a couple of games, I am almost out of room. I am looking to either adding another 64GB SSD and Raid 0 them for more performance and capacity. Or would it be more beneficial to just replace the 64GB SSB for a 128GB SSD. What will be my pros and cons?

 

[WyomingKnott]

There have been quite a few such threads recently (have you searched for them and read them?). The consensus has been not to use RAID0, because of the risks inherent in RAID0 (which is not truly RAID), the fact that RAID0 improves serial transfers but does not do anything for seek times, and because the manufacturer has already optimized the larger drive to use twice the memory available to the smaller drive.

That said, Tom's Hardware Pro recently had an article stating that RAID0 in the enterprise space shows excellent scaling in random IO rates with multiple SSDs. So go figure. I, personally, bought a 128 GB SSD so that I wouldn't have to face this issue.

 

[jwthomas1966]

I have searched and read lots about Raid0, but couldnt find anything about which is the best way to go. I will read the article. Thanks

 

[Chainzsaw]

RAID 0 with SSD with not have TRIM/GC.

I find that RAID0 is pretty pointless these days with SSD drives. SSD's are fast enough on their own - which why I would say go for a 120GB version instead of RAID0 SSD's.

Unless you have an expensive RAID card you would not get the full benefit of a RAID setup. The built in RAID controllers on motherboards are usually not that powerful.

 

[RetiredChief]

^ Correct, no Trim, but Internal CG will still function - It just works BETTER with trim and garbage Collection (CG).

Concur - larger SSD using ahci or equivalnt, negative on two smaller SSDs in raid0

 

[jitpublisher]

If cost is of concern, why not do like a lot of folks(me included), and use your SSD for Windows only, maybe office, and few other things like your anitvirus software, add a second 1 or 2 TB SATA drive for games, programs, apps and data storage. Your games will load levels slower, but other than that, you won't notice any difference in gameplay. Buy a decent fast SATA drive like a Western Digital Black, or Samsung Spinpoint.

 

[jwthomas1966]

Best answer selected by jwthomas1966.