Question about RAIDing SSDs

[Sorphius]

I recently built a new machine and included a 128gb Crucial m4. I have a 500gb HDD that I'm using for overflow storage and the like, but I'm disheartened by how quickly my poor little SSD is filling up. It still has about 25gb of free space, but I can foresee that disappearing very quickly over the next few weeks/months once we move past the MoP launch.

I see that Newegg has this drive on special today for $89.99 with a coupon code. For that price, I'm considering snatching it up. My question, then, is could I configure it in a RAID setup with my m4 so that I can double my SSD space without having to micromanage my space as it fairly quickly fills up?

Assuming I can RAID the two drives, which type of array would be best (I'm assuming RAID 0), and am I correct in my assumption that I'd need to wipe my m4 in order to do it?

[n0cturnal]

I don't really see the point in raiding SSDs. You have no use for the extra speed and it will only increase the risk of failure.
I also don't understand how you need to micromanage your storage on the SSD, all you put on there are programs you regularly run and a few games, the rest of the data should go directly to your HDD.

[Sorphius]

Good point on the failure risk. They tend to be fairly reliable to begin with, but you're right in that I'd certainly rather not play with fire.

As for the space... the issue lies with Steam and the way it allocated harddrive space. Once you've installed the client, there's no way to micromanage where it installs a given game. So while I might prefer to run DoD:S from my HDD, the fact that I have Steam on my SSD for Skyrim and Star Trek Online (omg -- loading screen hell!) means that it puts everything I download on the SSD.

---------- Post added 2012-07-09 at 12:06 PM ----------

I suppose that perhaps a good compromise would be to just put the second SSD into the machine without RAID and dedicate it to Steam...

[n0cturnal]

There are tools to fix that problem with steam. Synthaxx on the forum has made this program http://innuendo-eu.co.uk/index.php/my-designs/boiled .

[protput]

Get another SSD if you can afford it. The 830 series are awesome, and the failure rate nowadays has dropped drastically anyways.

[Tanthalus]

what controller are you using?

i ask as most older boards and addon cards use a marvell 9128 sata 3 chip - which is quite frankly aweful.

why? it is a pcie 1x chip - and thats the limit - in teh real world , about 380mb/s - which can be got to easily on 1 ssd let alone 2 in raid!

[Sorphius]

I honestly have no idea what controller I'm using. I have an ASRock Z77 Extreme4 MB, so whatever's on that...

[Tanthalus]

as media and intel`s own - both are alot better than the marvell 9128