SSD - RAID Mode

[mystery42]

I just bought the Force GT 120GB i want to know if Trim function will work if the motherboard is set to RAID for my HDDs. The SSD will not be in a RAID configuration just the HDDs.

 

[inzone]

If the SSD is not part of the raid then you will have the trim function for the SSD because the raid setting in the bios also includes AHCI which is used by the SSD.

 

[sminlal]

Make sure you have the latest version of the Intel chipset drivers. There are older versions what will not pass TRIM to an SSD when the chipset is set to RAID mode, even if the SSD itself is not RAIDed. But the current drivers will pass TRIM properly.

 

[mystery42]

I have the Nvidia 980 chipset on this board will that be an issue?

Rather then starting a new topic, I have another question which is better intel or corsair. The corsair drive has better specs it seems but only by about 15mb/s write and so on, not enough to make me really notice. In terms of reliabilty i seem to be the exception i recieved a highly defective corsair drive that won't hit above 100MB/s and sometime doesn't even get detected by the motherboard and will not install windows under any circumstances, it also seems to be missing around 8.5GB of space for no apparent reason quality control for this drive was not performed as far as i can tell. A complete novice could of seen this drive should never of seen the light of day. but my intel SSD after only a year has degraded and now has an end-to-end error and has to be replaced. So my question is this why do these companys think SSDs will last twice as long as HDDs? I have around 10 HDDs laying around ranging from 2-20 years old and they all still work fine with no issue yet the SSDs i get only seem to last 1 year at most.

 

[inzone]

I would exchange it for an Intel SSD and I currently have three Corsair Force GT SSD's but I have also had Intel SSD's in the past and while the Corsair drives say they are faster I haven't got over 400mb/s reads out of any of them so that leads me to say to go with the Intel for reliability. The Intel speeds aren't bad either now that they are using Sandforce controllers.

 

[RetiredChief]

(1) first, On Trim support. I think everyone assumed you had an Intel based Chipset.
I believe Intel is the only driver (iaSTor) that supports trim when the Bios is set to Raid and the SSD is NOT a member drive of the raid Configuration.

(2) Go with the Samsung 830, Marvel M4's, or the Intel 510/520 Based on Price. NOTE, The Intel 520 has not been out long enought to get a real feel from the User side. Intel 510 uses the marvel based controler, the 520 uses a SF controller (but seems to impliment much better than other Brands.

On SSD performance - Don't sweat the small difference in Benchmarks. If you must use benchmarks, Look at PCMark Vantage (the Closest to Real - life, and you can look at specific application), the next best is AS SSD, which used compressed data. Manuf quoted specs are for Benchmarks using data that is highly compressable - NOT real life. This yields High Squencial read/write performance to SF22xx based SSD - This is meanless (almost) as Sequencial performance is the Least important matrix. Look @ reliability/user experience and you will see why I recomment the ones I do.

 

[foscooter]

it also seems to be missing around 8.5GB of space for no apparent reason

Haven't you ever noticed that drive sizes on the motherboard BIOS and OS NEVER match! Drives sizes from the manufacture are base 10, while drive sizes in the OS are base 8, or something like that.

Anyway, manufactures list that 1000 MB = 1 GB, when actually 1024 MB = 1GB. Same for GB to TB, etc.

My 2TB HDD in listed in Windows as 1.93TB. My 60GB SSD in listed as 55.7GB.

It's no big deal. They all do it.

I believe Intel is the only driver (iaSTor) that supports trim when the Bios is set to Raid and the SSD is NOT a member drive of the raid Configuration.

This is true! And probably the reason that your SSD failed faster than usual! You need an Intel based chipset for TRIM to work. Else, get some kind of "garbage collector" for your SSD.

And TRIM is also only Windows 7.

 

[mystery42]

it also seems to be missing around 8.5GB of space for no apparent reason

Haven't you ever noticed that drive sizes on the motherboard BIOS and OS NEVER match! Drives sizes from the manufacture are base 10, while drive sizes in the OS are base 8, or something like that.

Anyway, manufactures list that 1000 MB = 1 GB, when actually 1024 MB = 1GB. Same for GB to TB, etc.

My 2TB HDD in listed in Windows as 1.93TB. My 60GB SSD in listed as 55.7GB.

It's no big deal. They all do it.

I believe Intel is the only driver (iaSTor) that supports trim when the Bios is set to Raid and the SSD is NOT a member drive of the raid Configuration.

This is true! And probably the reason that your SSD failed faster than usual! You need an Intel based chipset for TRIM to work. Else, get some kind of "garbage collector" for your SSD.

And TRIM is also only Windows 7.

I know drives lose space in format but the corsair tech said that if the drive is unformatted the drive should be detected as 120.3GB. The 8.5GB gap is there regardless of whether its formatted or not he agreed that it is very odd as unformatted the drive should be 120.3 GB it shouldn't stay at 111.6GB. My mail man had it sitting in the mail box for 4 days cuz he is a dumbass who never leaves a key so you can get your stuff, it most likely got damaged in transport. He said the drive is highly rare i will probably never see another drive with all these issues again as its a 1 in a million chance that they get released with missing space, slow speed and high letency. There's always one i guess, i think its funny cuz i have never gotten a drive with so many issues befor this thing is a freak of nature. You can put files on it to, it just won't work as a boot drive cuz of the issues. He said it wouldn't work for long with all the issues i've listed.

 

[inzone]

So will you be able to exchange it for the Intel drive? I know the Corsair guy said it was odd but to have all of those things go wrong all together but I still say that the speeds are not what they say and if the manufacturer is claiming over 500 read and write then by not coming through it takes away some credibility.
If you are able to exchange it for an Intel SSD then you should grab it.

 

[RetiredChief]

I have a feeling that the "corsairtech" didn't know what he was taking about, 111.6GB is what is nornmal for a 120 gig drive.

My Intel 80 gig G2 = 74.4
My Patriot pro 120 Gig = 111.
My 120 gig Agility 3 = 111
Both my 128 Gig Samsung 830 and My 128 gig Corsair M4 both = 119 gigs

Forwhat's worth dept - Concur with inzone, if possible return it and get a Samsung or Curcial M4.

 

[mystery42]

So will you be able to exchange it for the Intel drive? I know the Corsair guy said it was odd but to have all of those things go wrong all together but I still say that the speeds are not what they say and if the manufacturer is claiming over 500 read and write then by not coming through it takes away some credibility.
If you are able to exchange it for an Intel SSD then you should grab it.

Getting a replacement from TigerDirect. I mailed in the rebate befor i knew the drive was broken so they won't give me a refund. This is the second time i've ordered something from them and its been defective, i think they put this stuff on sale knowing its defective and they just want to get rid of it. They've lost me as a customer for good this time, they made me pay to ship a new drive first so i could send back the other one in its box.