Question Can I make partitions in a RAID_0 configuration?

[Endre]

The specs of my motherboard (Gigabyte Z390 Aorus Master) say that I could reach the incredible sequential speeds: 3551MB/s (read) & 3063MB/s (write), if I install 3 NVMe M.2 PCIe SSDs and configure them as RAID_0.

I’m not familiar with RAID types, by my understanding it means mixing more hard drives to create a bigger, faster one (the opposite of partitions). Please correct me if I’m wrong.

Question 1: After I make the RAID configuration, will I be able to make partitions?

Question 2: Is it a good idea to configure drives as RAID 0?
What are the pros and cons?

 

[13thmonkey]

1. Yes you can
2. it's a bad idea, 3x the fault likelihood, real world performance not much difference.

You really need to research raid a lot, or don't bother.

 

[Satan-IR]

RAIDing SSDs is not the best idea.

RAID 0 with SSDs is sort of only good if you really want to get to those numbers, i.e. sequential speeds, in benchmarks. In real world usage not really advantageous.

 

[Endre]

RAIDing SSDs is not the best idea.

RAID 0 with SSDs is sort of only good if you really want to get to those numbers, i.e. sequential speeds, in benchmarks. In real world usage not really advantageous.

So, with other words, the numbers will go up in benchmarks, but in the “real world” I won’t notice much improvement?

 

[Endre]

1. Yes you can
2. it's a bad idea, 3x the fault likelihood, real world performance not much difference.

You really need to research raid a lot, or don't bother.

But if I still decide to do it, how will my BIOS see my drives when I boot? As individual disks, or as 1 entity?

 

[13thmonkey]

Bios will see 3 physical disks, then the raid bios will kick in, and they'll show as a single raid'd drive. Windows installer sees them as a single disk from the raid controller to do with as you see fit. Be aware if one of them fails, you lose everything, if one of them glitches for a significant period of time, you may need a rebuild, you may lose everything. And in reality you might see as couple of seconds improvement in some load times.

 

[Endre]

Bios will see 3 physical disks, then the raid bios will kick in, and they'll show as a single raid'd drive. Windows installer sees them as a single disk from the raid controller to do with as you see fit. Be aware if one of them fails, you lose everything, if one of them glitches for a significant period of time, you may need a rebuild, you may lose everything. And in reality you might see as couple of seconds improvement in some load times.

Thank you! These infos are really helpful.

 

[geofelt]

Be careful how you interpret what you read.
Even a single stock Samsung evo plus matches that read speed
https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820147741

As to performance, most of what we do is random.
With raid-0, you may well find that a single read takes two or 3 operations on the setup described.

Then, 3 devices will cost more for the same capacity as a single device and the endurance woll be less.

----------------------------bottom line--------------------------
Forget about raid-0

 

[Endre]

Bios will see 3 physical disks, then the raid bios will kick in, and they'll show as a single raid'd drive. Windows installer sees them as a single disk from the raid controller to do with as you see fit. Be aware if one of them fails, you lose everything, if one of them glitches for a significant period of time, you may need a rebuild, you may lose everything. And in reality you might see as couple of seconds improvement in some load times.

Thank you! These infos are really helpful

Be careful how you interpret what you read.
Even a single stock Samsung evo plus matches that read speed
https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820147741

As to performance, most of what we do is random.
With raid-0, you may well find that a single read takes two or 3 operations on the setup described.

Then, 3 devices will cost more for the same capacity as a single device and the endurance woll be less.

----------------------------bottom line--------------------------
Forget about raid-0

What you are saying makes sense. But still, I’m intrigued of the fact that though it’s such a pain to configure RAID 0, some people still do it. So, it must be because it increases the performances dramatically.

 

[geofelt]

People try raid-0 because they do not understand and think they can get something for nothing.
Here is a older study using ssd devices in raid-0.
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/ssd-raid-benchmark,3485.html
Spoiler... no benefit at all.

 

[USAFRet]

The article linked above refers to SATA III SSD's.
"Spoiler... no benefit at all. "

This one speaks to NVMe drives, like yours.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/samsung-950-pro-256gb-raid-report,4449.html

The result is even less "benefit". Possibly even slower than a single drive.

 

[Endre]

The article linked above refers to SATA III SSD's.
"Spoiler... no benefit at all. "

This one speaks to NVMe drives, like yours.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/samsung-950-pro-256gb-raid-report,4449.html

The result is even less "benefit". Possibly even slower than a single drive.

Really?
Well, you convinced me.
To be honest I feel better that I won’t have to go through the pain of buying 3 identical drives and all the RAID procedure...