RAID 0 SSD

[AidanJC]

Hi everyone,

I'm currently in the market for two SSDs for my new build.

I'm leaning towards two OCZ 120GB Agility 3, has anyone heard about anything significantly wrong with these drives?

This is my first build, so I may need help with setting up RAID with these two drives. My motherboard is an Asrock Extreme 7 Gen 3 and i already have a copy of Windows installed on one of my hard drives already, just so I can use the computer until i get these two SSDs in. Will this conflict with the installation of Windows onto the SSDs? I can wipe the original hard drive, but that means i have to take a backup of all my steam games

Thanks in advance to anyone who may be able to help me out

 

[tecmo34]

There are two issues related to Agility 3's... 1) They are effected by the Random BSOD that has plagued the Sandforce 22xx controller. Latest firmware updates seem to have helped but some are still reporting issues. 2) It utilizes ASync NAND memory, which affects its performance compared to say a m4 or Vertex 3.

However, at the "black friday" pricing seen on Newegg.com, it is hard to pass up the deal, specially when running in RAID0. Also, it looks like soon Intel will be providing TRIM support for RAID0, which is an added plus to go along with the drive's GC (garbage collection). I still support going with the Crucial m4, myself but the Agility 3 will still provide a major improvement over standard drives.

When the time comes to install the SSDs... you want to disconnect the hard drives than install OS on the SSD and setup up your RAID. After that is complete, reconnect the HDDs and make sure they aren't 1st on the boot priority. You may still have to reinstall your STEAM games though, as the new OS might not recognize the programs.

 

[AidanJC]

Oh! I didn't even consider the Vertex 3! Completely forgot about them

It's a real ah heck about the steam games though, i was just thinking about placing shortcuts from the other hard drive to run the games, but with doing that, I may be plagued with registry errors and what not. I think i may just have to start fresh

Steam's backup tool is horrible, I can understand the speed, but it constantly locks steam up so i have to go through and do each game individually

It's also a real shame that Newegg doesn't deliver to Australia, as they have great pricing.

 

[AidanJC]

Best answer selected by AidanJC.

 

[arunphilip]

Steam's backup tool is horrible, I can understand the speed, but it constantly locks steam up so i have to go through and do each game individually

For Steam, I'd suggest making a copy of your ...\Steam\steamapps\common\ folder after shutting down Steam. That will contain one folder for each of your games. After you reinstall Windows/Steam, start to install each game (which will trigger a download), pause the download, copy that game's files back, and do a 'Verify file integrity' for that games files. You'll find that you'll have to download little to nothing.

Using Steam's built-in backup is dodgy when you try to restore, you're best avoiding it.