SATA2 Vs SATA3 - RAID0

[FattyDave]

First post so sorry if I've missed an existing thread.

 

I'm in the process of building a new rig and have hit a bit of a hiccup.

 

I've got 2 120GB OCZ Vectors which I planned to put in RAID0 on my MSI Z77A GD-65. However I am now starting to think perhaps combined storage of 240GB isn't going to be enough.

 

The main board has 2 SATA 3 6Gb/s ports from the CPU, 4 SATA 2 3Gb/s ports and 2 SATA 3Gb/s ports of the 3rd party chip set. Question:

 

If I wanted to add more storage to my array could I:

 

1. Buy more 120GB vectors and run perhaps 4 of them on the 3Gb/s ports. How would this affect speed over all?

2. Run 4 drives over both the Intel 6Gb/s ports and the 3rd party ports.

3. Man up and buy 2 larger capacity drives.

 

Thanks all in advance.

 

As it happens in the mean time the GD-65 has bricked it and has been sent back so depending on your answers, I may try and look for a different board with more space to expand.

 

thanks again

 

Dave

[Eddyall]

1) 4 Drive in RAID 0 means you should do back up often.

2) You can't do it IIRC

3) Best/safest option (still do your backup)

[Guest]

3 is your best option. 2 isn't an option really. You can make two separate arrays however the benchmarks I've seen show that the 6GB/S third party chips are slow and comparable with the Intel chipset 3GB/s chips so I can't imagine how slow third party 3GB/S will be.

 

With option 1, you'll take a huge speed hit as those SSD's are certainly faster than that port and will be held back by it. Another option you have is SSD caching and a boot disk. You'll still have 180GB of SSD for a boot disk but you'll have 60GB used as cache if you have mechanical hard drives. Here's how

 

    - Intel Response Squad member