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Wirte Speed SSD vs Hard Drive

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dhc0329

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Jun 22, 2008
I am currently running 2x Velocirapters (600GB) as raid =0 and am thinking about upgrading but I have one main concern.

Since I am thinking about getting Intel G2 M series (3 of them as raid 0 in Areca 1210), I am so concerned over the writing speed.

I do some video decrypting to my hard drive, etc so the writing speed may be of concern.

How is SSD write speed compared to Velocirapter?
In this case 3x 80gb SSD vs 2x velocirapter under raid 0 environment.

Even though I get a boost in access time if write speed's worse I don't
think it's justified spending nearly a grand.

Any help in clarify the issue would be helpful.
 
I would keep what you have. It might not be top notch but.. Man.. you had to spend a butt load on the raptors, your sinking money into something that isnt worth the performance difference. Id wait a while for when SSDs drop even more so in price.
 
Of you're planning on doing video decrypting toy our hard drive, I would keep what you have. Yes the access times will be a nice boost, but if you're going to be constantly writing data to the SSD, I'd stick with what you have to be honest. The write speeds on the RAID-ed Intel Drives will probably be faster than your current setup, esp since they will be on a dedicated RAID card.

I know there are some that say SSD's won't "wear out" before they're obsolete. I think this however, is based on usual, day-to-day usage from the OS paging the drive to application loading , installing, and everything in between. NOT on heavy usage such as Video encoding. While Windows 7 will support the TRIM command to help SSD's longevity and reliability, I still think that your current setup is better performance/price.

just my $0.02 :)
 
I am currently running 2x Velocirapters (600GB) as raid =0 and am thinking about upgrading but I have one main concern.

Since I am thinking about getting Intel G2 M series (3 of them as raid 0 in Areca 1210), I am so concerned over the writing speed.

I do some video decrypting to my hard drive, etc so the writing speed may be of concern.

How is SSD write speed compared to Velocirapter?
In this case 3x 80gb SSD vs 2x velocirapter under raid 0 environment.

Even though I get a boost in access time if write speed's worse I don't
think it's justified spending nearly a grand.

Any help in clarify the issue would be helpful.

Is speed the only concern? How much space do you need?

Can you swing a bit more cash to bump up to a 3x60GB SLC setup? Write speeds are pretty crazy on those but you'd be looking at $380/drive.

Do you already have the Areca 1210?

edit: Check out http://benchmarkreviews.com/index.p...sk=view&id=374&Itemid=60&limit=1&limitstart=7 for a taste of things to come, if you do upgrade.
 
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Thanks all for your input...Yes, I currently do have the Areca 1210 with Vraptors and l especially like the stability. Based on what I am hearing I do not have much merit going with MLC drives...

Yes, SLC would be a good option but that's really getting up there with the price...Plus, I am not even getting 200GB but I should consider that option later.
 
Thanks all for your input...Yes, I currently do have the Areca 1210 with Vraptors and l especially like the stability. Based on what I am hearing I do not have much merit going with MLC drives...

Yes, SLC would be a good option but that's really getting up there with the price...Plus, I am not even getting 200GB but I should consider that option later.

Don't get the wrong impression, a single good/modern SSD, even MLC, would have write performance something like 40% faster than a Velociraptor. 3 of the Intel drives in RAID 0 would be nearly twice the write speed of your current array, along with much, MUCH lower access times.
 
well you can check out my results of some agility drives in raid-0, link in sig. only set me back something like $380ish total..
 
for its price agility drive seems to ne the best candidate for my need. does anyone know what would be the best cluster size for...say 3x drives raid 0 on areca 1210?
 
Why 3? for slightly better performance and I need the space..what would be the recommendation for cluster size? any issue using SSD?
 
Why 3? for slightly better performance and I need the space..what would be the recommendation for cluster size? any issue using SSD?

Make sure the drive you get supports TRIM, and you probably want to grab Windows 7.
 
So Vista x64 doesn't allow this TRIM support? It wouldn't be fun reformatting the disk every time it slows down.
 
So Vista x64 doesn't allow this TRIM support? It wouldn't be fun reformatting the disk every time it slows down.

I *think* OCZ released a TRIM utility that works in Vista. I'm too lazy to hunt it down for ya but I did hear it was out there.
 
i think it is Garbage Collector, is what they came up with for vista. it is a util you have to run, it just doesnt run like Trim. as with trim it runs when the computer is put into sleep mode or was it hibernate.
 
be warned though from what i recall reading about it. it has a chance of cleaning out needed data, not just clearing out the nand flash of deleted data.

i havent run such a program yet, for that reason.....
 
I almost pull the trigger on 3x Agility EXs but paused because it seems that TRIM is currently not supported on RAID drives. Will Garbage Collection be functional and helpful in Raid 0 environment? Anyone tried?
 
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I just ran the OCZ_GC.exe on my raid 0 (2x velociraptors) for test and it failed perhaps because it is solely for SSD?
 
I just ran the OCZ_GC.exe on my raid 0 (2x velociraptors) for test and it failed perhaps because it is solely for SSD?

Yep. I think OCZ has custom firmware they designed with Indilinx that specifically adds the garbage collection feature. I believe it's automatic, and works whenever the drive is idle. Since it's firmware based, it *should* work even in RAID 0, although I can't find anyone who's tested such a setup. TRIM and GC aren't mutually exclusive, I believe their functionality is somewhat different.

I did fire off an email to Areca tech support asking if/when their firmware will support TRIM. I heard months ago they were working on adding it, no idea if it's done yet. I'll post back if they respond.

Even without TRIM or GC, you will see much higher speeds with 3 Agility EX's compared to the Velociraptors. Worst case scenario, you image the RAID's data to a regular hard drive, break the array, let GC run for a little while, and image the data back.
 
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