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RAID: GSK FM-25S2S-64GB with ICH8R controller

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  • RAID: GSK FM-25S2S-64GB with ICH8R controller

    I just purchased 6 of the GSK FM-25S2S-64GB ssd's to setup a fast RAID set. Is RAID 5 the recommendation for this setup? Does anyone have any experience with the optimal configuration for this other than the obvious (moving page files, turning off indexing, etc)?

  • #2
    sorry, but we don't have platform could run RAID5
    as we tested, SSD could work fine with both RAID0 and RAID1 mode
    thanks


    G.S

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    • #3
      I found a great solution

      Actually, I have had great success with your product running RAID 5....

      First I looked at using a MB with an ICH8 controller, but that would only accommodate four drives in a RAID array, which was insufficient for my needs.

      Next, I moved to an ASUS P5Q Deluxe with an Intel ICH10 controller, and six drives. Six drives is the limit for a single RAID set on the ICH10 controller. Running RAID5, I came close to saturating the bandwidth on the Southbridge for reads.

      Not satisfied, I went with an ASUS P6T Deluxe MB and a Core I7 chip. I added and Areca ARC-1231ML SATA RAID controller with 2 GB of cache, and an ACARD ANS9010B RAM Disk with 12GB for temp files(on the ICH10 Southbridge controller). Also, I added another two G.Skill drives to expand the total to eight. The system has 12 GB of RAM and Vista 64 which can address it, so I disabled the page file and indexing to optimize performance. I put two 15K 320GB SAS drives in a RAID0 stripe to hold date. This way, I pull data files from the Southbridge, while my applications load at lightning speed from the north bridge. Everything has been tweaked to minimize writes to the SSD's.

      As for the Areca controller configuration; I disabled the READ AHEAD function and NCQ, which would not be of any benefit with SSD's. This left the full 2GB of cache available for write back cache which further eliminated latency. Also, though an eight drive RAID5 set of 64GB G.Skill SSD's can produce a 420GB volume (as reported by the controller), I set created a volume of 400GB to allow a little headroom for failed cells. The controller will accommodate 4 more drives, which I plan to add as Wife and cash flow allow!

      In short, I used the following strategy to optimize the system:

      1) Large number of drives to maximize bandwidth, and distribute writing latency.

      2) RAID controller with large write back cache on the Northbridge to allow for fast throughput, and further lower latency when writing.

      3) Storage drives placed on the Southbridge to distribute bandwidth load between the Northbridge and Southbridge.

      4) I used a RAM disk for non-persistent data such as IE cache files, moved TEMP & TMP directories, etc. to further minimize the necessity to write to the SSD's in the RAID array.

      It worked! It is the most responsive system that I have ever used by at least an order of magnitude. I can't wait to see what it does with 12 drives...

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      • #4
        thanks for sharing this info and congrats


        G.S

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