[SOLVED] Raid 0 Configuration Dilemma

[Delta1117]

I'm having some major issues trying to set-up RAID 0 on my current gaming rig set-up.

https://pcpartpicker.com/list/kc7sht

The two drives I have right now populate SATA 3 and 4 on my motherboard (according to the manual, these 2 slots still work even when the M.2 slots are populated). I just bought 2 500gb Samsung 970 Evos for the two M.2 slots on my board that I wanted to configure in RAID 0. The PNY SSD is my boot drive while the HDD is mostly for game storage. I'm thinking how I want this configured is to have my OS on the PNY, keep my HDD with the games I already have on it, and have the new RAID array for some future games coming out.

I guess my main question is if this is even a compatible option. Don't really want a lecture on how much of a performance boost I get off of it, it'll be better than what I have now and I can be cool and say I have it 🆒

When I tried entering the BIOS I tried both MSI's M.2 wizard and manually setting up the array in accordance with my motherboard's manual. Both attempts had my computer acting wacky. First off, it wouldn't boot up Windows no matter what I did. I'm not trying to move the system files from the PNY to the array, but I've heard you needed to reinstall Windows 10 regardless.

No problem, especially since the PNY is gunked up and at it's limit with storage and a clean wipe would do it some good (I already backed up and moved out all my important files). But how do I wipe the drive if it has my OS on it? I've used DBAN for HDDs but is there something similar for an SSD? Also, is it actually required that I reinstall Windows even though all my OS files are on a drive not involved with the array? It'd be pretty disappointing if it turned out to be a compatibility issue and I went through reinstalling Windows 10 for nothing.

The second thing that had me concerned is that when I had the array set up in the BIOS, for whatever reason, my computer started displaying to my second display versus my main one. Just seemed like a red flag when both of these monitors are hooked up to my GPU. What the hell does my GPU have to do with any of this, leave her out of it! Maybe I'm being paranoid, but it just seemed like a weird detail.

At this point it's just driving me nuts. I can provide any screenshots or details you guys need, but I really could use some help. If anything, let me know if this is even compatible. I somewhat understand the concept with somethingsomething PCI lanes and not having enough... let me know if I do or not.

Thanks guys!

 

[USAFRet]

First question - WHY A RAID 0?

I know you said: "Don't really want a lecture on ..."

But.....WHY?

 

[Delta1117]

First question - WHY A RAID 0?

Because it sounds cool... but also because I already have the hardware and can't return it.

 

[RealBeast]

I think that you will find motherboard based RAID to be far more unreliable than you can imagine, so do good backup. And it isn't just about RAID 0, but any motherboard based RAID.

Although not as fast by an imperceptible amount, it would be more reliable to use Windows Storage Spaces to just extend the primary drive, that way you can access everything on one larger virtual drive.

 

[USAFRet]

Because it sounds cool... but also because I already have the hardware and can't return it.

Having the drives does not require the RAID thing.

500GB + 500GB + RAID 0 = 1TB
500GB + 500GB + no RAID 0 = 1TB

 

[DSzymborski]

I guess my main question is if this is even a compatible option. Don't really want a lecture on how much of a performance boost I get off of it, it'll be better than what I have now and I can be cool and say I have it 🆒

Like a patient who just had a heart attack and told his cardiologist that he eats a pound of bacon for breakfast every morning, there's no way the cardiologist is going to not talk about it. It's not helping you and it's not better than the alternative; you'll get a few magic numbers in synthetic benchmarks while leaving your files at risk.

Nor is there any cool factor. Since enthusiasts know that RAID setups with modern hard drives make no sense for consumers except in a few very specific use cases, there's no rep gain using one. If you jumped into a group of experienced users and announced you had a RAID 0 setup for your gaming rig, the labels "poser" or "n00b" are likely to pop into their heads, not "cool!"