SSD RAID 0 over Firewire 800: overkill?

[pcknt]

Hi,

I just saw a deal on 240GB Sandisk SATA III SSD for $210 and wanted to see if putting two
SSDs in a RAID 0 config in a Newertech Guardian Maximus Mini would be overkill over a (I think)
100mb/second firewire 800 port.

I only have the non-thunderbolt macbook pro 13" and want to see how I can use an external
SSD setup for offloading video.

Thanks.

 

[tokencode]

Firewire 800 is about the same as SATA II speed wise, I think that will be your bottleneck. I think you'd be better off getting 1 512GB SSD from a reliability standpoint. If possible, why not just replace the internal drive with a 512GB SSD?

 

[po1nted]

1. Don't RAID 0 SSDs.
2. Your bottleneck is the firewire port, even for a single SSD:

http://macperformanceguide.com/Storage-Drive-SATA-vs-Firewire.html

It is most likely pointless to put those SSDs behind your Firewire port. It is like getting a Ferrari and then speed limiting it to 45MPH. Could you do it, sure. But why?

For offloading video in your setup get the largest disk you can that more closely matches the throughput of the port. You will get more space and realize the same performance (except perhaps for random seek times, which may come back a bit quicker).

 

[cuecuemore]

1. Don't RAID 0 SSDs.
2. Your bottleneck is the firewire port, even for a single SSD:

1. Well, not over Firewire, but on a PCH or especially a real RAID controller you can go wild.
2. This is very true.