[SOLVED] Suggestions for fast drive/raid setup

[neverknowu]

Hello,

Looking for recommendations for faster storage to read/write 6k files. This would be usually for temporary purposed, video rendering disk (write), sometimes using it to read media onto (85% of the time I used the M.2 2TB EvoPlus to hold media, but there are always larger projects I receive).

I was originally going to just use Windows to create a raid0 using multiple SSD SATA disks. My board has space for a 3rd SSD, but I would have to move my Blackmagic card to the last PCIe slot, which would mean I'd space for a SSD power cable. Not the worst thing though, as I'd have 5 other spaces left in my case for SSDs. Anyway, curious if there's a better solution someone could recommend, other ideas, with the Mobo space being pretty tight with 2xGPUs in there. Better raid software? A slim raid PCIe card?

Fractal Design Define 7 Compact
ASRock X299 Creator
i9-10980XE
64GB GSKill (upgrading it to 128GB soon)
Samsung M.2 512GB Pro (main drive)
Samsung M.2 2TB EVO Plus
2x EVGA GeForce RTX 2080 Ti BLACK EDITION GAMING, 11G-P4-2281-KR, 11GB GDDR6, Dual HDB Fans
Blackmagic Design Decklink 3G
EVGA T2 1000w
Windows 10Pro

 

[USAFRet]

Which specific Samsungs do you have?
970 Pro?

If so...that is (currently) about as fast as it gets. RAID or no RAID.

 

[USAFRet]

Any benefit from a RAID 0 would only count if copying data between 2 equal RAID 0 arrays, and then only far large sequential files.

 

[USAFRet]

ANd for this:
"I was originally going to just use Windows to create a raid0 using multiple SSD SATA disks. "

A single 970 is faster.

 

[neverknowu]

Samsung M.2 512GB Pro (main drive) 970
Samsung M.2 2TB EVO Plus 970

I'm using Davinci Resolve, which runs better with faster drives.

I was thinking hey, why not get 4x Samsung SSDs 2TB 860, put in RAID 0, that'll give me a ton of space @8TB that's really fast. But that's a good amount of money and I wanted to see if there are better recommendations/methods of doing this which are more 'battle tested'.

"Any benefit from a RAID 0 would only count if copying data between 2 equal RAID 0 arrays, and then only far large sequential files." It would help in reading large video files and writing do the drive though, right?

 

[USAFRet]

Samsung M.2 512GB Pro (main drive) 970
Samsung M.2 2TB EVO Plus 970

I'm using Davinci Resolve, which runs better with faster drives.

I was thinking hey, why not get 4x Samsung SSDs 2TB 860, put in RAID 0, that'll give me a ton of space @8TB that's really fast. But that's a good amount of money and I wanted to see if there are better recommendations/methods of doing this which are more 'battle tested'.

"Any benefit from a RAID 0 would only count if copying data between 2 equal RAID 0 arrays, and then only far large sequential files." It would help in reading large video files and writing do the drive though, right?

Reading and writing from what other space?
Performance depends on the slowest device in the chain.

 

[neverknowu]

From the NVME 970 2TB
(sorry, should have detailed that more, it's so engrained in my head lol)

 

[USAFRet]

From the NVME 970 2TB
(sorry, should have detailed that more, it's so engrained in my head lol)

Another 970, maybe in a PCIe slot adapter, would be faster than SATA SSD RAID 0.

 

[neverknowu]

Okay so with the board, with the 2 GPUS, is there a PCIe adapter that you can recommend? I don't mean to ask you to link a product for me, but is there a particular brand I should check out you think?

But a Windows created RAID0 SSD SATA isn't bad, right? Just not as fast?

 

[USAFRet]

Okay so with the board, with the 2 GPUS, is there a PCIe adapter that you can recommend? I don't mean to ask you to link a product for me, but is there a particular brand I should check out you think?

But a Windows created RAID0 SSD SATA isn't bad, right? Just not as fast?

I wouldn't use a RAID array without a dedicated RAID controller.
Absolutely not software from within Windows.

I have an Intel 660p in one of these:
https://www.amazon.com/RIITOP-PCIe-NVMe-Adapter-Converter/dp/B07GFDVXVJ

There are many others.