Basically I was wondering if i get 2x 512 GB m.2s for 1TB of space plus awesome speeds for ~500 usd
or
One TB m.2 for ~450 usd, sacrificing speed.
Is the speed boost just redundant at this point to even consider? Any help appreciated.
Unless you're using the drives to edit ridiculously high-bitrate video, yes.
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From reports by Alan Malventano at PCPer, going RAID0 will add snappyness. I guess you won't notice better loading times though, if something loads in 30 seconds instead of 31.
Question: Does your cpu support the 16+4+4 configuration of PCIe lanes you would need for a m.2 raid 0?
7700K, should no?
PCI Express Configurations : Up to 1x16, 2x8, 1x8+2x4
If you have a low end GPU then yes (my RX460 is physically x16 but only has connectors for x8). You have probably something beefier than that, right?
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M.2 raid is a nightmare right now. Windows flips the fuck out when you try it and is extremely difficult to get working. Stick with one.
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Yes, gtx 1080.
Seems like the majorty are saying no.
I wasnt aware that there were big problems with raid right now.
Most z270 boards have like 2 m.2 ports so i figured PCPP would have caught the compatibility stuff
I would go with a single bigger one.
I think that it would be more reliable then 2 in a striped raid.
Next to that, i dont think that a nvme pci-e m.2 ssd is really going to bottleneck you wenn it comes to speeds.
Only use RAID 0 if you want to lose your data, because things get exciting when something happens in those arrays.
And speed on M.2 depends on the specific model. Some M.2 drives, while using the same form factor as the stupid fast drives, are only wired for SATA and thus are just as fast/slow. Even NVMe drives vary, the Intel 600p line is pretty slow for NVMe for example.
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It's been two months and I'm still salty about my SSD RAID array failing, so I'd recommend a single larger drive since it will still be fast.
First you have to make sure that your motherboard will raid the M.2 drives, a lot of boards won't do it. Secondly, its a pain in the ass getting it to boot consistently once you have them set up in a raid config - speaking from experience on this.
I did several test with M.2 - single vs raid, single and raid vs. SSD's in single vs raid, and found that unless your transferring very large files then raid is useless and you wont see any real world advantages. This was also supported when comparing M.2 vs regular SSD, you wont see any real change in your boot times, load times; unless, like I said before, your a swapping large files from one drive to another then you will see a difference between the drive set up. Also, I had the same findings between Windows and Linux and don't even think about trying to get apple to boot on a M.2 that whipped my ass for 2 weeks before I finally just gave up on it.
I suggest buying the one larger drive and using it for your OS and a few programs, stuff that is optimized for those type of drives and so you will notice some gains. Steam is not optimized for a M.2, run stuff like that on a regular SSD because at today's current prices you can get a 1tb SSD for almost nothing in comparison to a 1tb M.2.
and file compression in some cases...
I've run a RAID0 on 2 1TB WD Black drives for over 1yr. The file transfers between a SSD and a RAID0 are lovely... Just Lovely
I say get 2 HDD's and RAID0 them against 1 SSD. That is enough for daily use and reliable since RAID is all software basically. I have over a year wth this setu p and can't see a way to go back to a single drive. m.2 raid is funny on some platforms outside of the enterprise stuff so I say go with 2 HDD's and 1 SSD
I would go with 1 or 2 m.2 ssd's and install Linux using zfs to combine them with an intelligent software raid solution. M.2 is crazy fast and with 2 m.2's combined with Zfs it completely outdoes hardware raid at its current state of development. Its not widely adopted yet though so you do have to go in post-install and manually download the zfs libraries yourself, then move all your data to the newly-created partition. I'm sure you could also use gparted on a bootable USB drive and install zfs that way.
Single M.2. I recommend the Plextor M8Pe 1TB (with heatsink), 960 Evo 1TB, and 960 Pro 1TB. Those two samsung drives are as fast as M.2 gets right now, and they're the only drives besides the M8Pe with heatsink that keep the temps in check without adding in some kind of cooling.
What is the use case?
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Every time I have tried to use RAID with SSD's or HDD's it has failed and I lost data. Even when using a dedicated server grade RAID card. I went with a PCIe Intel 750 when my SSD RAID started acting flaky, and I can't detect any difference in real world speed over my sata Samsung 850 EVO.
Your mileage may vary.
Im aware of this. I plan on using the TB 960 evo m.2
What is your use case that demands 5GB+/s throughput?
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None yet. It's only gaming and light production for now. I do acknowledge that i will be building an overkill system for what i need it for immediately. But i plan on getting into some production once my wife's business is officially launched.