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[?] Setting up RAID0 on new SSDs

post #1 of 7
12/11/11 at 6:04am
Thread Starter 
I picked up two OCZ Vertex 3 120GB SSDs from Newegg's Cyber Monday sale, and I'm having trouble setting up a RAID for a new Win7 install.

I have an ASUS P6X58D Premium mobo and the Storage Configuration is set to RAID in the BIOS, but the SSDs are still flagged as IDE. I'm assuming this is why they aren't showing in the Intel Matrix Storage Manager. How do I proceed?

A related question: I've read the Marvell RAID controller isn't so great with high speed drives and SATA 6. Can I use Intel's RST RAID drivers instead?

Thanks in advance!
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post #2 of 7
12/11/11 at 6:11am
Plug SSDs into SATA 2 ports.

Follow this:
How to: Set up RAID!

Warning: Spoiler! (Click to show)
Set up RAID:
  1. In the UEFI/BIOS set the SATA mode to Raid mode
  2. Then when you restart your PC hit Ctrl+I (or Ctrl + G or whatever it is for your motherboard) after the splash screen appears when it shows a list of your SATA devices, it will take you to RAID setup menu
  3. Choose create a raid volume
  4. Give your raid volume a name
  5. Choose your raid type (Raid0 or Raid 1, or whatever you wanna do)
  6. Choose the SSDs/HDDs you wanna add to raid
  7. Choose your raid Block size (Default or 128KB is fine)
  8. Choose your capacity
  9. Now select confirm creation and choose Yes
  10. Now select Save and Exit and choose Yes
  11. It should reboot and you are done.
    Note 1: If installing Windows to the RAID array and Windows doesn't pickup the RAID array to install to then you will have to have your RAID drivers ready (motherboard driver disc or the driver on a usb) and load driver. (bottom left corner)
    Note 2: If you are using RAID 0 with MBR formatted disks use 1024 alignment instead of 4096 for best performance.
    Note 3: If using as data array look at my "How to: Initialize And Format A New Disk For Use In Windows!" guide below.
    Note 4: Read this thread to learn about RAID and the different types: http://www.overclock.net/hard-drives-storage/484367-guide-all-you-ever-wanted-know.html

and this:

http://www.overclock.net/t/1156654/seans-windows-7-install-guide-optimization-for-ssds-hdds
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post #3 of 7
12/11/11 at 6:41am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Sean Webster View Post

Plug SSDs into SATA 2 ports.

I've looked at both those links previously (even had your Win7 install guide bookmarked smile.gif). Why would I want to plug my SATA 3 drives into the SATA 2 ports? Can I move them back to the SATA 3 ports after the raid is set up? What will that do to my existing RAID0 on my Raptor HDDs that are currently using the SATA 2 ports? Thanks for the help.
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post #4 of 7
12/11/11 at 6:47am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Scotthew View Post

I've looked at both those links previously (even had your Win7 install guide bookmarked smile.gif). Why would I want to plug my SATA 3 drives into the SATA 2 ports? Can I move them back to the SATA 3 ports after the raid is set up? What will that do to my existing RAID0 on my Raptor HDDs that are currently using the SATA 2 ports? Thanks for the help.

Because your motherboard has the Marvell 9128 controller which has bandwidth issues and doesn't really perform well on raid drives. Using the Intel SATA-2 connectors will yield much better results. Been there, done that.
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post #5 of 7
12/11/11 at 6:52am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Scotthew View Post

Quote:
Originally Posted by Sean Webster View Post

Plug SSDs into SATA 2 ports.

I've looked at both those links previously (even had your Win7 install guide bookmarked smile.gif). Why would I want to plug my SATA 3 drives into the SATA 2 ports?

Marvell SATA 3 ports are crap basically.
Quote:
If you are using a SSD use the native Intel or AMD SATA 3Gb/s or SATA 6Gb/s ports, do NOT use the Marvell ports for your SSD, they do not support TRIM, they are capped at ~375MB/s and deliver very poor 4K read and write performance compared to the Intel and AMD SATA 3Gb/s and SATA 6Gb/s ports. I also would suggest you not use the Marvell ports for your HDD either. Only the DVD drive if anything. If not just disable it in the UEFI/BIOS to cut 2-3 seconds off your boot. Here is an example of why the Marvell ports are trash. (link)
Quote:
Can I move them back to the SATA 3 ports after the raid is set up?

Nope they are on a completely separate controller.
Quote:
What will that do to my existing RAID0 on my Raptor HDDs that are currently using the SATA 2 ports? Thanks for the help.

Leave them as is...unless you mean like you have windows on them already then look in my guide on how to get rid of that windows install in teh second post "*Beta* How to: Use current OS HDD as a data drive after installing a SSD!"
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post #6 of 7
12/11/11 at 7:16am
Thread Starter 
Thanks for the replies! So I'm pretty much boned on taking full advantage of these OCZ SSDs unless I buy a SATA3 controller card (which seem to be very expensive) then?

No dice on using Intel's RAID driver on the Marvell controller huh?

Oh well, at $1.25/GB I guess it's not that bad if I can't use SATA3 yet. What kinda of performance do you think I can get out of two SSDs on SATA2?

Thanks again. <3
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post #7 of 7
12/11/11 at 4:09pm
Thread Starter 
Well thanks to the help here I finally got my OCZs installed with a fresh Win7. Here's my first benchmark. I feel like it should be a bit higher with the RAID0, but it's still a 270% leap over my dual Raptors, so at least the money was well spent. If I understand the math right, this is showing about 70% SATA2 saturation, so I suspect the SATA3 wouldn't be much of an improvement even if I didn't have a crappy Marvell controller. Man I <3 those access times...

501
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