Raid 0 configuration with 2 Samsung SSD's

Hey everyone,

I am recently in the market for a new laptop and the sony vaio sb came across as a nearly perfect laptop for me. However, in my country there are very few choices of pre configured models and hence I am stuck with only one option that satisfies my need for a high performance gpu. This option comes with an i7 2620, 4 GB ram, 6630 gpu and a 256 GB ssd (128 * 2 with Raid 0 configuration). The ssd is also connected to the motherboard using some sort of sony propriety connector. I also believe that sony has used SSD's from samsung.

So i have heard that raid 0 lacks redundancy and has high failure rates and often results in the configuration getting corrupt altogether. I was wondering exactly how true this is and if the chances of complete ssd corruption are high. Also, if sony is actually offering such a solution to a consumer market, is it not possible that they have worked up some sort of solution (might be it has something to do with their connectors). They do charge a considerable premium for the ssd configuration over ssd's straight from the market. Another thing is that while ssd's in raid 0 are said to have high failure rates, I have rarely seen posts of the vaio z hdd failing (i was able to find barely one or two) even though the vaio z was equipped with 4 * 64 GB ssd's in raid 0 config.

Also, if the ssd's come pre configured with raid 0, will I be able to change it to raid 1 (which I hear has redundancy and hence is more reliable) or perhaps even configure it so that the two ssd's function separately?

The thing is I REALLY REALLY want the sony vaio sb, as it is perfect for me in many ways and currently no other laptop holds a candle to it in terms of performance/wt ratio. The ssd config is the only thing holding me back. Therefore, I would really appreciate any help from someone who can tell me if the ssd is in fact reliable or not.

Thanks and really appreciate any help that you may provide.

 

I see the vaio sb offers Intel Rapid Storage driver and chipset for download for this notebook.Therefore I assume the BIOS supports at least AHCI and RAID, maybe IDE.
You can change to RAID1, but this reduces your SSD capacity to 128 GB. All you have to do is, reduce your OS and Data to max 128 GB, take an image, redefine the SSDs for RAID1 and restore. The performance is still excellent. I've done this with 2 Samsung 470 and got a WEI of 7.9.
Another possibiliy, take the image of your OS and Data, delete the RAID0 volume completely, leave RAID in BIOS selected and restore. This is called SATA “RAID Ready” System. With this option the SSD performance is slightly degraded.
To get the best performance with 2 separate SSDs, run them in AHCI mode. This implies that you reinstall your OS or do some registry editing to Switch from RAID to AHCI mode in Windows. But i don't know how. There is information on Notebook Review how to accomplish this.
Another thing to remember, running RAID0 does not support TRIM. I don't know if this is still true with RAID1 or with RAID Ready as the RAID driver is still involved.