How should I install my OS? ON 1 SSD or x3 ssd

[Dj Spiel]

Since I work from home a-lot, work purchased me x3 SSD's I am going to use them in my home rig/pc

Work purchased (x3) Model #MZ-7PC128B/WW
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820147163
SAMSUNG 830 Series MZ-7PC128B/WW 2.5" 128GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)

I bought (1) Model #MKNSSDCL120GB-DX
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820226152
Mushkin Enhanced Callisto Deluxe MKNSSDCL120GB-DX 2.5" 120GB SATA II MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)


How should I install the ssd setup? I want to raid the Samsungs but I am not sure if I should.

I plan on playing Diablo III,Battlefield 3 and Steam games. Along with the 3 SSD's I'll have a 1.5TB RAID 1 (mirror) for nightly backups.

 

[aphellyon]

Your links don't seem to be working.

 

[Dj Spiel]

Weird...I added model numbers.

 

[EarthDog]

Links working for me...

I guess I would do the OS on the non raided drives and put your apps on the raided SSD.

 

[Dj Spiel]

i fixed the links

 

[aphellyon]

That's odd, I tried them in Chrome and IE. Wonder why they're not working for me. Sorry about that.

Anyway, If it were me, I'd probably do the same as ED said. Just make sure you set steam up to put your games on the array.

EDIT: ahhh, so it wasn't me with the links, lol

 

[Dj Spiel]

I thought I should raid x3 Samsungs instead for OS...guess I was wrong.

Now i need to figure out how this is going to work...

How am I going to raid x3 Samsungs in Raid 0
and x2 1.5TB in raid 1

thats 5 drives I have Four Sata 6.0GB ports and Four Sata 3.0GB ports

 

[EarthDog]

Well, its up to you really. Unless you deal with a lot of large files, R0 isnt worth it IMO. Boot times are similar b/c of the raid loading and you wont see much improvement

SSD's need to be on the Sata3(6GB) ports for best speed.

 

[jason4207]

You have 4 Sata 6.0Gb ports but they are on 2 separate controllers. You can't RAID more than 2 on each controller and from what I've read the Marvell (or whatever 3rd party Sata 6.0Gb controller is on your board) won't perform like it should in RAID0...you'll barely get speeds faster than a single drive.

 

[Dj Spiel]

Ok so what do you suggest?

I have 3x Samsungs 128SSD (speed 6gbps)
I have 1x Muchkin 120SSD (speed 6gbps)
I have 2x Hitachi 1.5TB HDD (speed 6gbps)

You have 4 Sata 6.0Gb ports but they are on 2 separate controllers. You can't RAID more than 2 on each controller and from what I've read the Marvell (or whatever 3rd party Sata 6.0Gb controller is on your board) won't perform like it should in RAID0...you'll barely get speeds faster than a single drive.

 

[aphellyon]

I thought I should raid x3 Samsungs instead for OS...guess I was wrong.

Now i need to figure out how this is going to work...

How am I going to raid x3 Samsungs in Raid 0
and x2 1.5TB in raid 1

thats 5 drives I have Four Sata 6.0GB ports and Four Sata 3.0GB ports

Yea, (imo), the only reason to raid ssd's is if you need more space for your OS/games/apps. Keep in mind if you do decide to RAID all 3, you'll effectively triple your chances of losing your data to drive failure. If any of them brick you lose everything on the array. However, I think Samsung has a pretty decent rep for being reliable, and you also have spinners backing up your data... so if you're comfortable with that, then go for it.

As for the sata ports, I'd definitely put that SSD array on your SATA3 ports, and put you HDD array on your SATA2 ports if possible. I'm not familiar with your MB, so I'm not sure if this would be a problem for you... though it looks like you might have 2x SATA3 and 4x SATA2 on one controller, and the other 2 SATA3 ports on another. If so, it might be best to just RAID 2 of the SSD's using the 2 intel PCH chipset SATA3 ports (use this as your primary array), RAID the HDD's on 2 of the SATA2 ports (also intel PCH chipset), since they won't even saturate SATA2... much less SATA3, and throw the extra samsung and Muchkin either on one of the remaining intel SATA2 ports, or on one of the other 2 SATA3 ports on the other controller (i'm assuming it's a different controller, but I'm not certain).

EDIT: sigh, ninja'd

 

[EarthDog]

Ok so what do you suggest?

I have 3x Samsungs 128SSD (speed 6gbps)
I have 1x Muchkin 120SSD (speed 6gbps)
I have 2x Hitachi 1.5TB HDD (speed 6gbps)

jason brought up great points... miss that guy around here!

I would raid 2x Sammys on one controller, keep one for data, and sell the Muskin.

Raid the HDD's on the Marvell controller.

 

[jason4207]

Ok so what do you suggest?

I have 3x Samsungs 128SSD (speed 6gbps)
I have 1x Muchkin 120SSD (speed 6gbps)
I have 2x Hitachi 1.5TB HDD (speed 6gbps)

ED has a good suggestion.

I always try to avoid the 3rd party controllers if possible. I had RAID issues years ago on a 3rd party controller, so I'm a bit biased, but it does speed up your boot times to disable it.

I would probably do this:

2xSammySSDs on Intel SataIII in RAID0 (OS, apps, some games)
2xHitachiHDDs on Intel SataII in RAID1 (data, backups)
Sell the other 2 SSDs, put them in other PCs/laptops, or put them on Intel SataII ports as stand-alone drives for scratch and/or additional apps/games.

Make sure to run regular backups of the RAID0 to the RAID1 array in case of a RAID0 hiccup.

jason brought up great points... miss that guy around here!

I would raid 2x Sammys on one controller, keep one for data, and sell the Muskin.

Raid the HDD's on the Marvell controller.

Thanks bro! I miss it around here as well!

 

[grumperfish]

Late to this thread, but I'm not really sure if putting the SSD's in RAID would be worth it given the increase risk of failure. The SSD's listed are already very fast, and games are really optimized for HDD's anyways (other than MMO's/Sims3 with alot of random loading), so you'll not really see much benefit from increasing the speed beyond what a single SATA3 SSD will already give you. I'd suggest leaving them non-RAID and use them as-is.

For example:

(1x Samsung 830 128GB SSD)

vs.

(1x Seagate 1TB ST31000524AS HDD)

The HDD alone is fast enough for most games, so an SSD would be overkill outside of the outliers mentioned above. RAID SSD's would just be unnecessary.