RAID 0 - Change Strip Size and re-set SSD

Below are the steps I followed to change the strip size of my W520 RAID0 and perform a "diskpart clean all" to set the SSDs to "factory fresh" condition:

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RAID0 STRIP SIZE CHANGE
A. BACKUP
1) create a bootable USB stick (I had to give up my DVD drive for the second SSD)
2) set the BIOS boot order to boot from USB first
3) boot with the USB stick
4) start Acronis --> Disk and Partition Backup --> select all partitions of the RAID (System_DRV and Windows7_OS) (or switch to "disk mode" and select the disk) --> Disk Backup Options --> do not select Back up sector-by-sector --> Validation: click Validate backup when it is created ( This is part of the "Backup options" available for selection via the Summary page. The page which lists the optional steps/backup options is on the same page as the "Cancel or Proceed" option) and back up the RAID0 array to the HDD
5) when backup is complete, remove USB stick
6) reboot system

B. BREAK RAID0
Break the array when BIOS starts (Ctrl+I)

c. DISKPART:
Use the DISKPART utility from the Windows* Installation CD (or USB) as follows:
Boot from the Windows* installer CD, allow it to load the files, and get to the part where it asks you to choose the time and language.
At this part press Shift-F10 this will load a DOS environment.
Type:
CD..
diskpart
List disk
Select disk # (the # represents the number of the disk you wish to clean)
clean all
It will stay on a blinking cursor for a while and it takes around 15 min on a 240GB SATA III. When it is done it will state that it has been successful.

D. REBUILD RAID0
(Ctrl+I) REBUILD the RAID0, changing the strip size to the desired value.

E. RECOVER:
8) boot with the USB stick (drive letters will be different from what you see in windows. Look at the labels)
9) start Acronis --> select the backup containing the partition image --> Click Recover --> select the corresponding check boxes of the partitions to recover (or click "Switch to disk mode") --> In the "Choose recovery destination field" (below the partition name), select the destination partition (RAID) --> select the MBR check box --> select Recover disk signature check box --> select Track 0 box (or choose "restore entire disk") --> do not click to use Acronis Universal Restore technology
10) When the Recovery is complete, re-boot.
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I changed the strip size to 16k (as recommended by Intel in RST Help for SSDs in RAID0), but it resulted in slower sequential read for large block sizes. I then changed it to 64k which seems to be optimum for my setup.

See attached images.

PS: You results may vary. For the Vertex 3 the best performance seems to be 128k:
[M] RAID 0 Stripe Sizes Compared with SSDs: OCZ Vertex Drives Tested

The Intel x25 performs best at 16k:
Intel X25 V x 3 Raid 0 results
or 64k according to this test:
http://www.overclock.net/ssd/835107-info-ssds-raid-0-stripe-sizes.html

More discussion here:
Intel x25-V - Page 5
and here
http://www.madshrimps.be/articles/a...SSDs-OCZ-Vertex-Drives-Tested/9#axzz1P5S5Ndjm

Strip size: 128k . . . . . 16k . . . . . 64k

 

very nice scores!

 

Doh. That explains my performance variation. I was wondering why I was getting worse numbers on Core i5 Sandy vs. AMD Phenom. If anyone's using Kingston V+ 100 in RAID 0, 128K stripe isn't ideal. Though, I don't know what is.