7811 FX: New SSD HD + in the box HD + Raid0?

Hello there, I am completely new to Raid0 (or to what ever Raid ) and in dire need of some help/suggestions/"handholding":

So lets start:
I am planning to get this SSD drive (G.Skill Titan 126GB)
http://benchmarkreviews.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=302&Itemid=60
I would want to use this SSD drive for my OS (Windows 7), as well as for gaming (LOTRO) and some minor applications (Firefox, etc. nothing fancy).
The in the box HD, I would like to use as a data disk for fotos, videos, etc.
Both obviously in the 7811 FX.

So to the questions:
- Does anyone have any experience with this SSD from G.Skill, or a comparable SSD regarding performance increases, stutters, especially heavy graphic-loading/usage for gaming (LOTRO runs at close to Ultra High settings, for those who know the game) etc.?
I haven't bough it yet, still 3 months to go, before I am in the states, and a better SSD (price/performance) might hit the market in the meantime.

- How would the best setup look like: does Raid0 make any sense, or would that rather be a master and slave set-up? As said, I am light user, my main focus is on gaming and everyday apps like firefox and some music, video, foto usage

- In that respect, if prices should drop considerably, I might even go for two of these SSDs and that surely would result in a Raid0 setup I suppose (if two make any sense gaming and daily use wise)


Any suggestions are greatly appreciated

 

RAID 0 requires two identical drives. The only "grouping" level of RAID that exists is called JBOD, which stands for "just a bunch of a disks," and does [practically] nothing for performance, it just groups drives into one large entity.

In short, run them separately.

Furthermore, running two SSDs in RAID 0 is inadvisable unless they've got good warranties - RAID 0 passes data dynamically between the two drives, thereby increasing the I/O volume. SSDs degrade over time based on read/write cycles - so putting them in a RAID 0 situation dramatically increases the "random traffic" both disks have to process and handle. The only people who should be RAIDing SSDs are the people who do things that require that much throughput and have their hardware subsidized for them to do so as what they're doing is either required or mission-critical. To anyone else you're just increasing the time before failure of your SSD.

 

That is incorrect. SSDs degrade over time based on ERASE/WRITE cycles. You shouldn't be worried about that anyways, especially if he's considering buying a 128 gb drive, it will last for many many years unless he's planning on writing several Gigabytes to it every single day. Obviously since he said he's using a HDD for pics/movies, he already has a good idea for his setup and his SSD should not get much use other than a bit of random reads/writes.

There are several things you can do to even further prolong the life of the drive. The way mine is going, it will still be working in 20+ years.

I am using a SSD in my p7801u, I have no other drive. I have the drive split into 2 partitions, 8GB for XP and 16GB for my MFT partition (There is about 4GB of unallocated space leftover, it doesn't matter because the SSD will be using the space anyways). MFT is software that turns random reads/writes into sequential reads/writes through your RAM. This drastically increases the speed and IS noticable with daily use. Im also using EWF on my XP partition, which sends ALL writes to RAM, unless I specify I want to save changes. On the average day, XP is sending ZERO writes to my SSD, the life isn't degrading AT ALL. Obviously I have an advanced setup, but even for someone that just plugs it in and installs an OS and uses it, there is still PLENTY of MTBF that you don't have to worry about killing your SSD by too much use.

I have XP on C:, all by itself, 850 MB used of the 8GB that I setup for that partition. On my MFT E: partition I have my files, programs, games (Counter-Strike 1.6 and Left4Dead), wallpaper, temp directories, and internet explorer cache. This setup works great, it is VERY fast, there is no comparison to a HDD.

There are several people using SSDs in a Raid0 setup, I would like to run 2x30GB OCZ Vertexs in a Raid0 setup in my p7801u, but am waiting for the prices to drop again. The drive I am using now is working great, so I'm in no rush to swap it out.

Windows 7 will be the first OS to support Trim, and will be the first OS to really optimize the use of SSDs. There are also programs like Hyperfast which can also optimize your SSD on different OSs. I have used hyperfast with GREAT results.

I definitely recommend SSDs to anybody that wants to see a noticeable performance increase with their computer, and I also recommend using MFT and Hyperfast if you are inclined to get the most speed out of the drive. EWF is a bit advanced, but I love it and am more than happy with my SSD setup.

 

Many thanks to the two of you.
Regarding ingame performance: does SSD make a noticable difference when loading new areas, etc.?
It will surely start faster, be more quite and most probably less heat than with the standard HD, but does it show noticable improvement ingame?

Thanks and regards,

 

Yes you will notice a big difference, anytime something has to load it will take much less time. Downloads will also be faster, uploads will be WAAAY faster.

 

I have just been reading this great article by anandtech (anybody interested in a SSD should read it!). Yes, pretty long, but pretty much a must!
http://www.anandtech.com/storage/showdoc.aspx?i=3531

I think I will wait a little bit longer until the later part of this year with buying a SSD .