Single Large SSD or smaller SSDs in RAID?

[dontknownotsure]

Hi

I'm thinking of grabbing 2-4 locally cheap SSD and use them in raid for absurd speeds.

These are several cheap models avaliable to me.

Silicon Power
SP032GBSSDE20S25

A-DATA
AS596TB-32GM-C

SUPER TALENT
FTM32GL25V

OCZ
OCZSSD2-1VTXPL60G

Kingston
SSDNow V series SNV125-S2BD/30GB

crucial
Crucial m4 CT064M4SSD2

and ETC.

Or should I simply grab the local best-seller 120GB Intel 510 Series SSDSC2MH120A2K5

what shall It be??

 

[RetiredChief]

My vote - Crucial M4 or samsung 830 120 gig, skipping Raid0.

With Raid0:
(1) You lose trim, Gargabe Collection is a poor alternative.
(2) Primary benifit of Raid0 is the increased Sequencial file performance - the least important matrix for a OS + Program drive. - It's the access time and small file random 4 k that is important.

 

[xtreme5]

ocz is the first good option 2nd intel 510 so get a larger one.

 

[dontknownotsure]

Wow, thanks for lightning speed reply, I heard that OCZ drives are unstable while A-DATA and Samsung are generally reliable. is this still true?

 

[geofelt]

Good comments from Retiredchief.

In the past, I used two Intel X25-M 80gb drives in raid-0. I wanted a single 160gb image. Benchmarks looked wonderful.
I replaced the two with a single 160gb drive, and could not tell the difference.
One reason is that larger ssd's have more nand chips which can be accessed in parallel. Sort of an internal raid-0.

As to which drive, I think you may have fewer issues with Intel, or, perhaps samsung.
Read this:
http://www.behardware.com/articles/831-7/components-returns-rates.html

Intel is supposed to be releasing it's 520 series drives to replace the 320 series soon. They have been offering some good rebates on the 320 series, and that should be a good deal.

 

[alandalf]

Hi

I'm thinking of grabbing 2-4 locally cheap SSD and use them in raid for absurd speeds.

These are several cheap models avaliable to me.

Silicon Power
SP032GBSSDE20S25

A-DATA
AS596TB-32GM-C

SUPER TALENT
FTM32GL25V

OCZ
OCZSSD2-1VTXPL60G

Kingston
SSDNow V series SNV125-S2BD/30GB

crucial
Crucial m4 CT064M4SSD2

and ETC.

Or should I simply grab the local best-seller 120GB Intel 510 Series SSDSC2MH120A2K5

what shall It be??

Last year I had this problem but in the end I bought 2 ocz vertex 2 30gb and put them
In raid0 they are really great and I would definitely go with ocz as I have heard some bad things about Kingston one of my worries was the lack Of TRIM support but I have had no issues with that.

 

[NuclearShadow]

I will also agree going for a single larger SSD but I would also like to add going RAID0
also comes with risks failure rates on SSDs are still high even more so with OCZ. Even if one drive goes you lose everything.

 

[RetiredChief]

Forgot to include.
As you move up in size, so goes performance. For example moving from a 64 -> 128 -> 256 Gig SSD with in the same family (ie a M4) the performance also increases.

Do not rely on manufs quoited speeds. These are normally based on benchmarks using Data that is readily compressable - NOTE real life, as most files found in an OS + program drive are NOT readily compressed. If you want to look at bench marks, look at PC Vantage scores, alternative is to look at AS SSD benchmarks (AS SSD uses compressed data at least).

My recommendation is to steer clear of SF22xx controller based SSD which includes the OCZ line-up. They are cheaper for a reason!!!

 

[JohnnyLucky]

^5 +1 what Retired Chief and geofelt said.

 

[dontknownotsure]

Best answer selected by dontknownotsure.

 

[dontknownotsure]

Thanks all, best answers chosen to close thread.

I'll be thinking about it