Buying a new rig next week. Going for ROG Maximus VI Forumula and in i5 processor. Im currently using a 60GB SSD for my current setup just for OS Windows 7 and hardware related software. Im going to up that to 120GB as im out of space (I have other HDs and SSDs for games etc). Whats the best option for SSD and OS installs? 1x 120GB SSD standard install....or...2x 120GB SSDs with Win7 in either RAID 0 or RAID 1. This is going to be mainly for gaming, so speed is key. Any thoughts or am I just going OTT?
hard drive speed only matters for load time. It won't actually affect in-game performance. Personally I find that 1 SSD is fast enough for all my windows needs. If you are asking for more speed then you can go 2x 120GB. RAID 1 and 0 both have similar read speed so you have to decide between data redundancy or twice the storage. Personally I would go for RAID 0 because if my SSDs were to ever fail, I would only lose video games and the OS which I can re-install relatively easily.
As it's going to be an OS drive, & nothing else you've written is suggesting that you've got a need to overtly prioritise sequential over smaller r/w speeds (albeit that there would be some further improvement in game loading speed), you'd be better off buying a single decent 240/250/256GB SSD than a pair of 120/128GB ones for R0. it's also cheaper buying capacity that way - for example - - on the more budget orientated level, the 120GB 840 Evo's are £162.36 (£81.18 x2) vs £138.86 for a 250GB (both from CCL Computers - who i've used several times before) - &, on the high end level, the 128GB 840 Pro's are £209.98 (£104.99 x2) vs £169.98 for the 256GB (both from eBuyer & not including any cashback). As things stand, it's only if you were looking at 480/500/512GB (or larger) capacities (or had a very particularly r/w usage) where R0 would be of benefit - & that's largely because they're no faster than their 240/250/256GB counterparts for small r/ws so why not go for the gain in sequential speeds through R0, though also as the pricing tends to work in favour of a R0 array. [Edit] i should have noted that this doesn't apply to the M500 as the 240GB isn't great (the 120GB being even more shonky) - it's only at 480GB that you get full speeds.
