Drive setup for my m17x?

[DwarfAdigginAhole]

OK so, I am wondering what I should do for a drive setup. Should I go for 2x240GB Kingston HyperX SSD in Raid 0, or one 120GB HyperX SSD and a Seagate Momentus 500GB as a storage? These are the two setups I am looking at, any setups I am willing to consider along with different brands of drives so please, throw out the suggestions

 

[rishisen]

i might be wrong but i suspect ssds in raid reduce the life span ect quite significantly as it disables trim, some cleverer chaps will chime in

 

[DwarfAdigginAhole]

i might be wrong but i suspect ssds in raid reduce the life span ect quite significantly as it disables trim, some cleverer chaps will chime in

Well TOM uses them in RAID 0 so I am not to worried about anything truly terrible happening to the drives.

 

[rishisen]

ok no problemo

 

[rishisen]

http://forum.overclock3d.net/index.php?/topic/37006-ssds-the-low-down/

thats a pretty good guide, he recommends not using raid unless you are doing it for basically benches , but for everyday theres no point

 

[ruthless_villain]

ttl used them in raid because his had garbage collection.

 

[DwarfAdigginAhole]

ttl used them in raid because his had garbage collection.

Garbage Collection?

 

[rishisen]

yeh im sure its in that guide i posted, i think it becasically clears up the drive ( eg when you read or write )

 

[Natashaful]

Honestly mine are at 87% with 4574 work time hours (6months 10days 14hours - That's alot of use) 391 times powered up estimated time of 9 year 1 month 4 days, Why worry, I would have replaced them 4 times over since then LOL

 

[Ya93sin]

One SSD and one storage.

 

[S_I_N]

garbage collection is on most if not all newer gen ssd's no sweat there I run 2 64's in raid 0 all the time and so far no issues at all. GC or garbage collection is kinda like trim for raid. but it only works when thier idle (the drives) . The only minor issue is that with raid if you need to flash the firmware you have to break the raid and that can possibly lead you to have to reinstall if the flash erases the ssd. Some flashes are designed to destroy data and others dont. read the flash guide thru to see what it does. Or just make sure ya upodate firmware before installing simples

 

[DwarfAdigginAhole]

garbage collection is on most if not all newer gen ssd's no sweat there I run 2 64's in raid 0 all the time and so far no issues at all. GC or garbage collection is kinda like trim for raid. but it only works when thier idle (the drives) . The only minor issue is that with raid if you need to flash the firmware you have to break the raid and that can possibly lead you to have to reinstall if the flash erases the ssd. Some flashes are designed to destroy data and others dont. read the flash guide thru to see what it does. Or just make sure ya upodate firmware before installing simples

Sooooo, there should be no issue if I ran 2x240GB Kingston HyperX SSDs?

 

[Ya93sin]

Apart from the fact your several hundred dollars lighter in the wallet...

Seriously just get an SSD for OS/a couple games, and the Seagate (which has an SSD cache anyway I believe). Its cheaper, you get more storage, win-win really. I'm not sure where the extra speed of a RAIDed SSD pair is actually going to be useful-certainly not in gaming, unless your loading absolutely huge maps (and I mean like very big).

 

[EventHorizon27]

You haven't already purchased your M17x have you?

I work for a 'blue' electrical retailer and played a big part in getting all Alienwares removed from sale there after proving to be VERY unreliable and VERY poorly built.

I don't know if I can say any more, but stay away at all costs.

 

[DwarfAdigginAhole]

You haven't already purchased your M17x have you?

I work for a 'blue' electrical retailer and played a big part in getting all Alienwares removed from sale there after proving to be VERY unreliable and VERY poorly built.

I don't know if I can say any more, but stay away at all costs.

Ok first off m8, Alienware for the price has the best performing 17" laptop on the market. Next point, none of these other companies people throw out to me have any form of financing, dell has a 12month no interest option and so another score for them. Final point, it is a very aesthetically pleasing designed laptop and is not just a big box like what I would get with other companies. Honestly guy, Alienware laptops are not as poorly built as you say, I mean the worst point is there screen hingies but, that is about it and that is something I as hardware and novice but still good case modder could fix my self :| Now, I am up for discussing this and getting your point but, at the price point and because of the financing option....Alienware kinda beats everyone on the market for custom built laptops, all though MSI & Asus Gaming laptops are much cheaper when it comes to the memory you get with them but, the overall performance is still beaten by the Alienware.

 

[EventHorizon27]

Ok first off m8, Alienware for the price has the best performing 17" laptop on the market. Next point, none of these other companies people throw out to me have any form of financing, dell has a 12month no interest option and so another score for them. Final point, it is a very aesthetically pleasing designed laptop and is not just a big box like what I would get with other companies. Honestly guy, Alienware laptops are not as poorly built as you say, I mean the worst point is there screen hingies but, that is about it and that is something I as hardware and novice but still good case modder could fix my self :| Now, I am up for discussing this and getting your point but, at the price point and because of the financing option....Alienware kinda beats everyone on the market for custom built laptops, all though MSI & Asus Gaming laptops are much cheaper when it comes to the memory you get with them but, the overall performance is still beaten by the Alienware.

I was only giving some advice based on the experience I've had. Alienware make very powerful laptops and I was once very proud to own one.

I currently own 3, one of them is currently faulty, another has has 13 repairs by dell engineers and one of them admitted their build quality has been a little poor recently.

Every single one sold has been returned by customers in the store I work for, all faults tested and proven before return.

If you are happy with your Alienware then I'm happy for you. The financing options are very good (I've used them myself). I am not saying that every Alienware is bad, just that they have a much higher rate of failure then other brands.

On a side note, none of the Asus gaming laptops we have sold so far have been returned faulty.

 

[DwarfAdigginAhole]

i might be wrong but i suspect ssds in raid reduce the life span ect quite significantly as it disables trim, some cleverer chaps will chime in

ttl used them in raid because his had garbage collection.

One SSD and one storage.

garbage collection is on most if not all newer gen ssd's no sweat there I run 2 64's in raid 0 all the time and so far no issues at all. GC or garbage collection is kinda like trim for raid. but it only works when thier idle (the drives) . The only minor issue is that with raid if you need to flash the firmware you have to break the raid and that can possibly lead you to have to reinstall if the flash erases the ssd. Some flashes are designed to destroy data and others dont. read the flash guide thru to see what it does. Or just make sure ya upodate firmware before installing simples

You haven't already purchased your M17x have you?

I work for a 'blue' electrical retailer and played a big part in getting all Alienwares removed from sale there after proving to be VERY unreliable and VERY poorly built.

I don't know if I can say any more, but stay away at all costs.

This is a general apply to all you guys and girlies out there, What should I do sense I am a gamer, should I get the Kingston HyperX 120GB SSD or the 240GB, I do not really know how much space I will need for all my games, I know the OS only uses like 60GB sooooo, any thoughts?

 

[Ya93sin]

OS uses 14GB once you've deleted hibernation files and shrunk the page file.

What I also did is compress all the other SSD contents bar C:\Windows, the only downside to this is a bit higher latency and a bit higher CPU workload, but with any decent CPU this should be nearly negligible. That saved me 13GB of space, which is about 25% I think, so it's quite noticeable.

Most games aren't too demanding in terms of loading up, so you can happily put them on the storage drive, whereas the others you would put on the SSD.

So in conclusion, 120GB is more than enough, I have a 128GB and use 55% of it, most of my games are on the storage drive tbh.

 

[DwarfAdigginAhole]

OS uses 14GB once you've deleted hibernation files and shrunk the page file.

What I also did is compress all the other SSD contents bar C:\Windows, the only downside to this is a bit higher latency and a bit higher CPU workload, but with any decent CPU this should be nearly negligible. That saved me 13GB of space, which is about 25% I think, so it's quite noticeable.

Most games aren't too demanding in terms of loading up, so you can happily put them on the storage drive, whereas the others you would put on the SSD.

So in conclusion, 120GB is more than enough, I have a 128GB and use 55% of it, most of my games are on the storage drive tbh.

Thanks

also, what is really the current "best" SSD, I hear great things about the HyperX but, there are other note worthy brands, Ocz Vertex 3, and Corsair Dominator GT SSDs. If you have any recommendations I would love to hear about them

 

[Lollipop]

Thanks

also, what is really the current "best" SSD, I hear great things about the HyperX but, there are other note worthy brands, Ocz Vertex 3, and Corsair Dominator GT SSDs. If you have any recommendations I would love to hear about them

Kingston is the way to go (imo)