Advice needed! Adding to my current build. Questions regarding RAID.

Suomalainen

Baseband Member
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Hi folks, just have a few question. Thinking about upgrading my current build a little. I really don't NEED these extras now, but perhaps sooner or later I will. And.. I just want to have a little more fun adding to my build. :D I'm thinking about adding another 240gb SSD and maybe playing around with the RAIDs. Also, I'm going to get a few new fans and put an after market cooler in in hopes to reduce the sound a bit. I'm currently running 55c max underload, so I definetly don't need it. But hey, the arctic freezer 7 is on sale for $19. I'm going to get a new monitor which I'd like your opinions on, aswell.
Also, considering adding a 60gb SSD for misc things, that I do not want on my main drives, music etc.

Here is my current set up. (Thanks again PP!)

ASUS Sabertooth Z77
GTX 660TI FTW
I5 3570 @ 3.5xxghz
240gb Corsair GS SSD
8gb(2x4) DDR3 Corsair Veg RAM @ 1648mhz
TX650 PSU
Cougar Solution Black case w/ 5 120mm intake/exaust fans
Windows 7 pro 64bit

Here are the parts I'm considering adding.

Monitor: Newegg.com - ASUS MX279H Silver / Black 27" 5ms (GTG) HDMI Widescreen LED Backlight LCD Monitor, IPS Panel 250 cd/m2 80,000,000:1 Built-in Speakers

240gb SSD: Mushkin Enhanced MKNSSDCR240GB-DX7 Solid State Drive - Newegg.com

60gb SSD: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820226246

Aftermarket cpu cooler: ARCTIC Freezer 7 Pro Rev.2 with 92mm PWM Fan - Newegg.com

And a few new case fans not much of a point in mentioning.


Basically, I'm not familiar with RAID AT ALL. I would like some advice for which way to go. Also, how should I set up that 60gb drive so it has no interferences with the others. I want that 60gb ssd ONLY for misc downloads. If it gets corrupted from too much porn, I do not want it to effect the rest of my system. Joke ofcourse, but you get the point :D
 
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Depends on how you want to RAID. If you want to RAID the Mushkin and Corsair together then you will need to do a speed test to make sure the performance is similar or you could have a slight loss.

That heatsink is terrible. Also, if you have your 3570 hard set at 3.5 then you are making it go slower because turbo is 3.8.
 
On paper the two SSDs are quite similar. And that heatsink has something like 3500 5 star reviews. I'd imagine it would atleast be better than the stock cooler atleast? or?

Whats your opinion on the monitor? And could you go into the the RAID details? What would you say would be the best RAID option? It would be the two 240gb SSD drives and I'd want that 60gb drive to be seperate.

I have the CPU on ''performance mode'' in the Bios. I did not play around with the setting much at all. Is there a way to set it at 3.8 without changing the timings etc?
 
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Yea on paper, but when you actually start testing them I bet they will be quite different. On paper I should get 285/275 Sequential and like 50 or 60k 4k IOPS but I can assure you I don't get that. THe controllers on both are different as well. That's why I said it would be wise to speed test to make sure you will be getting the performance that matches for best results.

But I mean, the Corsair is only 10 bucks more.
Corsair Force Series GS CSSD-F240GBGS-BK Solid State Drive - Newegg.com

Might as well get it.
As for what RAID, it depends entirely on what you want. If you want 480GB of fast SSD storage then RAID 0. If you want redundant backup go RAID 1. I think with all 3 you could even do RAID 5. Mismatching drives for RAID is kind of frowned upon though, even though you can do it.

That heatsink has a bunch of reviews because it's been around forever and is super cheap. Sure, it's slightly better than a stock solution but isn't a heatsink that can withstand IB overclocks. On that note, to manually set it to 3.8 all the time you would have to raise the multiplier and turn off speedstep. Turbo raises to 3.8 from 3.4 when the first 2 cores get a heavy load. As I've mentioned before in your other thread, there isn't a reason to OC those chips.

To the monitor, not a fan at all of 1080p on anything larger than 24". IMO 27" monitors should be left to the 1440p crowd due to image stretch. Some can't see it, but I surely can.
 
Thanks dude!

Another idea is, instead of buying another corsair GS, I could go with 2 of those mushkin 60gb and do a Raid 0.. or 4 of them in a Raid10 :D
But then, what of my existing corsair 240gb GS drive? :p

Just kinda exploring my options atm, and interested in what I'm able to do and what could be best. Perhaps more or less continuing an expensive hobbie lol
 
Yeah, I hear mixed thoughts about it. Some say it would be some huge performance boost and others say it might not even be noticiable. I'm kinda leaning towards it not being noticiable. But, then again I never tried it and have 0 experience with Raid.
Seems like it is mainly used with HDDs, havent heard much about doing a Raid with SSD drives. Quite curious
 
Plenty of people do it with SSDs, but even though you get almost double the raw read/write it just isn't noticed. Doing RAID with HDDs is good because it speeds it up just a bit more but RAID doesn't fix what a HDDs problem is. That is seek and latency issues. An SSD is already stupid quick there compared to a HDD so the raw speed just isn't really noticed.
 
Your the man PP. Idk why I cant add another ''thanks'' to your name yet.

So, I guess I probably shouldent bother unless I want more space. The benefits don't sound like it would be worth the dough.
I was told that if I downloaded limewire for example, and downloaded a corrupted file it would still attack my C drive even if I have everything saved on a seperate HDD or SSD. That was my main concern tbh.
Bleh.
 
Considering Limewire is a paid for service now like iTunes then there isn't a worry there. If you are that paranoid then only download from trusted sources and have your AV ready. Isolating downloads to another drive wont help unless you have that SSD set aside for a VM which is your download box.
 
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