SSD in RAID?

[Sheza]

Hey there,

Please excuse me if I'm getting things mixed up, my BIOS looks scary and I wouldn't be able to understand most of it anyway.

Since I got my SSD I've used it in AHCI mode and installed Intel Rapid Storage Technology software.

I'm about to upgrade to an MSI Z77A-GD65 and Ivy Bridge, and I found Intel Rapid Storage Tech in the motherboard manual, and it's made me a bit confused.

It says the technology allows the drive to be used as a cache, and that Windows must be installed on it and it must be set to a RAID mode (I think it was RAID 0). This threw me off a bit, just a cache? I wanted it to be used to install a few programs on too.

I've since done some further reading and I like the idea of using a set amount of space e.g. 18GB as a cache. I understand that I need to set my SSD to RAID and install Windows on it, but before that part of the chapter it showed some really complicated Intel ROM set up. I don't get that. Also, what about the other HDD that I will use for data, User folders and other programs?

Cheers.

 

[repton]

How many SSD drives do you have? You need at least two (preferably identical) drives to set up a RAID 0 array.

If you just have one, then you can use it as a cache for your regular storage drives, though I really don't know much about this, it will give you some performance gains I think.

R

 

[Sheza]

I only have one I'm afraid.

 

[repton]

I'd just go with it in AHCI mode dude, unless you can find a good reason to try out the cache. I'm sure I saw a linustechtips about SSD caching at one point.

 

[Pr3d4t0r]

if you have one then dont worry about ssd caching.

raid 0 in ssd creates a single volume drive but with double the read and writes speed, you can even have 16 ssds in raid 0(there is a vid on youtube lol) and achieve write/read speeds of even something like 2.4gigs a second.

ssd cahing is sort of a option on raids to boot the os quicker, i dont even bother with stuff like that, in future raid 1 for magnetic hdds and raid 0 for ssd

 

[S_I_N]

let me clear up some confussion for you. Intel Rapid Storage Technology or IRST is not designed to cache to a single drive nor is it designed to cache to another ssd. Its main implement is to assist slower HDD's buy caching frequently accessed programs with and ssd. You will gain nothing and most likely lose alot if you attempt to ssd cache an ssd.

Now the setup procedure is thus

First in bios set it to raid or whatever setting your manual says now this is installing onto a hdd.

Install windows onto the hdd and update it all the way thru insatll whatever programs you want to have on it.

now once everything is installed and running you can put in the ssd and the run IRST program and set it to your desired specs.

now its up to the ssd to learn your habits this can take awhile as you go on about your day week month. (dont expect it to last very long mine crashed my system regularly)

Now you will (may) notice those programs you use alot load faster (yup thats all IRST is about)

you will notice a slight speedup when booting but nothing compared to an ssd alone.

I hope this helps you in deciding whether or not to try IRST IMHO its a load of rubbish and not worth the time it takes to do.

 

[Sheza]

Indeed that clears up a lot, I will just do what I've always done in the past then. Thanks for your help repton, Pr3d4t0r and S_I_N!