RAID or AHCI?

Hi,I was wanting to know if an Intel 520 can be run in RAID 0. Or does the m3 only support SSDS in AHCI. Thank you

 

all SSDs can be put into RAID 0 and all SSD's can be set up in AHCI

 

Slick could you explain how to configure my computer to RAID 0 and will an SSD perform better in RAID?Thanks

 

To configure a RAID 0 array you'll need two HD (recommended to be the same model or similar specs).

Here's a thread that will help you configure it:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/ali...llation-questions-troubleshooting-thread.html

If you don't want to set a RAID 0/1 array you can set your HD to RAID as it includes AHCI.

 

uptown, i think you misunderstand what Raid0 is. You'd never raid 0 a SSD and your 750gig harddrive

Raid 0 means taking two drives, installing them on seperate SATA slots and Windows sees the drives as one drive. You will see faster read and writes

So if you raid 0'ed 2 x 120gig SSDs, you'd see one Drive C: in windows that is 240gigs large and it speeds will be faster (sometimes significantly faster) than the single drive

If you Raid 0'ed 2 uneven sized drives, it will default down to 2 x the size of the lower sized drive and the baseline speed will be from the lower speed drive. So if you raid 0'ed a 120gig SSD with a 750gig harddrive, you'd get one volume C: in Windows that was 240gigs total, and you would lose the advantage of your SSD speeds

 

Ok thanks for the heads up,guess I'll stick with AHCI

 

you are still confused on RAID or AHCI lol...you can install a drive in AHCI or RAID...doesn't matter. RAID 0 on the other hand is something specific. There are many raid modes...like raid 0,1,5 etc...however, your SATA mode by default is set to RAID

If you go into your bios right now and you look at your SATA config, it will be set to RAID by default...eventhough you only have one 750gig drive

When you install the SSD, just leave it in RAID. Intel recommends it and its easier for you to maintain

 

Good advice, SlickDude80. Leaving the BIOS set to RAID (versus AHCI) is the best approach IMHO also.

UptownGirl, welcome to NBR forums. We're glad you joined the community.

The link that katalin provided should be very helpful in setting things up.

An SSD is one of the nicest upgrades you can have on a computer. A good SSD delivers performance you can really feel. An SSD runs cooler and uses less power, so it's a winning upgrade no matter how you look at it.

Two SSDs in RAID0 are just SICK, but cost prohibitive for many. The lack of drive space is also an issue for many.

 

But not some 768 GB of SSD space baby and it ain't even RAIDed. I jut hate the humming from the HDD.

 

I just want to make sure about raid. So if I have two 256gb ssd M4 and have them in raid. What is my total space? Is it 256gb or 512gb? Thank!

 

depends on what kind of raid.

If you use RAID 0, you have 512gigs. RAID 0 creates one volume from the 2 x SSD's. If one drive fails, you lose all your data

if you use RAID 1, you have 256gigs. RAID 1 is a mirror so everything you do on one drive is mirrored as a backup on the second drive. If one drive fails, you have the second drive as a backup

 

That's very cool. My budget is limited, but I'd like to have 1TB of RAID0 SSD sometime in the not too distant future. I just don't have $1,200 or more of "extra" cash to drop on two 512GB SSDs right now.

 

Hey all

I just bought a corsair performance pro 256 ssd to go in my m17x R3

SlickDudes post brilliantly explained all the questions I had regarding the Raid setup.

If someone could explain to me or point me in the direction of how I can move my current drive info such as win7, drivers etc... to the ssd which I plan to put in the primary HD slot.

I heard I can clone my current drive if I make it the same size as the ssd ?

 

I would suggest a clean install. Even if there isn't anything wrong with your installation at the moment, a clean install on a SSD will allow for windows default SSD settings such as disabling defrag, trim and 4k alignment which will have to manually enabled and aligned if you clone from HDD to SSD.

 

I second that suggestion. A clean install is the best way to avoid problems. Cloning from HDD to SSD sometimes causes issues and/or reduces performance, for the reasons that widezu69 has pointed out.

If you have data on the HDD that you are planning to keep for storage in the secondary drive bay, simply remove it temporarily. Once your SSD is up in the primary drive bay (currently occupied by the HDD) and running your new Windows installation, put it back in (using the secondary drive bay so you still boot from the SSD). Then, delete the folders that do not contain data you wish to retain.

 

So just move the existing hard drive to the second bay and install the ssd in the primary and boot up the Alienware/win7 Cd. Or is it important I do the fresh install on the SSD first before i put the old hard drive in the second bay ?

Will this install all the alienware drivers as well as make a recovery partition like the one that currently exists, or will it just install win7 ?

 

Don't move your HDD. Put your SSD into the second bay - the one in the middle. Go into your bios to the boot tab, and mode the Second Hard Drive entry up to the top of the list.

 

Thanks allot, I will try it tomorrow!

I thought I had to put the ssd in bay 0 due to some sata III compatibility issue I read somewhere.

 

It's the other way around.

 

You need to put the ssd in SLOT1 which is in the middle of your laptop.

AND make sure you are on bios A08 if you want SATA3 speeds. A09 and up are downgraded SATA2

 

It will be neither. The available space wether you raid them or not will be slightly less (typically, around 7% less - maybe a bit more, maybe a bit less) due to factory over-provisioning, and obviously formatting. I would estimate that you would get about 238gb's of space on a single M4 and around double that with a raided M4 setup.

I have x2 256gb Samsung 830 Drives in Raid, and as you can see below, my total available space (circled in red) is 476gb....I reckon you would get around the same.

 

That technically is 512GB and it is nothing to do with provisioning. Lots of people are unaware even the best tech guys out there. But those countings are the powers of 2 ie using 1024 bytes per kila so 1024kb = 1MB, 1024MB = 1GB etc you see we are losing 24 units every thousand. So:

If you look at the number of bytes of any 512GB HDD you will see around 512000000000. You take that and dived by 1024 a few times until you get the correct gigabyte unit, you will get around 476.

This is also why 256GB ones show as 238GB and 128 ones are also lower. What you get is the correct capacity in the number of bytes. But because windows and other OSes read 1024 per thousand instead of 1000, your drive looks less.

Overprovisioning is only present in SandForce drives and is a different matter completely.

 

Sweet thank for the information. Do I have to get the same brand and size of ssd to do raid. What if I buy a samsung 256gb sdd instead of the crucial. Will it still work? Also I know raid ssd does not support trim. Will that dramatically decrease my ssd life?

 

You may be able to RAID 1 two different brand together but not RAID 0 but I don't really know.

 

I think in an ideal world, you should stick to raiding two identical drives for stability and performance reasons. Technically, you could probably raid them as they are the same capacity but wil have slightly different performance capabilities - personally, I would get two drives the same.

Regards to TRIM - as long as you let your system idle from time to time (I leave mine at the logon screen periodically), Garbage Collection should be just fine - until Intel release their next version of RST that will have TRIM support for raided SSD's (at last.....)

 

Even RAID 0 works.

Let's say we have a 160Gb 5400rmp and a 250Gb 7200rpm drives.
The end result will be an array of ~320Gb (double the capacity of the smallest drive) that will run slower than the 7200rpm itself.

That's why it's not worth it/recommended as there is no gain.

 

Even so, buying a 256gb drive that gives you 238gb space means you get 7% less space than what you thought you were buying! LOL

 

Yeah but I remember when OSX Snow Leopard came out, it calculated 1000 per thousand so actual drive sizes were shown, so with a 500GB HDD, you got that full amount, however because of the conversion, file sizes were also 7% larger

 

Hahaha - swings and roundabouts I guess!

 

That's how OSX calculates, bring the same file in windows and size will change.

 

Great reason to set the BIOS to RAID instead of AHCI. I just added as second Vertex 3 SSD to my setup and created the RAID0 array and set stripe size within Windows using Intel Rapid Store Technology. No need to reinstall Windows. Had it been set on AHCI, I would have spent (wasted) lots of time shoveling discs into the BluRay burner and downloading Windows updates, Steam games, etc. Was done in about 1 hour including M18x teardown and reassembly time. I put my 750GB HDD in the optical bay using this very affordable adapter.

 

very nice Mr. fox!

 

weird, AHCI replaced IDE mode and afaik with new motherboards, if you enable raid mode with only 1 disk (or raid not configured via rBios) then it just reverts to AHCI mode anyway.

the fact that you get improvement in raid mode vs ahci with a single disk is strange because it's essentially the same thing.

i'm curious, does windows crash if you install it with RAID mode then switch it to AHCI after?

 

Sometimes with RAID it will ask for the RAID driver. Also some laptops POST slower on RAID vs AHCI (my R2 POSTs slower with my RAID 0 SSD array vs when I had it AHCI).

Windows won't crash after switching but rather it won't boot up OR you'll get startup repair or possible BSOD. I've also seen OS get hosed because of that.

 

Intel recommends choosing RAID mode with their chipsets (which also enables AHCI) rather than AHCI/SATA mode for maximum flexibility. AHCI and RAID modes are not the same thing. You cannot simply switch between AHCI and RAID on the fly. They use different drivers. Using RAID is the best approach because it allows more flexibility without having to do a clean Windows install, and it generally offers a minor improvement in drive performance.


Intel® Rapid Storage Technology | Configure the BIOS for RAID or AHCI

 

I installed an M4 last night and noticed I was on AHCI. I changed it to Raid based on what I read from here and did a clean install. Everything went fine so far. Its just the Raid Config screen flashing for a second before it go to the AW screen and then windows. Is there a way to get rid of that screen?

 

Nope. It gives you access to your configuration...the only way to get rid of it (afaik) is to revert to AHCI :laugh:

 

Lol! Ok, I guess I'll just ignore it

 

Yes, but can SATA III performance be achieved in AHCI by an SSD mounted in bay 1 on M17x r3 BIOS A08?

I see a number of folks who say they are happy with their SSD in AHCI, but they never seem to indicate whether they have achieved SATA III performance with that setup.

The reason I ask is.....yesterday I added a new SSD and HDD to my system..but I'm not happy with the SSD performance.

I set the BIOS to AHCI, installed the new SSD and HDD in my signature, did a clean install of windows....

but the SSD is only performing at SATA II (3 Gb/s)

Is AHCI the likely culprit, or is it something else?

Thanks in advance for your help

 

You can only get sata III speeds on an R3 if you have the a08 bios or the modded a10 bios. You have to then install the ssd in slot 0 as it's the only slot capable of sata III speeds.

 

I have A08 BIOS

I have AHCI enabled, I do not have RAID enabled

I have SSD in slot 1 (i.e. the slot in the middle)

My understanding is that slot 1 is the only slot capable of SATA III


My SSD is not achieving SATA III speeds. What is the most likely cause?

 

I believe the middle slot is slot 0 and the one on the side is slot 1. Either way, the middle slot is the one capable of SATA III speeds. Have you run some benchmarks on your ssd? What are your read/write numbers?

 

Since my last post, I changed the BIOS to RAID and did a clean install of Windows.

SSD is still performing at SATA II rather than SATA III data rates..here's the HD Tune result

What am I missing?

 

In case it matters, RAID is enabled in the BIOS, but in the RST configuration both disks are "non raid"
I assume that is because a RAID array has not been created (i.e. neither RAID 0 or RAID 1)

So, the SSD is in slot 1 (middle slot)

I have not been successful in achieving SATA III speeds from the SSD

I have tried in with RAID enabled and I have tried with AHCI enabled...neither yielded SATA III speeds.

Yet..

 

Slick I saw you say something about RAID 5 what's that I get what 0 and 1 are never head of 5 tho

Sent From My Rooted E3D

 

basically a combination of RAID 0 and RAID 1. You get data redundancy (so if one drive fails you can recover you data), and you also get higher write speeds. You need three drives to be able to run RAID 5 though. Someone feel free to correct me if I'm incorrect.

Refeshed myself from here if you wanna learn more: The Definition of RAID and Different RAID Levels