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Octavean
MVM
join:2001-03-31
New York, NY

Octavean

MVM

SSD Raid 0 Array 4x240GB Setup Test Run

That’s a quasi 1TB RAID 0 array. The system configuration is as follows:
quote:
Intel Core i7 3930K Sandy Bridge-E 3.2GHz (3.8GHz Turbo) LGA 2011 130W Six-Core Processor
Asus P9X79 Deluxe LGA2011 motherboard
32GB of system RAM (8x4GB)
HD 6870 video card (will likely upgrade soon)
Asus VE276Q, VE278Q and VK278Q triple 27” (1920x1080) Widescreen Monitor setup (Dual Link DVI, HDMI and DisplayPort)
Intel 330 240GB / Crucial M4 256GB / OCZ Vertex Plus 240GB / OCZ Vertex Plus 240GB
Asus BD ROM / DVD Burner
Antec EarthWatts 650 PSU
Antec P180 case

I am having some minor technical issues so I’ll likely break the array soon and install the SSD units in different systems. The final build will likely use a single 500GB Samsung 840 SSD for Windows 7 or 8 and perhaps one other SSD for Linux for dual boot.

Mike
Mod
join:2000-09-17
Pittsburgh, PA

Mike

Mod

which bios are you running?
Chrno
join:2003-12-11

Chrno to Octavean

Member

to Octavean
You don't have enough SATA 3 ports and those 2 Vertex Plus drives are surely holding your throughput back. I think it's possible to reach similar speeds with the m4 and 330 in raid 0 alone.

Octavean
MVM
join:2001-03-31
New York, NY

Octavean

MVM

Here is a link to one of my older threads:

»SSD Raid 0 Array 4x60GB Setup Test Run
said by Mike:

which bios are you running?

I'll have to check, not sure which BIOS version the motherboard is running.
said by Chrno:

You don't have enough SATA 3 ports and those 2 Vertex Plus drives are surely holding your throughput back. I think it's possible to reach similar speeds with the m4 and 330 in raid 0 alone.

I submit that only one could be a problem at any given time not both.

I could have used just the 330 and the M4 but that wouldn't have amounted to a quasi 1TB SSD RAID 0 array. Rather it would have been half the capacity. I already had some idea of what the performance would have been like from prior experience. The benchmarks I have seen from two SATA 6G SSD units (Corsair Force Series 3 I believe) in a RAID 0 array were still hitting similar (max) performance levels on the sequential reads as the 4x60 array.

Krisnatharok
PC Builder, Gamer
Premium Member
join:2009-02-11
Earth Orbit

Krisnatharok

Premium Member

what is the max throughput for the SATA controller overall on the motherboard? Each port can theoretically do 6.0 Gbps, but how much total can the mobo support?

Cool project--makes me tempted to send my next SSD to you first so we could do a 4x current gen SSD test for the lols.

Octavean
MVM
join:2001-03-31
New York, NY

1 edit

Octavean

MVM

The Asus P9X79 Deluxe LGA2011 / X79 motherboard has the following ports:

2 x SATA 6.0 Gb/s (Intel X79)
4 x SATA 3.0 Gb/s (Intel X79)
2 x SATA 6.0 Gb/s (Marvell 9128)
2 x Power eSATA 6.0 Gb/s (ASMedia ASM1061)

In this case I am only using the 4 x SATA 3.0 Gb/s (Intel X79) ports. Initially I thought that only the SATA 3.0 ports would be configurable in a RAID array but during setup I came to realize that all 6 of the Intel ports were configurable in the array.

ASUS P9X79 DELUXE LGA 2011 Intel X79 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard with UEFI BIOS $379.99
ASUS P9X79 Deluxe Intel LGA 2011 Review

Its my understanding that Haswell will have motherboards with 6 Intel SATA 6G ports off the Z87 chipset as well as some of the other lower-end Intel chipsets for Haswell. Possibly there will be TRIM support in a RAID 0 array as well. The X79 chipset has yet to receive that support but presumably its forthcoming.
said by Mike:

which bios are you running?

UEFI BIOS version 1103

There have been five UEFI / BIOS releases for the Asus P9X79 Deluxe since 1103:

(2012.12.07) BIOS 3203
(2012.10.16) BIOS 3009
(2012.08.14) BIOS 2104
(2012.07.30) BIOS 2002
(2012.06.13) BIOS 1203

Mike
Mod
join:2000-09-17
Pittsburgh, PA

Mike

Mod

I was going to mention with asus the lower #'d bios usually suck eggs.

Maybe your stability problems can be fixed by 3203

Octavean
MVM
join:2001-03-31
New York, NY

Octavean

MVM

Thanks Mike. You very well may be right.

Since I have purchased the new 500GB Samsung 840 SSD I've been eager to test it out which is another reason I want to break the quasi 1TB SSD RAID 0 array. I'd also like to retest the individual SSD units that make up the array.