1x 1TB SSD or 2x 500GB in RAID?

Hi Guys,

Just wondering what you think I should do... Looking at getting a Samsung 850EVO SSD (or 2) Got an 840EVO 256Gb at the moment and it fills up quickly.

Today (18/11/15) looking at Amazon, I can get a 1TB drive for 245 GBP or 2x 500Gb drives for 230 GBP. Problem is, I'd like to keep my old SSD as a virtual memory drive, and as of yesterday's case mods (to fit a longer PSU), I've only got 1 drive cradle in my old Lian Li PC1000 - yes, it's my 3rd PC built in this case (& it still has an unconected floppy drive) -So I can double-up on the 2.5" drives in 1x 3.5" bay...

Thinking maybe mod the floppy drive cradle to it's got my second HDD cradle in it...

I dunno.... Just floating ideas really

Reviews that I've seen do not show that RAID for SSDs is of much use. I presently have 2 x 240 GB SSDs in RAID using my MB RAID setup. I have an older x58 chipset board so things may be different. I haven't done any benchmarks on my RAID but reviews for my MB chipset RAID controller are bad. Supposedly I'm getting worse performance in RAID using the built in RAID controller than if I just had one drive.

If you are serious about RAID for performance reasons, I would consider a good quality add-in card. Think around the $80 range or higher.

Thanks for getting back so quickly.

Yea, I read that too...

Just after a way of getting 1TB of SSD space in my PC. Most of the stuff I do on my comp (3D graphics) these days I do from a 2Gb eSATA drive...

don256us said:

Reviews that I've seen do not show that RAID for SSDs is of much use. I presently have 2 x 240 GB SSDs in RAID using my MB RAID setup. I have an older x58 chipset board so things may be different. I haven't done any benchmarks on my RAID but reviews for my MB chipset RAID controller are bad. Supposedly I'm getting worse performance in RAID using the built in RAID controller than if I just had one drive.

Click to expand...

Yeah the x58 SATA is junk, so I wouldn't give advice based on your personal experience with that board, you're exactly right about worse performance in RAID. That's not even considering the fact that you're only @ SATA2.

markedmundb said:

Just after a way of getting 1TB of SSD space in my PC. Most of the stuff I do on my comp (3D graphics) these days I do from a 2Gb eSATA drive...

Click to expand...

I'd get one drive. Fewer variables in the mix if you have issues.

Hi there.

IMO it will be better to set them up as a separate storage locations because unless you need the raw speed for a professional environment (importing/exporting/encoding 40 GB files for instance), then there really isn't a point in setting up a RAID array. For the average user/gamer there is no practical reason to go RAID 0 SSDs. Yes it's faster but for just loading a your random games, loading Windows and some other random tasks you won't be seeing a huge difference.

Also, if you decide to create a RAID 0 I would suggest to keep them on similar ports, either both SATA III or both SATA II, and to mak regular backups of all the important information you have since this array don't offer any redundancy.

Hope this helps and cheers!