Single 250GB SSD or dual 120GB RAID 0 SSDs in a 2010 MacBook

AlphaGamer46 · October 21, 2016

Hi.

I've had my very reliable 2010 MacBook for a few years now, and I upgraded it to a 120GB SanDisk SSD a while back. Unfortunately it didn't have enough space on it for me, so I upgraded to dual 120GB SanDisk SSDs, however the RAID appeared to fail on a software level, so I returned to the 120GB SSD, and then upgraded to a 250GB Samsung 850 EVO.

It was an absolute pain trying to configure the RAID under El Capitan, and it was because RAID functionality had been removed from Disk Utility. I configured it within Terminal, but I'm more than certain I did something wrong because the RAID failed, but the drives are still perfectly fine, so I believe that I have done something wrong.

Since upgrading to Sierra, I've noticed that integrated RAID functionality within Disk Utility has returned! Huzzah! I am thinking about re-configuring the RAID, and repurposing the Samsung SSD in my main machine, which is my Gaming PC, which, unfortunately, only has a 120GB SSD, and I find it limiting.

So, the plan is as follows.

I've got two 120GB SanDisk SSDs, that will be put into my MacBook for a RAID 0, with my Time Machine backup to ensure maximum safety.

The Samsung SSD in my MacBook will be transferred to my Gaming PC because RAID 0 on that machine is very risky for I don't have a backup drive for it.

Then I'm left with the current boot drive in my Gaming PC, a Kingston 120GB SSD which I can put anywhere, or even gift onto a family member who has a slower laptop with SATA 3.

So, what I want to know from you guys is:

1. Is it worth going for RAID 0 again? I already have all of the brackets, and they are just collecting dust in my drawer.

2. Is the speed increase noticeable from RAID 0 in an older Mac? My Mac only has SATA 2 so I'm hoping that with RAID, it'll work a bit faster, which would be optimal.

3. What should I do with the extra 120GB Kingston SSD? I don't own another machine with SATA, so I will either gift it on or I might buy a SATA USB 3.0 enclosure for the drive to replace my 1TB external HDD which I take everywhere with me. The only thing with the SSD is that it isn't big enough to hold all of my files on it, because on the USB hard drive, I've got close to 500GB worth of files, and some of which can be deleted, when I get time to go through the entire drive and remove them.

All of your guys' ideas will be heard, and I can't wait to see what you guys come up with!

PS: I know that my dad has a few machines that he uses, only with hard drives in them. He's got his desktop, with a Pentium dual-core, 4GB of RAM and a 160GB Hard Drive off of the iGPU, and a 17" HP laptop with a Core 2 Duo at 2GHz, 4GB of RAM, and a hard drive with I can't remember GB (either 160GB or 250GB) with an ATI Mobility Radeon something that I can't remember.

Thanks so much guys,

-Alpha.

Electronics Wizardy · October 21, 2016

Id stick with a sinlge ssd. You won't notice the speed difference, your gonna be cpu limited.

Id put the other ssd in the cd drive and the last one in in a usb or firewire external drive.

bgibbz · October 21, 2016

Single ssd, speed difference won't be noticeable in daily use and you have a bugged disk of failure in raid0

PenPoint · October 21, 2016

I never suggest RAID0ing 2 SSDs in a normal PC. Single SSD is way better in every perspective.

Energycore · October 21, 2016

RAIDing SSDs removes endurance keeping features (TRIM)

So if they're anything but the highest end they'll wear out very quickly, not to mention not be faster than a single one anyway

Captain_WD · October 21, 2016

9 hours ago, AlphaGamer46 said:

~snip~

Hello

RAID0 offers good speed boosts to sequential read/write speeds but has little effect on the random ones which matter more for everyday usage and OS responsiveness. Add this to the increased risk of failure and you'd see that a single larger SSD may be the better option fora boot drive and probably add a second storage HDD without putting the drives in a RAID array.

Having a solid and a current backup when handling data with RAID0 arrays is essential for your data's safety as recovering data from a failed RAID0 with SSDs is nearly impossible.

Let me know if you have any additional questions.

Captain_WD.