Intel bringing TRIM support to Intel chipsets running RAID 0

[Russian]

Exciting news for anyone currently using their new SSD in RAID0! Intel will finally be bringing TRIM support. Currently the only way for TRIM to function on an SSD is to operate in AHCI mode. This means that drives in high-performance arrays such as RAID0 lose the NAND cleaning benefits which could decrease speeds as time goes on or as the drives fill up. Intel has stated that current RST versions don't yet support TRIM, but it will be unveiling it with RST 11.5.

http://www.storagereview.com/intel_b..._raid0_rst_115

I'm hopeful this actually does happen.

[s3rv3r]

http://www.station-drivers.com/page/intel%20raid.htm

ICH7/9/10/PCH 11.5.0.1109 Alpha Windows 200x/Xp/Vista/7 32/64bits

[iddqd]

I was under impression there were hardware limitations - and TRIM was simply not possible with current controllers. Hopefully Intel will prove me wrong.

[ExodusC]

Ah, it's really nice that a manufacturer has finally decided to tackle this.

There's so much room for error in this kind of technology. Even a little firmware mistake can result in massive data corruption (and we've seen it happen in the past).

[BulldogPO]

Is this real this time?

[Bojamijams]

Wait for 11.6(7,8,9) version which will fix the bugs that are bound to appear unless you don't care about data loss

[[XC] Synthetickiller]

Interesting. I saw this on engadget this morning and came here to see if it was posted.

If it's true, I'll be moving to raid 0 eventually once drivers are fleshed out. What's the ETA on drivers?

[iddqd]

Eh, it's just my os/programs drive, not by any means important or irreplaceable data. Though, I guess it would be prudent to set up a shadow volume backup just in case it all goes south. Win7 actually has a pretty decent integrated tool for this (allegedly).

[slaveondope]

Here's hoping.

Currently the only way for TRIM to function on an SSD is to operate in AHCI mode.

Let me know when IDE supports TRIM as well.

[iddqd]

why would anyone not want to use AHCI? are you trying to trim in windows 95? (trim without AHCI is definitely impossible)

[HelixPC]

Great news indeed.

[sin0822]

saw this at techpowerup last week, this is great news if in fact it works perfectly. Then we will definitively need extra SATA6GB/s ports.

[Russian]

saw this at techpowerup last week, this is great news if in fact it works perfectly. Then we will definitively need extra SATA6GB/s ports.

Which we didn't get with X79...

[antiacid]

If it's true, I'll be moving to raid 0 eventually once drivers are fleshed out.

Meh, with 500mb/s+ transfer rates from single drives, is there a measurable benefit from using raid0 at this technological level? Last I checked, booting the raid drivers/card was taking more time than the couple of seconds saved during boot, for example.

[the finisher]

Meh, with 500mb/s+ transfer rates from single drives, is there a measurable benefit from using raid0 at this technological level? Last I checked, booting the raid drivers/card was taking more time than the couple of seconds saved during boot, for example.

Perhaps with a newer, larger ssd you are correct. But for multiple, older 80G G2 Intel drives, this would be awesome!

I have several regular desktops with these drives I built/maintain, looking to upgrade these in the near future. If this works, this gives me some really great options for very fast raid 0, on sata II, with lightly used drives I'd have to sell or shelf otherwise.

I hope this works, time will tell.

[Philip_J_Fry]

FOR x79? i hope so ...

[DragoonXX]

Perhaps with a newer, larger ssd you are correct. But for multiple, older 80G G2 Intel drives, this would be awesome!

I have several regular desktops with these drives I built/maintain, looking to upgrade these in the near future. If this works, this gives me some really great options for very fast raid 0, on sata II, with lightly used drives I'd have to sell or shelf otherwise.

I hope this works, time will tell.

+1 I've been putting off re-doing my OS and trying to figure out just how I was going to let my 2 X-25v drives get some TRIM time in for the last few months. I hope this is true and will work well...it'll mean I'll actually be able to do some maintenance on these drives since I installed them over 2 years ago (thankfully intel has drives that work well in a non TRIM environment with plenty of idle time)

[V2-V3]

Its about time!

[TheCarLessDriven]

Meh, with 500mb/s+ transfer rates from single drives, is there a measurable benefit from using raid0 at this technological level? Last I checked, booting the raid drivers/card was taking more time than the couple of seconds saved during boot, for example.

My OCZ Agility 3 drives in RAID 0 on sata III (2 drives) do not even get close to the 500mb/s read that is advertised for one (They get 300mb/s read / 120mb/s write in RAID 0) and three of them in RAID 0 on Sata II only got to the mid 400's. So yeah i would say its not worth it. Unless something is wrong with my drives. (I know they are asynchronous but still, two of them not even getting close to advertised speed for one?)

[naokaji]

Meh, with 500mb/s+ transfer rates from single drives, is there a measurable benefit from using raid0 at this technological level? Last I checked, booting the raid drivers/card was taking more time than the couple of seconds saved during boot, for example.

During booting there is no benefit from raid 0 as indeed initializing the raid controller takes longer than loading Windows 7 from a SSD.
However, once the system is up and running that changes and some applications will show a benefit. Also don't forget that unlike with traditional HDDs SSD prices scale pretty much linear with capacity, so why not for example pick up 2x 128GB drives instead of one 256GB one and enable raid if it costs roughly the same anyway?

[mursaat]

During booting there is no benefit from raid 0 as indeed initializing the raid controller takes longer than loading Windows 7 from a SSD.
However, once the system is up and running that changes and some applications will show a benefit. Also don't forget that unlike with traditional HDDs SSD prices scale pretty much linear with capacity, so why not for example pick up 2x 128GB drives instead of one 256GB one and enable raid if it costs roughly the same anyway?

Because you double the chances of losing all data while not doubling the performance?

[tiro_uspsss]

mmm... definitely tempting to get a second C300 for a bit of R0 IOPs overkill!

[Stevethegreat]

Because you double the chances of losing all data while not doubling the performance?

I get about 40%-50% better performance (measurable, both in real time and synthetics) by raiding my three SSDs. Maybe that's not enough, but it's better than having them run on their own (it's a free performance upgrade).
The risks are not great either since one can simply run his OS/applications on the raid 0 and have his data on a second HDD. If it fails (it happens about once a year) you simply rebuild the raid, no data is lost...

I'll get my free performance upgrade anytime, thank you very much. And now with Trim we may actually stand to get all the benefits of AHCI, I certainly welcome this development...

[ExodusC]

For some reason I had always presumed that TRIM on SSDs would be handled at the drive level, rather than the controller level.

I suppose it makes more sense to handle it at the controller level, though.

[Computurd]

My OCZ Agility 3 drives in RAID 0 on sata III (2 drives) do not even get close to the 500mb/s read that is advertised for one (They get 300mb/s read / 120mb/s write in RAID 0) and three of them in RAID 0 on Sata II only got to the mid 400's. So yeah i would say its not worth it. Unless something is wrong with my drives. (I know they are asynchronous but still, two of them not even getting close to advertised speed for one?)

something is wrong here. you arent configured correctly.