SSD Configuration Question

[LED_Guy]

I'm in the final stages of purchasing parts for a high end (numerical/Monte Carlo modeling + optical design/ray trace) system that I will also use for gaming.

 

My question is best configuration for SSDs

 

Original idea (M.2 + SSD):

Samsung XP941 512GB for boot

Samsung 850 Pro 1TB for applications/games

 

Second idea (all SSD):

2x Samsung 850 Pro 1TB RAID0 (boot + applications/games) or . . .

4x Samsung 850 Pro 512GB RAID10

or something along these lines

 

Third idea (PCIe SSD)

Mushkin Scorpion Deluxe 960 GB or 1920 GB

 

The XP941 and the Scorpion give me great speed, the Samsung 850's have very high reliability.

 

I am looking for advice/suggestions and pros/cons.  I buy the drives on Tuesday.

 

Basic build:

i7 5960X (overclocked)

NZXT Kraken x61

ASUS X99 Deluxe

64 GB G.Skill Ripjaws 4 2800 MHz

Boot + application drives TBD

2x WD Caviar Black 4TB RAID1 (storage/backups)

2x GALAX GTX 980 HOF (SLI)

Seasonic Snow Silent 1050W

Thermaltake Core V51

3x Samsung S27D590C (displays)

 

Budget is $7,500 - 8,000

 

No comments on the RAM please.  I need for ray tracing during optical design.  I need the CPU horsepower for the numerical modeling.  I can max out an OC 5960X for an hour or two with a simulation and spend the rest of the data sifting through the data.  Dual Xeons don't make sense if I benchmark by $/GFLOPS.

[spartaman64]

m.2+ssd

[007agentHP]

EDIT: Sorry did not read OP

 

m.2 ssd and a pcie ssd will be good for boot drive set up and regular ssds for storage

[deVIZtation]

Your original idea.

[LED_Guy]

Thoughts about a pair of 850's in RAID0 for better speed??????  (with M.2 for boot)

[Captain_WD]

I'm in the final stages of purchasing parts for a high end (numerical/Monte Carlo modeling + optical design/ray trace) system that I will also use for gaming.

 

My question is best configuration for SSDs

 

Original idea (M.2 + SSD):

Samsung XP941 512GB for boot

Samsung 850 Pro 1TB for applications/games

 

Second idea (all SSD):

2x Samsung 850 Pro 1TB RAID0 (boot + applications/games) or . . .

4x Samsung 850 Pro 512GB RAID10

or something along these lines

 

Third idea (PCIe SSD)

Mushkin Scorpion Deluxe 960 GB or 1920 GB

 

The XP941 and the Scorpion give me great speed, the Samsung 850's have very high reliability.

 

I am looking for advice/suggestions and pros/cons.  I buy the drives on Tuesday.

 

Basic build:

i7 5960X (overclocked)

NZXT Kraken x61

ASUS X99 Deluxe

64 GB G.Skill Ripjaws 4 2800 MHz

Boot + application drives TBD

2x WD Caviar Black 4TB RAID1 (storage/backups)

2x GALAX GTX 980 HOF (SLI)

Seasonic Snow Silent 1050W

Thermaltake Core V51

3x Samsung S27D590C (displays)

 

Budget is $7,500 - 8,000

 

No comments on the RAM please.  I need for ray tracing during optical design.  I need the CPU horsepower for the numerical modeling.  I can max out an OC 5960X for an hour or two with a simulation and spend the rest of the data sifting through the data.  Dual Xeons don't make sense if I benchmark by $/GFLOPS.

Hey ebretschneider,

 

I would also suggest using the M.2 as a boot drive and throwing in a couple SSDs in RAID0 for the best performance you can get. I would suggest, though that you do a good, continuous offsite backup of that RAID0 array to make sure your data is safe in case of a failure (the risk of this happening in RAID0 is higher than normal). I would suggest something like a RAID1 of two WD Red drives in a separate NAS/Build/enclosure for a backup. 

 

Captain_WD.

[LED_Guy]

Is it just me, or is it a little odd that I get a lot of advice on continuous backups for Samsung 850 Pros which have a ridiculously long warranty (10 years) and by far the highest rating for endurance (150 TBW . . . 50% better than Intel 730 SSDs).  MTBF is quoted at 2 million hours (over 200 years continuous operation).

 

I also plan on using the SSDs for applications and games which means I won't be doing a lot of writing to the drive anyways.

 

Am I missing something about paying for high quality and high reliability components?

[Captain_WD]

Is it just me, or is it a little odd that I get a lot of advice on continuous backups for Samsung 850 Pros which have a ridiculously long warranty (10 years) and by far the highest rating for endurance (150 TBW . . . 50% better than Intel 730 SSDs).  MTBF is quoted at 2 million hours (over 200 years continuous operation).

 

I also plan on using the SSDs for applications and games which means I won't be doing a lot of writing to the drive anyways.

 

Am I missing something about paying for high quality and high reliability components?

 

Backups in this case have nothing to do with the quality of a certain SSD. The nature of RAID0 causes irreversible data loss in case either of the drives fails (meaning double the chance compared to a single SSD usage, little as it may be). RAID environments is muc more hostile towards both drives and data and thus the risk increases. 

Another thing to consider is that a drive is a physical unit that can be damaged by anything (software-wise or hardware-wise). Even though it does not have moving parts (like HDDs) it is still a mechanical unit that can suffer some sort of damage and cause it to fail (electrical flaw, overheating, static electricity, physical damage, etc.). And, unlike regular usage of two separate drives where even if one fails you would still have the second functioning properly, here you would need to format the still healthy drive and lose everything on the whole array. 

Large RAID capacities indicate a large amount of data that could be potentially lost and since you are looking for something to do your work with, I'd say your data should be pretty valuable and needs protection. 

Again, the suggestion of a backup has nothing to do with the quality of the drives that you are using. A drive is a physical drive and failure do happen, regardless of quality, price, brands or models.

 

Captain_WD.

[LED_Guy]

Again, the SSDs would be for applications and games, all of which can be re-installed if necessary.  I am looking for performance.  Not to brag, but I'm paying more for storage than a lot of people do for their entire system (SSDs + HDDs ~$2,000).  I'm a lot older than most on this forum and have always had a computer that was "just enough".  20 years of having a ho-hum computer and I'm tired of that, thus the question about performance.

 

I also work in the electronics industry (high end LED lighting) and am very familiar with MTBF and how to calculate for entire systems.

 

No offense, but your suggestion seems to tell everyone speed and performance be damned, go for reliability.  This isn't a network server . . . If I were building a server box then I would completely agree with you.  This is my version of a dream machine.  Those are usually designed around raw performance.

[Captain_WD]

Again, the SSDs would be for applications and games, all of which can be re-installed if necessary.  I am looking for performance.  Not to brag, but I'm paying more for storage than a lot of people do for their entire system (SSDs + HDDs ~$2,000).  I'm a lot older than most on this forum and have always had a computer that was "just enough".  20 years of having a ho-hum computer and I'm tired of that, thus the question about performance.

 

I also work in the electronics industry (high end LED lighting) and am very familiar with MTBF and how to calculate for entire systems.

 

No offense, but your suggestion seems to tell everyone speed and performance be damned, go for reliability.  This isn't a network server . . . If I were building a server box then I would completely agree with you.  This is my version of a dream machine.  Those are usually designed around raw performance.

 

Sorry if I did not make myself clear on the performance/reliability issue. I never said to drop the RAID0 option, nor to diminish the overall performance of your build in any way. I was simply referring to any potential chance of failure and how to reassure yourself in case of data loss, in case you want your data back. And the backup I was referring to was an offsite one that has nothing to do with the resources of your build. Just wanted to make sure you are aware of the potential risks of a RAID0 setup.

 

Now, on the performance part, you can go for the two SSDs in RAID0 AND use the M.2 for caching and thus reach crazy speeds for files that are withing the size of the SSD. MSI motherboards have such an option called Super RAID which you might want to look into (I believe it is available for other motherboards as well). For me, this will be the best option for a high-end performance build that still has the space and slots for other major parts such as RAM sticks, one or more GPUs, etc. and still have an adequate space in the case for a decent airflow. 

 

Would you mind me asking what is your overall build plan (the other parts)?

 

My apologies again if anything I mentioned sounded rude or aiming to lower the performance of your planned build.

 

Captain_WD.

[LED_Guy]

Wow, that's the kind of reply I was hoping/looking for.

 

build plan:

CPU                         i7 5960X (overclock)

CPU Cooler             NZXT Kraken X61

Mobo                       ASUS X99 Deluxe

GPU                        2x GALAX GTX 980 HOF (SLI)

RAM                        64 GB G.Skill Ripjaws 4 2800 MHz

Boot                         Samsung XP941 512GB

Application/Games  Samsung 850 Pro 1TB

Data/Backups          2x WD Caviar Black 4TB (RAID1)

PSU                         Seasonic Snow Silent 1050W

Case                        Thermaltake Core V51

Display                     3x Samsung S27D590C

 

I know the HOFs are 2.5 slot cards, so I bought two of the 3M PCIe shielded cable extenders so I can remote mount the HOFs for better airflow (custom support).  The WD blacks will be mounted on the backside of the mobo support.  The SDDs can easily be mounted in the 5.25" bays so I can remove the rest of the drive racks for better air flow.

 

I will also be making custom cables to minimize length and reduce air flow obstruction.  I might even make some custom cable trays to really control the routing (similar to pipe racks used in chemical plants or oil refineries).

[Captain_WD]

Wow, that's the kind of reply I was hoping/looking for.

 

build plan:

CPU                         i7 5960X (overclock)

CPU Cooler             NZXT Kraken X61

Mobo                       ASUS X99 Deluxe

GPU                        2x GALAX GTX 980 HOF (SLI)

RAM                        64 GB G.Skill Ripjaws 4 2800 MHz

Boot                         Samsung XP941 512GB

Application/Games  Samsung 850 Pro 1TB

Data/Backups          2x WD Caviar Black 4TB (RAID1)

PSU                         Seasonic Snow Silent 1050W

Case                        Thermaltake Core V51

Display                     3x Samsung S27D590C

 

I know the HOFs are 2.5 slot cards, so I bought two of the 3M PCIe shielded cable extenders so I can remote mount the HOFs for better airflow (custom support).  The WD blacks will be mounted on the backside of the mobo support.  The SDDs can easily be mounted in the 5.25" bays so I can remove the rest of the drive racks for better air flow.

 

I will also be making custom cables to minimize length and reduce air flow obstruction.  I might even make some custom cable trays to really control the routing (similar to pipe racks used in chemical plants or oil refineries).

 

This looks like a really powerful build. I really like the case and the CPU/CPU Cooler combination. Also the plan for cable management seems interesting, I would love to see the end result! Have you considered a water cooling option for the whole build?

 

I could only suggest to consider swapping those two WD Black drives with either WD Red or WD Red Pro drives. WD Black drives are truly great performance drives, but as discussed above, they are not NAS/RAID class drives and could have issues in RAID environments. WD Green is also reported to work great in RAID1, but as an energy-saving drive, it works a bit slow and you mentioned you wanted performance. 

WD Red and WD Red Pro are great NAS/RAID drives that work great in RAID arrays and would lower the chance of any issues. The difference is that WD Red Pro spins at 7,200 rpm (thus a bit faster), has longer warranty and is designed for higher amounts of workload, compared to the regular WD Red. 

Here are links to both of them:

WD Red: http://www.wdc.com/en/products/products.aspx?id=810

WD Red Pro: http://www.wdc.com/en/products/products.aspx?id=1280

 

It is up to you to decide

 

Captain_WD.

[LED_Guy]

I'm not quite up to a full liquid cooling build yet (this is only my first build).  I have considered it for an upgrade in the future though.

 

If I do, I will probable go for rigid tubing.  I used to design (and operate) MOCVD (look it up) equipment in the past.  When you design gas tubing in a $3+ million piece of equipment it has to look right and there is zero tolerance for anything that even looks like it "might" not be perfect.  From that I am used to tubing runs and bends accurate to within 0.01".  Our leak test requirements were also ridiculous . . .  We had to test to helium leak tight (<1x10^-9 atm ltr/sec) which is one cc of helium per 32 years (with atmospheric pressure on one side and hard vacuum on the other).  At that rate its about 100 years for a single drop of water.

 

I might have to lower my standards for leak testing . . .

 

I will post the build . . .