Best SSD raid card not for $500

[ahnilated]

I just recently purchased 2 X 256G Corsair SATA III SSD's. I am looking for a good raid controller card being the onboard stuff is all Marvell and I read they aren't the best. What would you suggest? I have seen some down in the $80 range all the way to about $600. What have you guys tried that have worked for you?

 

[foscooter]

It would probably be cheaper to get a new motherboard that supports RAID, and SATA III, like a Z68 chipset board.

But then you'd need a whole new rig (CPU & RAM, too) after seeing your signature. So you'd be over $500.00 anyways.

I feel your pain! I was looking last year, and the best one were $600-$1,000.00.

 

[ahnilated]

It would probably be cheaper to get a new motherboard that supports RAID, and SATA III, like a Z68 chipset board.

But then you'd need a whole new rig (CPU & RAM, too) after seeing your signature. So you'd be over $500.00 anyways.

I feel your pain! I was looking last year, and the best one were $600-$1,000.00.

Thanks for the response and that is what I figured. I currently get about 484MB/s from the 2 in raid 0 but being that one alone should do more then that I figured it was the Marvell controller being the problem.

 

[ahnilated]

Any thoughts on a good motherboard? I have been looking around at a number of boards and almost all of them have a Marvell controller for the SATA III side. In both an X58 and something in the Z68 line.

 

[ahnilated]

It looks like:

http://www.evga.com/products/moreInfo.asp?pn=151-SE-E779-KR&family=Motherboard%20Family&series=All%20Motherboards&sw=5

Would be good. I could do quad SLI and use the dual SSD's in a raid.

 

[rozz]

LSI (3ware) Raid Controllers are real good in my opinion.. Been putting them in my DVR system for the past 5 years. never had any of them fail, extremely fast too.

 

[tokencode]

Why run SSDs in RAID0? It just double's your chance of a failure and SSDs are so fast it's really not needed. I think you'd be better off just buying a larger SSD.... A larger SSD might even actually outperform two smaller ones in some cases

 

[ahnilated]

Why run SSDs in RAID0? It just double's your chance of a failure and SSDs are so fast it's really not needed. I think you'd be better off just buying a larger SSD.... A larger SSD might even actually outperform two smaller ones in some cases

You run SSD's in a raid to go beyond the speeds you get with one, check out some of the reviews. I am not worried about failure, that is what backups are for.

 

[foscooter]

Why run SSDs in RAID0? It just double's your chance of a failure and SSDs are so fast it's really not needed. I think you'd be better off just buying a larger SSD.... A larger SSD might even actually outperform two smaller ones in some cases

Not necessarily true, but a good point. I agree with the OP.

The OP mobo doesn't have native SATA III support, so that's why he wants a RAID card.

Check out rozz tip.

That board you listed is a X79 board, expensive! And a LGA2011 CPU board, very expensive!

You'll have no luck finding a SATA III native X58 board. These start with Z68, which is LGA1155 CPU.

You like Asus, so the Asus P8Z68-V Pro/Gen 3 board would do you good. Then you'd need a CPU (i5 2599K or i7 2600K), and RAM (8GB DDR3-1600 Corsair Vengence kit (2x4GB)).

Anyway, we are getting way over your original post dollar limit.

Cheers.

 

[tokencode]

Just get a non-raid SATAIII controller and a larger single SSD, if you do decide to go RAID 0 make sure your controller supports TRIM passthrough or you'll definitely end up with worse performance than a single drive.

 

[mightymaxio]

All motherboard raid connectors are jokes which is why you pay for the performance and reliability of the controller not to fail from bandwidth. You would'nt use onboard raid 10 for a raid 10 on a server would you?

 

[ahnilated]

Just get a non-raid SATAIII controller and a larger single SSD, if you do decide to go RAID 0 make sure your controller supports TRIM passthrough or you'll definitely end up with worse performance than a single drive.

A larger SSD is not going to happen. I know about making sure it will pass Trim.

 

[ahnilated]

Why run SSDs in RAID0? It just double's your chance of a failure and SSDs are so fast it's really not needed. I think you'd be better off just buying a larger SSD.... A larger SSD might even actually outperform two smaller ones in some cases

Not necessarily true, but a good point. I agree with the OP.

The OP mobo doesn't have native SATA III support, so that's why he wants a RAID card.

Check out rozz tip.

That board you listed is a X79 board, expensive! ANd a LGA2011 CPU board, very expensive!

You'll have no luck finding a SATA III native X58 board. These start with Z68, which is LGA1155 CPU.

You like Asus, so the Asus P8Z68-V Pro/Gen 3 board would do you good. Then you'd need a CPU (i5 2599K or i7 2600K), and RAM (8GB DDR3-1600 Corsair Vengence kit (2x4GB)).

Anyway, we are getting way over your original post dollar limit.

Cheers.

I did check out a lot of the LSI cards. They seem to have both gleaming and horrible reviews. I seen one I might get but thats another $359. I might just wait until Intel releases Ivy to upgrade my computer setup and just use the slow stuff I have as a backup computer or a hand me down.

 

[GhislainG]

All motherboard raid connectors are jokes which is why you pay for the performance and reliability of the controller not to fail from bandwidth. You would'nt use onboard raid 10 for a raid 10 on a server would you?

Dell and HP sell entry level servers that use the ICH10R as their RAID controller. It's as good as a RAID card that doesn't have cache; caching isn't as important when using SSDs as it is when using hard disks.

 

[rozz]

I did check out a lot of the LSI cards. They seem to have both gleaming and horrible reviews. I seen one I might get but thats another $359. I might just wait until Intel releases Ivy to upgrade my computer setup and just use the slow stuff I have as a backup computer or a hand me down.

You always going to have good and bad reviews. I want to say 10% of the people who buy a raid controller do not know how to setup one, thus give terrible reviews.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816116041

I have had this one for about 3 years now on raid 0 with a couple of raptors. For under $200 bucks, its been one of the best valued cards I've purchased and it's just as fast as my SSD.

 

[ahnilated]

You always going to have good and bad reviews. I want to say 10% of the people who buy a raid controller do not know how to setup one, thus give terrible reviews.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816116041

I have had this one for about 3 years now on raid 0 with a couple of raptors. For under $200 bucks, its been one of the best valued cards I've purchased and it's just as fast as my SSD.

The 2 SSD's aren't doing too bad currently. I am getting 535MB/sec but it is far short of the 800+ I wanted to see.

I don't think that card would work for me. I would prefer 4 connections. I have found one but it is a bit more spendy then the one your link goes too.

 

[kikiking]

He is not going over his post dollar limit, we can have him sell his older 17-920 and x58 Mobo, problem solved~!

Basically that is it!!!!! OP ivy bridge is coming out this month, just so you know.

 

[ahnilated]

He is not going over his post dollar limit, we can have him sell his older 17-920 and x58 Mobo, problem solved~!

Basically that is it!!!!! OP ivy bridge is coming out this month, just so you know.

I did see that Ivy bridge is coming out this month. I am just not so sure I need it. I am really waiting to see a bunch of benchmarks to see what I want to do. I didn't really want to go to the i7 2600K line being it is only one step up and almost old technology.

I have had to put this whole thing on the back burner. I seem to be having an issue with the computer locking up now in Seti for some odd reason. I have changed out every piece in the case, MB, memory, HD's, video cards, PSU. The only piece not changed was the CPU and it happens if it is stock or over clocked in Seti. I have tested the CPU in Prime 95 for 9 hrs with no errors. Tested the video cards, each for 2.5 hrs with no errors, stock or over clocked. Tested the ram for 8 hrs with no errors at stock. Swapped the PSU from the Cooler Master 1200 watt to a Silverstone 1500 watt. Fresh install of Windows 7 pro 64 bit with all updates.

This one is just running me into the ground. In the 25 yrs I have been building PC's I haven't had one this tough to diagnose.

 

[WyomingKnott]

You run SSD's in a raid to go beyond the speeds you get with one, check out some of the reviews. I am not worried about failure, that is what backups are for.

The review I checked out suggested that synthetic serial rates don't translate well to the real world: http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/storage/display/kigston-hyperx-ssd-raid0_7.html#sect0 .
Good general advice, but from your later posts I would guess that you know exactly what you want.

 

[kikiking]

Well wait for ivy bridge to see, and there seems to be a small improvement from sandy bridge, none I would upgrade from personally, but for the people who need a new pc, may be for them.

Another thing I do not think the ivy bridge supports virtu logix unless on z68, and there is z77 coming out, will not know until then.. it will have quick sync 2.. but z77 does not have virtu logix?

 

[ahnilated]

Well it seems the problem with the computer was hyper threading. Turn it off and the BSOD's are gone. Flip it back on and they come back. That is the first time I have ever seen that problem.

 

[kikiking]

hmmm