Question SSD for RAID?

[RyzenNoob]

Is it a good idea to have SSD for RAID storage, or am I better still using HDD?

I'm considering switching to using SSD in place of my existing HDD. I know it will be more expensive to get them, but will there be excessive wear on using SSD instead of HDD? Is there a continuous read/write when not using RAID storage?

 

[USAFRet]

Is it a good idea to have SSD for RAID storage, or am I better still using HDD?

I'm considering switching to using SSD in place of my existing HDD. I know it will be more expensive to get them, but will there be excessive wear on using SSD instead of HDD? Is there a continuous read/write when not using RAID storage?

HDD + RAID = Don't do this.
SSD + RAID = Really don't do this.

What type RAID array, and WHY?

 

[RyzenNoob]

The type of RAID is RAID1 because that is part of Windows Storage space

Can you explain why not to use SSD in RAID?

 

[USAFRet]

The type of RAID is RAID1 because that is part of Windows Storage space

Can you explain why not to use SSD in RAID?

I'm saying that RAID, in general, is contraindicated in the vast majority of consumer use.

What is your actual backup plan for the data in this system?

 

[RyzenNoob]

I'm saying that RAID, in general, is contraindicated in the vast majority of consumer use.

What is your actual backup plan for the data in this system?

My backup plan is to simply store photos that I need quick access to for editing, I do have other backup solution in place

 

[USAFRet]

My backup plan is to simply store photos that I need quick access to for editing, I do have other backup solution in place

OK.
I asked, because FAR too many people consider the RAID or StorageSpaces thing to be their backup.

In answer to your question....no real difference between HDD or SSD.

 

[Viking2121]

Depends on what you need or what you are trying to do.

I raid 0 2x 1TB sata SSD's I use for games, the drives are going on 5 years old, It combines the drives into 1 and increases the speed in just about every category, but if one fails, I loose all the data, no big deal as I can just download the games again.

I wouldn't ever do this to files that are important to me or even if I have another single backup, I'd just keep them separated at the vary least or use a different type of raid for redundancy in an event 1 fails.

But no there really isn't much of a down fall, typically a SSD will outlast a HDD, even in server environments in a raid setting, When you raid ssd's, I don't know if this is still the case, you do loose trim, Older SSD's relied on trim command from Windows or the OS, most modern SSD's even cheap ones, the controller will do the trim regardless so I wouldn't worry to much, thats really the only downfall.

My raid 0 SSD's I first made them in Windows 8.1 (I paid too much for these SSD's at the time...), I've moved them from my old system to my new system multiple different OS installs, and im now on windows 11 and the raid 0 carried over without an issue, thats of course software type of raid like in Windows storage spaces, hardware raid would be problematic moving to different systems like that.

I did hardware raid m.2 drives on my Thridripper machine, I found it was pointless for general use and even games, m.2s were so fast anyway, like nothing really benefit from it, Video, or photo editing that has a lot of loading to do, maybe.

Good Luck!

 

[RyzenNoob]

Depends on what you need or what you are trying to do.

I raid 0 2x 1TB sata SSD's I use for games, the drives are going on 5 years old, It combines the drives into 1 and increases the speed in just about every category, but if one fails, I loose all the data, no big deal as I can just download the games again.

I wouldn't ever do this to files that are important to me or even if I have another single backup, I'd just keep them separated at the vary least or use a different type of raid for redundancy in an event 1 fails.

But no there really isn't much of a down fall, typically a SSD will outlast a HDD, even in server environments in a raid setting, When you raid ssd's, I don't know if this is still the case, you do loose trim, Older SSD's relied on trim command from Windows or the OS, most modern SSD's even cheap ones, the controller will do the trim regardless so I wouldn't worry to much, thats really the only downfall.

My raid 0 SSD's I first made them in Windows 8.1 (I paid too much for these SSD's at the time...), I've moved them from my old system to my new system multiple different OS installs, and im now on windows 11 and the raid 0 carried over without an issue, thats of course software type of raid like in Windows storage spaces, hardware raid would be problematic moving to different systems like that.

I did hardware raid m.2 drives on my Thridripper machine, I found it was pointless for general use and even games, m.2s were so fast anyway, like nothing really benefit from it, Video, or photo editing that has a lot of loading to do, maybe.

Good Luck!

TRIM isn't the issue with me if I'm going to use SSD in a RAID. I can easily break the RAID and then use TRIM, and the re-do the RAID if necessary, but I think that would be time consuming.

Is there a speed performance increase using SSD?

 

[USAFRet]

Is there a speed performance increase using SSD?

Only in artificial benchmarks, and with a RAID 0.

Actual user facing difference, does not seem to be.

 

[Viking2121]

TRIM isn't the issue with me if I'm going to use SSD in a RAID. I can easily break the RAID and then use TRIM, and the re-do the RAID if necessary, but I think that would be time consuming.

Is there a speed performance increase using SSD?

Oh yeah there is a speed increase, I get around 900 mb/s or so on 2 older sata SSD's, I mean there is some overhead with Raid, but the speed increase is there, the responsiveness wouldn't change too much, just due to how raid works, same with HDD raid.

I don't edit photos, so I really can't fully answer the question if you know what I mean, Im more of gamer, and some bigger games do a lot of reads like loading the world or loading into a round, 2x SSD's in raid 0 always help more than just a single SSD.

 

[USAFRet]

Oh yeah there is a speed increase, I get around 900 mb/s or so on 2 older sata SSD's

Benchmark numbers?

Do you see an actual difference in your regular daily operations?

 

[fzabkar]

If I were going to set up a RAID mirror, then data availability would be my goal, in which case I would use dissimilar drives to maximise the redundancy.

 

[RyzenNoob]

Oh yeah there is a speed increase, I get around 900 mb/s or so on 2 older sata SSD's, I mean there is some overhead with Raid, but the speed increase is there, the responsiveness wouldn't change too much, just due to how raid works, same with HDD raid.

I don't edit photos, so I really can't fully answer the question if you know what I mean, Im more of gamer, and some bigger games do a lot of reads like loading the world or loading into a round, 2x SSD's in raid 0 always help more than just a single SSD.

RAID 0 isn't a backup option
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standard_RAID_levels

 

[USAFRet]

RAID 0 isn't a backup option
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standard_RAID_levels

RAID 0 is the opposite of a backup solution.

RAID 1 is for physical drive redundancy, and system uptime. It is also not a data backup solution.

 

[RyzenNoob]

RAID 0 is the opposite of a backup solution.

RAID 1 is for physical drive redundancy, and system uptime. It is also not a data backup solution.

Exactly my point. I have never chosen RAID 0, because it's not a backup. I have only chosen RAID 1 or on my synology NAS SHR1

 

[Viking2121]

Yup, I definitely wouldn't Raid 0 on drives that has important data, Like I said I have games on them, if I loose all my games data, I'll just install a new drives and re download them, or restore them from my backup that's on my server.

Thats honestly the only raid I've ever really ran in the long term, even my server, it just parts that I've bought or had, all the drives are different capacities and just not worth setting a Raid or and sort of mirroring, I may in future as I'm building a backup server I plan to throw the miss match drives in.