Okay before you ask no I haven't tried this yet, wanted to post it as a preposition for Logan and the crew to try maybe?
Because you'd need drivers you'd have to install Linux first, download the RAID drivers, setup RAID 0 on two+ SSD's and then install Windows onto them seperately. Remove Linux and presto, OS in RAID 0...stupid fast loading times
Vs setting up raid 0 in bios supported controllers or using the card's bios hook menu? You can load raid drivers with a function key in the first 10 seconds of windows setup. This doesnt make sense or even seem logical.
Yeah you could do that too. I'm talking more about how fast you can load up windows theoretically in RAID 0.
Raid 0 is fast, a lot of people use it for their OS.
I use raid 1 for my nas array and raid 0 for my os.
If you've never set it up there is tons of articles for it online already with an easier approach than the one you mentioned above for ahci ssd raid 0 setups on a windows setup.
You might have issues with trim though.
raid 0 with ssd's is just dumb. you don't save any money, and you don't gain performance vs getting a bigger ssd. you risk yor data, since if a drive goes out, or the controller has a problem, you loose everything.
well, raid 0 combined with raid 10 isnt a bad set up, thats what ill be doing with my next build is raid 0 2 512gb ssds and then raid 10 4 2tb drives for full redundant backup. I didnt have the cash when amazon had them on sale but the 512gb vertex 4s were $299 during November last year.
that is why i use a nas for "important data", i could care less if i lose data on c(i'll just load a backup image).. i haven't lost data yet in this configuration and i do see a noticable performance gain.
How many drives are in your NAS array? RAID 1 seems like a waste if you have >3.
RAID0 on SSD's isn't as difficult as you'd expect, and if you have a 7-series motherboard, TRIM is officially supported by Intel. Anand has a good article about TRIM on SSD's.
http://www.anandtech.com/show/6161/intel-brings-trim-to-raid0-ssd-arrays-on-7series-motherboards-we-test-it
I've installed SSD's in RAID0 as my boot drive for both PC and hackintosh, although I can't comment on TRIM working under OSX. I would make sure to select two of the same SSD's, as mismatching different controllers and NAND might mess with the internal garbage collection and firmware. But a picture is worth a thousand words.
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/2489110/3I33N23Ha5Le5Eb5H2d3ba263bf7a9f501c93.jpg
For my windows 7 installation, all you need is to install your motherboards driver when you install the OS. For the hackintosh, I had to do a little grease work and install the boot0 driver in the EFI partition. I haven't tried it on any linux distros, but I isn't too difficult.
One of the benefits of SSD's, is they are way more immune to most of the issues that rotating-disk media have. Hard drives generally wear out due to vibrational forces and physical impact over time. Each moving component can be another point of failure. And although you can make the same analogy to SSD's, (electrons tunneling through an atomic scale sheet of oxide), I don't think you can really say that it's dumb idea to run RAID0 based on the anecdotes of the older technologies limitations.
Real world scenerio though, is that NOTHING REALLY TRANSFERS AT 1GB/S. You're going to bottleneck most of the real benefits of a RAID array anyways. It's not very practical, but it is FREAKING AWESOME?