raid Massive Storage upgrade. SSD Raid 0? or something else?

[MrMDAN47]

Hello LTT,  I was wanting to make a large upgrade on my storage system in my rig.  My system works great right now but I've already filled my 2TB mass storage drive and instead of just getting a bigger drive or a second drive I would like to do some raid and just make it beastly.  This is not a practical upgrade, it's more of a lets make my computer more OP then it is now.  I do have Gigabit internet and as far as downloading things from sites that support it (like steam) my hard drive is the limiting factor.  My current Idea is to have an Samsung 512GB M.2 drive for OS and some programs, then have 2x 1TB Samsung SSDs in raid 0 to store steam games and project files for lightning quick access. Both will be backed up nightly on a WD Red or Black 8TB drive that is also used for other games that don't need to load quickly, virtual machines, emulators, and other archival purposes.  Again this is totally just for my entertainment and to make this computer OP, but I've never done any raid before so I'm not sure if what I want to do is possible with the drives I want to get. I would like some tips on how to set this up and what to get if the Samsung SSDs wouldn't work or if I should go with a Red or Black WD drive.

 

Here is my PC Part Picker list so you can look at my current build, if you so chose.

http://pcpartpicker.com/list/NcTY9W

 

Thanks

[YedZed]

Maybe set up a beastly NAS?

[Enderman]

IMO red is better since it has almost the same speeds but is quieter, cooler, and has a longer life span.

[spartaman64]

go custom liquid cooling instead or something. buy better headphones or other peripherals. just buy a single 1TB ssd you wont notice much of a difference with the m.2 or ssd raid

[Sauron]

Don't bother with raid 0, an ssd is faster than any internet connection currently available. If the problem is space I suggest you buy (or build) a NAS/storage server instead of keeping everything on your main computer. You could put in a 500gb ssd and 2-3 hdds and have a script copy everything you download over to the hard drives overnight, so you could enjoy both the speed and the cheap storage.

[Mira Yurizaki]

I'm not too keen on pushing anything faster than SATA 6Gbps SSDs right now, because that's where diminishing returns kicks in real hard. Unless you're doing a lot of bulk transfers or you need something that constantly access large chunks from storage, you won't need anything more than SATA 6Gbps. Most use cases will see maybe a second or two shaved off in practice for loading.

[MrMDAN47]

4 minutes ago, Enderman said:

IMO red is better since it has almost the same speeds but is quieter, cooler, and has a longer life span.

 

3 minutes ago, Sauron said:

Don't bother with raid 0, an ssd is faster than any internet connection currently available. If the problem is space I suggest you buy (or build) a NAS/storage server instead of keeping everything on your main computer. You could put in a 500gb ssd and 2-3 hdds and have a script copy everything you download over to the hard drives overnight, so you could enjoy both the speed and the cheap storage.

So something like what Linus has in the office? Just set up a gigabit nas to store all of my games on? 

[Sauron]

3 minutes ago, MrMDAN47 said:

 

So something like what Linus has in the office? Just set up a gigabit nas to store all of my games on? 

Well, in a way yes, but of course a lot smaller and less expensive than what Linus has. I wasn't talking about games though, you can't play games off of remote storage. If you just don't have space for games, either buy a large ssd (quite expensive) or simply another 2tb drive, but 7200rpm this time.

[Tom.JK]

I got like a 3 x 2TB drives in my PC (profile pic) in a RAID 5 for backup, in addition for an SSD for my games. Dont know if this config is meaningfull, but yeah.

[MrMDAN47]

1 minute ago, Sauron said:

Well, in a way yes, but of course a lot smaller and less expensive than what Linus has. I wasn't talking about games though, you can't play games off of remote storage. If you just don't have space for games, either buy a large ssd (quite expensive) or simply another 2tb drive, but 7200rpm this time.

I'm not too worried about expense at this time. so maybe a 2TB SSD and an 8TB HDD? no raid

[MrMDAN47]

3 minutes ago, Tom.JK said:

I got like a 3 x 2TB drives in my PC (profile pic) in a RAID 5 for backup, in addition for an SSD for my games. Dont know if this config is meaningfull, but yeah.

That could be useful too, something like that.  that would max out my drive bays so something like this would be perfect as well.  You are running all the raid straight from the MOBO right?

[Tom.JK]

1 minute ago, MrMDAN47 said:

You are running all the raid straight from the MOBO right?

Yes, i got a Z170 board (ITX)
total its 6TB of drives, but beqause of RAID5 one random drive can die, but i "only" have 4TB to go. You could ofc use bigger drives

[Sauron]

4 minutes ago, MrMDAN47 said:

I'm not too worried about expense at this time. so maybe a 2TB SSD and an 8TB HDD? no raid

Why buy an 8tb hdd? With a 2tb ssd you'd already double your current capacity and by the time you need more prices will have dropped. Not to mention 8tb hdds aren't something I would consider very reliable. Even if money isn't a problem doesn't mean you should waste it, right?

[MrMDAN47]

19 minutes ago, spartaman64 said:

go custom liquid cooling instead or something. buy better headphones or other peripherals. just buy a single 1TB ssd you wont notice much of a difference with the m.2 or ssd raid

I'm planning on a custom water loop too. And I have great peripherals. Only thing really lacking right now is drives and I dont really care about money right now. And again this is a "let's see what I can do" kind of a thing and not a practical buy.

[spartaman64]

1 minute ago, MrMDAN47 said:

I'm planning on a custom water loop too. And I have great peripherals. Only thing really lacking right now is drives and I dont really care about money right now. And again this is a "let's see what I can do" kind of a thing and not a practical buy.

you can buy an intel 750 1.2TB pcie or m.2 form factors

[Tom.JK]

4 minutes ago, MrMDAN47 said:

And again this is a "let's see what I can do" kind of a thing and not a practical buy.

What you can do is almost unlimited, so yeah...

[MrMDAN47]

19 minutes ago, Sauron said:

Why buy an 8tb hdd? With a 2tb ssd you'd already double your current capacity and by the time you need more prices will have dropped. Not to mention 8tb hdds aren't something I would consider very reliable. Even if money isn't a problem doesn't mean you should waste it, right?

True so like tom.jk said maybe a raid 5 with 3 smaller drives for mass storage and a single 2TB SSD.  And I'm thinking with lots of space because I'm trying to future proof especially cause I'm wanting to make a NAS with it.

[Sauron]

3 minutes ago, MrMDAN47 said:

True so like tom.jk said maybe a raid 5 with 3 smaller drives for mass storage and a single 2TB SSD.  And I'm thinking with lots of space because I'm trying to future proof especially cause I'm wanting to make a NAS with it.

"Future proof" is a term that rarely applies to hardware and especially not to storage. You can always add more at a low cost. If you decide to go for raid bear in mind that it does not substitute a backup.

[MrMDAN47]

9 minutes ago, Tom.JK said:

What you can do is almost unlimited, so yeah...

Hahaha exactly

[MrMDAN47]

1 hour ago, Tom.JK said:

I got like a 3 x 2TB drives in my PC (profile pic) in a RAID 5 for backup, in addition for an SSD for my games. Dont know if this config is meaningfull, but yeah.

So what kind of speed do you get from that raid 5 compared to the ssd?

 

[Tom.JK]

11 hours ago, MrMDAN47 said:

So what kind of speed do you get from that raid 5 compared to the ssd?

 

I havent tested it, i have it for backup purpose.
I've modded a swich into my case to be able to turn the drives on and off. (I only fire them up when i want to use them). This has the advantage that i only fire them up about once a week, instead of allways with the PC boot. (Makes the drives last way longer)

You can calcualte with about 190% the speed of a single HDD, so there is a quite good improvment in transfer speeds to, but as mentioned, i dont have numbers on it.

[MrMDAN47]

On 8/27/2016 at 2:50 AM, Tom.JK said:

I havent tested it, i have it for backup purpose.
I've modded a swich into my case to be able to turn the drives on and off. (I only fire them up when i want to use them). This has the advantage that i only fire them up about once a week, instead of allways with the PC boot. (Makes the drives last way longer)

You can calcualte with about 190% the speed of a single HDD, so there is a quite good improvment in transfer speeds to, but as mentioned, i dont have numbers on it.

Oh cool, I'll have to look into doing something like that. maybe a software "switch" my mobo has a power port on it that I can turn on and off drives plugged into it through software.