SSD Setup

[hoppingpulse]

I am building a new pc soon and have decided to buy the OCZ Vertex 4 256gb SATA III SSD. Other than the OS and a few programs, I am using most of the space for games. I have a 7200rpm 500gb HDD for the rest of my games that I can't fit on the SSD. What I was wandering is should I put the two drives in a raid setup? Would that give the HDD better speed? I really don't know much about raid setups, I read something about putting them in a raid 0 setup. Whats the optimal configuration for this?


P. S. I also have a external HDD 500gb (USB plug and play) and a 1tb internal HDD both for storage and backup, if that makes any difference. Thanks.

 

[RealBeast]

In short -- No. Doing so would cripple your SSD, which is a nice big one that will hold a ton of applications besides the OS.

SSD caching for a HDD is for those who cannot afford a real SSD (like yours), meaning the 20-30gb size SSDs that can't hold much more than just an OS. Since memory is cheap, use a lot and then put your paging file on a HDD, since it will rarely be accessed. Look at the SSD optimization guides around here, or this one that is pretty good: http://thessdreview.com/ssd-guides/optimization-guides/the-ssd-optimization-guide-2/

Also, make sure that AHCI mode is selected in your BIOS as the SATA mode prior to installing Windows -- and do the install with only the boot SSD attached to insure that the SRP ends up on the SSD.

 

[Dereck47]

You should NEVER create a RAID array with a SSD and a HDD.

It should be either all HDDs or all SSDs. The drives should be identical for maximum performance.

A RAID array's performance is based upon the drive with the slowest Read/Write speeds.

A RAID array's capacity is based upon the drive with the smallest capacity.
So if you RAID-0 a 256GB drive and a 1TB drive your RAID array's total capacity will be 512GB (256 x 2).

Forget about RAID in your situation and use the SSD as your O/S drive, and the other drives as storage & backup.

 

[Guest]

256 gigs is more than enough for the OS and ALL your games and applications!

 

[foscooter]

You should be able to fit everthing on the SSD. Use the HDD for your "Libraries" (My Document, Music, Downloads, Pictures, Videos, and gaming stuff).

And don't even bother RAIDing the HDD's, if you though of it. HDD don't scale in RAID 0 like SSDs. You'll only get 30-40% boost in reads/writes.

 

[JackNaylorPE]

RAID 0 is for two identical devices . Better that they be same size or size is limited to 2 x smallest one

RAID 0 has benefits in video editing, huge computational databases and spreadsheets, CAD rendering but NOT in gaming.

 

[djscribbles]

Here is a great way to save space:

http://lifehacker.com/5467758/move-the-users-directory-in-windows-7

by moving all of your "Users" directory to the HDD, I find it much easier to minimize the unneeded data on the SSD with this. I also do the same thing with the ProgramData folder.

This actually saved me a big headache when my wifes SSD failed about 5 months in, no data lost as everything was on the HDD.

 

[mightymaxio]

Otherwise if the drive speed is the same in the portable drive such as 7200 rpm. You could always remove it from the enclosure and put that in the computer to raid 0 the two HDD's.

 

[hoppingpulse]

Best answer selected by hoppingpulse.