[SOLVED] Please help regarding Virtual RAID 0 Win10 - Dual M.2 slots PCIe 3.0 x4 + SATA3 bay

[Sugar Kaine Mostly]

Here's my goal:

SATA 3: Windows 10 boot
Two M.2 PCIe 3.0 x4: Samsung Evo Pro 960 1TB (Virtual RAID 0)

I just purchased a new Acer Aspire 7, Aspire A715-74G. So far I'm enjoying the laptop, mid range, ok.

The reason why I purchased this is to use TWO NVMe PCIe 3.0 x4 1TB drives in each slot. Mainly all for Adobe Creative Suite workflow. Now, I originally saw the marketing specs from my local Turkish Acer website. It says that you can enable two M.2 slot in RAID 0. I then looked at the USA website, and it said the same thing. I should have took a screenshot of it. It was the reason why I purchased the laptop. Then this week I went to the USA website and they changed their marketing specs to ''dual-lane PCIe'' and removed any ''RAID 0'' specs in their description. I have two pics below, the Turkish specs were originally found in the American specs...

So I'm wondering if the American specs were done by error and how so? It's not specifications that you would mess up randomly. I figured that the Acer Aspire like other brand manufacturers had the RAID 0 option (controller enabled) via its BIOS. Upon using the laptop for the first time, there isn't a RAID option at all in the BIOS. So I'm wondering if new buyers had contacted Acer about this and therefore they removed the specs.

OR...

Acer meant that you could could enable RAID 0 VIRTUAL within Windows 10? Thus they removed the confusion?

Will I be able to setup two Samsung Pro 960's in Windows 10 virtual RAID 0? I would be nice if the motherboard had an actual RAID controller so that I create a Boot system. I always backup my work daily if during a project. It seems like I will I have to use the SATA bay as a boot and the two Dual slots as a Virtual RAID.

 

[R_1]

you cannot boot off of a virtual AID-0. there is no redundancy thus is it not RAID.

I do not read Turkish but it looks to me that the Turkish system ships with a HDD too. with a HDD installed you could boot to the HDD and then use the virtual (software-windows) AID-0 combine the drives.

the complete lack of mention of a HDD means the American system cannot as it ships use virtual RAID in any flavor and boot.

I may be wrong but it looks like the differences in description are due to hardware changes.

 

[Sugar Kaine Mostly]

you cannot boot off of a virtual AID-0. there is no redundancy thus is it not RAID.

I do not read Turkish but it looks to me that the Turkish system ships with a HDD too. with a HDD installed you could boot to the HDD and then use the virtual (software-windows) AID-0 combine the drives.

the complete lack of mention of a HDD means the American system cannot as it ships use virtual RAID in any flavor and boot.

I may be wrong but it looks like the differences in description are due to hardware changes.

Thanks for the reply and input. I learned a bit from what you’ve stated.

Maybe you can help me understand bandwidth and overall lane theory optimization for my needs.

What I like about Samsung’s Magician Software and Rapid Mode is the way used the mobo’s memory. So I plan to upgrade my mobo to 32gb regardless.

However, it is my understanding that Intel’s VROC technology is exclusive to Xeon processors? Maybe you can help me decide what to do.

Can I virtual RAID in Win10 my two M.2 slots up to 4TB NVMe while using my SATA 3 bay as the OS? This way my M.2 lanes are exclusive just for media scrubbing huge files! We’re talking 6K RAW footage.

Or

Should I install Win10 on one M.2 slot 2TB and the second M.2 another 2TB. Of course with this configuration I can’t do any virtual RAID. It would have been great if the mobo had a dedicated RAID controller but I guess those are usually exclusive for workstation laptops and high end gaming consoles.

 

[R_1]

in order asked
mine too. however threadripper has a NVME raid setup too.
should be able to, you could use a SATA3 SSD instead of a spinner.

you could add a PCIe to M.2 card and use one m.2 for the OS and the other 2 or t3 for virtual RAID. I am not sure if the card will split lanes but you are gonna lose speed with almost any software AID solution

 

[mdd1963]

It is not as if a single 960 Pro is a slow device...

Just install WIndows to one of your 960 Pro drives, and use the other as a high speed storage/working device.

Use SATA drive for storage of less frequently used applications or storage of files. (Always back up to something external, as well...)

RAID 0 is just a mess waiting to happen, where one glitch on one drive results in all data lost.

 

[popatim]

Looks like you might have ordered the wrong sub-model. the only reference I could find to one shipping with Raid0 nvme drives is the A715-74g-77aw variant.
https://www.laptops-aanbieding.nl/product/acer-laptop-aspire-7-a715-74g-77aw/

Keep in mind that many laptops & pc's come in different setups, often depending on where you buy them from, so always verify what you are actually getting.