mSATAs in RAID0 or just a bigger mSATA

I am thinking of my next computer and I was planning on putting the OS on a 500 GB Samsung 840 EVO mSATA but the laptop has the capability for dual mSATA and I was wondering if putting two 250 GB mSATA in RAID0 would give me much of a performance boost over the single larger mSATA and also if overprovisioning and TRIM will still work for the RAID'ed mSATAs?

The computer also has two HDD bays and I am toying with the idea of putting a couple of 1 TB SSDs, possibly 840 EVOs or 850 pros, in and RAID0 these also. That would give a bit less than 500 GB for the OS and 2 TB for my data. I don't think I would want to RAID all 4 drives together because I am aware of the inherent risks with RAID0. Does anyone have comments or suggestions?

I don't think there is much of a speed difference between SSDs and mSATA because if there was I would put the OS on an SSD and raid up 2 x 1TB mSATAs for my data.

 

I actually did a search before I posted my question but didn't seem to get any hits that answered it but I have found a few answers trawling through this forum. I think I will go for a 480 GB Sandisk Extreme Pro for my OS and I'll still raid up a couple of 1 TB mSATAs for my data.

One of original questions still stands though regarding does TRIM and Overprovisioning still work on RAID'ed mSATAs? Also seeing a there are problems with the EVO mSATAs what other brands would someone recommend for 1 TB mSATAs?

 

In my opinion today's SSD are more than fast enough all on their own. Sure you can raid them for Jiminy Cricket faster speeds, but you give up a whole lot of space for a few measly second of launch time. Not at all worth it in my view.

Remember, RAID was invented to overcome the inherent limitation of "rotating disks" today's solid state drive no longer have such limitations making RAID 0 for SSDs obsolete..

 

If you want 1TB in the mSATA format then your only option is the Samsung EVO.

My 1TB EVO mSATA SSD has been in use for over 9 months and has giving me no cause for concern. I did run Samsung's Performance Restoration program when it came out although I hadn't noticed any substantial loss in read speed.

However, I would add that I haven't given this SSD a hard life: Total Bytes Written (TBW) is still less than 7TB.

As for RAID, I would be reluctant to embrace RAID 0 unless I have a robust backup system. Current SSDs already give much faster read and write speeds than 2.5" mechanical drives and, depending on your workflow, you can also deliberately choose to read from one drive and write to the other to minimise any potential cuncurrent read / write bottlenecks.

John

 

I just ordered a Sager NP8268-S with 2x Crucial 512GB mSata drives configured in Raid 0. I've got a 1TB 7200rpm drive as well, that I may replace with a 1TB SSD. I went purely for performance and speed. The 1TB drive will certainly be used for back up needs.

In my research, these newer drives are so much more reliable, if you've got the $$$, why not? But hey, that's just the route I went. You can't go wrong either way.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

mSATA SSD's are not equivalent to 2.5" SSD's. Waste of time if ultimate performance is what you want/need.

Why? First and foremost; maximum number of controller channels is half (4 total) of what 2.5" SSD's offer. This is not to be ignored.


Contrary to what Krane suggests above, RAID0 will not cut into the capacity of each SSD used separately; rather the only performance increase that will be seen is increased sequential r/w speeds for files (that are much) larger than the stripe size used.

In a normal notebook/workstation workload; that will be 'close to none'.


The fastest system you can build today is by using a single high quality (nand/controller/firmware) SSD such as the SanDisk Extreme Pro 960GB drive, for example. This will give you 'snap' and sustained performance in one drive.

Even if you have room for two or more SSD's; use then (intelligently...) separately for the best performance and highest reliability.


As for mSATA SSD's... they're great for office workloads such as in NUC's... or for onboard mostly static storage.

Used as an O/S drive is simply fooling yourself that you're driving a Porsche when you have the keys and pink slip to a Miata.

 

Thanks guys I really appreciate the advice. Whatever my final configuration I have decided to go with the OS on a 2.5" SSD, most likely the SanDisk Extreme Pro 480GB and I am still toying with the idea of raiding up a couple of 1TB mSATAs for my data. Thanks again and much appreciated.

 

I agree mostly with what you said except for your last comment (in bold pink haha). mSATA's are perfectly fine for OS drives. There is really nothing wrong with using them as such. Your best sustained performance may be with a 2.5" SSD, but in general there is no issue with using an mSATA as an OS drive.

 

No, no issues I agree.

But quoting the OP:

Is why I included that little extra data point.