Which Vaio SA Models Support Raid

Hi Forum,

I'm a bit confused on which Sony Vaio SA models support RAID and which RAID levels are supported. I called Sony and spoke to a couple of different sales reps however none could clarify (or wouldn't) which Vaio SA models had RAID capabilities and what levels were supported.

On Sony's store site it lists a "VPCSA290X CTO Premium w/HDD" and a "VPCSA290X Premium CTO w/SSD", both of which show as a model # "VPCSA290X CTO", but only the SSD model says it supports RAID (and it only says RAID 0).

So my questions are:

1. Could someone with first hand information validate if the HDD model does indeed support RAID, and if so, does it support anything other than RAID 0?

2. Could someone clarify if the SSD model supports RAID 1 and not just 0?

3. What storage controller is used for the RAID support?


Thanks!
Ben

 

So..to the best of my ability ( I have an SA HDD CTO ) I believe that RAID is not an option for the HDD configured model.

There is one proper 2.5" HDD bay and it is set up as SATA 6gb/s.

Some owners including myself have removed the ODD and swapped it for a second hard drive.

The ODD bay is only SATA 3gb/s.

There is a switch in BIOS to show or hide RAID settings, but it shows nothing in either position.

The raid configured SSD model uses two barebones SSDs set inside the 2.5" bay. So they would both be utilizing SATA 6 gb/s and I imagine that the option for RAID settings would be enabled within BIOS.



I hope something there was helpful. I'm just touching the surface of understanding raid configurations so I may be totally off base.

 

Hi,

1. A single HDD by definition cannot support RAID of any type.

2. The 128GB SSD config does not support RAID - it's just one drive. I have the 256GB=128*2 config. It is possible to unhide the Intel Option ROM in the BIOS; if unhidden, you can see the Intel RAID option screen at boot time, and use Ctl-I / Ctl-S (forget which one) to configure your drives. Speculation: I didn't try it, but it looked like the normal Intel screen - which implies that you can run the drives as either (a) 2 single drives, (b) RAID0 stripped, (c) RAID1 mirrored.

3. The Intel Mobile Express Chipset onboard RAID controller, with Intel RST drivers.

Best of luck!

 

Okay, so that makes sense that you wouldn't see raid options in the bios if you have 2 drives that sound like they are on two different controllers. Hardware RAID controllers almost always have their own firmware which you can configure after your bios loads and hardware is recognized.

Also, could you clarifiy what you mean by ODD? Do you mean "Optional Disk Drive"? ie. an external expansion bay?

Thanks!

 

Hey willysp,

I understand how raid works and that one drive is not a raid set Did you purchase the HDD or SSD model? According to the post by lazybee the internal disk drive is plugged into a 6GB/s sata connection.

So my question is can I throw in a second drive on the same 6GB/s SATA channel and utilize port multiplier or plug a 2nd drive into another channel on the RAID controller to get 2 devices in the raid configuration?

Also if you don't mind, could you provide me the exact firmware version and chipset model for the raid controller? I'd like to look at real world benchmarks with the controller it is using.

Also, can someone verify it is actually a 2.8" bay? The smallest non defunc for factor for an HDD right now is 1.8", the math doesn't add up when stacking disks. Maybe I don't understand SDD form factors?

Also, I just read on intel's site ( Intel® Rapid Storage Technology — Is there TRIM support for RAID configurations?) RAID with the RST chip DOES NOT SUPPORT TRIM SUPPORT -- Is this for a specific reason and is it handled another way (ie. the controller assumes it is handled by each disks firmware and not the storage controller)?

Thanks!

 

Hi,

I bought the 256 SSD model, so sorry - can't answer any of your HDD questions. I assume you've read the SA/SB... Review thread; that's where people are discussing adding a 2nd HDD in the ODD slot via a caddy. But I don't recall any discussions of RAIDing the second HDD.

The SSD RAID is via the Intel HM67 Express Chipset. The Intel RAID Option ROM FW is 10.1.0.1008.

No, RST does not pass TRIM commands to members of a RAID set. Internal GC in each drive member appears to work fine. Others have broken the array on their Z's (same SSD tech as the Sx), done secure erases on each drive, rebuilt the array and seen no perf improvement, so the GC process appears sound.

 

Please refer to my post - it IS possible to see and use the Intel RAID config screen after the BIOS posts - just have to enable it. Doesn't matter what your drive config is; it works just like the Intel Option ROM screen on a desktop MBO that uses an Intel chipset. But,like a desktop MBO, it only stays on the screen for a second or 2, so need to be fast with Ctl-I (IIRC, maybe -S) if you want to use it.

Also, the Intel chipset isn't a HW RAID controller - it's a software controller.

ODD is Optical Disk Drive