2011 Imac 3.4ghz Dual SSD's Raid System 1GB Read/Write!!

[ecstacy2012]

Finally after plenty of trail and error with the owc drives I went over to the vertex 3 drives and got two 120gb drives put one in and then replaced normal 2tb hd and then raided them together in striped 0 software raid. I have no fan issues and temperature isn't a problem nor any concern with these drives. Everything is running amazingly and I'm getting over 1GigaByte Read/Write speed on My SSD. It's hella fast to say the least. Some said it wasn't possible but atleast now we know it is and I'm loving the extra speed!

Here is some Benchmarks as 128mb file and the highest video resolution and 10 bit encode setting.

 

[Warbitrary]

Pretty awesome. Is the speed similar for smaller chunks (like 64MB or 8MB)? If it's noticeably faster than before, could you post a video of you mac booting up?

 

[juankazz]

wow

i am very interested in it

 

[ecstacy2012]

It's the same results or close to with about all settings even the worst settings only make about a 5-10% different at the most extreme and it's actually pretty steady on the high end. I've done tons of different tests and copying etc...
back.



Also boot time is about 11-12 seconds from boot logo. Before I thought it was pretty fast with 19 seconds but it is a big difference. it's so fast I don't even mind restarting much anymore. at the moment I have no way to take video. If you still want it later when I'm able to I'll try to get one. Also I just built a fresh system as backups didn't happen so let me tell you installing things that use to be 30mins to an hour for example master collection normally took me before about 35 mins and now it literally was 13 mins. It just writes it wayy faster. If you have any other questions let me know thanks!

 

[ecstacy2012]

results maintaining no problems

 

[philipma1957]

So you have the equal of a T-bolt raid0 external drive right now! Since no one has the t-bolt for sale you have the fastest. Do you have any idea of the iops at 4k. Can you post an xbench for us?

 

[ecstacy2012]

yea pretty much atleast I hope it the real world results will equal 1gb transfer. Also then went it comes out (supposed in the next month or so) I can have Quad raid (of course two separated ones I mean) Xbench has been pretty unreliable for accurate results on many ssd's including both owc and vertex and I've found the same results. I could try it out though, I'll let you know

 

[ecstacy2012]

from the lower calculations of 4k random based on the worst on xbench it is 89,600 iops


if i Calculated it by the over all average of 1,060MB's a Second it comes to 272,000 iops. Of course this is the raided system of both drives total.

 

[CatOhCat]

Would you mind to share the problem you got with OWC ssd? I'm planning for a Dual SSD too

 

[ecstacy2012]

Sure, you cannot raid the owc drives for now and the only way to even install them is to have another drive to clone over Mac osx from as it does not recognize any osx install disc no matter how you go
About it, owc is now aware of the problem. I have also confirmed this with two others, owc said when testing there drives they just cloned them hence Why they were not aware of this problem. I sent all my owc drives back and also the vertex to my surprise drive to drive was faster! As I had got the owc drive cloned and installed I just couldn't raid it. I hope this helps answers your question!

 

[CatOhCat]

I see. Luckily I hold my bullets So with vertex you can install using the mac ox disk without any problem?

 

[ecstacy2012]

Yes, I have had no problems using the vertex drives. Also I'm aware of atleast 1 other that has done the same upgrade with the vertex and had no problems. I'm the only one that I know of that have tested them in raided format on the new 2011 imac but they have had no problems.

 

[CatOhCat]

So your process with Vetex is pretty straight forward:
+ Install two blank SSD --> insert oxs disc --> Config RAID-0 --> Install OSX.

I read in another article that it's a normal thing for iMac not to accept oxs disc with dual ssd. We have to either boot from an external HDD and install OSX or clone the whole thing. But if you are successful with vertex then it's a good new.

I'm using a 2010 iMac 27" i7. I'm thinking to purchase two OWC Mercury Pro 3G for a raid-0. But i'm not sure if the 2010 iMac give the same problem

 

[ecstacy2012]

Even when booting from external HD for install it still has the same problem and cloning will not work as there is no way to then setup the raid to clone to. Hence no way around it but the vertex drives. Yes that is the process. First once the drives installed you need to load osx disk and go into disk utility and format both brand new drives (that is important) then setup a raid with both of them, Then continue to install a fresh copy of osx from the disk on to the now One drive (made from the two ssd's) and then your done!

Vertex sata III drives haven't had any known problems with this as far as the few who have tried.

 

[Fried Chicken]

Do you think it would be possible to fit both of those drives in there, along with a 2TB desktop HD?
Maybe you should just get rid of the superdrive, and install your 2TB HD in there, so you would have the sickest most modern mac there is!

 

[ecstacy2012]

I see what you mean. I have no need to remove the superdrive for an extra internal hard drive since the thunderbolt drives are coming very soon. Yes you could fit two of these in place of the one hard drive. I even believe they make a box like the icy dock at macsales.com where you can put in the two ssd's and have them secured and it will fit perfectly to where the hard drive is now. I preferably just decided to put them in place of the hard drives spot and for quick access have them Velcro'ed in. I did replace the plastic piece originally to fits the one ssd next to the superdrive but I preferred this way. Plus you'd have to modify it and cut it to get it to sit correctly so glass won't push out.

 

[docjynx]

Have you done a clean install and the Lion GM? Just wondering if you had tried the RAID 0 on the GM. I want to setup it up like yours with a dual SSD raid in my iMac just worried about the Lion Raid changes. Also any issues with the setup since you have been running it? What are the reported drive temps and fan speed?

Thanks

 

[ecstacy2012]

Fans speeds are normal settings the same as they would be without them you can set your own if you wish. the hard drive speed is not reported as it's bypassed with using the adapter to use the power sata cable. but it's extremely cool and I haven't had Any issues with this system since installing it and I run my system pretty much almost 24-7. Yes actually I have installed every DP version of lion including the latest release gold master edition I never had a problem and of course don't mind the latest Trim support but with the vertex 3 drives it's not really needed. Also i Actually am running at almost 1.1 MB a second now so it's tremendous. Since the so far released thunderbolt barely touches 600kb and the highest priced one still is around 800kb it still isn't touching mine so Glad I did it.


oh and side note. I installed osx in 6 minutes. for something that always took a bit over 3 is amazing. Also for anyone installing big things or hates waiting this is the way to go!

 

[basher]

Is it still true you can't TRIM SSD's in a RAID?

 

[ecstacy2012]

I don't think it will be a problem in lion, but as vertex three has a sorta built in trim with caching and trash (hence why its 240 not 256) it's 16gb caching file system to trash. All you have to do is instead of turning off your computer leave it on and let it idle and it will then auto do the complete drive in the background without you even noticing.

 

[pvinis]

how did you setup raid?

 

[ecstacy2012]

hardware or software? I'm guessing you mean hardware. I used a spilter for sata power and data used sata 1 port on logic board. As far as software I installed both drives formatted them then put in osx disk rebooted into it then disk utllity set partition then raid system then installed osx onto the raid set.

 

[boneofweed]

Apple propose 1ssd+1hard drive + optical bay
that's 3 sata
can we make 3 Vertex 3 240 raid?!

 

[nochnia]

There is enough place to put the two ssd's where the standard HDD was?
And for splitting the data and power cables, there is no need to highten the logicboard or something else?

Is it simly the same afford as If I would use one Vertex instead of the hdd?

 

[ecstacy2012]

as it might be possible to use the opti bay there is the problem with getting power and data from that source and then combining the locations of the 3 drives without the heat sink poping up.