Throughput question: 2-SSD-RAID0 in Aluminium MacBook

flatfoot · Jun 8, 2010, 02:25 AM

Hi There,

a friend of mine is planning on putting two SSDs into his Aluminium MacBook and making them a RAID0 for maximum throughput. The second drive will be installed using an MCE OptiBay:

The SSDs he wants to use feature the SandForce SF-1200 chipset with a maximum throughput of over 270MB/s read and write.
Our question: Is the SATA chipset of this MacBook capable of pushing 500+ MB/s?

flatfoot · 02:18 AM

Thanks for the reply! (EDIT: ...which has been deleted in the meantime...)

OK, my pal's main concern is to have an SSD with 500GB capacity. We just came up with the RAID idea to improve performance even more.

Isn't SATA II 3Gb/s per channel? This would mean a whole of 6Gb/s in our case which is roughly 750MB/s and would suit the combined throughput of the two SSDs.

I thought I had already read about RAIDs in Mac Pros shoving more than 400MB/s. And those use SATA II controllers, too.
Hm, maybe nanofrog or gugucom come by this thread. They definitely know...

alust2013 · Jun 8, 2010, 09:58 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by flatfoot

Thanks for the reply!

OK, my pal's main concern is to have an SSD with 500GB capacity. We just came up with the RAID idea to improve performance even more.

Isn't SATA II 3Gb/s per channel? This would mean a whole of 6Gb/s in our case which is roughly 750MB/s and would suit the combined throughput of the two SSDs.

I thought I had already read about RAIDs in Mac Pros shoving more than 400MB/s. And those use SATA II controllers, too.
Hm, maybe nanofrog or gugucom come by this thread. They definitely know...

Yeah, I'm pretty sure it is per channel, so you should be fine. I am not sure exactly how the RAID will work, but it seems like you should be able to fairly easily do what you want to.

flatfoot · 02:18 AM

I've been talking abut a MacBook (which is a notebook); no PCIe.

EDIT: This was a reply to the deleted post, too.

Russianguy · Jun 8, 2010, 01:52 PM

What SF1200 SSDs are you going to use? So far I have heard only that Vertex 2 is coming with SF1200 controllers.

flatfoot · 02:20 AM

That's probably what we're going to use.

EDIT: Corsair and Mushkin sell SF-1200 SSDs, too.

nanofrog · Jun 9, 2010, 02:12 PM

Forget the 3.0Gb/s SATA spec, as there's a bottleneck you're not aware of.

The ICH in the chipset is fixed to ~660MB/s. Now that's not bad news in this case, as 2x SSD's are feasible. The biggest hurdle was finding a way to fit them internally IMO, and that seems to be solved.

flatfoot · Jun 9, 2010, 02:14 PM

Thanks a lot for the positive reply, nanofrog.

nanofrog · Jun 9, 2010, 02:21 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by flatfoot

Thanks a lot for the positive reply, nanofrog.

NP.

Jun 8, 2010, 02:25 AM	#1
flatfoot macrumors 6502a Join Date: Aug 2009	Throughput question: 2-SSD-RAID0 in Aluminium MacBook Hi There, a friend of mine is planning on putting two SSDs into his Aluminium MacBook and making them a RAID0 for maximum throughput. The second drive will be installed using an MCE OptiBay: The SSDs he wants to use feature the SandForce SF-1200 chipset with a maximum throughput of over 270MB/s read and write. Our question: Is the SATA chipset of this MacBook capable of pushing 500+ MB/s? __________________ Power Mac G5-i7 i7-870@3.52GHz, 8GB CL8 1600MHz RAM, GeForce 9600GT, 2x64GB MBA SSD RAID0, 8TB RAID0, backup: 7.25TB via HighPoint RR2314 MBA 2010 1.4 C2D, 4GB RAM, 128GB SSD iPod touch 4G 32GB
	0

Jun 8, 2010, 09:43 AM	#2
flatfoot Thread Starter macrumors 6502a Join Date: Aug 2009	Thanks for the reply! (EDIT: ...which has been deleted in the meantime...) OK, my pal's main concern is to have an SSD with 500GB capacity. We just came up with the RAID idea to improve performance even more. Isn't SATA II 3Gb/s per channel? This would mean a whole of 6Gb/s in our case which is roughly 750MB/s and would suit the combined throughput of the two SSDs. I thought I had already read about RAIDs in Mac Pros shoving more than 400MB/s. And those use SATA II controllers, too. Hm, maybe nanofrog or gugucom come by this thread. They definitely know... __________________ Power Mac G5-i7 i7-870@3.52GHz, 8GB CL8 1600MHz RAM, GeForce 9600GT, 2x64GB MBA SSD RAID0, 8TB RAID0, backup: 7.25TB via HighPoint RR2314 MBA 2010 1.4 C2D, 4GB RAM, 128GB SSD iPod touch 4G 32GB Last edited by flatfoot; Jun 9, 2010 at 02:18 AM.
	0

Jun 8, 2010, 10:21 AM	#4
flatfoot Thread Starter macrumors 6502a Join Date: Aug 2009	I've been talking abut a MacBook (which is a notebook); no PCIe. EDIT: This was a reply to the deleted post, too. __________________ Power Mac G5-i7 i7-870@3.52GHz, 8GB CL8 1600MHz RAM, GeForce 9600GT, 2x64GB MBA SSD RAID0, 8TB RAID0, backup: 7.25TB via HighPoint RR2314 MBA 2010 1.4 C2D, 4GB RAM, 128GB SSD iPod touch 4G 32GB Last edited by flatfoot; Jun 9, 2010 at 02:18 AM.
	0

Jun 8, 2010, 10:08 PM	#6
flatfoot Thread Starter macrumors 6502a Join Date: Aug 2009	That's probably what we're going to use. EDIT: Corsair and Mushkin sell SF-1200 SSDs, too. __________________ Power Mac G5-i7 i7-870@3.52GHz, 8GB CL8 1600MHz RAM, GeForce 9600GT, 2x64GB MBA SSD RAID0, 8TB RAID0, backup: 7.25TB via HighPoint RR2314 MBA 2010 1.4 C2D, 4GB RAM, 128GB SSD iPod touch 4G 32GB Last edited by flatfoot; Jun 9, 2010 at 02:20 AM.
	0

Jun 9, 2010, 02:14 PM	#8
flatfoot Thread Starter macrumors 6502a Join Date: Aug 2009	Thanks a lot for the positive reply, nanofrog. __________________ Power Mac G5-i7 i7-870@3.52GHz, 8GB CL8 1600MHz RAM, GeForce 9600GT, 2x64GB MBA SSD RAID0, 8TB RAID0, backup: 7.25TB via HighPoint RR2314 MBA 2010 1.4 C2D, 4GB RAM, 128GB SSD iPod touch 4G 32GB
	0

Jun 8, 2010, 01:52 PM	#5
Russianguy macrumors newbie Join Date: Jun 2010	What SF1200 SSDs are you going to use? So far I have heard only that Vertex 2 is coming with SF1200 controllers.
	0

Jun 9, 2010, 02:12 PM	#7
nanofrog macrumors G4 Join Date: May 2008	Forget the 3.0Gb/s SATA spec, as there's a bottleneck you're not aware of. The ICH in the chipset is fixed to ~660MB/s. Now that's not bad news in this case, as 2x SSD's are feasible. The biggest hurdle was finding a way to fit them internally IMO, and that seems to be solved.
	0

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