Raid 0 vs just having two drives...

So I'm waiting for my m17x, and I have ordered the 2x256gb SSD's in raid 0.

The site listed that configuration as having 500gb (2x256) of storage space, but someone mentioned that raid 0 is striping, so only half the space.

What's the real story?

If it is striping, I'm guessing it would not cause a problem to reformat and just have 2 drives rather than one...space is more important too me than what I would think is a marginal performance increase from striping.

What do you all think?

 

RAID 0 is striping and it would total 512MB. RAID 1 is mirroring and it would total 256GB. My advice, don't buy the OEM SSDs. Dell is distributing all the old stuff and there is no way for users to flash them.

 

You mean as in flash the drive bios? What is the value in that for an SSD?

I've done it for a gpu and the system bios, but never heard of doing it for a hard drive.

 

The older firmware on the Samsung drives have no maintenance capabilities. Meaning no garbage collection or TRIM. Eventually the performance on the drives will suffer.

 

So I'm looking at your build and I noticed for your second drive you have a WD Scorpio Black. I jumped over to Amazon and there are many of them of varying prices yet aside from the Freefall Sensor I don't see an obvious difference. Which are you using Mandrake?

 

It's the one with free-fall sensor. It can with the machine.

 

OK, last question...

Exactly how bad off are the Samsung drives? I could cancel my order today, order the Intel drive and better ram separately, but I'm concerned that I will get thrown into mid-December for my delivery date. Since I've been waiting a month already that is a concern.

If the Samsung drivers are ok, I can roll with them for a little while then buy the Intel drive down the road.

If they are complete garbage from day 1, I should probably suck it up and re-order.

Money is not a factor in the decision, it is generally going to be about the gaming state of the laptop for the first six months.

So what do you think...is Samsung garbage or mediocre?

 

The problem is a long term issue. Day 1 they will be really fast. You won't see a difference in gaming. Plus it's possible Dell eventually runs out of the older drives and starts distributing the newer RBB controller firmware. Unfortunately you won't know until you get it.

Even if price isn't an issue $800 is a good chunk of the overall cost of the system. In my mind it's not worth it.

 

Am I wrong in thinking that you could reformat the drives every few months to restore that performance?

 

Unfortunately yes. That would have the opposite affect.

Some have said they have had luck with HDDerase but I'm not sure which firmware revision they are using. Because the program needs a way to "unfreeze" the drives it's a risk to brick them.

 

So is there a point at which the performance of the Samsung would bottom out? I'm shocked that it cannot be flashed, and has a built in timebomb with the lack of Trim...the drive gets worse and worse by the day until it is worse than a 5400rpm, or does it not function at all?

So, if I bought the X25-M, threw it in as my primary, and left the Samsung 256gb as a storage drive (not in raid) would that be viable or even as a secondary would it hose my system ultimately?

I'm desperate to avoid reordering and with money not being a factor I could just order up the new SSD, but what to do with the two Samsungs?

Also, I picked 6gb of 1066 ram...I saw the Kingston you linked in another thread. I could pick it up for $100, but would I see a performance increase? I'd be dropping from 6gb to 4gb, but jumping from 1066 to 1333. Bear in mind that I do not benchmark, this is for gaming, multimedia, work, school, etc.

And by the way, thank you Mandrake. Your really helping me out here and I appreciate it. The forums are so great because people like you helping out newbs like me. +rep

 

The overall long term performance will depend on usage. Technically all SSDs will eventually lose a certain amount of write-able flash and performance will suffer but that would take years. Just like all SSDs will suffer in performance if they start filling up. The Intel drives more so than the other SSDs because of the way they juggle data around. Always keep 20% free space but that is a good rule of thumb with any hard disk.

Buying an Intel drive as your primary and keeping the Samsung drive as secondary would be fine. Usually size is more important with the secondary disks rather than speed.

Regarding the memory you would see a performance increase going from 4GB to 6GB of memory if you actually used more than 4GB. If your just gaming you will not see a performance gain at all. Simply check the amount of ram you are currently using with your apps and if it goes above 4GB then get the 6GB option.

The difference between the 1066 and 1333 memory only comes into affect if you start manipulating the speeds in the bios. If you plan on doing so then get the 1333 memory.

 

By manipulating speeds do you mean the speed of the ram itself or the CPU as well?

I'm planning to OC the CPU and GPU's...probably not the ram unless it is required to be stable for the system.

 

Your fsb/memory ratio will definitely play a role in stability. Once you raise the 1066 memory above 1066 you'll get higher latency. Get the 1333 memory.

 

Cool, got my Intel drive and Kingston ram ordered - I'll stick the extra SSD in my old laptop and the memory will likely end up in a drawer.

Did you ghost your install drive info from what was shipped from Dell onto the Intel, or did you do a fresh install from your Alienspawn disk? I've never had that disk before so I'm just curious which method is easier to turn the Intel SSD into your new primary boot system.

 

I don't even have my Intel drive yet. It's been on order since the 2nd. Plus I don't try to keep the existing image from Dell. I go into tweak mode when I get it and the original image isn't helpful. There are a lot of cloning software out there. I know others have recommended some. I just don't use them so I can't help there.

One easy solution is to just install the OEM OS they supply followed by the software on the resource DVD. That's all the original image is anyway.

 

Where did you order your drive from? I ordered mine overnight from Amazon and it is expected to be delivered on Tuesday. They claim that it is in stock, but who knows.

 

Provantage.com, they claim it gets shipped directly from Intel. I'm hoping that means it will come with the latest firmware already.

 

I hope you're right. I just hit Intel's site to snag the firmware in case mine doesn't show with it...the downloads are not available at the moment.

Of course at the rate Dell is moving, I won't have my box for awhile yet anyway.

 

Did they ever fix the firmware on the Intel SSDs? I know the last firmware killed a bunch of drives and they pulled the firmware.

We have backorders on the 80 gig with no due dates.

 

No word yet. That's why I'm hoping they are pre-installed. Regardless they won't hold the firmware back forever.

 

Well can I interrupt your conversation for a little while Mandrake, do you know what type my OEM 128GB SSD ordered with Dell is? And am I able to update its firmware or driver or whateva? Im new to SSD stuff so... It seems to be not as simple like the old days with HDD
Thank you!

 

I'm not 100% sure which they use since I never bought that one. Check the firmware revision. It will tell you if it's the RBB controller in question.