Performance and reliability 240~256GB RAID 0 choice.

Dropz

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Cause some times people forget to check the date , the current date is : 2012 november ,

Ok , i am thinking of dual 240/250/256 GB size SSDs on RAID 0 on Rampage 4 Extreme 2 x SATA 3 6Gbps at X79 chipset controller.

I want to know what models are good when it comes to performance and reliability.
I do not want something that is too reliable and sacrifices performance (like Crucial M4) , and ofc not something that has epic performance but fails alot (like OCZ)

the price range is $170 to $250 .

I am currently thinking of the following.

Kingston HyperX 3k 240GB (available)
Kingston SSD HyperX 3k @ Official website
Kingston HyperX 3k 240GB Stand alone version @ Newegg


Samsung SSD 840 PRO 256GB MZ-7PD256 (international shipping extreme pain)
Samsung SSD 840 PRO 256GB MZ-7PD256 @ Official website
Samsung SSD 840 PRO 256GB MZ-7PD256 @ Newegg


ADATA XPG SX900 SSD 256GB
ADATA XPG SX900 SSD 256GB @ Official website
ADATA XPG SX900 SSD 256GB @ Newegg


CORSAIR Force series gt 240GB
CORSAIR Force series gt 240GB @ Official website
CORSAIR Force series gt 240GB @ Newegg

Please when answering , state the answers in numbers starting from the most recommended to the least recommended from this list or another.


Thank you my lovely forum:)
 
What do you do with your computer that requires a RAID array? What do you want to accomplish? You mentioned the Asus Rampage IV Extreme motherboard. Are you a gamer?

When you mention performance are you referring to synthetic benchmark results or actual real world performance?

 

Dropz

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Yes , i am a gamer , but i am not only a gamer.
As for the performance , i do want opinions on what is better for what, to help me choose.
 

Dropz

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SSD or HD does not affect game FPS.
It only affects the time which is taken from loading data from SSD/HDD to the RAM.
Thus games or applications are both affected in the same way!
 

ngoy

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Honestly, the problem is no one is going to spend their time looking up 4 different drives and getting you the information when you can do it yourself. The fact is that newer SSD's by themselves are already fast enough in 99% of the cases for gaming that putting them in RAID 0 is almost pointless. One drive in itself can almost saturate a 6Gbs connection. That and RAID 0 means, one drive gone, everything gone, which really is not RAID anyways. I would do RAID 1 and just be happy I have a mirrored backup, rather than wasting time with striping. Some controllers can do reads from both sides of a mirrored drive, but I have not seen any reviews specific to that.
 

Dropz

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let me start by saying thanks for spending some time and posting :)


Any way,
I did post ssd links to make it easier , as i am not good understanding how to measure the performance of SSDs.


There are
Compressible data Sequential read.
Compressible data Sequential write.
Compressible data 512 read.
Compressible data 512 write.
Compressible data 4k read.
Compressible data 4k write.
Compressible data 4k 32 threaded read.
Compressible data 4k 32 threaded write.
Compressible data 4k 64 threaded read.
Compressible data 4k 64 threaded write.

Incompressible data Sequential read.
Incompressible data Sequential write.
Incompressible data 512 read.
Incompressible data 512 write.
Incompressible data 4k read.
Incompressible data 4k write.
Incompressible data 4k 32 threaded read.
Incompressible data 4k 32 threaded write.
Incompressible data 4k 64 threaded read.
Incompressible data 4k 64 threaded write.

All of those shall be applied to both most famous tests AS-SSD and CrystalDiskMark.
And after all of that i will still need to know if it is reliable or not , after that i will have to see if the local resellers have it or not.
its a real pain for me , that's why i thought i might get little help or directions from this topic.


and , btw SSDs does not affect game fps , and i am not buying them for that.
The RAID idea is to have double the same storage size/capacity of two SSDs but with double performance.
The RAID 0 is for performance not for data backup.
 

ocmusicjunkie

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I'll add what help I can here. I have run a raid 0 on my performance rig for a while, using various ssd's. I can tell you that the HyoerX 3k should come off the list right away. It is a very nice drive when clean, but without trim, it gets slow fast. (I assume you already know trim functionality isn't possible in a raid array, except for the few platforms Intel is rolling out). Besides that, the "3k" is a reduced life expectancy version of the drive, and that is no good for this purpose eiher.

The real conclusion I reached was that any sandforce-based ssd will probably be more of a headache in a raid array than its worth. That only leaves the Samsung as a possible pick from your list. The controller used in their drives is far more linear in performance as the drive fills. My top choice would be a pair of Plextor M5S drives, but I don't know if that's an option for you.
 

Dropz

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Thanks alot , i was about to buy the kingston one.
Ok ,
So you recommend those
1- PLextor M55
2- Samsung SSD 840 PRO
in that order ?
 

ocmusicjunkie

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Yeah, the Plextor and Samsung drives are specifcally marketed as keeping their transfer rates up as the drive fills- that is a major consideration when you won't have trim enabled. Samsung drives are also much better in that regard than even my Intel 520 drives. I can't say from experience if the 840 is better than the 830 it replaced, but I have no reason to believe it to be worse. I would say pick whichever of the M5S, 830 or 840 is cheapest.

Imo, the only other idea I would consider is going for a single massive Plextor or Samsung drive for the same cost. SSDs get faster with larger capacity, and a 400gb+ drive filled to 25-50% of its capacity would probably benchmark darn near the same as the raid array will once the initial empty drive figures level off at their long-term average.