Raid 0 or SSD Caching

[jeessalu]

I am looking to take advantage of my available options to speed up the storage on my new build. I have a 120 GB SSD for the OS and critical programs. I plan on using one of the two options for the rest of my storage:

1. 2TB WD Caviar Black 6GB/s SATA3 + 32GB SSD 3GB/s SATA2

2. 2x 1TB WD Caviar Black 6GB/s SATA3

I would run option #1 using Asus's SSD caching (board is capable) and option #2 in Raid 0. Both options are within $20 of each other so that is not the issue. My concerns are:

1. Which option gives the best performance?

2. Is it worth an extra $20 to upgrade the SSD in option 1 to a 64GB 6 GB/s SATA3 drive?

3. Is it a major concern that option #2 will cause me to move my boot drive from a chipset 6GB/s port to an onboard Marvell controller 6GB/s port? (chipset only has two 6GB/s ports, and only the chipset ports can RAID)

Thank you in advance.

 

[tokencode]

If I were you, I'd get the 64GB SSD and make it a dedicated boot drive. SSD caching does improve performance but not nearly to the degree of running of a dedicated SSD and a single SSD will be much quicker than the RAID 0 configuration. Use the 1TB drives for data storage and backup.

 

[zhihao50]

ssd catching would not be very useful as you already got a ssd that makes care of majority of your file read and write. SSD catching works by keeping windows file and other most used file on the ssd. but since its already on a ssd, it doesn't make sense to use a ssd to catch another ssd is it?

Depending on how you intend to store, if you got more games ect, then you can get another large ssd to keep them on. if there are more movie type file that requires less speed then simple HDD would be sufice.