assuming SATAII interface is 3.0Gb/s => 375MB/s, and a good SSD has a continuous read speed of about 120MB/s, so with more than 3 drives in RAID0, you will be maxing out the SATAII bus--by my crude approximations.
RAID for Solid State Drives
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Oh, I thought that it was the 3GB/s for each port, not for all of them together.
So without buying a RAID controller, my optimal SATA ports (6 on the XFX 790i) would be something like my two optical drives, a 1TB secondary drive, and 3x SSDs.
If I bought a PCI RAID controller, could I **theoretically** RAID six SSDs to max out bandwidth, or can you only RAID inside of 1 RAID controller (either onboard or discreet)?
Originally Posted by guyladouche assuming SATAII interface is 3.0Gb/s => 375MB/s, and a good SSD has a continuous read speed of about 120MB/s, so with more than 3 drives in RAID0, you will be maxing out the SATAII bus--by my crude approximations. |
So without buying a RAID controller, my optimal SATA ports (6 on the XFX 790i) would be something like my two optical drives, a 1TB secondary drive, and 3x SSDs.
If I bought a PCI RAID controller, could I **theoretically** RAID six SSDs to max out bandwidth, or can you only RAID inside of 1 RAID controller (either onboard or discreet)?
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no, because your PCI bandwidth would bottleneck it beyond anything onboard raid would offer.
Originally Posted by upsetfuzzball Oh, I thought that it was the 3GB/s for each port, not for all of them together. So without buying a RAID controller, my optimal SATA ports (6 on the XFX 790i) would be something like my two optical drives, a 1TB secondary drive, and 3x SSDs. If I bought a PCI RAID controller, could I **theoretically** RAID six SSDs to max out bandwidth, or can you only RAID inside of 1 RAID controller (either onboard or discreet)? |
Or you could overclock your PCI-E bus to get more bandwidth--but that would likely lead to a whole lot of troubles...
You could always go with an SAS interface for more speed--not sure what the prices are...
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That would be a bigger bottleneck than on-board interface.
You could always go with an SAS interface for more speed--not sure what the prices are...
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Originally Posted by Fuzeion Or buy something like a PCI-E 8x or 4x card. |
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ONLY 3x SSDs in Raid0? lol, will you even be able to see the loading screen at those speeds?
Originally Posted by upsetfuzzball So the best I can do for hard drive read speed is use the onboard RAID for 3x solid state drives in RAID 0? (While gaming, the only drives using the SATA bus would be those three hard drives) |
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I didn't know how fast it would be... I haven't bought them yet, but if that's a "YES!!! You're good with 3x SSDs! or 2x SSDs! or even 1x SSD!!!11one!eleven" then I have no more questions.
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Originally Posted by lordikon ONLY 3x SSDs in Raid0? lol, will you even be able to see the loading screen at those speeds? |
Get 2 SSD's, I know for a fact you'll like it
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Holy ****! A huge thank you for that article and +rep.
Originally Posted by Bonzâ„¢ If you are onboard, go for 2. If you were using a PCI-E raid card, get as many as you can afford! Check this link if you need some examples. http://www.vadim.co.uk/articles/87/B...t+to+go+faster The difference between 8 and 16 drives isn't worth the price. guyladouche I think has his facts messed up. |
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Np
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Although if I were you, and I would probably lose a 280 to make room for a nice PCI-E raid card if I wanted to achieve those speeds
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Onboard is pretty limited in its RAID capabilities since it's all software based.
There is also a price
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erformance ratio to keep. Obviously the more you get the smaller the % of speed increase there is. Another thing to keep in mind. With Raid 0 you have no fault tolerance.
Although if I were you, and I would probably lose a 280 to make room for a nice PCI-E raid card if I wanted to achieve those speeds
Onboard is pretty limited in its RAID capabilities since it's all software based.
There is also a price
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SLI scales really well with many of the games I play, so having all three is very nice, but in the future with x58 motherboards coming out, quite a few of them have 3-way SLI support and Crossfire support with 4 total PCI-Express x16 slots, so even with 3 280s, I would have space for a controller card. Until then...
What about RAID 6 on SSDs for the time being (and in the future)? I'm going to upgrade to x58 after they've been out 2-3 months and have their kinks worked out, but for now I'd have fault tolerance, and 6x SSDs on the onboard RAID for great performance.
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If I get an x16 (x8 plugged into an x16 slot as I can't find any true x16 cards for sale) controller card, should I get a SAS controller or a SATAII controller? I know you can plug SATA drives into a SAS port, but is it beneficial to do so?
I ask because I recently read a review on SATA vs SAS in RAID and when you had 3 or more drives in RAID using SAS, you had used up the SAS bandwidth, but SATA had bandwidth per port so it still got performance benefits though 4 drives (and the article linked above indicates that that continues to be true though extreme numbers of drives)
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ArgleBargle
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I actually have to do research. I don't know if the onboard RAID will support 6 drives on my 6 SATA ports to their full abilities or if I NEED a RAID controller to get speeds there.
Oh! I've already ordered 2 SSDs to hold me over until I figure out whats what, so don't say 'Whiner! Just get two and be happy!'
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*And thx on the avatar*
Originally Posted by Bonzâ„¢ Np
Although if I were you, and I would probably lose a 280 to make room for a nice PCI-E raid card if I wanted to achieve those speeds
Onboard is pretty limited in its RAID capabilities since it's all software based. There is also a price
|
What about RAID 6 on SSDs for the time being (and in the future)? I'm going to upgrade to x58 after they've been out 2-3 months and have their kinks worked out, but for now I'd have fault tolerance, and 6x SSDs on the onboard RAID for great performance.
and
If I get an x16 (x8 plugged into an x16 slot as I can't find any true x16 cards for sale) controller card, should I get a SAS controller or a SATAII controller? I know you can plug SATA drives into a SAS port, but is it beneficial to do so?
I ask because I recently read a review on SATA vs SAS in RAID and when you had 3 or more drives in RAID using SAS, you had used up the SAS bandwidth, but SATA had bandwidth per port so it still got performance benefits though 4 drives (and the article linked above indicates that that continues to be true though extreme numbers of drives)
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Originally Posted by jtypin 2 for onboard and 3+ you need a RAID Controller or it will just not be worth it, btw CUTE avi. |
I actually have to do research. I don't know if the onboard RAID will support 6 drives on my 6 SATA ports to their full abilities or if I NEED a RAID controller to get speeds there.
Oh! I've already ordered 2 SSDs to hold me over until I figure out whats what, so don't say 'Whiner! Just get two and be happy!'
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Drat! You're totally right--I forgot, PCI-E bandwidth is 250MB/s each direction PER LANE!!! Meaning PCI-E x16 has 250x16=4000MB/s!!!!! Gah!!!
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My apologies everyone!
Thanks for catching that! So it seems like the sky's the limit--you're only limited right now by how many ports the RAID card has.
Originally Posted by Bonzâ„¢ If you are onboard, go for 2. If you were using a PCI-E raid card, get as many as you can afford! Check this link if you need some examples. http://www.vadim.co.uk/articles/87/B...t+to+go+faster The difference between 8 and 16 drives isn't worth the price. guyladouche I think has his facts messed up. |
My apologies everyone!
Thanks for catching that! So it seems like the sky's the limit--you're only limited right now by how many ports the RAID card has.
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Unless of course the RAID card operates at lower than x16. Which seems to always be the case.
Originally Posted by guyladouche Drat! You're totally right--I forgot, PCI-E bandwidth is 250MB/s each direction PER LANE!!! Meaning PCI-E x16 has 250x16=4000MB/s!!!!! Gah!!!
My apologies everyone! Thanks for catching that! So it seems like the sky's the limit--you're only limited right now by how many ports the RAID card has. |
Unless of course the RAID card operates at lower than x16. Which seems to always be the case.
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