# SSD, RAID1 and TRIM



## b_gossweiler (Nov 25, 2010)

I was planning on putting a few SSDs into my new system, and I also want to have all my drives mirrored under RAID1. I was now advised that SSDs under any RAID usually do not support TRIM anymore, rendering the MLC SSDs virtually useless. I’ll be using Win7 64bit.

 Does anybody have experience with this subject? (I do not want to tweak around to get it working, I need standard support of the products)

 Thanks
 Beat


----------



## edgley (Nov 27, 2010)

If you wanted a new motherboard you could do it:
http://www.bit-tech.net/news/hardware/2'1'/'3/23/intel-releases-trim-for-raid/1


----------



## b_gossweiler (Nov 27, 2010)

[quote author=edgley link=topic=117'7.msg7869'#msg7869' date=129'823651]
If you wanted a new motherboard you could do it:
http://www.bit-tech.net/news/hardware/2'1'/'3/23/intel-releases-trim-for-raid/1
[/quote]

Thanks, edgley, I am actually looking at buying a complete new system. I've come across this article before, but unfortunately if you read down a little further there's a post with the following text:

[quote author=XeroNXS]Sadly the news is not correct.

 This is from Intel


> It will support TRIM with SSDs in an AHCI configuration, or with the RAID controller enabled and the SSD is used as a pass through device. An example of this use case is for users that want to use the SSD as a boot drive but still be able to RAID multiple HDDs together to allow for large protect data storage – a great use for the home theater PC. TRIM support for SSDs in a RAID configuration is under investigation and is not included in Intel® RST 9.6.


So it only works with a single SSD in AHCI or RAID mode. 				[/quote]

So I think this is not an option for me 

Beat


----------



## edgley (Nov 27, 2010)

Bugger, sorry.
Does this help?
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/256598-32-raid-trim-question


----------



## b_gossweiler (Nov 27, 2010)

Thanks. This describes the problem(s), but not a real solution (I don't want to use workarounds or tweaks). I guess I have to drop the idea of SSDs for what I want to have under RAID1 (which would have been the catalog and the previews, for example).

Beat


----------



## edgley (Nov 28, 2010)

Maybe:
http://forum.corsair.com/forums/showthread.php?t=89248


----------



## ukbrown (Nov 28, 2010)

@beatt, Is RAID for resilience or Speed? I thought SSD's no moving parts were more reliable than conventional. Speed, is one not faster than SATA 2 anyway?

Just trying to understand the reasons, it might be that the old rules don't apply as much, I don't know this for sure BTW and belt and braces can be good.


----------



## b_gossweiler (Nov 28, 2010)

Thanks Simon, for the link. I've now decided to not use SSDs, as it looks like I cannot reach my target with them.

Ukbrown:
I was looking into RAID1 for mirroring, not for speed. I know that the chances of SSDs failing might be smaller than for conventional disks, but I just want to be sure I can loose a device without loosing data.

I now decided on getting 4 fast Velociraptor disks with RAID1' instead of the SSDs.

Beat


----------



## Victoria Bampton (Nov 28, 2010)

Wow Beat, that's going to be some machine!


----------



## sizzlingbadger (Nov 28, 2010)

Using SSD for just the caches is ok as that data is expendable anyway.


----------



## b_gossweiler (Nov 28, 2010)

[quote author=sizzlingbadger link=topic=117'7.msg78829#msg78829 date=129'979'45]
Using SSD for just the caches is ok as that data is expendable anyway.
[/quote]

That's what I'll be getting besides the regular HDD, Nik, 1 SSD for ACR and PSE cache.

Beat


----------



## b_gossweiler (Nov 28, 2010)

[quote author=Victoria Bampton link=topic=117'7.msg78823#msg78823 date=129'977483]
Wow Beat, that's going to be some machine!
[/quote]

You know, Victoria, small children -&gt; small toys, big children -&gt; big toys ... for Christmas  

I'll report on the performance once I've set it up.

Beat


----------



## ukbrown (Nov 28, 2010)

@beatt, I think that should be highly resilient and performant. Ticks all the boxes for me, couldn't quite afford it  , saving up for a decent tripod and still got kids who want presents. :(


----------

