Raid 0 On Samsung ssd 256 Pro series

[The Penguin]

hello there!

Any pro's and con's for this wild idea?

I have currently a 256 sammy 840 pro ssd and i was thinking of getting another one, so i can use it as a raid 0.

Cant imagine the speed of those 2 sammy in raid 0, but cant imagine how annoying might be if one the drives fails on me, the whole system would go down.

Has anyone try out that before?

Is it worth the risk?

Should i get a 830 series instead (Currently using one on my pc )

Thanks for the advice.

Apropo: Got other drives where the important data is located, will only install the os, software and games on it.

[AthlonX2]

depends on your motherboard. If you have a Z77 you will have the benefit of TRIM on your array.

[The Penguin]

Originally Posted by AthlonX2

depends on your motherboard. If you have a Z77 you will have the benefit of TRIM on your array.

I do actually!

Is a asrock z77 fatality pro.

Got some other questions about this array.

The 2 ssd's shall be connected on the fastest sata and should the first 2 or just randomly any intel sata port?

Should i use the w7 driver for the array or the one from asrock website?

Thanks a lot.

[AthlonX2]

Use the latest driver from intel. I think its RST 11.7, additionally you should look for the two ports that are colored different as those are normally the 6GB/s SATA ports.

EDIT: It looks like your board has 6 x SATA6 ports. Look in your manual for direction on which ones are on the Z77 chipset.

[McSteel]

To use the Intel Z77 SATA3 6Gbps interface for RAID, connect the drives to the "SATA3_0_1" connectors on the board. They are the middle two SATA stacked ports, meaning the first two red ports looking from the bottom of the board towards the CPU area. The "SATA3_A1_A2" and the "SATA3_A3_A4" ports are provided and controlled by the ASMedia ASM1061 controller. While it's a capable chip, the Intel solution is quicker and supports TRIM correctly.

As for the whole idea of going with RAID0, you will surely notice the speed boost. The risk factor behind it should be low, since SSDs have very low latency (so the RAID controller won't drop them), and the error rate is about on par with enterprise HDDs (meaning 1 unrecoverable error in ~10 000 000 000 000 000 read attempts), so I wouldn't worry too much about it.

For me personally, though, I think it would be too much money to invest right now (dropping $250 for a speed increase from very fast to ludicrous is beyond my wallet thickness).

[The Penguin]

Originally Posted by AthlonX2

Use the latest driver from intel. I think its RST 11.7, additionally you should look for the two ports that are colored different as those are normally the 6GB/s SATA ports.

This might be what you are talking about

http://downloadcenter.intel.com/Deta...dID=22194#help

[The Penguin]

Originally Posted by McSteel

To use the Intel Z77 SATA3 6Gbps interface for RAID, connect the drives to the "SATA3_0_1" connectors on the board. They are the middle two SATA stacked ports, meaning the first two red ports looking from the bottom of the board towards the CPU area. The "SATA3_A1_A2" and the "SATA3_A3_A4" ports are provided and controlled by the ASMedia ASM1061 controller. While it's a capable chip, the Intel solution is quicker and supports TRIM correctly.

As for the whole idea of going with RAID0, you will surely notice the speed boost. The risk factor behind it should be low, since SSDs have very low latency (so the RAID controller won't drop them), and the error rate is about on par with enterprise HDDs (meaning 1 unrecoverable error in ~10 000 000 000 000 000 read attempts), so I wouldn't worry too much about it.

For me personally, though, I think it would be too much money to invest right now (dropping $250 for a speed increase from very fast to ludicrous is beyond my wallet thickness).

Excellent, i need to see my manual to actually see those 2 intel sata ports, however i know what you are talking about.

Before w7 starts the installation, i should install the intel raid drivers from an usb correct?

http://downloadcenter.intel.com/Deta...dID=22194#help

[sneekypeet]

For raid yes, for RST, after the OS is in. Those are the right files too.

[The Penguin]

Originally Posted by sneekypeet

For raid yes, for RST, after the OS is in. Those are the right files too.

Fair enough.

The firast file is ofr installing the raid drivers before w7 start installing the os.

The 3rd and 4th file are only after w7 has been installed?

If so, which file is the right one? There is one called iata_enu.exe and iata_cd.exe.

What is the main difference?

[AthlonX2]

you want the zip with the inf files

[The Penguin]

Originally Posted by AthlonX2

you want the zip with the inf files

Excellent!

The first file called f6flp-64.zip Is for the raid drivers before w7 begins installing.

Can i use a usb to allocate the files there?

[AthlonX2]

yes

[AsRock]

I raid 2 older intel SSD's and it's nice and all but it's not really worth it. Surly the sammy 840 loads every thing instantly already ?.

Although if you were getting another drive anyways i would try it for shits and giggles but long term i my self would not bother. Like now i turn the computer on and by time i turned the TV on the dam things waiting for me and that's with much slower SSD's.

1 thing that annoys me with SSD's is that game company's have not realized that you cannot read that hint they post just before the game starts you don't have time to read it.. Fallout 3 and Skyrim i found that issue with and more recently D3.

[The Penguin]

Can Someone tell me, what is the purpose of the INF driver ver:9.3.0.1019 for the asrock z77 fatality pro?

[McSteel]

The inf update package is Intel's main chipset driver. It enumerates everything that's connected to the PCH - PCI-E lanes, storage controller, USB controller, etc. The RST (rapid storage tech) driver is actually layered on top of it, providing additional functionality - port monitoring, spanning volumes, soft-RAID, etc.

To be able to install to a RAID volume, you'll need to load the F6 drivers during the first stage of W7 install. After installing Windows, install the chipset drivers (inf package), then RST drivers. As for the rest of the device drivers, their ordering is largely unimportant.

[The Penguin]

Originally Posted by McSteel

The inf update package is Intel's main chipset driver. It enumerates everything that's connected to the PCH - PCI-E lanes, storage controller, USB controller, etc. The RST (rapid storage tech) driver is actually layered on top of it, providing additional functionality - port monitoring, spanning volumes, soft-RAID, etc.

To be able to install to a RAID volume, you'll need to load the F6 drivers during the first stage of W7 install. After installing Windows, install the chipset drivers (inf package), then RST drivers. As for the rest of the device drivers, their ordering is largely unimportant.

Man, thank you so much, i had no idea about that INF file.

As per the raid, pressing f6 will allow me to install the raid drivers from the usb stick. I have downloaded the latest version from intel website:

http://downloadcenter.intel.com/Deta...?DwnldID=22194

[The Penguin]

Originally Posted by McSteel

The inf update package is Intel's main chipset driver. It enumerates everything that's connected to the PCH - PCI-E lanes, storage controller, USB controller, etc. The RST (rapid storage tech) driver is actually layered on top of it, providing additional functionality - port monitoring, spanning volumes, soft-RAID, etc.

To be able to install to a RAID volume, you'll need to load the F6 drivers during the first stage of W7 install. After installing Windows, install the chipset drivers (inf package), then RST drivers. As for the rest of the device drivers, their ordering is largely unimportant.

Man, thank you so much, i had no idea about that INF file.

As per the raid, pressing f6 will allow me to install the raid drivers from the usb stick. I have downloaded the latest version from intel website:

http://downloadcenter.intel.com/Deta...?DwnldID=22194

[The Penguin]

Sorry for the double post, everytime i want to write something , log out.!

[The Penguin]

Anyone else?

[howardtay]

Hi, this is my first post and I hope someone may be able to shed a little light on my problem.

Asus P7H55-M/USB3 LGA 1156 - Intel(R) Core I7 CPU 870 @ 2.93Ghz, 2676Mhz, 4 cores, 8 Logical Processors - BIOS AMI v1105
Asus GTX560 Ti DirectCUII Top 900Mhz Graphics Card
8Gb 1333 RAM Memory
1 x 500GB Western Digital HD plugged onto SATA2 Port (6 on MOBO)
1 x 250GB Western Digital HD plugged onto SATA2 Port

1 x 250GB Samsung 840 Pro SSD plugged into SATA 3 6Gbps Port 1 of 2 on MOBO
1 x ATAPI SCSI SATA DVD-RW plugedd into SATA 3 6Gbps Port 2 of 2

Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit

My BIOS is AHCI and the Marvel Controller Boot Rom is Active, I have tried MSAHCI and Marvel Drivers.

Yet my read speeds using AS SSD are well below the advertised speeds.

Samsung advertise 540MB Read and 520MB Write

I have managed to get it up to 341.96MB Read and 179.03MB Write but can't seem to obtain any higher speeds, Samsung Magitian shows that I have Maximum Performance, that I have AHCI set and that I have the SSD plugged in and using the SATA3 6GBPS port, have I missed something? or is that the best I can expect? if I had known this I would not have purchased the Pro version.

Don't get me wrong, I'm happy with my Windows 7 boot speed from 1minute 40 seconds to 30 seconds and my Windows Performance has gone from 5.5 to 7.7, my Microsoft FSX Deluxe works better, so everything is an improvement, but I was expecting better speeds than this based on Samsungs advertising.

Anyone got any ideas?