Budget Raid 0 boot drive. What to pick?

[keplenk]

Hi everyone. Once again I need your help regarding this future purchase of mine.

I'm planning to buy a new computer/upgrade (low-mid range) in the next two weeks and I'm getting ready for it. I already bought an Intel processor (i7 860), case, PSU (Corsair 650TX), cooler (H50). With my old computer, I still have a good amount of mechanical hard drives (2 x 500 GB) that can be used as my storage in my new one. However, I’m planning to change those drives to SSD.

I've posted my motherboard query to the right thread so I'll just be asking about SSD.

SSD QUESTION:

I’ll be a first time SSD buyer and I still need to be educated about this technology. The operating systems that I use are Windows 7 and Linux (Fedora, sometimes Ubuntu). My old computer uses Raid 0 (via ICH9R) and I would like it on my new computer except this time I’ll be using SSDs.

My Budget is $200 (or less) for two drives combined. I don’t mind the rebate stuff as long as it is still less my budget (after rebate). But I would not like OCZ because their rebate is so bad, very very bad in my experience.

I’ll be using this Raid 0 setup as my Boot drive + a few applications (office, Starcraft 2, etc). I’ll be using my old drives as storage. So I don’t mind having little space as long as it is fast.

I’ve been looking at Newegg and found these 3 options:

Intel X25-V
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...7025&Tpk=x25-v

Corsair Nova CSSD-V32GB2-BRKT

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-122-_-Product

Kingston SSDNow V series 64gb

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-132-_-Product

What do you think about these options? Will this perform well in Raid 0? I also noticed that the Intel drive has the lowest write speeds, does that matter with performance?

BTW, I’m really not familiar with TRIM but I noticed that people with SSDs consider this as a must before buying. Does Linux have TRIM support? Or does Windows 7 64bit have TRIM support in Raid 0?

Please feel free to educate or give me other options (as long as it is $200) as I’m really new to the SSD world.

Thank you so much.

 

[Rifter]

TRIM does not work with raid so forget about that. I would go with the intel drives. And yes linux has trim support, but like i said that doesnt matter with raid.

 

[FishAk]

Why are you stuck on RAID? As mentioned, TRIM won't work on disks in an array. But you may find it's not necessary with a proper SSD.

A 40Gb Intel SSD only has half the channels of the 80Gb drive, and the 160 has more than the 80. So essentially, the bigger drives are already set up in a type of RAID like setup- but with TRIM.

Anyway, the real significant speed boost from an SSD is in the small file operations, since an SSD is a type of RAM, and there's no latency to speak of. Perhaps you might consider buying a smallish SSD like the Vertex 2 60Gb, or a 80Gb Intel to run your OS/programs partition from. Both have the same practical user space- 60Gb.

The generation 3 stuff will be comming out relitively soon, which will provide larger capacity, and also will lower prices for today's drives. Perhaps a smallish SSD can hold you over till then.

 

[keplenk]

Why are you stuck on RAID? As mentioned, TRIM won't work on disks in an array. But you may find it's not necessary with a proper SSD.

A 40Gb Intel SSD only has half the channels of the 80Gb drive, and the 160 has more than the 80. So essentially, the bigger drives are already set up in a type of RAID like setup- but with TRIM.

Anyway, the real significant speed boost from an SSD is in the small file operations, since an SSD is a type of RAM, and there's no latency to speak of. Perhaps you might consider buying a smallish SSD like the Vertex 2 60Gb, or a 80Gb Intel to run your OS/programs partition from. Both have the same practical user space- 60Gb.

The generation 3 stuff will be comming out relitively soon, which will provide larger capacity, and also will lower prices for today's drives. Perhaps a smallish SSD can hold you over till then.

Thank you for a very informative reply. I guess I need to change plans on my SSD point of view with regards to raid. Since I was on RAID 0 in my old computer and felt the speed, I was just assuming that it would be the same with SSDs without sacrificing anything.

I might consider the Intel 80gb since I'll just install Ubuntu and Windows 7 there. If the 3rd gens show up, I'll just use the 80gb on my netbook and buy a different set. Hopefully by that time SATA III with TRIM support on RAID will be a reality.

I just had a very good experience with RAID which explains my obsession to it.

I also hope that Newegg gives good sale items for the Labor day weekend.


Cheers

 

[f4phantom2500]

looks like you could get about 3 of those corsair SSDs for about $200 AR...unless you hit a bottleneck with your RAID controller that should be pretty killer. RAID isn't useless with SSDs, if that's what you're thinking. it does provide a good performance boost.


http://benchmarkreviews.com/index.p...sk=view&id=318&Itemid=60&limit=1&limitstart=7

of course, you could get 2 of the kingston drives and have an additional 32 gigs...personally i think buying one now is a good idea. you might be completely satisfied with the performance that 1 pricier SSD provides over several cheaper ones. if not you can always buy another later on.

 

[keplenk]

looks like you could get about 3 of those corsair SSDs for about $200 AR...unless you hit a bottleneck with your RAID controller that should be pretty killer. RAID isn't useless with SSDs, if that's what you're thinking. it does provide a good performance boost.


http://benchmarkreviews.com/index.p...sk=view&id=318&Itemid=60&limit=1&limitstart=7

of course, you could get 2 of the kingston drives and have an additional 32 gigs...personally i think buying one now is a good idea. you might be completely satisfied with the performance that 1 pricier SSD provides over several cheaper ones. if not you can always buy another later on.

Thanks for the link. That looks like a very decent performance boost IMO (since im a ssd newbie), I just hope I understood it right.

The reason I said that it might be useless is because of the TRIM being absent on a Raid setup. Since I'm an SSD infant, I just believe what people say that if TRIM is out, it would be useless.

However, I have a question that might help.

I reformat my system almost systematically every 3 months (sometimes every 2). Just like last year, I reformatted my setup for about 7 times. This year, I had 4 times already. I do that because I always want to start clean quarterly. It is also part of my obsession, my friends call the the "Format King". They also give their computers to me to reformat it.

Having said that, is TRIM still applicable to me? I'm not going to fill the SSD drives in 3 months anyway. Is reformatting that much destroys the SSD faster?