Precision M6600 Best Config for 5 SSD's?

So I just purchased five 256GB Samsung MSATA SSD's for my M6600, but I'm not 100% sure about which configuration I should go for. I don't really keep any sort of critical files on my machine, so having a bit of risk throwing them all in RAID-0 is an option. Although since the machine only has one MSATA slot, which is at SATA-II means I'm going to have to rely on the three other 2.5" SATA bays (Two 2.5" drives, plus DVD-Drive). So I'm looking at using the SYBA Dual MSATA to SATA 2.5" which has a built in RAID controller where I can choose the various options at a hardware level (So, two disks per bay @ either RAID-0, RAID-1, JBOD, PASSTHROUGH). Then the M6600 has hardware RAID as either RAID-0 or RAID-1.

Would I reach some sort of bandwidth limitation at that level? It would end up being nested RAID-0, (RAID-00) I figure each drive can do ~500MB/s, which if they were RAID'd in the bay would end up ~1,000MB/s per drive bay times 2. So 2GB/s read speed (theoretically) and still have one extra drive for perhaps a back up? Unless I set the adapters to Passthrough or JBOD and Hardware RAID-0 all five in the Intel RST configuration utility?

 

I would suggest you sell or return all the mSATA versions of these drives instead. mSATA offers lower performance than SATA III (2.5") drives do and RAIDing them won't do you any performance favors either with the indicated converters - especially when compared to the risks of any one of those extraneous components failing and thereby bringing your system to dead weight class in a blink of an eye...

Yeah; I'm not worried about your data if you're not, but if the availability of this system is even a little important to you; forget this plan.


Instead; what are you going to use this system for? What are the important spec's for the cpu/ram and O/S (and/or gpu if that is important to you)? What software do you intend to run and what are your expectations, performance-wise?

In almost any scenario I can think of right now; I would instead buy any 3 2.5" SATA III drives of 500GB or higher capacity and run them in the following configuration to maximize their effectiveness in the overall speed/responsiveness of the system:

1st DRV: C:\ OP'd by 33% for your O/S (here; you may get away with a 256GB drive... but make sure it's a very fast one...).

2nd DRV: P:\ OP'd by 33% for your programs (again; if you buy a superior drive, a smaller capacity may not come with too much of a performance hit).

3rd DRV: Z:\ OP'd by 33% for your DATA or Scratch/Temp disk usage (unless you're constantly updating your data or don't really use it as a Scratch/Temp drive; OP'ing may not be necessary and then you can buy the capacity (min 'HQ' 256GB though) as you need it.​

What the above configuration will do is decouple the important/major input/outputs from the storage subsystem and relying on a single drive to do so (which most SATA III drives are very bad at - none of them are full duplex - they only work reading or writing at any single point in time) will make the responsiveness of the system much slower.

By giving Windows, your Programs and your DATA a drive of their own; your workflow can potentially be sped up by having each drive handle only one thing (it's own stuff) and thereby allowing maximum performance for all the steps combined.

I hope you didn't spend too much on those effectively obsolete mSATA drives. Get rid of them while you can and setup your system properly to give real world performance and reliability - rather than a few Oh! bm 'scores' that mean very little in day to day computing.

Good luck.

 

@republicofsam both RAID controllers used in SYBA dual msata to 2.5" adapters (JMB562 and some ASMedia) are terrible and don't support TRIM. (Inside each 2.5" bay) sequential performance will remain the same while 4K performance will actually be slower than if drives are used separately, and worst of all JBOD is not supported on systems without port multiplier functionality (that is any more or less modern system, your M6600 included). Moreover that, thanks to TRIMless RAID your drives will degrade faster.

Bottom line, your setup is sub-optimal; selling all your small drives and getting a single 2TB MX300 or some other decent drive, and generously overprovisioning it, will give you overwhelming reliability by comparison, without much sacrifice in terms of real-world performance; if you want speed at all costs, just get 2x 1TB drives and RAID0 them, it will cost the same yet still be much more reliable.

p.s. I actually had SYBA JMB562-based dual-mSATA adapter. Selling it with some profit was the best thing I could do. \= While the idea behind such devices is brilliant, real-life implementations are extremely lacking.