How to RAID0 SSD software RAID

ericjohn004

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Oct 26, 2012
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I'm trying to put two Kingston 3K 120Gb SSD's in RAID 0 using "Intel RST". My question is, since you need "Intel RST" to be on one of the SSD's for it to work how in the world do I RAID0 both my SSD's and THEN do a fresh install of Window's? I can see if I put windows on my HDD THEN Raided the SSD's and THEN did a fresh install of the OS it might work. Will Intel RST even keep the SSD's in RAID0 if you delete the OS? Do I do this through the BIOS? Please HELP.
 
Solution
Unless you have a specific Need for Raid0, for SSDs do not recommend.
For a starter:
.. Unless on a Intel Z7 series platform, you loose TRIM.
.. Primiarily Raid0 only provides a signicant boost to Sequencial performance, the Least Important matrix for a OS + Program drive.
.. If one drive fails, you lose all data on both drives.

ericjohn004

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Any PCIe RAID controllers you would suggest that won't break the bank? And I've already bought my second 120Gb SSD so either it's used for storage or RAID0 and I'd rather the extraperformance. As for software RAID using my CPU I really don't care too much as it's only probably .25% and only when reading or writing to the drive.

Has anyone done software RAID and had no problems?
 
First of all, not even the z77 supports hardware raid. all chipset raid is software raid. The only advantage of the z77 is, that it in some cases supports trim on ssd's in a raid config. And there is also no hardware raid PCIe controller for cheap.
If you what to use the z77 raid, configure your raid in bios and install the intel driver by pressing f6 while installing windows. You may get it to work, but you will not see any performance improvement over a single ssd. The ssd boost comes from the very low seek/access time compared to hdd's and that stays the same in raid0.
 
Unless you have a specific Need for Raid0, for SSDs do not recommend.
For a starter:
.. Unless on a Intel Z7 series platform, you loose TRIM.
.. Primiarily Raid0 only provides a signicant boost to Sequencial performance, the Least Important matrix for a OS + Program drive.
.. If one drive fails, you lose all data on both drives.
 
Solution
Z77 chipsets does support raid get your facts straight..if i go to bios in my mobo under sata settings I can set the sata to IDE, AHCI and RAID so that is the hardware raid lol
after changing my sata mode to raid you do press f6...thats has nothing do to with isntalling raid drivers but settiung up your raid as you have activated the raid controller. after you set up your raid config windows installation will detect it since its hardware
 
Why do you want to put SSDs in RAID anyways?

You won't be getting any sort of noticeable speed increase, especially since SSDs get faster as they get larger, and you'll be running double the chance of failure. It seems somewhat pointless to do that when you can just get a 512GB drive. (Especially when most people really only need a 128GB drive to put their OS and programs on.)
 
You don't need to put the SSD drives in hardware/software RAID to benefit from the extra storage. If you want to install programs, simply create the Program Files and Program Files (x86) folders on the second SSD, and when installing new software, point to the new drive letter when it defaults to C: (i.e. if the SSDs are C: and D:, when a program installs to C:\Program Files, change it to D:\Program Files).

Since no one uses a command prompt to launch programs, and you are just clicking on icons, what difference does it matter which physical drive letter the programs are installed on? Using 2 drives with 2 drive letters wouldn't make a difference in normal activities.

RAID, when used in the enterprise level installations (i.e. Database Servers, File Servers, etc) provide large capacity volumes, spanning multiple drives, with redundancy - and quick replacement of failed drives. Using it for home installations will create more headaches than it solves problems.

Since the SSDs would be a spanned volume, and no redundancy, if either drive failed or had issues, both drives would be useless.
 

ericjohn004

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I think I may have changed my mind... haha. It's not that I can't figure it out because I know how to do all of what your saying. It's just I'd be spending an additional 100 bucks on an SSD all for some sequential speed which I'll never "feel" anyways. I'm gonna have to give my best answer to the chief although all of your answers are greatly appreciated and I DID learn something. So thank you all for that.
 
PS I use 2 SSEDEs in all my systems that allow 2 + drives.
i5-2500K, a 128 gig 830 (OS + Programs) plus a 256 gig 830 (Most used files)
i5-750 a 128 gig SSD + a 128 gig SSD
i5-2410M laptop - a 256 gig Samsung 840 Pro (Windows 8) + 256 Gig Curcial M4. Also have a 128 gig M4 (win 7) that I can swap with win 8 SSD

Prior to SSDs dtding back to late 90's (Late 90's, no SATA ports, used IDE for my raid0) ALL my systems used HDDs in raid0. Even used short stroking on one set to improve performance. Last system to use Raid0 was my E6400 (Oced to 3.2). 2 pairs of HDDs, one for XP and one for Vista. Swaped the vista for win 7 beta.
 

ericjohn004

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I'll probably end up putting 2 SSD's in my system for games so they'll load faster. Right now I have my OS and some programs all on my 120Gb kingston 3k SSD. And I have my image saved to where I can reinstall the OS and have everything exactly as it was. So I never change any files on my OS's SSD so if I do have to reinstall nothing changes. For my data drive I use a Seagate Barracuda HDD 7200.14 and it's pretty fast. There isn't that much of a different when it comes to opening small programs. There is a big difference when loading games though. Which is why I'm wanting the second SSD. But I will not be doing a RAID0 setup due to the information learned here today.

Thank you all.