Using 2 SSDs at once?

[CrazymanWO]

Have a quick question guys, im not very familair with ssds but im currently using a kingston 120gb ssd and it is running out of space. My question is there any way i can use 2 SSds at once (like raid).In my bios it says raid 0-3 is in ahci mode.

 

[MC_K7]

That's a very bad idea. Tom released an article on this recently and showed very little benefit from it. It will be a waste of money in most scenarios.

SSDs are so fast that you won't really see the difference when you put them in RAID 0. Only if you do very heavy video editing or use other very heavy software that need constant writing to the disk (like databases for example) you would see some benefit.

You would be much better getting a single 256GB SSD instead.

Now most people will get something like this for their setup:

- 1 x 250GB SSD (For OS, Software and Games)
- 1 x secondary 1TB HDD (For Data, Music, Pictures, Movies, etc...)

It's much more cost effective.

 

[USAFRet]

Sure. You can use multiple drives. But don't bother with the RAID. Just have the second one be your D drive.

Same performance, no RAID necessary.

 

[CrazymanWO]

That's a very bad idea. Tom released an article on this recently and showed very little benefit from it. It will be a waste of money in most scenarios.

SSDs are so fast that you won't really see the difference when you put them in RAID 0. Only if you do very heavy video editing or use other very heavy software that need constant writing to the disk (like databases for example) you would see some benefit.

You would be much better getting a single 256GB SSD instead.

Now most people will get something like this for their setup:

- 1 x 250GB SSD (For OS, Software and Games)
- 1 x secondary 1TB HDD (For Data, Music, Pictures, Movies, etc...)

It's much more cost effective.

I have a secondary HDD thats 1TB but the prob is that all i use my desktop for is games so all my games are on the SSD rather then the HDD and now that BF4 and Splintercell are coming out i want to install them but i dont want to use all the SSD space.

 

[USAFRet]

I have a secondary HDD thats 1TB but the prob is that all i use my desktop for is games so all my games are on the SSD rather then the HDD and now that BF4 and Splintercell are coming out i want to install them but i dont want to use all the SSD space.

So install the games on the HDD.

 

[4745454b]

USAF is on the right track. Plug in the new ssd, don't use raid. I have my os in a Samsung 470 128GB ssd, with my steam folder on a Samsung 840pro 256GB ssd. Just leave in ahci, don't use any form of raid.

 

[MC_K7]

I have a secondary HDD thats 1TB but the prob is that all i use my desktop for is games so all my games are on the SSD rather then the HDD and now that BF4 and Splintercell are coming out i want to install them but i dont want to use all the SSD space.

In this case, you have three choices:

1- As suggested by USAFRet, just get another SSD for these games, but DO NOT use RAID (there's no point in using RAID for games).

2- You could also buy a 256GB or 512GB SSD and reinstall your system on it. Then take your 120GB SSD out and put it in a laptop or another computer you have.

3- You could also simply install new games on the HDD. There is not much benefit from putting them on a SSD. SSD has little impact on gaming. It will only make the maps load faster. But once the game is loaded in memory, it's all between the 3 following components: CPU, RAM and GPU (the hard drive is not really involved). Putting games on a SSD won't help you achieve better FPS it doesn't make any difference.

And keep using AHCI as 4745454b said. It will give you the best performance both for SSDs and HDDs.

 

[4745454b]

While I agree with you MC, if you have the money I do suggest going SSD. It's probably the first "rich guy" part I would buy. Even over dedicated sound card, higher end speakers, keyboard, mouse, etc. Loading is SO much faster with an SSD over hdd. Took a look at my and other mods reviews of the 840pro in the storage forum. Load times with the SSDs over hdds are literally cut by 50%+ depending on the game. That's map and the game itself. I didn't notice any speed up in windows. But I spend way less time waiting for maps to load.