mini-pcie raid with SSDs?

[AlexMikhail]

I would like to install two 64GB Crucial M4 SSDs in raid0 to achieve a read/write speed of around 1 Gigabyte a second, but the only expansion slot I have free on my motherboard is a mini-pcie slot intended for wireless cards.

Would a mini-pcie to full size pcie adapter with a sata 3 raid card in it even work? and if so does mini-pcie have a bandwidth of at least 8 gigabits a second (1 gigabyte/s) to make the raid setup worth doing? Also my motherboard does not support software raid as far as I am aware.

this is my motherboard:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/GIGABYTE-GA-B85N-PHOENIX-Phoenix-Motherboard-Express/dp/B00MJ4SNVS/ref=sr_1_sc_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1454590215&sr=8-2-spell&keywords=itx+pheonix

This is the type of adapter I would use:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B016C5BD70/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pC_S_ttl?_encoding=UTF8&colid=2HCGX01EGOSG9&coliid=I3PSUW1EOG1WY6

Thanks!

Edit: As that adapter was pcie to pci, what about this one instead? but can you even get sata 3 pcie x1 raid cards? and isn't pcie x1 limited to a bandwidth of about 500mb/s?
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Mini-PCIe-PCI-e-adapter-Riser/dp/B00HUV4NUK/ref=sr_1_2?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1454755856&sr=1-2&keywords=mini+pcie+to+pcie

Thanks again.

 

[WyomingKnott]

It is my personal opinion that one 128 GB drive in a give product line will perform better than 2 64 GB drives from the same line in RAID 0. Trust the manufacturer to make the most use of the additional memory and do the tuning.

 

[AlexMikhail]

I appreciate that that is your opinion, however, I came to this forum to find out if what I want to do is possible. If you have any knowledge on or experience regarding what I am asking please do share as I am very eager to hear it, but I would prefer not to be told simply to not do it, at least not without a factual, unbiased argument behind it.

 

[drtweak]

1) To answer your question is No it will not work.

There is a difference between a Mini-PCIe, mSATA, and M.2. A Mini PCIe is what it is. A Mini PCIe slot. Yes they BOTH fit the same but they are wired differently. A mSATA is wired as a SATA drive NOT as PCIe Lanes like a M.2 SSD is.

2) As WyomingKnott said you would be better off getting one bigger SSD.

Now why NO to RAID 0 them for what you want to do.

1) RAID 0 benifites on WRITES not READS. Yes there will be a read increase but now what you would expect. Those SSD's do 500MBps. You would probably see around 700-800 in a RAID 0.

2) Those SSD's get up to 95MBps write so you would see a max of 180-200 write. The 128GB version gets same read but up to 175 write.

Also unless you have something where you REALLY need the speed like a SQL database, Video Rendering, CAD Rendering etc you would NOT see any difference in Windows Load times, game load times, program load time for almost any RAID with SSD's. The Difference won't be huge like going form a HDD to SSD where as a HDD could take up to a minute to boot from BIOS POST where as a SSD would take 15-20 seconds. I have a AMD 8 Core and a Crucial M500 240GB SSD that gets around 520-560 Write/read and it takes 15 seconds flat to get from power button to i got to put in my password. If i did a RAID 0 or that same SSD I would see maybe a second or two faster time.


Also a few other thing. You adapter you want is from PCIe to PCI. PCI is WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAYYYYYY SLOWER than PCIe.

To RAID those two cards together you 1) Need a mSATA to SATA Adapter like so

https://www.google.com/search?q=msata+to+sata&safe=off&espv=2&biw=1920&bih=955&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwj6zqWKgeLKAhXFKGMKHVbJDTgQ_AUIBygC

2) You would then need a motherboard that has onboard RAID which this motherboard does not and if your x16 slot is occupied you can't add one.
You could so software RAID 0 but that ONLY works on a DATA drive. You can NOT install windows on a Software RAID 0 only a Software RAID 1 and that is it.

So it sounds like either way you 1) need the mSATA to SATA adapter (for BOTH of them unless the PC can do RAID between mSATA and SATA drives) and then have a motherboard that can do onboard RAID or has more PCIe slots to add a RAID card.

So yea just sounds like all around with this motherboard you can't do what you want to do.

 

[AlexMikhail]

Thanks for the reply but I believe that you are mistaken in a couple of places.

first, the board has msata and mini pcie, I understand the difference and am not interested in the msata port as it is currently occupied by something else.

second, I have used software raid0 with these drives before and saw a write speed of over 1000mb/s in benchmarks. i realize that benchmarks are not real world but just thought i would mention it.

Also this PC is for CAD rendering, I am a third year design student and the pc has a core i7 4770 @ 3.7ghz and an r9 270x toxic gpu (not important just mentioning)

Now, you say that the adapter is pcie to pci. I had not noticed this. is there such a thing as a mini-pcie to pcie adapter?

Again though, I am not looking to be told why this is a bad idea, I would just like to find out how possible it is. I already have the two drives but i effectively want one drive that is twice the size, whist making sure the hardware i use to achieve this is not limiting their performance.

 

[drtweak]

If you were to find a Mini Pcie to PCIe adapter then yes what you want to do will work but it will have limitations. Here are a few examples.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Sintech-mini-pci-e-to-USB-PCI-express-Riser-Extend-adapter-Card-10-20-30cm-Cable-/221160508053

http://eshop.sintech.cn/mini-pcie-to-3port-pcie-1x-express-multiplier-hub-riser-cable-p-1027.html?zenid=0bsd3io8l1asnngs2pqsl0s8s3

Those are a few examples. 1) You want to make sure it is PCIe 2.0 (Like the second link) otherwise you won't be able to get the full speed out of SSD's. A Mini PCIe. Keep in mind ALL Mini PCIe Slots are 1x ONLY. that is the downside! So a 1x slot can only support up to 500MBps so honestly it isn't really a great idea.

Better off getting a mSATA to SATA adapter and just using it as another SATA drive. Without an extra PCIe slots to put in a proper SATA/RAID card to handle the throughput that is your best option still.

 

[drtweak]

Also to add to you edit or the orginal post, as in my last post yes it is limited to 500MBps and because that 1x slot is an Open ended PCIe Slot as you can see you can fit what ever you want in there so long as you have the power to power it. Any of those adapters you would need either power from a USB slot (why there is a usb port on those) or a 4 Pin floppy connector.