m.2, SATAexpress, Raid 0 - What is best?

[Zolltane]

Hello guys,
New here. Great fan of OC3D. I have a question.
Can't seem to be able to understand the reason for all of those
storage connectivity options to exist.

I am building my new X99 machine and I really want to choose the best
storage option for my OS bootable drive, but I don't know what to buy.

First of all if SATAexpress is much faster than SATA 3, why do new SSDs such
as the Samsung 850 Pro keep coming with Sata 3 connectivity and not Sata express even if Sata 3 is the bottleneck?

Also why do both m.2 and Sataexpress exist? Isn't it a question of which one is better? If one is better, the other one should be discontinued?

Say you wanted to achieve a decent read/write performance for 4K video editing,
How do you choose between:
- 0raiding Samsung 850 Pros
- m.2 drive (totally confused with m.2 last I checked there were m.2 x2, m.2 x3, m.2 x4 (by AsRock) Why do they still make x2 and x3 if x4 is better?
- Sataexpress drives. Are these actually raid-able?

I am not really a millionaire so I can't afford server grade pcie drives, but I'm using two R9 290 cards in CF and IIRC, m.2 drives and sataexpress drives will actually lock some of the pcie slots due to using the lanes themselves, thus leaving the option for CF out. This only complicates things further.

I am sorry for the chaotic and confused question. Please let me know what is my best option if I want to have the best read/write performance with consumer grade hardware and keep the CF as well. All help - much appreciated.

 

[Estacado7706]

Also why do both m.2 and Sataexpress exist? Isn't it a question of which one is better? If one is better, the other one should be discontinued?

Because, they are going down the same path.
Essentially M.2 is SATA Express in a small form factor. Much like mSATA is to SATA (Without Express). Mainly because M.2 is built upon mSATA.
One of the first SATA Express "Disks" was the Asus Hyper Express, which actually only was a casing of two mSATA SSDs in Raid 0.

Say you wanted to achieve a decent read/write performance for 4K video editing,
How do you choose between:
- 0raiding Samsung 850 Pros
- m.2 drive (totally confused with m.2 last I checked there were m.2 x2, m.2 x3, m.2 x4 (by AsRock) Why do they still make x2 and x3 if x4 is better?
- Sataexpress drives. Are these actually raid-able?

I looked at some AsRock boards and only found Ultra M.2 and M.2, with x4 each (refering to PCIe 3x4 and PCIe 2 x4)
As to the raid: Should be. At least as a software raid.
I read something about a Raid 0 with the plextor m6e doing 1,4GB/s. (And the m6e is only PCIe 2.0 X2)

I am not really a millionaire so I can't afford server grade pcie drives, but I'm using two R9 290 cards in CF and IIRC, m.2 drives and sataexpress drives will actually lock some of the pcie slots due to using the lanes themselves, thus leaving the option for CF out. This only complicates things further.

Depends what CPU you have in mind and how your cards are set (x16/x8 etc...).
Crossfiring and thinking about a M.2 Raid 0 pretty much says "go fuck yourself" to the 5920K.

 

[Kushiro]

Depends what CPU you have in mind and how your cards are set (x16/x8 etc...).
Crossfiring and thinking about a M.2 Raid 0 pretty much says "go fuck yourself" to the 5920K.

Im sorry wut and wut? Anyways OP if you are really that concerned about the lanes, why not just up the budget a tad and grab yourself a 5930k? or the X? As the 290's can easily work at x8.

 

[Zolltane]

Hello,
I am getting the 5960X. Aren't the main PCIe slots x16 anyway? Do I need to switch them to x8 from the bios to free up more lanes? Also will this decrease CF performance?

EDIT:

This thread seriously needs more replies.