Any point in running SSD in RAID-0 on SATA2 ports?

[nick_m]

Hello Community,

Here's my current setup:

GA-X79-UD3 (F10 BIOS)
2x OCZ-Vertex4 128GB SSD on the Intel SATA3 ports
2x Seagate 1TB  Barracuda on the Intel SATA2 ports
ASUS DVD on Intel SATA2 port

One SSD is for the OS (Win7/64), the other is a scratch disk for Adobe CS6 and AVCHD video work. The Seagates are for data. I also have 2+1 TB NAS.

I plan to exchange one SSD for a 256 GB Samsung 840 Pro, partitioned for dual-boot Win7/8.1 The question is, what to do with the 128 GB SSDs. I originally planned to move them to the SATA3 Marvell ports until I realized the rather severe limitations. As far as I can tell, there's no point in using the Marvell ports for anything.

Would I see any benefit by combining the 128 GB SSDs in RAID-0 on the Intel STAT2 ports? I've seen discussions that concern the use of 1 SATA3 versus 2 SATA2 in RAID-0, but nothing about using SATA3 drives in RAID-0 on SATA2 ports.

A related question: I plan to replace the 2x 1TB Seagates with 2x 2TB WD BLACK drives in RAID-1, but WD recommends the slower RED drives for RAID and NAS - due to the short time RAID controllers allow for error recovery. Would I be better off with 4x RED drives in RAID 0+1 in order to gain back the speed? This isn't a Gigabyte-specific question, but since I'm here...

[EDIT] I found a post on another forum that said WD supports BLACK drives in pairs for RAID-0 and -1; they just don't support it for >2 drives or for other RAID configurations.

There's lots of great info on this forum, but it's often like drinking from a fire hose. Sorry if I missed an existing answer. Thanks for any help you can provide.

Nick

[dmdilks]

I could answer some of the question, But this is the guy to talk too. shadowsports. http://forum.giga-byte.co.uk/index.php?action=profile;u=132428

Send him a PM about this thread and he should be able to tell what to do. I do some raid setting but he knows the in's & out's about setting up any Arrays.

[nick_m]

dmdilks - thanks for the advice and the quick reply.

Nick

[shadowsports]

Greetings Nick,
You have 4 disks, 2 SSD and 2 barracudas. If you exchange one of the SSD's that only leaves the barracudas for RAID. Or am I missing something?  You don't want to mix RAID across SATAII or SATAIII interfaces.  Could you, yes, but you'd be doing yourself a disservice.  

If you purchase a 3rd SSD (256GB) and don't plan to put your OS on a RAID, it needs to be put on SATA3 ports 0 or 1.

In your case, I would keep my OS and CS6 scratch disks on the intel controller.  If OS for RAID SATA3 0&1.  Put your scratch disk on a intel SATAII connector along with your DVD.

I don't see any reason why you couldn't or shouldn't move your barracudas to the marvell controller as single disks or as a RAID.  If you want speed, create RAID 0, if you want redundancy RAID1.  While the marvells performance is not astounding, it works perfectly well as an alternative and balances things out when performing large data transfers, etc. Let me know if had something specific in mind I haven't discussed.
 

[nick_m]

Hi Shadowsports,

I guess I could have been more clear. My thinking was to use the Intel SATA ports as follows:

SATA3-1: Samsung 840 Pro - OS and apps
SATA3-2: DVD. I know that's a waste, but it allows the following RAID pairs...
SATA2-1,2: OCZ SSD in RAID-0 for Adobe CS6 scratch drive. Can resort to single drive if one fails.
SATA2-3,4: WD BLACK in RAID-1 for secure data storage

I don't see much value in having OS in RAID-0, but Adobe forums recommend SSD RAID-0 for scratch. My OCZ drives do 500 MB/s, which does not fill the SATA3 pipe, but will  max out the SATA2. My thinking is that two SSD in RAID-0 on SATA2 would therefore be faster than a single SSD on SATA3.

The system is perfectly adequate for Adobe CS6 as-is, and I could simply place the spare SSD on SATA2 and use it for OS backup. I'm just trying to determine if there's a better purpose for the spare.

Does this make any more sense, and are my assumptions reasonable?

Thanks,
Nick

[shadowsports]

Nick,
All of your assumptions are correct.  Solid state drives have dramatically changed the performance capability of storage.  Most of the limitations associated with mechanical disks are gone, example latency and sustained write speeds. 

Your proposed set up would work well.  Me - I would put the blacks on the Marvell since it and they are SATAIII, and my optical on one of the SATAII ports this freed.  Your choice.     

[nick_m]

Shadowsports,

From what I understand about throughput, the WD Blacks won't benefit from more than SATA1 speed (even though they're SATA3 compatible). Furthermore, unless something has changed, the Marvell 9172 controller on my MoBo would reduce the effective speed of the GSATA3 ports to less than SATA2 when two drives are used in RAID-0.

reference: http://forums.tweaktown.com/asrock/52271-help-choosing-sata-ports-ssds-raid-0-a.html

If the Marvell offered true STAT3 speed, that's where I'd place the RAID-0. Sorry to say, I learned too late the limitations of the Marvell controller.

Thanks for the help,
Nick

[shadowsports]

Nick,
Good point.  They have really loused up the implementation utilizing only one PCIe lane per interface.  That's a poor design, given what they could be. 

Plain as day:
Support 1x PCI Express 2.0 interface (5.0 Gb/s)

So I retract, keep your blacks on the intel controller.  At least you'll get 3 on each instead of 1.5.