Wisdom of a RAID-0 on a MBP

[maflynn]

I just picked up a second SSD for my laptop and also the optibay. I placed the older OWC 120gb SSD in the optibay and installed the intel 120gb in the hard drive bay.

I'm quite please with the setup but I started to think that it might be beneficial to RAID them.

I understand that I'll not be able to apply any firmware patches as a RAID system won't allow for booting up to flash the firmware. I'll need an external drive for that. Plus bootcamp is a no go. I'll also need a bullet proof backup system which I have. I use TM for hourly backups and CCC for a system restore.

My thinking is less about the performance gains and more about combining the two 120s to make an effective 240gb volume.

thoughts and/or opinions?

 

[getz76]

My thinking is less about the performance gains and more about combining the two 120s to make an effective 240gb volume.

The performance gains for software RAID (i.e., integrated RAID solutions) tend to be negligible in real-world applications, so it is good not to focus on the performance gains.

Using two different drives is generally not a great idea, particularly RAID 0.

The risk of failure would be too-much for me to consider.

I would sell the pair of drives and buy a 240gB model.

 

[maflynn]

Using two different drives is generally not a great idea, particularly RAID 0.

I was wondering if that could be an issue or not. Thanks for that tidbit of info.

I would sell the pair of drives and buy a 240gB model.

I just picked up the intel model and the OWC is about 8 months old. The selling and purchasing cost differences is such that its not economically feasible for me go down that path but thanks.

I'm happy with both drives, I was thinking how better to utilize my MBP and the idea of RAIDing them popped in there

 

[awer25]

For SSDs, I don't think RAID-0 makes much sense. There is practically zero latency on a single drive, and people already don't see a difference between Apple's stock SSD at 200MB/s versus an SATA3 SSD at double the speed.

I have to agree with the idea above - sell both 120GB drives and buy a 240GB one.

EDIT: ignore the selling comment in light of your above statement.

 

[getz76]

I'm happy with both drives, I was thinking how better to utilize my MBP and the idea of RAIDing them popped in there

Completely understood.

How much space do you usually end up requiring? What do you keep on the machine?

 

[maflynn]

I'm trying have my cake and eat it too

I wanted to keep my aperture library (that I don't use that much) along with my LightRoom library.

Here's what I'm facing
70gb - aperture
70gb - LR
50gb - iTunes (movies/music/etc)
40gb - Vmware win7 implementation
10gb - various documents and files in the document folder


I thought that combining the two SSDs would make it easier on file management but I can live with this. I do it all the time at work on servers.

So I'll give up on keeping Aperture on the SSD and move that to an external drive. move the LR library to one volume, the music and other stuff on the other volume.

 

[getz76]

I could be wrong, but I would think keeping the library on a separate drive would actually increase performance. Photoshop seems to love the files on a separate drive. I just point Bridge to my "RAW" and "Processed" folders.

I had this set up with a 240gB OCZ Vertex 2 and the 128gB Apple SSD for a while, but I needed the DVD drive for a bit and swapped it back in. I have been too lazy to put the Data Doubler back in, and if a slim Thunderbolt enclosure becomes available in the next three months, I may never put the Data Doubler back in.