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    Raid 0 four drives or two by two?

    Discussion in 'MSI' started by floydstime, Apr 8, 2015.

  1. floydstime

    floydstime Notebook Consultant

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    I currently own the GT72 Dom Pro 010. It came with 2x 128gb drives in RAID 0. That is not enough storage... I have a platter drive, but that is for non-performance essential programs and I would rather run 3-4 games on my ssd's. So I am hearing that unless I am looking for a fast large file transfer speed then having 4 drives on one raid is not needed. I don't know how true that is. So I have two options... I can put 2x 256gb drives in the other two m.2 sata slots and run the OS of the 256gb RAID array that came with the computer OR I can scrap the two drives that came with it and run 4x 256GB drives for 1 TB of storage.

    Your thoughts...
     
    floydstime, Apr 8, 2015
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  2. Kevin@GenTechPC

    Kevin@GenTechPC Company Representative

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    Get a bunch of this then you should be good.
    http://www.samsung.com/us/computer/memory-storage/MZ-N5E500BW
     
    Kevin@GenTechPC, Apr 8, 2015
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  3. floydstime

    floydstime Notebook Consultant

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    floydstime, Apr 8, 2015
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  4. Cormogram

    Cormogram Notebook Evangelist

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    RAID 0 (stripe) divides the data workload (read/writes) into simultaneous operations across all drives in the volume.
    If the file size is smaller than the stripe size (minimum allocation area of the drives) there will be a single operation (read/write) to a single drive.
    So, only files larger then the stripe size benefit from the parallel operations of the RAID 0 volume.
    The default stripe size of the Intel RST option ROM is 16KB, but it can be modified to suit your needs.
    Four drives in RAID 0 are surely faster than an array of two of the same drives, but it also have increased risk of failure.
     
    Last edited: Apr 16, 2015
    Cormogram, Apr 8, 2015
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  5. Kevin@GenTechPC

    Kevin@GenTechPC Company Representative

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    128KB for strip size is recommended.
    As Cormogram said, more drives more performance, but also more prone to failures.
     
    Kevin@GenTechPC, Apr 8, 2015
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  6. Meaker@Sager

    Meaker@Sager Company Representative

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    Also note that while large file speeds increase small ones do not. It's also a bad idea to raid disks of different sizes together. I would get a single 500gb 850 evo drive and leave options for the future.
     
    Meaker@Sager, Apr 8, 2015
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  7. Kevin@GenTechPC

    Kevin@GenTechPC Company Representative

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    If you really want to do RAID 0, just do it with 2x 500GB drives and that should be more than enough for you to use.
     
    Kevin@GenTechPC, Apr 8, 2015
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  8. Meaker@Sager

    Meaker@Sager Company Representative

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    That will be quite a bit more expensive of course. If budget is limited and it's 2x 256 or 1x 500 go for the 1x 500.
     
    Meaker@Sager, Apr 8, 2015
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  9. floydstime

    floydstime Notebook Consultant

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    Well I just ordered two 256 drive before I read your post and now I wish I would have went for the 500 gb solution...
     
    floydstime, Apr 9, 2015
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  10. floydstime

    floydstime Notebook Consultant

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    So why is 128 recommended over 16?
     
    floydstime, Apr 9, 2015
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  11. floydstime

    floydstime Notebook Consultant

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    Bam! Just came to me! Move the OS image over to the 2x256 and sell the 2x128's then I can buy a single 500 drive for games with a slot left over to upgrade if needed.... I feel like my avatar right now...
     
    floydstime, Apr 9, 2015
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  12. Cormogram

    Cormogram Notebook Evangelist

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    Cormogram, Apr 9, 2015
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  13. Kevin@GenTechPC

    Kevin@GenTechPC Company Representative

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    Kevin@GenTechPC, Apr 10, 2015
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