SSD / HDD & raiding...help please!

[Jack_who689]

Hi, so ive been reading up alot, on SSDs and such but was wondering what was the best way to go in building my storage for ny new rig.

So as of right now what I have is a Intel x25m (Gen 2) 80GB Ssd and a seagate 1TB 7200rpm Hdd im wondering if I should go raid0 with my Hdds or buy another intel sdd and raid that.

What im leaning towards right now is raid0 with my HDD and using it for gaming, file storage etc. and using the SSD for booting my OS

What I want, is probably what everyone wants too lol, is a setup that pretty much boots my os,gaming, etc quickly, mainly this rig is for gaming, but all around want it to be quick

Please leave feedback will greatly appreciate it!

 

[C0RR0SIVE]

I wouldn't raid the ssd's unless you have an intel sandy bridge chipset, otherwise the trim commands wont be passed to the drives.

If you are ONLY going to use the SSD for windows boot, and user documents, while leaving larger applications on the raid array, I suggest doing what I did here. http://www.techist.com/forums/f127/redirecting-program-files-program-files-x86-vista-win7-245289/

Read it all, very carefully, the upside, faster boot times and what not, but, when playing games, you will get the performance of a regular set of hard drives. The pros/cons are all listed, and it needs to be done properly.

But, you said you had an 80GB SSD, and a 1TB HDD, you can't raid those together properly. Do you have other hard drives you are not listing?

 

[Jack_who689]

Sorry wasnt so clear lol, was trying to decide whether to buy another SSD similar to my 80GB which is intels x25-m Gen2 and raid those (and I have the i7 2600k sandybridge so hoping raiding both SSDs wont effect the TRIM) or just keep one ssd specifically for booting os and raiding two 1tb HDD 7200 rpm for my main storage files.

What I really want out of all this is a good place for my os and booting up my programs/games without long load times.

If you have an idea of what is better please lemme know.

 

[C0RR0SIVE]

Ehh scratch the idea of doing RAID with SSD and TRIM being supported, I am sure SLAY or someone else would be of better help, I personally would just get a single large SSD instead of multiple ones, as apparently TRIM still isn't supported on sandybridge or something when it comes to a RAID array. (Intel release notes was confusing me)

 

[Jack_who689]

Ok thanks would it be ok too have one big SSD for booting os and game files ? Or would it be best to seperate them? Sorry just trying to clarify...and money right now is not a problem, so along side with my SSD can I raid0 my HDDs just for the goodness of it? Need the HDD solely for storage, dont want to mix gaming/os files in same storage area where other files are.

 

[C0RR0SIVE]

I would use a single large SSD for OS/Games, and a set of Raid0 drives for storage, just make sure to back up the raid array.

 

[Jack_who689]

Thanks corrosive helped with m decision

 

[kmote]

I would use a single large SSD for OS/Games, and a set of Raid0 drives for storage, just make sure to back up the raid array.

I would be very cautious about a 2TB RAID 0 array. IMO the OP should consider using a RAID 1 on the storage instead.

 

[C0RR0SIVE]

Hence the reason I said to back up the raid array, 2TB Raid 0 is somewhat risky, but, 1TB drives suffer in performance, if money isn't an issue he can get a few 500GB drives for 0 and still have 1TB.

 

[kmote]

I'd take the small performance hit but ultimately it's up to the OP.