Is RAID 0 worth it?

[DimitriBrut]

I've never had an SSD before. It's my understanding that just going from the HDD to the SSD is going to make a world of difference. Now... I plan on picking up a 512 GB Samsung 850 PRO. Is it worth it to pick up a second and run them in RAID 0 as long as I keep up with backing up files? Is it possible to run the two SSDs in RAID 0 if I also want to run my current 2 TB HDD as a storage drive (Sorry, kind of a rookie here.)

 

Specs you may need... Asus Z87 Sabertooth with an i7 4771. Currently running Windows 7 Premium, but I plan on moving to 10 with this upgrade.

[JebKerman]

well it's double the speed, double the capacity, with twice the points of failure.

 

I think 1 1TB 850 EVO would be a better move, it's easily fast enough for most activities is more reliable, and a little cheaper (a lot cheaper than 2 850 Pros though)

[DimitriBrut]

well it's double the speed, double the capacity, with twice the points of failure.

 

I think 1 1TB 850 EVO would be a better move, it's easily fast enough for most activities is more reliable, and a little cheaper (a lot cheaper than 2 850 Pros though)

 

Don't really need a full TB of storage. I was just considering RAID for the speed. Why the EVO over the PRO? 

[Marinatall_Ironside]

Don't really need a full TB of storage. I was just considering RAID for the speed. Why the EVO over the PRO?

Because they're cheaper. The 850 Pro will have slightly faster sequential reads/writes, and a longer and better warranty. So you have to decide what you want to trade off and what do you expect to have and want. Computers in my mind is a mixed bag of need and want depending on component selection.

[DimitriBrut]

Because they're cheaper. The 850 Pro will have slightly faster sequential reads/writes, and a longer and better warranty. So you have to decide what you want to trade off and what do you expect to have and want. Computers in my mind is a mixed bag of need and want depending on component selection.

 

Interesting. Maybe I'll just go with a single 512 PRO. I'd prefer something that'll last longer and has the greater guarantee. Thank you both a ton for your speedy and helpful responses

[JebKerman]

Don't really need a full TB of storage. I was just considering RAID for the speed. Why the EVO over the PRO? 

well you'd be getting the full TB either way (Raid 0 uses the full capacity of both drives). Unless you are constantly transferring large files you don't need the extra speed.

 

The EVO is only 10MB/s slower when reading from it and has the same write speed as the PRO. while the PRO costs over $50USD more

[Marinatall_Ironside]

Interesting. Maybe I'll just go with a single 512 PRO. I'd prefer something that'll last longer and has the greater guarantee. Thank you both a ton for your speedy and helpful responses

Also I'm not trying to say that the 850 EVO is bad, they're a pretty solid choice for budget builds where the 850 Pro would be out of reach for most people in that bracket.

[Heesleemer]

sure, I don't regret my raid, even though it shitted out on me because of a motherboard reset on me. Just have a back up just in case. 

[braneopbru]

Is it worth it?

 

Depends what you mean by that. 

 

Will you get near perfect 100% scaling from single drive speeds? Yes.

 

Will it make your computer run any faster? 99.999% of the time, No.

 

Will it make your chances of losing all your data on both drives much higher? That's an affirmative.

 

I have a pair of Samsung 840 EVO in RAID 0, I get over 1 gigabyte per second reads and writes. The only time that I have EVER seen that speed make any sort of difference at all is when copying files over the network to the NAS where I've had the speed hit 800 megabytes per second.

 

You decide if it's worth the risk for you for pretty much zero performance gain.

[DimitriBrut]

Is it worth it?

 

Depends what you mean by that. 

 

Will you get near perfect 100% scaling from single drive speeds? Yes.

 

Will it make your computer run any faster? 99.999% of the time, No.

 

Will it make your chances of losing all your data on both drives much higher? That's an affirmative.

 

I have a pair of Samsung 840 EVO in RAID 0, I get over 1 gigabyte per second reads and writes. The only time that I have EVER seen that speed make any sort of difference at all is when copying files over the network to the NAS where I've had the speed hit 800 megabytes per second.

 

You decide if it's worth the risk for you for pretty much zero performance gain.

 

Well when you put it like that.... haha. Thanks.

[braneopbru]

Well when you put it like that.... haha. Thanks.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to dissuade you from doing it; like I said, I'm running RAID 0 myself.

 

I bought my 2 120 gig 840 SSDs from a guy locally for $40 each, I was planning to use them for something else, just haven't gotten around to it yet so I did it for the hell of it. If you want to try it for fun and understand the potential risks, I say go for it!

 

But if you are trying to decide between buying two smaller SSDs and putting them in RAID 0 or buying one single larger SSD, the answer is always going to be buy the single large one. 

[DimitriBrut]

Don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to dissuade you from doing it; like I said, I'm running RAID 0 myself.

 

I bought my 2 120 gig 840 SSDs from a guy locally for $40 each, I was planning to use them for something else, just haven't gotten around to it yet so I did it for the hell of it. If you want to try it for fun and understand the potential risks, I say go for it!

 

But if you are trying to decide between buying two smaller SSDs and putting them in RAID 0 or buying one single larger SSD, the answer is always going to be buy the single large one. 

 

I really do appreciate the input. Apparently I didn't learn all I needed to know after watching Linus' videos on the matter. That's why I come here first before I make my purchases. Informed decisions! I don't have a NAS or anything that would really benefit from the RAID 0 config. So it's something I'll do at a later date, if I end up needing it.

[Captain_WD]

~snip~

 

Hey there DimitriBrut

 

RAID0 offers a good increase in speeds that is relevant only in certain types of usage. Sequential read/write speeds and greatly improved but random read/write speeds hardly gain anything. 

On the hazard side of things RAID0 is as dangerous as drive failure goes. The problem with this type of array is that ot offers absolutely no redundancy whatsoever. If one drive of the array gets dropped fom it you'd lose all info on the whole array. Dropping a drive may occur due to drive failure, misalignment, synchronization issues or simple damage. This is why the risk of losing data with RAID0 increases a lot with every drive added to the array.

 

I would say that a single SSD is already fast enough and if you don't have any specific applications that will really benefit from the RAID0 speed increase I wouldn't bother with that.

 

Captain_WD.

[Dabombinable]

I've never had an SSD before. It's my understanding that just going from the HDD to the SSD is going to make a world of difference. Now... I plan on picking up a 512 GB Samsung 850 PRO. Is it worth it to pick up a second and run them in RAID 0 as long as I keep up with backing up files? Is it possible to run the two SSDs in RAID 0 if I also want to run my current 2 TB HDD as a storage drive (Sorry, kind of a rookie here.)

 

Specs you may need... Asus Z87 Sabertooth with an i7 4771. Currently running Windows 7 Premium, but I plan on moving to 10 with this upgrade.

Since your using SSD RAID 0 really isn't going to do that much. If you were going to put HDD in RAID 0 then I'd say its worth it.