I'm curious as to how these drives would present themselves to the bios. I know that the M.2 type drives are already supported by the bios, but I've got an older LGA1156 motherboard (Asus P7F7-e) which full quad-SLI support as it is a full blown workstation board (and a very nice one too).
My question is - I'm already planning on a SLI setup using two of those slots. If the PCIe drives come out and become affordable, I'm wondering how a pair of those would fare in RAID 0 for a boot drive... If they come up as a normal, bootable drive to any BIOS, then it -should- be configurable by the onboard RAID.
You're probably correct, as that is a metric sh*t ton of data to move around, but it would still be very interesting to see. The CPU I'm currently running in the board is a Xeon X3470 overclocked to 4.0ghz.
DDR3-1600 transfers at 12,800 MB/s per DIM and DDR4-2400 can 19.2 GB/s. If your CPU can handle that then it can handle SSDs. Some crazy people have Raided two SM951 together and have gotten 4.5 GB/s. You'll reach PCIe limitations before you over load the CPU.
Yes you can, its not easy but its not impossible. You need to raid the drives under firmware raid or IRST, then when you go to install windows you need to install either the chipset raid drivers or IRST drivers and then you're good to go. I recently did this with a laptop (kill me plz) because the user wanted "the best of the best".....
Probably two sata M2 drives not pcie drive. The sata port goes to the chipset witch support raid function. The pcie can be direct from the cpu so no raid exept in os level software after post/boot. So no he did not get best of the best. And at these speed latency probably more important the bandwith so raid would probably make things "slower"
Intel's onboard RAID solution supports NVMe drives on Z170s. I don't know if that support has been backported, but at least those with the latest generation Intel systems can do it.
My Z97 board supports NVMe booting, but I think its RAID is just for SATA. I haven't tested because I think motherboard RAID is stupid.
A board that old would not support native booting from an NVMe drive. Though it would be easy to put the Windows bootloader on a SATA drive and have it hand off to an NVMe drive.
How would you expect the two drives to talk to each other? They're in separate PCIe slots and not part of the SATA interface so the BIOS can't enable RAID there. The most you could do is software RAID which is feasible for Linux/BSD.
RAID does not require drives in a set to "talk to each other". The drives are "dumb", they don't care whether they are in a RAID or not and even RAID "features" like TLER on a drive are a firmware/product default rather than anything triggered by a sense of their working environment. They just need to all be visible to the RAID-controlling software (OS/BIOS) and hardware at the same time for an array to be managed.
They will not be configurable by your onboard raid on that old platform. And yeah that CPU is reasonably quick,. but still quite a bit slower than a stock i7 from 2 generations ago. (4790k)
Sandforce's controllers are DOA IMHO. EVen their top end one is only PCIe 2.0x4, and the consumer focused one is 2.0x2. Everyone else is coming to the table with PCIe 3.0x4 designs. Not sure what Sandforce expects to happen.
I am glad Phision has stepped up and built a high performance controller, looks like it should be very competitive with the 950 Pro.
The 3700 controller is almost 3 years old so pcie 2.0 isn't out of place but that doesn't really matter as Sandforce was bought by Seagate so I don't expect to see any newer controllers offered to 3rd parties until after Seagate ships drives based on them if ever.
I've always found it amusing that so-called "half-length" cards are 17cm long. Considering the actual size of the PCBs inside 2.5" SSDs, I'd expect PCIe SSD to be quarter-length at maximum.
Nice performance but not really worthwhile unless you run HEDT platform due to PCIe lane limits. Since I have no gripes with standard sata3 SSDs I will wait for Intel/Microns 3D Xpoint which should be available with Kabylake. If it delivers all these PCIe ssd will look like toys.
So where are all the M.2 drives - the PCIe 3.0 x4 variety? The controllers have been in development for years but the only drives with wide-spread availability are Samsung. Good enough, but their cost per GB is outrageous. Where's the competition?
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bill.rookard - Wednesday, March 2, 2016 - link
I'm curious as to how these drives would present themselves to the bios. I know that the M.2 type drives are already supported by the bios, but I've got an older LGA1156 motherboard (Asus P7F7-e) which full quad-SLI support as it is a full blown workstation board (and a very nice one too).My question is - I'm already planning on a SLI setup using two of those slots. If the PCIe drives come out and become affordable, I'm wondering how a pair of those would fare in RAID 0 for a boot drive... If they come up as a normal, bootable drive to any BIOS, then it -should- be configurable by the onboard RAID.
Ooooh that would be just sick.
Kardax - Wednesday, March 2, 2016 - link
At this level of performance, you're going to be CPU-limited, not I/O limited, for nearly any non-benchmark activity.bill.rookard - Wednesday, March 2, 2016 - link
You're probably correct, as that is a metric sh*t ton of data to move around, but it would still be very interesting to see. The CPU I'm currently running in the board is a Xeon X3470 overclocked to 4.0ghz.It's pretty quick. :)
Stan11003 - Monday, April 18, 2016 - link
DDR3-1600 transfers at 12,800 MB/s per DIM and DDR4-2400 can 19.2 GB/s. If your CPU can handle that then it can handle SSDs. Some crazy people have Raided two SM951 together and have gotten 4.5 GB/s. You'll reach PCIe limitations before you over load the CPU.fallaha56 - Wednesday, March 2, 2016 - link
sorry to rain on parades but you'll find you can't easily RAID -at least not for a boot drivetotally with you in principle tho...
gtxx - Wednesday, March 2, 2016 - link
Yes you can, its not easy but its not impossible. You need to raid the drives under firmware raid or IRST, then when you go to install windows you need to install either the chipset raid drivers or IRST drivers and then you're good to go. I recently did this with a laptop (kill me plz) because the user wanted "the best of the best".....AppleJon - Wednesday, March 2, 2016 - link
Probably two sata M2 drives not pcie drive. The sata port goes to the chipset witch support raid function. The pcie can be direct from the cpu so no raid exept in os level software after post/boot. So no he did not get best of the best. And at these speed latency probably more important the bandwith so raid would probably make things "slower"wolrah - Friday, March 4, 2016 - link
Intel's onboard RAID solution supports NVMe drives on Z170s. I don't know if that support has been backported, but at least those with the latest generation Intel systems can do it.My Z97 board supports NVMe booting, but I think its RAID is just for SATA. I haven't tested because I think motherboard RAID is stupid.
Ryan Smith - Wednesday, March 2, 2016 - link
A board that old would not support native booting from an NVMe drive. Though it would be easy to put the Windows bootloader on a SATA drive and have it hand off to an NVMe drive.joex4444 - Wednesday, March 2, 2016 - link
How would you expect the two drives to talk to each other? They're in separate PCIe slots and not part of the SATA interface so the BIOS can't enable RAID there. The most you could do is software RAID which is feasible for Linux/BSD.asmian - Thursday, March 3, 2016 - link
RAID does not require drives in a set to "talk to each other". The drives are "dumb", they don't care whether they are in a RAID or not and even RAID "features" like TLER on a drive are a firmware/product default rather than anything triggered by a sense of their working environment. They just need to all be visible to the RAID-controlling software (OS/BIOS) and hardware at the same time for an array to be managed.extide - Wednesday, March 9, 2016 - link
They will not be configurable by your onboard raid on that old platform. And yeah that CPU is reasonably quick,. but still quite a bit slower than a stock i7 from 2 generations ago. (4790k)extide - Wednesday, March 2, 2016 - link
Sandforce's controllers are DOA IMHO. EVen their top end one is only PCIe 2.0x4, and the consumer focused one is 2.0x2. Everyone else is coming to the table with PCIe 3.0x4 designs. Not sure what Sandforce expects to happen.I am glad Phision has stepped up and built a high performance controller, looks like it should be very competitive with the 950 Pro.
SunLord - Wednesday, March 2, 2016 - link
The 3700 controller is almost 3 years old so pcie 2.0 isn't out of place but that doesn't really matter as Sandforce was bought by Seagate so I don't expect to see any newer controllers offered to 3rd parties until after Seagate ships drives based on them if ever.extide - Wednesday, March 9, 2016 - link
Well, they started it 3 years ago but its STILL NOT OUT! DOA!godrilla - Wednesday, March 2, 2016 - link
I remember the 750 intel ssd 400 gig fell to less than $280 on black Friday even touching $250 now its close to $300.The_Assimilator - Thursday, March 3, 2016 - link
I've always found it amusing that so-called "half-length" cards are 17cm long. Considering the actual size of the PCBs inside 2.5" SSDs, I'd expect PCIe SSD to be quarter-length at maximum.beginner99 - Thursday, March 3, 2016 - link
Nice performance but not really worthwhile unless you run HEDT platform due to PCIe lane limits. Since I have no gripes with standard sata3 SSDs I will wait for Intel/Microns 3D Xpoint which should be available with Kabylake. If it delivers all these PCIe ssd will look like toys.Agnes Philomena - Thursday, March 3, 2016 - link
Great. Now I won't have to waste time hunting down argon that has no viscosity issues with VapeDep's tunneling diameter cops.BatchNet had to hire grief counselers when the Benchtop units 2Nan arced at scale.
cm2187 - Thursday, March 10, 2016 - link
Endurance?Jay77 - Thursday, March 10, 2016 - link
So where are all the M.2 drives - the PCIe 3.0 x4 variety? The controllers have been in development for years but the only drives with wide-spread availability are Samsung. Good enough, but their cost per GB is outrageous. Where's the competition?