SSDs in Raid1

Hi,

In terms of data safety, computer stability, I wanted to get 2 x SSDs in my new Dell Precision - but with RAID1 - so they are mirrored, to keep data safe, and make sure pc always works.

What are your thoughts on this? I leave my PC on 24/7, is it safe enough just to have 1 SSD? Or is the RAID1 a wise move (ignoring price)

Thanks.

 

I'm going to say off the bat; just because you have RAID 1, doesn't mean your data is safe. If you get a virus on 1 drive...it gets mirrored onto the 2nd. Same with OS corruption. RAID 1 is for redundancy and protects against drive failure, which shouldn't happen too often with an SSD. I don't know if the newest IRST allows for TRIM to pass to a RAID 1 array, you might get slight degradation in performance with a RAID array.

 

Yeah, latest 11.5 WHQL drivers supposedly support TRIM for SSD's in RAID. (Although there seems to be a memory leak in one of the exe files...).

As for RAID1 as protection so that the computer 'always works' - I would be putting in two completely different SSD's in (not identical models...) to achieve this goal.

However, this then brings up the question: which SSD's are compatible in such a configuration?

If you really need a pc that is always available - I would get the two completely different SSD's (Intel 520 Series and Crucial M4's for example...) and build two complete (otherwise identical) systems around them.

Fooling around with RAID (even a 'safe' RAID like RAID1) is just asking for failures/incompatibilities, much higher costs, more downtime and generally; bigger headaches, ime.

Good luck.

 

Not to mention a BIOS update and specific chipset may be required as well.

Actually, for those who know how to use it (avoiding the pitfalls/caveats above), I've found RAID 1 along with a smart backup strategy as a giant time/cost saver as well as huge decrease in downtime; thus lesser headaches.

 

tilleroftheearth does that include RAID 1 and RAID 5?

RAID 1's benefits again is data redundancy, no need to reinstall 30 programs all over again and customized the way you want it.

 

I currently use 2 x SSDs in Raid1, however because I leave my pc on 24/7, the RAID degrades after around 6 days or so.

So I was just wondering if I should get this setup again... or whether to just go for 2 x SSDs (non-raid). Basically I want to avoid downtime by any means possible.

What would you advise?

 

Don't mean to butt in, but I can show you the info I've seen... it was reportedly only going to allow TRIM over RAID-0 volumes -

Intel adding TRIM support for SSDs in RAID 0 with RST 11.5 - TechSpot News

Here is the link regarding an upgraded BIOS, Z77 chipsets, etc. I mentioned earlier- RAID0 TRIM?

 

Yeah, this includes RAID1 & 5.

6 days to a degraded state with the privilege of paying/using SSD's, huh? Ouch!

I'm not against RAID1 as a form of system backup with HDD's - but SSD's are not HDD's (HDD's still superior in RAID).

Again; if a certain SSD may fail (known bugs, etc.) what is the point of putting two identical ones in RAID1? More than likely; both SSD's will fail at/near the same time and you will have paid 2x for 'reliable' but received the same (1x) reliability in return.

To put two different (controller) types of SSD's in RAID1 also seems risky to me (no data about how these two different drives will react with each other and the RAID controller (hardware or software) and how stable such a system will be long term) and certainly negates any inherent benefit of going with a RAID1 setup in the first place.

Lastly; we're back to the performance aspect: laughingly poor (to put it nicely...) in hours/days of first use.

RAID1 for SSD's at this point in time is more like a physiological placebo effect than any tangible reliability benefit that can be demonstrated in the real world with a real workload and with no reduction in sustained (over time) performance.

 

If money is not the factor, surely it's worth having the RAID1 SSDs than just having 2 SSDs running separately?

 

Money is not a factor in anything of importance: while it can buy reliability - in this case at this time there is no (extra) reliability to buy.

You have heard the saying 'a fool and his money are soon parted', right?

Keep your money.

 

With a single laptop or PC it is best to do regular backups. Chance of hard drive / SSD failure is a lot less than data corruption or loss. You are better off investing in an external backup, especially a LAN / internet aware NAS or go for a WHS setup.