Need Quick Help - Intel SSDs in RAID

766 Views 7 Replies 5 Participants Last post by Murlocke, Nov 26, 2009

BeastMode

Discussion Starter · Nov 26, 2009

I'm about to buy 3 or 4 2nd gen Intel X25-M 80GB SSDs and I need some quick answers
1. Do these drives support trim?
2. Will they all work in a raid 0 array?
3. If they have trim support, will trim still work for all of them while in a RAID array?
4. The mobo being used is the Asus Extreme Rampage II and the CPU is an Intel i7 920 (build will be made, I do not have any parts yet) I know nothing about RAID. How do you setup raid arrays, and do I need something called a raid controller?
5. If I need a "raid controller" which one do I get?
6. Will there be a high load on the CPU that will slow down the whole system?
7. Is that what a raid controller is for (taking load off of CPU)?
Thanks to anyone who helps

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spRICE

· #2 · Nov 26, 2009

They support trim
They work in raid
Trim works in raid
Your motherboard has a raid controller
There is no load on the cpu i think that's what the controller is for

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nseaton1

· #3 · Nov 26, 2009

Quote:

Originally Posted by BeastMode

1. Yes, but not in RAID
2. Yes
3. No
4. Your mobo should have a raid controller built in. I don't know about that one specifically, but most current higher-end boards do. Consult the manual, and OCN, for further help. It typically isn't much more than a few keystrokes and plugging them in right.
5. Not my area of expertise, others here can help
6. I would imagine very low load honestly, but raid cards can help. Also, unless I'm wrong, buying 4 ssd's will require a raid card. Even though your i7 is plenty fast
7. Yes, raid cards help there too, and allow much higher performance. I think this is also because it goes through a PCI slot and not SATA? Again, just guessing.

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Voltage_Drop

· #4 · Nov 26, 2009

Must be nice

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nseaton1

· #5 · Nov 26, 2009

Quote:

Originally Posted by spRICE

They support trim
They work in raid
Trim works in raid
Your motherboard has a raid controller
There is no load on the cpu i think that's what the controller is for

Ok, you are saying TRIM works in RAID. I'm quite sure they don't, but I'd like another source.

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BeastMode

Discussion Starter · #6 · Nov 26, 2009

If trim doesn't work in RAID, is there any way to get around this or should I just not buy these?

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BeastMode

Discussion Starter · #7 · Nov 26, 2009

Should I buy them or not?

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Murlocke

· #8 · Nov 26, 2009

TRIM won't work in RAID. If this is important to you than wait until they offer TRIM supports in RAID. There's currently no ETA.

I still like mine, however you do lose a good 10% read, 40% writes after about 2 months of use. It doesn't drop anymore after that though. Still faster than any mechanical drives.

4x Drives in Raid 0 on a onboard raid controller isn't going to be much faster than 2x drives, and it will have a 4x higher failure rate because it's 4 drives.

Quote:

Originally Posted by spRICE

Trim works in raid
There is no load on the cpu i think that's what the controller is for

1) Trim doesn't work in Raid
2) There is CPU load, about 2-8% because onboard raid is software. *Good* Hardware Raid Controllers cost upwards of $300.

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