2*X25-V RAID0 vs 1*X25-M

[ToTTenTranz]

Hi.

I'm going to finally try some SSD action in my desktop.

Right now, I'm looking at two possible choices:

- Two Intel X25-V in Raid0, 40GB each at 35MB/s write and 170MB/s read.
- Single X25-M, 80GB at 70MB/s write and 250MB/s read.

Getting the X25-V pair would cost me some 15€ more.


My question is, would it be better to get the dual X25-V instead of the single X25-M?
Would I notice any difference between the theoretical 340MB/s RAID0 read speeds and the 250MB/s from the single drive, or would the SATA controller bottleneck this advantage anyway?

I'll be using the system in my sig (RAID0 would be done through the SB750 southbridge).


Thanks in advance.

[ToTTenTranz]

wow.. 24 hours later and zero responses...

All I want to know is if the SATA bandwidth won't bottleneck the theoretical 340MB/s from the RAID0 setup or if I should just stick to the 250MB/s from the single drive.

[DanTheBanjoman]

SATA bandwidth is not shared. Each port gets the full bandwidth.

[ToTTenTranz]

Originally Posted by DanTheBanjoman

SATA bandwidth is not shared. Each port gets the full bandwidth.

So dual 40GB will be faster than single 80GB, at least in continuous operation (I figure access times will be longer usind RAID0)?

[Fitseries3]

intel ssds have low write speeds. you'd be better off getting a single faster drive.

[TIGR]

You're probably going to see more like 310-320MBps write in RAID 0, but that's still what I'd do in your case for 15€ more.

Another option, just get the "M" and be open to adding another for a RAID 0 array later.

[Jizzler]

2 is good, 6 is better!

[Carl2]

ToTTenTranz
I've got a Gateway, just finished installing Win 7 on an Intel 160 SSD to reduce boot time and increase performance a bit. Frist I tried a raid 0 array using two Samsung 500 GB drives. Reads of 274 Mb and writes of 230 Mb. The boot time was the same, performance about the same, the win performance index for the HD was 5.9 the same as the original drive.
I originaly installed the OS using a cloned image of the original hard drive. From this I got the same boot time, same performance, same win performance index of 5.9. The MBR partition from the original drive was also copied to the SSD, takes about 1.5 Gb.
Problems resolved by formatting, was able to reduce the partition to 100 Mb, and doing a clean install of Win 7, the boot time is reduced to less than half, win performance index 7.8.
From my understanding of this, Win 7 detects the hard drive as being SSD and uses trim if the bios mode is AHCI. AHCI uses the msahci.sys driver. If you use Raid the iastor.sys driver is used and trim in win 7 is not used.
Like to know how you make out, for now I have taken out the raid array and set it aside.
Carl

[denrocks1]

Sorry I'm a little late... the X25-V's in Raid 0 will be significantly better.

http://www.overclock.net/attachments...-64k-block.png

[Hutkikz]

Originally Posted by Carl2

If you use Raid the iastor.sys driver is used and trim in win 7 is not used.
Like to know how you make out, for now I have taken out the raid array and set it aside.
Carl

Intel has just released drivers that support trim while using raid
http://downloadcenter.intel.com/deta...&DwnldID=15251

so there is no reason not to raid anymore. I say go for it

http://www.ocztechnologyforum.com/fo...FOR-INTEL-RAID

[Biker]

Sadly these drivers do not support Trim in raid arrays... i'm afraid we all got a bit over excited over a "wording error" in the documentation...

With these drivers in raid mode Trim commands are passed to single drives only, not arrays

Back to OP:

2x X25-v >> 1x X25-m but only for sequential reads.....

You should get around 340 seq reads with 2 x X25-v (and a fast motherboard running ICH10R)...

Check out the X25-v thread over at Xs

[devguy]

I doubt the Intel drivers would support the SB750 southbridge anyways. Go for the 80GB single drive.

[ToTTenTranz]

Originally Posted by devguy

I doubt the Intel drivers would support the SB750 southbridge anyways. Go for the 80GB single drive.

Really? The SB750 won't take advantage of TRIM?

So between TRIM single drive or RAID0 dual drive, I should do single drive?


EDIT: I just noticed there's no TRIM for RAID anyways.

[devguy]

Originally Posted by ToTTenTranz

Really? The SB750 won't take advantage of TRIM?

So between TRIM single drive or RAID0 dual drive, I should do single drive?


EDIT: I just noticed there's no TRIM for RAID anyways.

No, the SB750 will support TRIM just fine for a single drive, operating system permitting (Windows 7 / Linux). It just won't work when you put them in RAID, and I doubt that any Intel driver is going to be compatible with an AMD southbridge.