XOTIC PC - Sager NP9380-S Order Journal and Timeline

Yes, but the OS on a SSD and the system will seem even faster than it is. It will boot much faster, and programs on the SSD will load much faster. You will wonder why you didn't get an SSD sooner.

Have you figured out which SSD to get?

 

Yeah. I ordered the 2 ssd in raid 0 for the OS in my configuration. i am anticipating 7.9 in all categories in my windows experience. Hopefully.

 

RAID 0 SSD will not speed things up much, and in some cases will actually slow things down. Also the two drives will have very simular usage in a RAID setup, almost exactly the same. For a HDD this is not a big deal, but for an SSD it means the two drives will likely fail at the same time. This may not be important for striping, but it is for mirroring.

SSDs are already about as fast as they can get. I would turn off RAID and just have more storage space. RAID means redundant array of independant/inexpensive disks. It used to be a way to get faster performance out of cheap HDDs. It has grown beyond that, but still mostly is a good fit for HDDs, not SSDs.

 

i just want 2 ssd acting as one disk with massive space, no mirroring. but would it make the ssd's fail sooner?

 

i do love this computer tho, well worth the cost

 

The SSDs would not fail sooner, but they will fail right around the same time. Modern SSDs should last a long time. As mentioned before you can get a 1TB SSD for around $600, which costs less than two 500GB drives. So pricing would be the reason I wouldn't do RAID 0, unless I already had the drives. So no issues other than no speed increase, drive life is the same but drives will fail around same time, and price for size is better with big drives.

 

If you have a notebook with important information you should be loading a backup every day to an external safe store anyway.

 

I just ordered another wd 750g 7200rpm hd and a 64g msata to use as a cache for both the hdd's

 

I think you need to stop for a minute and start thinking about your storage needs. I'm all for doing something "because you can", God knows I've done enough of that. But in all honesty, I wouldn't bother with an SSD cache for your hard drives. It will make little to no difference. The biggest improvement would be using the SSD cache if you had your OS on a hard drive. From a cost standpoint, a single 240GB to 512GB mSATA drive for OS/boot and either a 1TB SSD or HDD is sufficient. Heck even throw in a second 1TB hard drive for backups. I would still backup externally though in addition to.

 

I have never been a big fan of a cache drive. I prefer to have a SSD/mSATA for the main drive install your OS and programs onto the then use a HDD for storage.

 

This is for gaming, i want the cache setup for quicker boot up. All I'll be using this computer for is gaming and watching movies. I'm not expecting massive change by using a msata cache, i just want to use 2x 7200rpm 750g hds for gaming. The sata's will be a option when they come out with more 800+gig ssd's for a manageable price. $500+ for a 900g ssd is still a little expensive imo right now for gaming.

I just wanted the msata cache setup in the computer for a sexy factor.

 

but is it a pain in the a** trying to setup windows to save all the programs and stuff off the ssd/msata and just have the OS only on the ssd/msata. I know after all is said and done with installing drivers, all OS files, and anything to use the computer, is anywhere from 70-120GB. Would that be a better option even if all I'm doing is gaming and watching movies?

 

So just a heads up, I installed the 64g msata and a other 750g 7200rpm wd black. After a couple of restarts my os boots up and is up and running in about 20 secs from power on compaired to what it was before the cache which was about 45-60 secs. It has a substancal benefit. I dont have to sit around while my programs that start at windows startup. it takes about 5-10 secs for them to start up. Msata cache is fantastic. I also have the 2 750g 7200rpm wd blacks under a raid 0.

 

Once you go SSD, you never go without.

 

yeah thats going to be my next upgrade, once the 900+Gb ssd drive comes down in price. im looking for the 300 price range

 

So get the 500gb or 750gb drives for less. Or even just a 256gb drive. The 500s are around $300 now.

But with your cache you have a big hint what a SSD will do. The cache is helping a lot. But it isn't big enough to cache all you do. Just look at how much of the HDD you are using.

But if money is tight, I understand. Truely I do. You can always add a SSD. And when you do it will make the OS boot faster, 25% faster I would guess. Also programs will load faster and things will save faster.

I would put the OS and games on the SSD, but that is me. I get impatient waiting for it to boot, or when I just want to relax with a game. Movies usually go on the HDD, as they use so much space, and they load fast enough that you can watch them without issues.

 

Yeah. I have the crucial m5 SSD in my laptop and it boots up in about 9 seconds. I never had a SSD before and I won't go back to a regular hd. I have my games on the SSD and it loads fast. I have been transferring files with my laptop hand have been getting tremendous speeds. My crystallmark score was 853mb/s read and 525mb/s write speeds.