Can you RAID NVMe m.2 SSDs with 2.5" SATA SSDs?

Can you RAID 2xTB Samsung 960 PRO with 2x 4TB Samsung EVO SSDs in a single large array to have like a single C: partition of 200 GB and remaining all goes to a single D: Partition?

That would be really convenient

 

Why would you do that? RAID0 will give you the capacity of 4TB (nominal) max from the four drives (I'm assuming the 960 PRO's are 1TB each...). The remaining 6TB (nominal) from the 4TB EVO's (3TB from each) will be unused and unusable...

Worse; the drives are not matched with regards to performance - you will get worse (1QD) performance than any one individual drive offers (OP'd, of course...).

What notebook is this going into, btw? (If you have a notebook with 4 drive bays, of course).

If this is a desktop? I would still not use RAID ('zero' or otherwise...).

Instead; I would use one 960 PRO as the C:\Drive, the other 960 PRO as the Program drive (E:\) and use Windows Storage Spaces to create a single drive for your EVO's. Sure, technically a form of RAID - the difference is that the O/S is handling it and you can drop your drives into any other system and the Storage Spaces you've created will still be accessible...

 

this is on this laptop:

EVOC P870DM3 - Intel Skylake i7-6700K @ 4.6 GHz | G.SKILL Ripjaws 64 GB DDR4 3000 MHz RAM | 2x GeForce GTX 1080 SLI 8 GB GDDR5| Sound Blaster 3D Audio | 2x Samsung 950 PRO 512 GB SSD + 2x Samsung Spinpoint 5400 RPM 2 TB HDD | Intel Dual Band Wireless-AC 8265| AUO B173QTN01.0 17.3" 3K QHD 120Hz 5ms LED Matte Type Display (G-SYNC) | Logitech G900 Chaos Spectrum Wireless Gaming Mouse | 2x330W AC Power Adapters | Windows 10 Pro

I just want one convenient RAID setup to have C: / D:

but if you're saying it will hurt performance then I'll do 2 RAID arrays, one forthe NVMe 2TB x3 SSDs and another for the 4TB x2 2.5" non NVMe SSDs

what do you think?

 

Do you really need that kind of capacity in a single drive (letter)?

At the expense of performance/responsiveness vs. a single drive?

Or, is convenience just that important to you?

If so, then sure - two arrays will get as close as what you're asking for without too big a hit on performance and capacity...

But when an O/S is properly setup; you can (normally) use as many drives and drive letters as you need 'transparently' too. Sure; not as convenient as a single drive/drive letter of the combined capacities... but more manageable/reliable than RAID, imo. Without any of the negatives either.

 

I fought with the convenience of having fewer drives to deal with, while wanting higher capacity. That is the only reason I've used RAID 0 so much over the years with SSD's. It's not about wanting more performance, more about having a simple setup, with one OS drive and one DATA drive. Installs are easier and backups are easier.

How I delt with it on my P870DM3 is to raid the two M.2 (only way to make the OS drive have two disks since storage spaces does not work on OS drive, nor does spanning drives).

I spanned my two 2.5" drives as they are different sizes and that was really the only option I had.

It's working great for me, and eventually I plan to get a 2nd 4TB for my spanned drives for a total of 8TB there, and eventually replace my two 1TB M.2 with 2TB pcie for a much faster 4TB RAID 0 setup for the OS.

 

I did solo 256gb nvme on OS. Then raid 0 for 2x 2.5 1tb + 1 m.2 1tb all Sata 3's.
Yeah I'm a sucker for wanting 1 less letters too. But yeah don't let the Sata 3 drives gimp the nvme speeds.

 

you are a copy/paste of me

That's what I plan to do......

2x 2TB 960 Pro m.2 NVMe SSDs RAID 0 = C: 200 GB for the OS / Remainder of the RAID Array goes to D: with 20% overprovisioning
1x1TB 850 m.22 non NVMe SSD + 4TB 850 EV 2.5" SSD = singled spanned drive of 5TB for videos E; Partition

 

not RAIDing NVMe with non NVMe, only RAIDing the two NVMe SSDs and the other SSDs are a single spanned drive although noone on the OC forums have confirmed if having them as a spanned drive allows TRIM to work or not

@tilleroftheearth

 

I have had mine setup like this a while, so I can check if trim is working if there is an easy way to check (when I get home tonight)

 

Trim Check . instructions on how to run are posted there

please post screenshots

 

Samsung Magician is helpful in identifying whether TRIM is enabled or not.
@Phoenix: Do you use OP on latest SSDs? Last time I checked, every SSD manufacturer ships with OP that is transparent to the user.

 

no thanks, never installing that garbage

 

Yep its garbage alright. I installed it, check if all drives are functioning properly and remove it afterwards.

 

@Phoenix: Did you sell your clevo? Does it use the same audio chip as alienware 15 r2?

 

Not yet:
FS: EVOC P870DM3

I don't know what Audio Chipset it uses or what the Alienware uses

It does however use the SoundBlast X-Fi MB5 Audio Enhancement

 

Are they custome made by OEMs, because I don't see a single reference drivers for Creative Sb Recon 3Di & X-Fi.

 

It appears to be working on both the C drive (2TB total - RAID 0 M.2 SATA3 1TB's) and the D drive (5TB total - spanned 4TB SATA3 2.5" and 1TB SATA3 2.5")

One note: The first time you run it, it creates a file and sets it up for testing trim on the next run. Most of the time it seems I have to run it three times to get it to say Trim is working(the 2nd run says "it is not working, or has not kicked in yet"). Other times on the 2nd run it says working. Odd.

 

FYI guys, when I logged in to my laptop remotely using TeamViewer, I was able to successfully create a spanned drive out of the 1TB m.2 850 EVO + the 2.5" SATA 850 EVO 4TB for a single 5TB partition

whoever said you can't club diff. type of drives?

 

Different interfaces, I guess. For example a PCIe SSD and SATA SSD RAIDed together will have worse performance than non RAIDed ones. When in RAID mode, there are lot of overhead such as ECC or simply called hash checking/parity check and lots of other stuffs. @Phoenix: is your 840 evo suffering from Slow read bug?

 

1) What 840 EVO bro? I sold that like 2 years ago

2) This is not RAID, this is a spanned drive, just combining the total storage as a single partition. Also, no performance needed here, it's just for holding my large videos collection

 

So, was that a typo? You typed 840 instead of 850. Spanned space feature is available for dynamic disk only, is it correct?

 

my bad, it was a typo bro

 

No problem. Did your beast arrived yet?

 

no as they finished the final testing / packing it late night yesterday, so they will ship it today, hopefully i'll get it on Monday