Are you running an SSD? If so is it in RAID?

[DarkTower87]

Have you made the jump? If so how is it configured? Is it worth it? I think so!

[Sephious]

2 Samsung 830 128GB in RAID-0.

[hostage67]

I use a single 256GB SSD for my main drive, then I have a set of 4x 128GB SSD's in a RAID-0 setup. All drives are M4 and working great.

[ChocoTaco]

Originally Posted by Sephious

2 Samsung 830 128GB in RAID-0.

This. The sale DC posted made it almost a required purchase. I need to update my PC though since my motherboard hates me and sees the 830s as Sata 1.5


EDIT:

PC is updated and my Raid 0 is now running at full sexy speed

[Odanez]

Nothing yet. Some time in the future yes. But not for the next build - the one after, or if my laptop's HDD fails.

My next build will be a budget computer with as much CPU power and ram as fits the budget, so no SSD there, only a 500GB WD Caviar Blue. That machine will be a HD video converting & editing / adobe photoshop / premiere / after effects / lightroom machine, so large chunks of data will be written and read, better to do that on a mechanical drive.

If one of our laptops takes a dump and needs replacing, I will get a small mini-ITX build with AMD Fusion, paired with an SSD. That is the time when I will be planning it.

[Sephious]

Originally Posted by ChocoTaco

This. The sale DC posted made it almost a required purchase. I need to update my PC though since my motherboard hates me and sees the 830s as Sata 1.5

Same thing here. Unless we start seeing games get much larger than they currently are, I won't be upgrading for a long time. Plus, I'm trying to pay off my debts so I can hopefully move out working a part-time job. Really hard to move out of your parents' place when you're physically unable to work more than about 25 hours a week.

When I first hooked them up I was really disappointed. I was getting roughly the same speeds as my 3 OCZ Vertex 60GBs in RAID-0 (other than writes which aren't important to me). I then realized I forgot to switch them to my SATA 6gbps ports. All is well now with 1GB/s sustained reads

[PommieB]

1x 160gb g2, 2x 240gb 510's, one for OS, one as second disk drive, about to buy a 512gb M4 in the next few days, no raid, don't need it.

[Dil-tech]

None as of yet, but once I get my first paycheck from dish network I'm going to have to beg my mouse finger not to click BUY on two.

Twin 500gb barracudas bring decent speed tho, not really sure how noticeable the upgrade would be.

[Blackops_2]

I just upgraded my backup rig from a 5400rpm drive to a 7200rpm lol. My primary rig isn't even on a 10000rpm drive. I've yet to upgrade because of the cost. More important parts to get for me like a 670

[Dil-tech]

Originally Posted by Blackops_2

I just upgraded my backup rig from a 5400rpm drive to a 7200rpm lol. My primary rig isn't even on a 10000rpm drive. I've yet to upgrade because of the cost. More important parts to get for me like a 670

Exactly... The HDD won't raise my FPS, and outside of game loading times nothing takes too terribly long to load in the first place even on my system.

[Maniac]

2x Intel 120GB X25-M G2's in Raid 0 in the desktop.

64GB Patriot TorqX2 in the laptop.

[AruisDante]

Originally Posted by Dil-tech

Exactly... The HDD won't raise my FPS, and outside of game loading times nothing takes too terribly long to load in the first place even on my system.

See, you say that, but then you use one and you're like "Holy crap how did I ever deal with not having one of these before?"

I used to have 3x60 Vertex 2's in RAID 0, but the reliability just wasn't that great. So now I'm on a single 256GB Vertex 4. I couldn't imagine going back to a mechanical hard drive.

[Blackops_2]

Yeah but when the cost per Gigabyte for the thing is 10x what'd you'd pay for a HDD, it doesn't justify it to me. Sure opening files, loading times, windows etc. Will all be ridiculously fast compared to what i'm used to. As long as that little sucker stays **** near a dollar a gigabyte they can keep it. It's 500$+ for a 500Gb SSD, and the reliability appears to finicky on some here and there. I can keep my classic HDD for 100$ and get a 680 or get a raptor for 200$ save 300$ to put into a video card down the road. I love the idea but until it's main stream and prices are reasonable, i can't personally justify it, for me there are more important things.

Also to add i primarily game as Dil said it's not going to give me any significant performance boost and with the increasing size of games (Max payne 3 was 30+ Gigs) it would be really hard to buy a small sized SSD.

[Nagoshi]

I use a 60GB Corsair Force 3 for my OS and more important softwares, then a 300GB Velociraptor for everything else. 1TB 7200.12 for data and a wobbly WD 320GB for files that won't fit anywhere else 'cause everything is full

Cant see the need to get a SSD for games, or even RAID0. Granted I dont work with huge files that requires speed (like video editing).

[DC]

I'm not as educated as I'd like to be with RAID and all.

If I have an existing drive - lets say a 128 M4 - how does one then RAID it with another M4?

Do you have to do a clean install etc or can you just set it up and then the drive copies over its contents till both drives are synched?

Additional Comment:

Oh - and an FYI for all of you who did get a Samsung 830 - looks like you're eligible for a free copy of Ghost Recon Future Soldier!!!

http://slickdeals.net/f/4956246-Head...ue-Via-Samsung

[Hickeydog]

128gb M4 in the desktop. 64gb G.Skill Falcon (old skool SSD) in the netbook.

[AruisDante]

Originally Posted by DC

I'm not as educated as I'd like to be with RAID and all.

If I have an existing drive - lets say a 128 M4 - how does one then RAID it with another M4?

Do you have to do a clean install etc or can you just set it up and then the drive copies over its contents till both drives are synched?

It depends on how you do it, but generally speaking yes, you have to do a clean install, because RAID is usually handled at the MB/BIOS level, not the OS level. Setting up RAID makes the OS see the array of disks as one single volume. The motherboard doesn't know anything about the contents of the hard drives or what the file structure is without the OS, so there's no way it could handle splitting up the data on an already existing drive.

[itznfb]

I have 2x 128 GB Samsung 830's in RAID 0 for OS and APPS, 1 60 GB Mushkin Enhanced Chronos for my PageFile and 1 64 GB Samsung 830 for my game installation files.

Then I have a bunch of spindle drives for data.

Upgrading to SSD is the single biggest upgrade you can make for day-to-day computing performance. I was really surprised how much of a performance gain I got from moving my PageFile to an additional SSD and off the Primary RAID volume. I had an extra drive so I just tried it out. I'm not even sure how Windows is using it but apps went from very quick loading times to no loading times at all. Everything just opens and functions instantly... except Steam.

[Sephious]

Originally Posted by DC

I'm not as educated as I'd like to be with RAID and all.

If I have an existing drive - lets say a 128 M4 - how does one then RAID it with another M4?

Do you have to do a clean install etc or can you just set it up and then the drive copies over its contents till both drives are synched?

Additional Comment:

Oh - and an FYI for all of you who did get a Samsung 830 - looks like you're eligible for a free copy of Ghost Recon Future Soldier!!!

http://slickdeals.net/f/4956246-Head...ue-Via-Samsung

Looks like that's only for the kits, and not the drives themselves.

As for the reinstalling, as long as you're using AHCI mode already, you shouldn't have to reinstall. You will however, have to create an image of your disk, create a RAID array out of your old and new disk (effectively deleting the data on the old one), and then restore the disk image to the array.

I had no issues moving from a single disk to my RAID array a long time ago via this method.

[AruisDante]

Originally Posted by Sephious

As for the reinstalling, as long as you're using AHCI mode already, you shouldn't have to reinstall. You will however, have to create an image of your disk, create a RAID array out of your old and new disk (effectively deleting the data on the old one), and then restore the disk image to the array.

I had no issues moving from a single disk to my RAID array a long time ago via this method.

That's still re-installing in my brain It's still more work than plugging in and letting the RAID controller do the rest.

But yeah, as Seph says, so long as you had ACHI mode on (which if you're already on an SSD you certainly do), you can do a system image and restore.