SSD M.2 in raid possible?

[brighttail]

I have found myself with two of the same brand/capacity and was wondering if there is a way to run these two in raid.

 

I have an x99 Rampage Extreme motherboard with the M.2 slot, which is currently unused as I am using a M.2 to PCI-E card in my x4 slot.

 

I'm assuming, if i read the manual correctly, that I use the x4 slot, then the M.2 slot is disabled?  I'm wondering if there is a work around or an x99 motherboard out there that is capable of running dual m.2s in Raid?

 

There truly isn't a necessity for it, but being the curious type I am, I was just wondering if it was possible. 

 

Thoughts?

Thanks,

 

BT.

[GlassBomb]

I have found myself with two of the same brand/capacity and was wondering if there is a way to run these two in raid.

 

I have an x99 Rampage Extreme motherboard with the M.2 slot, which is currently unused as I am using a M.2 to PCI-E card in my x4 slot.

 

I'm assuming, if i read the manual correctly, that I use the x4 slot, then the M.2 slot is disabled?  I'm wondering if there is a work around or an x99 motherboard out there that is capable of running dual m.2s in Raid?

 

There truly isn't a necessity for it, but being the curious type I am, I was just wondering if it was possible. 

 

Thoughts?

Thanks,

 

BT.

 

Yeah, it's possible to raid M.2 devices. But as you said, it's not really needed (at least if you're using NVMe based devices).

[pwn_intended]

That board should have more than enough slots to allow you to use both yout GPUs and 2 m.2 drives. You do have 40 PCIE lanes at your disposal after all...

[Curufinwe_wins]

Uhh you could do it with any MSI board. They all allow Raid m.2 even with sli and a 5820k.

 

So will any board with PLX.

 

But you can't boot with raid pcie drives yet, it's super glitchy.

[Curufinwe_wins]

That board should have more than enough slots to allow you to use both yout GPUs and 2 m.2 drives. You do have 40 PCIE lanes at your disposal after all...

It's not that. Example my sabertooth's bottom slot (of three) disables the m.2 drive when active. If the top two slot's are active then it is IMPOSSIBLE to do multiple pcie drives.

[brighttail]

It's not that. Example my sabertooth's bottom slot (of three) disables the m.2 drive when active. If the top two slot's are active then it is IMPOSSIBLE to do multiple pcie drives.

 

This is what I was afraid of as i'm running two 980gtx's in SLI.  I guess i'm going to have to dig through the manual to see if it would disable anything. I know with slots 1, 3, 4 taken I'm running fine, tho I haven't tested the m.2 slot.  That being said if booting from raid is problematic, it probably isn't worth me fiddling with it.  I have two Samsung 950 pros (got one in error and they said keep it) so yes on the NVME.  As was mentioned it is already plenty fast and I probably wouldn't see much increase in running RAID even if i could boot off of it.  It was more for a curiosity sake.

[Curufinwe_wins]

This is what I was afraid of as i'm running two 980gtx's in SLI.  I guess i'm going to have to dig through the manual to see if it would disable anything. I know with slots 1, 3, 4 taken I'm running fine, tho I haven't tested the m.2 slot.  That being said if booting from raid is problematic, it probably isn't worth me fiddling with it.  I have two Samsung 950 pros (got one in error and they said keep it) so yes on the NVME.  As was mentioned it is already plenty fast and I probably wouldn't see much increase in running RAID even if i could boot off of it.  It was more for a curiosity sake.

Yea... booting from NVMe RAID is totally borked right now (apparently it kinda works on Asrock mobo's but ASUS one's literally just shit bricks trying.) Now non-boot drives NVMe RAID works fine, but that defeats the purpose atm doesn't it?

[Senzelian]

I just had a look into the motherboard's manual.

• The PCIE_X8_4-port is sharing bandwith with the M.2 slot.
• If you use the M.2 slot, it will deactivate the PCIE_X8_4-port.
• The PCIE_X8_4-port is automatically deactivated if you use a 28-lane CPU.

Also important to note:

• The PCIE_X4_1 slot is sharing bandwith with the PCIE_X1_1 slot, USB_E910 and SataExpress_E1.
• By inserting a X1 or X2 device into PCIE_X4_1 it will deactivate SataExpress_E1
• By inserting a X4 device into PCIE_X4_1 it will deactivate SataExpress_E1, USB3_E910 and PCIE_X1_1

[Master Disaster]

I believe PCIe RAID support is working properly on Skylake chipsets but for Haswell and Broadwell based systems it still has many issues.

[brighttail]

 

I just had a look into the motherboard's manual.

• The PCIE_X8_4-port is sharing bandwith with the M.2 slot.
• If you use the M.2 slot, it will deactivate the PCIE_X8_4-port.
• The PCIE_X8_4-port is automatically deactivated if you use a 28-lane CPU.

Also important to note:

• The PCIE_X4_1 slot is sharing bandwith with the PCIE_X1_1 slot, USB_E910 and SataExpress_E1.
• By inserting a X1 or X2 device into PCIE_X4_1 it will deactivate SataExpress_E1
• By inserting a X4 device into PCIE_X4_1 it will deactivate SataExpress_E1, USB3_E910 and PCIE_X1_1

 

Thank you, this is what I thought. I have a 40-lane CPU so it is active. I don' tuse the PCIE x1 1 slot so that isnt' a worry and I don't use the SATA express lanes so I'm good there. But it is nice to know that the M.2 is pretty much useless if I'm using the PCI x8 _4 port.

[brighttail]

I believe PCIe RAID support is working properly on Skylake chipsets but for Haswell and Broadwell based systems it still has many issues.

Yes I have seen laptops booting from two M.2, but they were just released and are on the Skylake platform.

[brighttail]

 

I just had a look into the motherboard's manual.

• The PCIE_X8_4-port is sharing bandwith with the M.2 slot.
• If you use the M.2 slot, it will deactivate the PCIE_X8_4-port.
• The PCIE_X8_4-port is automatically deactivated if you use a 28-lane CPU.

Also important to note:

• The PCIE_X4_1 slot is sharing bandwith with the PCIE_X1_1 slot, USB_E910 and SataExpress_E1.
• By inserting a X1 or X2 device into PCIE_X4_1 it will deactivate SataExpress_E1
• By inserting a X4 device into PCIE_X4_1 it will deactivate SataExpress_E1, USB3_E910 and PCIE_X1_1

 

So I went into the BIOS and found something interesting.  If I choose M.2 in my BIOS, I can use my M.2 drive AND my fourth PCIE slot in x4.   If I put a x8 in the fourth slot, then it disables the M.2.  If I put a x4 in the fourth slot the M.2 remains enabled and runs at x4.   So this is with the latest BIOS installed.

 

Of cousre to run raid 0 as a bootable drive, it would have to be initiated from BIOS.  Hmm I might give it a go.  Never know.

[Senzelian]

So I went into the BIOS and found something interesting.  If I choose M.2 in my BIOS, I can use my M.2 drive AND my fourth PCIE slot in x4.   If I put a x8 in the fourth slot, then it disables the M.2.  If I put a x4 in the fourth slot the M.2 remains enabled and runs at x4.   So this is with the latest BIOS installed.

 

Of cousre to run raid 0 as a bootable drive, it would have to be initiated from BIOS.  Hmm I might give it a go.  Never know.

Nice. Maybe they changed something in the BIOS. 

[brighttail]

Nice. Maybe they changed something in the BIOS. 

Basically I found this article.   http://www.thessdreview.com/daily-news/latest-buzz/understanding-m2-3xraid0-nvme-boot-performance/

 

They were able to boot into a raid 0 and raid 5 using two and three M.2 drives, not all being the same, just all NVME.  They used the Intel raid system from BIOS.

 

Oh if i get bored I may give it a go   My problem is the M.2 drive is behind the video cards and it is a pain to get to them without draining the whole system.

[brighttail]

Well I gave it a go.

 

I could see both drives and could install on either one of them.  Unfortunately the Intel Raid within BIOS would not recognize either one of the drives so that I could make a RAID drive out of it.  This was after updating the BIOS to latest and doing a whole variety of things even with CSM and changing the boot drive, ect ect.   I couldn't bring up the CONTROL <i> nor create the raid array using the BIOS function.

 

Oh well. Gave it a go.  I did out of fun, create a RAID 0 out of them using another drive as my boot and was getting about 3800 MbS for read and 1800 Write.   Sadly no bootable drive.

[brighttail]

Yea... booting from NVMe RAID is totally borked right now (apparently it kinda works on Asrock mobo's but ASUS one's literally just shit bricks trying.) Now non-boot drives NVMe RAID works fine, but that defeats the purpose atm doesn't it?

 

So both m.2 drives are viewable and work independently.   BIOS is simply not seeing either as a drive that can be put into RAID.  It is only showing my 850pro.   I'm not sure if I'm missing a setting or what.

[Curufinwe_wins]

So both m.2 drives are viewable and work independently.   BIOS is simply not seeing either as a drive that can be put into RAID.  It is only showing my 850pro.   I'm not sure if I'm missing a setting or what.

No, that is just the way ASUS motherboards are atm.

[brighttail]

No, that is just the way ASUS motherboards are atm.

I actually got the answer.  The z170 supports IRST remapping which is needed to allow m.2 drives to be bootable in a RAID array.  The z170s are the only motherboards that support this at least from Asus.  Asus could do a BIOS update but I won't hold my breath.

 

Thanks all for the help.

[brighttail]

No, that is just the way ASUS motherboards are atm.

So here is a question for you all.  If i booted off an Samsung 850pro, could I use IRST to make a raid 0 drive and use it for games?  I'm not sure if the software version of IRST would see them, i did load it up just to see and they aren't there, but then they are both currently ACHI and one is a boot drive.  If I changed the BIOS to RAID and formatted the two drives, would IRST pick them up at that point?  Curious if anyone has tried this on an x99 motherboard. I've seen testing on the internet with the z170 mbs but not sure it is possible with the x99s.

 

*EDIT* Ah, I cannot use IRST, but I SHOULD be able to use windows disk management and create a stripped array and use the windows driver instead of the Samsung.

 

This may work.

[Curufinwe_wins]

So here is a question for you all.  If i booted off an Samsung 850pro, could I use IRST to make a raid 0 drive and use it for games?  I'm not sure if the software version of IRST would see them, i did load it up just to see and they aren't there, but then they are both currently ACHI and one is a boot drive.  If I changed the BIOS to RAID and formatted the two drives, would IRST pick them up at that point?  Curious if anyone has tried this on an x99 motherboard. I've seen testing on the internet with the z170 mbs but not sure it is possible with the x99s.

Yes you can use them for games. It isn't necessarily a good idea though as raid 0 is going to increase access times while the single drive speeds are already so quick you probably won't see loading time improvements.

 

Also, you need to make sure they are on nvme not achi for best preformance.

[brighttail]

Yes you can use them for games. It isn't necessarily a good idea though as raid 0 is going to increase access times while the single drive speeds are already so quick you probably won't see loading time improvements.

 

Also, you need to make sure they are on nvme not achi for best preformance.

 

This is more of a testing thing anyway.  My MB doesn't have an "nvme" setting just ACHI, IDE and Raid.  I'm assuming since I'm using the Windows Disk Manager and not IRST, I can keep the boot drive on ACHI?  I'm also going to use this drive, (if i can get it going) for some of my video editing, so hopefully rendering when writing to disk will be faster.  I have one with a heat sink and the other has two fans blowing across it, one intake, one outflow, so hopefully no throttling.  

[brighttail]

Well it worked.   I used the Windows to create the Raid and not IRST.  It isn't bootable and probably won't make many games that much faster but damn does it do well with the video/audio editing when the files are being read/compiled/rendered back to the disk.  Still quite impressive!