Two (2) 160GB Gen 2 X25-M, RAID 0 or not?

What configuaration should 2 X 160GB Gen 2 X25-M be in on ICH10R?

  • Put them in RAID 0 and give up TRIM support

    Votes: 28 66.7%

  • Use as separate drives to maintain TRIM support

    Votes: 14 33.3%
  • Total voters
    42
A

aamsel

Gawd
Joined
Jun 12, 2004
Messages
940
Will have 2 X 160GB Gen 2 X25-M SSD's,
and I can't decide whether to put them in
RAID 0 or have separate boot and/or app/scratch/data
drives? This will be on built-in ICH10R controller.

Either way I will have all the storage I need other than
external backup drives.

Disadvantages of RAID 0 for them are:
1.) No TRIM support for now
2.) Slightly slower access time

Advantages of RAID 0:
1.) Higher bandwidth/transfer rates.

What would you do?

Please vote and/or list other advantages/disadvantages of each
that I have not thought of, and/or other, better uses.

Thanks a lot!
 
I just ordered 1 80gb.

In the spring my plan is to order a second 80GB SSD and do Raid Zero for raw speed.

I am using Windows XP still and will be, so TRIM is currently not an issue..

Plus with Zero you get double the space...
 
mwaarna said:
I just ordered 1 80gb.

In the spring my plan is to order a second 80GB SSD and do Raid Zero for raw speed.

I am using Windows XP still and will be, so TRIM is currently not an issue..

Plus with Zero you get double the space...
Click to expand...

you'll still have 320gb to play with if the OP went with separate drives

i voted for raid 0, just for the sheer performance since you have 2 :D smoke 'em if you got 'em!
 
I voted for 2 seperate drives, b/c I highly doubt you'll ever REALLY need that extra performance, and you're much more likely to get pissed off down the road with a broken RAID.

Also, seperate you get TRIM support so your drives stay working a top performance.

In RAID 0 (with out TRIM) your drives will gradually lose some performance.
 
C-rizzle said:
I voted for 2 seperate drives, b/c I highly doubt you'll ever REALLY need that extra performance, and you're much more likely to get pissed off down the road with a broken RAID.

Also, seperate you get TRIM support so your drives stay working a top performance.

In RAID 0 (with out TRIM) your drives will gradually lose some performance.
Click to expand...

That was my initial opinion, since I once did have a busted RAID 0, although it was years ago,
and not on an INTEL southbridge chip.

I knew that I wanted two of them for the approximately 300GB formatted total size, but just
hadn't decided what to use them for. If separate, the OS/App drive would likely have way less
than 100GB on it (probably less than 50GB most of the time) and the Scratch/Swap/Data drive
would vary. I know that such setups totally depend on the usage. I am a non-gamer.
Any better setups/uses that can be thought of?
 
Last edited:
I've used 2 x 80GB X25-M G2s as both separate HDDs and in RAID0 and I prefer them in RAID0, fast as they are as separate HDDs, there is a nice increase in RAID0, especially seen when moving/copying large (video) files. I have the 160GB RAID volume partioned into 2 of equal sizes (74.5GB each). TRIM will be supported on the ICH10R cont. when Intel release new drivers that will give that support, provided your X25-M G2s have the correct firmware and you have Win 7 running...
 
Not an issue...I don't plan on keeping my SSDs for 5 years. Besides the performance hit isn't high enough to be noticable. Its not like all of a sudden its going to be doing raptor speeds.
 
jbloggs_01 said:
I've used 2 x 80GB X25-M G2s as both separate HDDs and in RAID0 and I prefer them in RAID0, fast as they are as separate HDDs, there is a nice increase in RAID0, especially seen when moving/copying large (video) files. I have the 160GB RAID volume partioned into 2 of equal sizes (74.5GB each). TRIM will be supported on the ICH10R cont. when Intel release new drivers that will give that support, provided your X25-M G2s have the correct firmware and you have Win 7 running...
Click to expand...

What advantage does having 2 partitions give you vs multiple folders on a single partition?
 
No advantage, as far as I know. Partitions are usually used as another method of organization.
 
Voted Raid 0. You gotta offset the horrid write speeds on the X25-Ms and since write speeds scale very well, it's worth it.
 
I would do RAID0 with the two drives. Intel's drives already seem to do a pretty good job at keeping their performance up even before TRIM (some form of garbage collection like feature I assume).

And chances are, as long as you are not constantly benchmarking the drive, it'll stay in a fresh state for quite a while and Intel may have TRIM support in their RAID drivers well before you even see any performance drop.
 
What advantage does having 2 partitions give you vs multiple folders on a single partition?
Click to expand...

I like to have the OS (Windows + Programs folders) on one partition and data etc on the other (D: ) partition as it make it easier to make backup (and restore) images of C: and splits data from OS.

No advantage, as far as I know. Partitions are usually used as another method of organization
Click to expand...

The fact that I can have this kind of "organisation" is an important advantage (for me anyway)...but may not suit others.
 
Thats what I use different drives for... not partitions.

1 x X25-M for OS & apps
2 x 640Gb Black's for Data

:)
 
Looks like you don't need SSD drives at all. Any setup will "suit you well".
 
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