Best SSDs for raid 0?

[SteveRo]

Summary of recommendations from all contributors to this thread, (as of 31Oct13) -

1.) Samsung 840 Pro is probably the best drive for onboard raid but some folks have reported compatibility problems with some pci-e controllers. <edit - see - http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?287673-Samsung-840-Pro-in-Raid-0-on-z77-z87-(Haswell)-and-Areca-1882 >
2.) Mushkin Enhanced Chronos G0 or Deluxe (recommended for pci-e controllers, good compatibility due to Sandforce SF-2281, actually any of the drives with SF-2281 and toggle nand might be just as good as the Mushkin.)
3.) Supersspeed S301 (also uses SF-2281, but this one has SLC memory - should be good for both onboard and pci-e due to SF-2281, SLC makes it blazing fast, even for the 64GB version :) ). < edit - see - http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?287496-Supersspeed-S301-64GB-Areca-vs-Z77-S301-vs-C300-vs-Mtron-Mobi >
4.) The Sandisk Extreme II might be worth a look. From member Highendtoys - "It has good GC, nCache helps quite a bit with keeping the performance up because a lot of the small block size writes are done in cache and then sent to the MLC layer as sequential writes." I can find multiple benches of Raid 0 using onboard intel controllers but none on Areca or LSI :( The results of onboard intel raid 0 using Sandisk Extreme II look very good so far. :)

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Original 1st post -

Good morning all.

I'm looking for new SSDs for my primary "Xtreme" machine - (to be used for the OS only).
I want to be able to use both mobo intel (ich) and Areca (1882).
When I use intel onboard (ich10, pch, ...) I would only go 2x drives (I need most of the other ports for data and optical drives).
When on Areca - 4-5x raid 0 is probably as high as I would want to go - currently using 5xC300 64s.

I was thinking of going 2x supersspeed S301 SLC drives but that sandforce controller is getting "rather long in the tooth" (to use Paul Alcorn's words).
I emailed supersspeed last week to see if they had a new drive in the works but nothing back from them yet.

So whadaya think?
I gotta spend that retirement money on something!
What SSDs should I get!! :) :)

Much thanks!
Steve.

[itznfb]

Samsung 840 Pro for the ICH10 and Mushkin Enhanced Chronos GO or Deluxe for the PCIe controller.

[SteveRo]

Samsung 840 Pro for the ICH10 and Mushkin Enhanced Chronos GO or Deluxe for the PCIe controller.

Mushkin better for areca because no trim?

[itznfb]

I've seen some tests and with my own experience the SandForce controllers seem to perform better on the Areca and LSI cards. I've seen several reports of Samsungs being flakey on the PCIe boards. I don't think there is any official or even thorough testing to back that up though. I had 2 Samsung 840 Pros and they were great on my Sabertooth Z77 but they kept dropping from my 9211-4i. I kept having to rebuild the array. The Mushkin (just my preferred brand for SandForce drives) performed great on both. The Samsung had better all out performance but not by much. I didn't do any in depth testing though and didn't even bother looking into the dropped drive issue. I just didn't have the time.

[SteveRo]

Based on this -

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?280689-Review-SuperSSpeed-HYPER-SLC-%28Sandforce-SF-2281-Intel-SLC-25nm%29

I am thinking 3-4x R0 S301 64s on the areca 1882 :)

Any thoughts?

[SteveRo]

Based on this -

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?280689-Review-SuperSSpeed-HYPER-SLC-%28Sandforce-SF-2281-Intel-SLC-25nm%29

I am thinking 3-4x R0 S301 64s on the areca 1882 :)

Any thoughts?

Just bot 4x sspeed s301 64GB - should have them Saturday.
I will post results in a new thread Sunday/Monday :) :)

[felix_w]

Awaiting for your results!!! :D

[Nizzen]

Me too :D

Just remember to test with 12GB+ testfile on Anvil :up:

Regards from an Areca fanboy :D

[SteveRo]

Me too :D

Just remember to test with 12GB+ testfile on Anvil :up:

Regards from an Areca fanboy :D

yep, will do.

[l0ud_sil3nc3]

Steve, glad to see you posting it has been too long.

Maybe giving Haswell or Ivy-E a try on the new setup?

[Highendtoys]

SandForce drives are good because you keep high performance for a longer period without TRIM. Once you run through the clean blocks they start to slow and can get really slow with a lot of incompressible data. No background GC, at least not like we've come to know it from Samsung, or Marvell based drives.

Samsung drives are fast when the blocks are clean but performance drops quite a bit when dirty. http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=RtN2KlxsI0g That said, Samsung has aggressive GB on the PRO, not so much on the Non-Pro.

Marvell drives are the same way. Plextors like the M5 Pro do well at first and then drop off. The M5 Pro has very aggressive GC so like the 840 Pro, not a big deal unless you are going to hit the array really hard.

The drive no one is talking about is the Sandisk Extreme II. It has good GC, nCache helps quite a bit with keeping the performance up because a lot of the small block size writes are done in cache and then sent to the MLC layer as sequential writes.

[SteveRo]

Steve, glad to see you posting it has been too long.

Maybe giving Haswell or Ivy-E a try on the new setup?

Good morning! Happy to just play with storage for now but never say never.

[SteveRo]

Ok so a bit of a snag, one of the drives was DOA, I will call them this morning.
Meanwhile - a little eye candy :)

http://img23.imageshack.us/img23/3605/zth3.jpg (http://img23.imageshack.us/i/zth3.jpg/)


Z77 PCH (Haswell would for sure be faster):


http://img209.imageshack.us/img209/7272/iug6.png (http://img209.imageshack.us/i/iug6.png/)


Areca 1882 4GB:


http://img837.imageshack.us/img837/2480/5u6d.png (http://img837.imageshack.us/i/5u6d.png/)

From left to right: very old, old and not as old:

http://img703.imageshack.us/img703/9659/xak1.jpg (http://img703.imageshack.us/i/xak1.jpg/)

[SteveRo]

For continuation of S301 benchmarks, see -

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?287496-Supersspeed-S301-64GB-Areca-vs-Z77-S301-vs-C300-vs-Mtron-Mobi