840 Pro and 850 Pro in RAID 0?

[bikeracer4487]

So I was planning on buying another 256 GB Samsung 840 Pro, so I could put the two of them into RAID 0 together...however, when I went to check prices, I discovered that Amazon is inexplicably selling the 850 Pro for $100 less than the 840 Pro. Upgrading from the 840 to the 850 would be a waste, considering the negligible performance difference, but if I can save $100 on the 850 vs. 840...is it even possible to run an 840 and 850 in RAID 0 together, or do they need to be the same model hard drive?

 

[drkatz42]

So I was planning on buying another 256 GB Samsung 840 Pro, so I could put the two of them into RAID 0 together...however, when I went to check prices, I discovered that Amazon is inexplicably selling the 850 Pro for $100 less than the 840 Pro. Upgrading from the 840 to the 850 would be a waste, considering the negligible performance difference, but if I can save $100 on the 850 vs. 840...is it even possible to run an 840 and 850 in RAID 0 together, or do they need to be the same model hard drive?

You can run any two drives in Raid 0. If they are drives of slightly different sizes, the space on the larger drive will be truncated and not useable.
You do realize you'll lose TRIM?

 

[Solandri]

Unless your requirements are very specific (e.g. editing massive video files), you're not going to see much if any benefit from SSDs in RAID-0.
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/ssd-raid-benchmark,3485.html

And my explanation of the benchmarks. In a nutshell, the 30-100 MB/s 4k read/write speeds matter a lot more than the 500-1000 MB/s sequential speeds.
http://www.tomshardware.com/answers/id-2537072/raid-controller-pci-slot-worth.html#15290379

 

[bikeracer4487]

Unless your requirements are very specific (e.g. editing massive video files), you're not going to see much if any benefit from SSDs in RAID-0.
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/ssd-raid-benchmark,3485.html

And my explanation of the benchmarks. In a nutshell, the 30-100 MB/s 4k read/write speeds matter a lot more than the 500-1000 MB/s sequential speeds.
http://www.tomshardware.com/answers/id-2537072/raid-controller-pci-slot-worth.html#15290379

Oh wow, thanks for this. I have two HDDs in RAID 0 for some random non-critical storage and I was just assuming the same performance increase would be applicable to SSD's. Thanks for the heads-up, looks like I won't be upgrading after all.

 

[Kewlx25]

Running in RAI😀 might be slower because SSDs are so fast and most cheap RAID devices can't keep up. Not to say it won't be faster, but I bought it'll be noticeable in most cases.

 

[DouMaru]

I invite you to looks up another post Tom's Hardware did on RAID 0 arrays vs. single SSD. In Summary, You get benefits in synthetic benchmarks, and when pushing higher IOPS for data heavy workloads. In most "everyday" scenarios the boost is negligible, but from personal experience I have seen noticeable differences using dual 840 pros. (but certainly not a doubling of performance).

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/ssd-raid-benchmark,3485-13.html

People also need to update their information on RAID 0 and TRIM. if this post was made prior to August 2012 I would be inclined to agree but Windows has already solved this problem. As stated in Wikipedia, "As of August 2012, Intel confirms that 7-series chipsets with Rapid Storage Technology (RST) 11.2 drivers will support TRIM for RAID 0 in Microsoft Windows 7.[51] While Intel did not confirm support for 6-series chipsets, TRIM on RAID 0 volumes has been shown to work on Z68 and P67 chipsets by hardware enthusiasts with a modified RAID option ROM." I can also confirm that Hard drive sentinel as well as checking within windows confirms that TRIM is running normally and enabled.

Lastly, to answer the original question, RAID 0 should work fine but you must consider the potential complication with differences in architecture and speeds when mixing. It is always optimal to pair identical drives. You still will get synthetic improvements and sequential read/write boosts, it just won't be optimized.
I also believe modern integrated RAID controllers are fairly sophisticated enough to optimize for the best speeds. A dedicated controller can offload the work form the system but I think modern intel based motherboards are beefy enough to handle multiple arrays just fine. In another review of SSD RAID capabilities on Tom's hardware, the testers stated that "Intel's Rapid Storage Technology offers better performance at low queue depths, whereas high-end RAID cards are typically optimized for more outstanding commands."

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/ssd-dc-s3500-raid-performance,3613.html

In a nutshell

-RAID0 will make no significant difference for the operations of the average consumer but does make a difference in certain domains
-TRIM does work with RAID 0
-Modern SSD controllers (integrated and dedicated through PCI express) are both mature and robust enough to negate any latency issues (subject to the quality of course)
-Mixing SSD's in RAID0 will always work but you will lose space in different configurations and possibly run into issues with different brands and models. Identical SSD's (with the same firmware) are always optimal for RAID arrays.