Fastest hard drive config? SSD or STD in RAID 0?

[mcdonsco]

I'm wondering what the fastest hard drive config would be? I don't want to build a system (though I can, just don't care to mess with it anymore) so I'll likely be buying one from someone like Dell / Alienware or Lenovo...But I'm wondering what is the fastest HDD config I can get?

Seems like most any manufacturer will do in a raid 0 with ssd's is 2 drives - is this a limit on doing raid with ssd's? If so, would 4 std fast hdd's in a raid 0 be faster than say two intel 520's in raid 0?

Currently I don't use a lot of storage and I'd rather have speed than space, with that said though I do still want 500gb's total storage or better and would prefer 2tb but cost will determine if I get that or not.

Sooo...2x intel 520 ssd's (or similar) in raid 0 or 4x 10,000rpm (or similar) 16mb+ cache hdd's in raid 0? (and again, can 4x ssd's even be done, or if it can is there not much of a benefit to 4 of them vs. 2?)

Thanks!

 

[Flareside]

Personally I did not see any speed benifit to running SSDs in raid. I was running 2x128s in a RAID 0 and traded them out for a single 256. The single drive was signifigantly faster. I used my standard drives in a Raid 0 for pure storage space.

Flare

 

[thently]

Well actually the 1 SSD would be faster than 4 disks in raid 0 so 2 will be insanely much faster. I went from a 5 disk raid 0 disks to just a sata 2 SSD and it is so much faster also the transfer rate was the same on both setups it is the access time that makes you feel the diffrence. I would never go back and i have a slower ssd Kingston 90 gig.

thent

 

[mcdonsco]

Thanks for the quick replies!

I have an SSD in my laptop now, so I'm pretty familiar with the speed increase of a single SSD. I'm looking for the absolute fastest hard drive configuration possible (within reason; I'm not rich by any means, but I'm willing to shell out more to get a stupid fast hdd setup).

Basically, here's what I'm doing. I'm finding now with tablets I don't use my laptop as a portable system very often, usually just have my tablet instead and when I go out of town that's where the laptop comes in.

So I've decided to go back to a standard desktop system, using tablet for on the go and keep my existing laptop with a base factory load on it just to use it to connect remote desktop to my desktop system when I travel out of town.

Knowing the hard drive is the bottleneck of any/all systems I prefer to maximize it's performance with any system I get...I've just been out of the tech/geek world for a while now and have been laptop only during that time so I'm not real familiar with what the fastests configs for a desktop would be.

 

[thently]

Just get the biggest Single sata 3 SSD you can get you will not feel much diffrence between a single or a raid 0 SSD I mean when Windows boots in 10 seconds and almost all apps start in 1 second (This is my own experience) yes I could get faster SSD but I think I am waiting on my CPU at this point already I mean how much faster can things happen at what point is half a second faster something I need LOL. I guess the answer is fastest will be raid 0 SSD 2 drives but you will loose trim unless you have the newest intel drivers I hear it might be possible now.

Thent

 

[ahnilated]

SSD's in a raid will give you the best speeds unless you get an add on drive card but they are very pricey and don't work in a lap top.

 

[Flareside]

For the absolute fastest SSD from hwat I have seen you are wanting to get one that plugs into one of your PCIe slots on the motherboard. From what I understand these bypass the sata controller and use the northbridge for data movement.

Example
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227596

Flare

 

[EVilQTip]

Ok my Experience is Raid 0 is outstanding! But sometimes when you boot down completely then power up after a day or so sometime it won't boot. other than that small problem which can happen with some motherboards raid 0 using two SSD's as one drive can give you insane loading speeds! Loading a game you can jump up and run off before anybody would even know and are still loading in multi player. I loved Raid 0 when I used it for it's like making your hard drives like dual CPU's running things way faster with no boggle or crashes due to overload.

I'm wondering what the fastest hard drive config would be? I don't want to build a system (though I can, just don't care to mess with it anymore) so I'll likely be buying one from someone like Dell / Alienware or Lenovo...But I'm wondering what is the fastest HDD config I can get?

Seems like most any manufacturer will do in a raid 0 with ssd's is 2 drives - is this a limit on doing raid with ssd's? If so, would 4 std fast hdd's in a raid 0 be faster than say two intel 520's in raid 0?

Currently I don't use a lot of storage and I'd rather have speed than space, with that said though I do still want 500gb's total storage or better and would prefer 2tb but cost will determine if I get that or not.

Sooo...2x intel 520 ssd's (or similar) in raid 0 or 4x 10,000rpm (or similar) 16mb+ cache hdd's in raid 0? (and again, can 4x ssd's even be done, or if it can is there not much of a benefit to 4 of them vs. 2?)

Thanks!