PCI-E SSD Questions

[-rascal-]

I am not an expert in the PCI-Express SSD category, so I am reaching to the LTT community for some help.

 

Let's start off with a little background information:

One of my uncles is in need of upgrading his SSD storage capacity. At first he was looking into the Samsung 850 EVO or Pro, but is reconsidering the EVO option -- due to the performance degradations problems the 840 EVO posses. I suggested him to go with a PCI-Express based SSD instead  as he needs the speed.

 

He needs to have a RAID 1 array because of the data he works with (30+ years as a Mechanical / Automotive Engineer), so he needs to get a pair of them.

 

Given that his system's platform is about 4~5 years old (he simply upgrades the necessary components every 2 years or when needed), I doubt the motherboard has PCI-Express 3.0 support -- only 2.0 and/or 2.1. Given the age of the core components of the system, I don't think M.2 SATA is not an option...unless he upgrades to a newer platform (i.e. X99) -- which he wants to avoid for the time being.

 

 

The Questions...

What PCI-Express SSD would you recommend for this situation?

 

Would it be better to grab a pair of Samsung 850 Pro's instead?

 

Is it possible to set up software or hardware RAID with PCI-E SSD's?

 

 

Thanks!

[scottyseng]

-snip-

 

What are the full specs of his PC? And the work is done on the same PC right (Not on a NAS, etc)? Budget?

 

I would really question if he needs RAID 1. It would be better to run one PCIe SSD and have it backed up to a NAS or hard drive. Unless you're doing it for the read performance, but depending on the platform, the CPU would be the bottleneck for two PCIe SSDs.

 

I'm pretty sure the only recommended PCIe SSD would be the Intel 750 series. NVMe is just far too fast compared to traditional PCIe SSDs. Even the fastest Fusion IO PCIe SSDs from Sandisk can't touch the speed of the 750 series.

 

There's no way to hardware RAID PCIe SSDs. Only software RAID. You should be able to use Intel's Rapid storage driver to make a RAID 1 array. Or Windows storage spaces.

 

You might consider a RAM disk that loads from the PCIe SSD as well.

[-rascal-]

What are the full specs of his PC? And the work is done on the same PC right (Not on a NAS, etc)? Budget?

 

I would really question if he needs RAID 1. It would be better to run one PCIe SSD and have it backed up to a NAS or hard drive. Unless you're doing it for the read performance, but depending on the platform, the CPU would be the bottleneck for two PCIe SSDs.

 

I'm pretty sure the only recommended PCIe SSD would be the Intel 750 series. NVMe is just far too fast compared to traditional PCIe SSDs. Even the fastest Fusion IO PCIe SSDs from Sandisk can't touch the speed of the 750 series.

 

There's no way to hardware RAID PCIe SSDs. Only software RAID. You should be able to use Intel's Rapid storage driver to make a RAID 1 array. Or Windows storage spaces.

 

You might consider a RAM disk that loads from the PCIe SSD as well.

 

He didn't give me much information on his system, nor have I got a chance to go over to his house to spec if out. That said, this is what I DO know:

• 8GB DDR3 RAM (this wants to be upgraded as well; looking into a 16GB kit)
• ASUS P8P67 PRO motherboard (meaning LGA 1155, 'Sandy Bridge' Processor)
• Several smaller capacity SATA II / III SSD's

Given that the motherboard is on PCI-E 2.0, the Intel 750 NVMe SSD's won't be a possible option...I don't think.

 

I am not sure on what type of work he does, he's in Mechanical Engineer while I am in Electrical, but he has been using RAID 1 since he got his current system.  I will see if he is willing to consider just one large capacity PCI-E SSD.

 

I didn't think hardware RAID is yet possible with PCI-E SSD's myself, but wanted to just confirm  .

 

Now that you mentioned a RAMdisk set-up, since the Memory is planned to be upgraded, might as well consider that as well.

[scottyseng]

-snip-

 

Oh wow, I have the Z77 version of that mobo. I have a 2500K with 16GB RAM.

 

Well, it'll still work because the Intel 750 only cares if there's PCI express lanes. PCI express 2.0 is still not a bottleneck for it.

 

Yeah, the 750 series is far faster than several Samsung 850s in RAID. It seems way too expensive to be using the 750 as a mirror drive in RAID 1.

 

The only way you can hardware RAID the 750 series is using the 2.5 drive version and hooking it to a RAID card, but very few of them support NVMe properly.

 

You might check CPU use. If he's feeling the system is not loading his files fast enough, it might be the CPU. For me, I run Revit, and the bottleneck is the CPU (Revit uses CPU to draw the geometry) not my Sandisk SSD.

 

If he's doing RAID as a backup, he really needs a secondary hard drive system to back up the SSDs incase the RAID fails. RAID 1 is not a backup.