{"id":2529,"date":"2010-04-12T00:43:37","date_gmt":"2010-04-12T00:43:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mrbluesummers.com\/?p=2529"},"modified":"2011-03-02T23:41:25","modified_gmt":"2011-03-02T23:41:25","slug":"ocz-vertex-turbo-solid-state-drives-in-raid-0","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.mrbluesummers.com\/2529\/blog\/ocz-vertex-turbo-solid-state-drives-in-raid-0","title":{"rendered":"OCZ Solid State Drives, RAID-0"},"content":{"rendered":"

I’ve installed two OCZ Vertex Turbo 60GB solid state drives and created a RAID-0 array. \u00a0I want to share my experience with you.<\/p>\n

From the top<\/h1>\n

This has been quite a weekend. \u00a0I’ve lost most\/all of my data including my Monday Movie resources, music, movies, software, and other\u00a0irreplaceable\u00a0this-and-that. \u00a0At the very least, I should write about why this all happened and encourage others to carefully<\/em> try the same. \u00a0It’s really given me a snappy computer setup and, despite the crippling cost, I would probably do it again. \u00a0Probably.<\/p>\n

Summary<\/h2>\n

Here’s the rundown:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Two OCZ Vertex Turbo SSDs (2.5″): $200 each.<\/li>\n
  2. Two Icy Dock 2.5″->3.5″ HDD converters: $20 each.<\/li>\n
  3. Backups are critical- take offsite backups, or at least store data in an external drive and disconnect it.<\/li>\n
  4. Enable write-back cache to enhance performance.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    So let’s take a look at what I did, how I did it, and how you can profit from the process without having to pay the agonizing cost I did.<\/p>\n

    Gearing Up<\/h1>\n

    Learn From My Mistakes- Take Backups<\/h2>\n

    I backed up my data on another hard drive that is attached to my computer. \u00a0However, I didn’t unplug it and the RAID system I created might have mucked with the boot sector. \u00a0Successive attempts to repair the problem made things worse. \u00a0Long story short, just buy a passport<\/a>. \u00a0At $150 for a terabyte of data, you’ll never run out and it’s a great place to put data while you’re working on your rig. \u00a0I have a smaller one that wasn’t suitable for some of the stuff I needed to back up so at least I have some of my documents.<\/p>\n

    The OCZ Solid State Drives- Purchase and Unboxing<\/h2>\n

    For starters, I bought the drives from Newegg. \u00a0Again, these were the 60GB Vertex Turbo 2.5″ units you can find here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

    \"Unopened<\/a><\/p>\n

    Unopened OCZ 60GB Solid State Drive Front<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

    \"Unopened<\/a><\/p>\n

    Unopened OCZ 60GB Solid State Drive Back<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

    Alright. \u00a0We’re ready with the drives. \u00a0Let’s open them up and take a look!<\/p>\n

    Alright. \u00a0We’re ready with the drives. \u00a0Let’s open them up and take a look!<\/p>\n

    \"OCZ<\/a><\/p>\n

    OCZ 60GB vertex turbo carefully placed on top of the drive.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

    \"The<\/a><\/p>\n

    The OCZ Vertex Turbo as compared to an ordinary pen.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

    Now initially I had bought mounting brackets- probably like you’re planning on doing because they’re cheaper. \u00a0Do not do this.<\/em> The brackets do not increase the length of the drives, which is what really matters in some cases (like mine). \u00a0Take a look at the following images.<\/p>\n

    \"OCZ<\/a><\/p>\n

    The SSDs and mounting brackets in their packaging.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

    \"Mounting<\/a><\/p>\n

    Mounting brackets attached…properly?<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

    \"OCZ<\/a><\/p>\n

    This…isn't going to work, is it? Nope- the adapted drives are wide enough,but not long enough.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

    \"Tape-mounted<\/a><\/p>\n

    Drive mounted with tape. I know, but I'm not going to Frys again.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

    Now I didn’t leave them tape mounted. \u00a0Once I confirmed that the drives were working, I went out and bought the two Icy Docks<\/a> to hold the drives. \u00a0They convert the size to a full 3.5″ hard drive specification which is what my case is expecting.<\/p>\n

    Once the hard part was over, it was time for some benchmarking. \u00a0Note that I am not<\/em> tech savvy compared to some other people out there so if I can do it, you can do it. \u00a0Here’s some performance metrics for the two OCZ Vertex Turbo drives in Raid-0. \u00a0I know they’re not comprehensive- you can find more details elsewhere. \u00a0I just want to give you an idea of what an ordinary human can do.<\/p>\n

    \"Solid<\/a><\/p>\n

    File reading performance graph for solid state RAID-0 array.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

    \"Hard<\/a><\/p>\n

    These are two Seagate HDDs and their RAID-0 Read Performance<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

    The two Seagate drives are Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 ST3320620AS 320GB<\/a>. \u00a0Take a look at some random access stats:<\/p>\n

    \"HDD<\/a><\/p>\n

    HDD Random Access Performance in RAID-0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

    \"OCZ<\/a><\/p>\n

    OCZ Vertex Turbo solid state drives and random access- a match made in heaven!<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

    You can see that the solid state drives provide a lot in the way of random access. \u00a0Overall they’re faster, but they really shine in accessing and moving small files. \u00a0The kind you’ll use in rendering scenes that need to page textures and assets. \u00a0The kind you’ll use in running games that need to reach out to map files and textures often during level changes.<\/p>\n

    And that’s the overview. \u00a0This was a pretty easy operation, everything considered. \u00a0I’m looking forward to really pushing the limits of this system with some gaming\/rendering!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    I’ve installed two OCZ Vertex Turbo 60GB solid state drives and created a RAID-0 array. \u00a0I want to share my experience with you. From the top This has been quite a weekend. \u00a0I’ve lost most\/all of my data including my Monday Movie resources, music, movies, software, and other\u00a0irreplaceable\u00a0this-and-that. \u00a0At the very least, I should write […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,4],"tags":[225,222,224,226,223],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.mrbluesummers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2529"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.mrbluesummers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.mrbluesummers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.mrbluesummers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.mrbluesummers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2529"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.mrbluesummers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2529\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.mrbluesummers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2529"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.mrbluesummers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2529"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.mrbluesummers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2529"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}