can some one explain what Raid 2 does? Dragon Edition 2

So you get 3 128 SSD drive and one 1Tb drive. Is the OS goes on the first 128 SSD? the other two 128 SSD is for installing games on it so the game can load faster? what happen if both SSD is full of games and you install it on the
1TB drive does the game load slower?

 

No the three 128GB SSDs are in one large array meaning you get the same space a 384GB drive would offer (which once formatted and moved from 1000 bytes to a kilobyte to 1024 bytes to a kilobyte will be less).

 

Trying to learn more about gaming system , so I can buy one for my son for christmas.
So is best to install the games on SSD or sata hard drive?
So which system is better Alienware , MSI , ASUS , Sager , Origin ?

 

They all have their pros and cons. It would be very useful if you or someone else in your household knows the fundamental basics of computer hardware. It saves a ton of money in long term.

SSD is best used as OS (Operating System aka C: drive) drive due to its instantaneous data seek time. In other words, get a single mSATA SSD and clean install Windows on it. Buy 128gb one which is fairly cheap now. Use the traditional mechanical hard drive as a storage device. There is no need to raid SSDs. You won't really notice any benefits with your bare eyes.

You can install games on SSD but there isn't hardly any OMG-kind of benefits.

Alienware is expensive. Some call them overpriced for what you get. Their laptops are flashy with numerous LED light all over their laptops. Kids love'em. I don't know how old your son is but if he is a teen, he will love Alienware's flashy LEDs Build quality is well above average.
You should purchase extra premium warranty when you get their laptops because their warranty service is where they shine.

ASUS is cheaper than Alienware but their ROG (Republic of Gaming) line of laptops feature above average price point. Since you are getting a gaming laptop, I assume you will be looking at Asus ROG laptops.
ROG laptops are much less flashy, having merely backlit keyboards and a flashy ROG logo on top lid. In other words, minimum flashiness. A major con of ROG laptops are they are hard to do maintenance, meaning you can't clean fans without having to dismantle the whole thing. They have solid build quality but occasional hicups on their Quality-Control happen. (Ex: tape on fans, loose screw may be heard. Those are rare but do seem to happen with ROG laptops.)

Sager is cheaper than Asus, thus a ton cheaper than Alienware. A major con of their laptops is that they are dull. Almost always their laptops feature black/dark gray matte hard plastic. A major pro is that they can easily be modified because all you need to do is open a bottom cover and it will expose most of serviceable parts. But its ease of access is sometimes a double-edge sword cuz I've seen people breaking them due to the ease of access. (Some shouldn't really bother with electronics )
Sager laptops are known for their sturdiness and being the best bang for the buck. You are, however, going to be relying on resellers for majority of warranty works which is not really a con. Most of resellers provide fast/good warranty services.

I have no idea about Origin unless you are talking about Origin PC?

 

So no point getting the MSI dragon editon 2 becaused :
There is no need to raid SSDs. You won't really notice any benefits with your bare eyes.

 

Well, I'd love 2+ msata slots because I can use one for OS and another for Steam games, leaving the HDD for storage / backup purposes.

All Haswell 2013 MSI gaming laptops have at least 2 msata slots. It's not just the Dragon edition. Alienware, Asus ROG, Sager, all have at least one and often 2 msata slots.

 

You might want to consider getting a lower machine and putting in a single large SSD unless the dragon design is a must.

 

Super RAID 2 is a marketing name for us to point out the new generation feature we RAID the mSATA SSD Harddrives. Last generation we have a SUPER RAID which is 2 mSATA in RAID and SUPER RAID 2 uses 3 mSATA.
This feature have the benefit to read/write up to 1300~1500MB/s which for some is "over powered". We do offer many different specification which can fits your needs and budget. Feel free to check out usgaming.msi.com

 

For some? For almost everyone as in 99.8%, I'd say, when it comes to the general populace.

I used to raid my primary OS HDDs. Once I moved over SSD, raiding SSD was a total waste of dough. Write speed of "1300 ~ 1500mb" is a useless number for the general users.

Now, raid 5 or 10 in production servers is a completely different story.

 

If large capacities are a must it can be easier to manage a single volume though.

So getting 3 of the largest mSATA drives you can get could give you almost 1.5TB of solid state storage in a single fast volume.

 

When it comes to storage dealing with data, I do not want a single point of failure. I'd rather have 3 different physical drives with 3 points of failures. I just don't see the benefit of raid 0 or even raid 1 for everyday laptops/PC because raid itself adds another point of failure.

Now, if the dragon laptop had 4 msata slots and supports decent raid 5/10 with a dedicated raid chip, that will be a different story.

 

Makes no difference if your machine is stolen, crushed or spilt on what raid array you had. If data is critical you should have a daily external backup at least which you can image in case of drive failure.

 

Such a case is always present under any condition. I just do what I can do reduce headaches.

For laptops, I prefer 3 separate drives: 1st for OS (64gb or 128gb ssd). 2nd for programs and few games and data. (128gb ssd normally, backup), 3rd for backup and some other media stuff I might watch on trips. Backup from 2nd drive is copied. If any of the drives happen to fail on road, I can usually restore the system to working order without any assistance.

At home, I just have a custom NAS with raid 5 atm.

The data itself is probably nothing of value to others. lol They just have good value to me and I'd hate to lose them.

 

This is the direction I'm heading in. I'm going to put the money I save into upgraded CPU and Samsung 840 Pro SSD. The PowerPro R 6:8-780 Gaming Laptop at powernotebooks.com has awesome specs, and they have some real nice laser etched dragon tattoos for the lid, if your son is keen on dragons.

 

You should have heard the guys in the office, they were practically giggling over that laser etcher lol (to be fair I would be too).

 

I would have been etching everything that didn't move! It's a really nice feature. If you are not a fan of skins, the laser etching gives the barebones models a distinctive look at a minimal price. Powernotebooks gallery has a lot of attractive choices too, I was on another site, and the only stock laser etching images they had were game logos and such.

 

To be honest i think most wont noticed the Radi0. I ran a single 840 Pro. Then moved to 3 x raid0 Plextor msatas and its very noticeable to me personally.. Boot times are much quicker. General windows 8 is very snappy. Movie encoding much quicker.

All depends on your needs.

 

We recently added some overclocked options to our barebones that can offer some even nicer value.

 

Yes, I noticed that while I was playing around with the configurator yesterday. I can see there is an appreciable performance increase, which is very tempting, especially since with you guys doing the overclocking it will still be in warranty! What kind of temp increase would I see if I got the i-7 4800 overclocked on that model?