Comments on: RAID 0 (Striped) Intel X25-M 160GB SSD drives, MacBook Pro 17″ unibody http://echeng.com/journal/2009/04/18/raid-0-striped-intel-x25-m-160gb-ssd-drives-macbook-pro-17-unibody/ Eric Cheng's Journal Sat, 13 Mar 2010 19:26:45 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 By: Kyle http://echeng.com/journal/2009/04/18/raid-0-striped-intel-x25-m-160gb-ssd-drives-macbook-pro-17-unibody/comment-page-1/#comment-3142677 Kyle Wed, 25 Nov 2009 08:27:13 +0000 http://echeng.com/journal/?p=2655#comment-3142677 <p>Hey I just ordered the MCE optibay and a 500GB Seagate Momentous 7200rpm drive to put in my 17" MacBook Pro. I already have the same drive installed currently and I wanted to add the second one for extra storage and to do video and photo work. I was wondering if anyone could tell me the best configuration of the drives to maximize speed and storage space. I have a time capsule that can back up my computer, so backing up isn't a problem. I use Final Cut and Aperture quite often, and I was thinking about setting up a raid-0 with the 2 drives, but I know that using the system disk as the scratch disk is bad for Final Cut. I'm not sure if it would be better to just leave them as two separate disks, one for system and my Windows 7 Bootcamp, and one for storage. Or two make it one large drive in raid-0? Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.</p> Hey I just ordered the MCE optibay and a 500GB Seagate Momentous 7200rpm drive to put in my 17″ MacBook Pro. I already have the same drive installed currently and I wanted to add the second one for extra storage and to do video and photo work. I was wondering if anyone could tell me the best configuration of the drives to maximize speed and storage space. I have a time capsule that can back up my computer, so backing up isn’t a problem. I use Final Cut and Aperture quite often, and I was thinking about setting up a raid-0 with the 2 drives, but I know that using the system disk as the scratch disk is bad for Final Cut. I’m not sure if it would be better to just leave them as two separate disks, one for system and my Windows 7 Bootcamp, and one for storage. Or two make it one large drive in raid-0? Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

]]> By: mark http://echeng.com/journal/2009/04/18/raid-0-striped-intel-x25-m-160gb-ssd-drives-macbook-pro-17-unibody/comment-page-1/#comment-3142562 mark Tue, 24 Nov 2009 22:01:01 +0000 http://echeng.com/journal/?p=2655#comment-3142562 <p>Ditto here with the SBOD (spinning ball of death). Brand new MBP 13.3. Installed single Intel X-18M on Snow Leopard (not striped). Seems to be incredibly fast on small apps, but when I load something like VMWare Fusion 3, the spinning ball makes this machine basically useless. Interestingly enough, this SSD came from a Windows 7 laptop that did not exhibit these symptoms when using VMware Workstation. I've done all the OS X optimizations from the OCZ forums (noatime, disabled settings with pmset).</p> Ditto here with the SBOD (spinning ball of death). Brand new MBP 13.3. Installed single Intel X-18M on Snow Leopard (not striped). Seems to be incredibly fast on small apps, but when I load something like VMWare Fusion 3, the spinning ball makes this machine basically useless. Interestingly enough, this SSD came from a Windows 7 laptop that did not exhibit these symptoms when using VMware Workstation. I’ve done all the OS X optimizations from the OCZ forums (noatime, disabled settings with pmset).

]]> By: Matt http://echeng.com/journal/2009/04/18/raid-0-striped-intel-x25-m-160gb-ssd-drives-macbook-pro-17-unibody/comment-page-1/#comment-3137768 Matt Mon, 02 Nov 2009 21:55:33 +0000 http://echeng.com/journal/?p=2655#comment-3137768 <p>I have this setup in a 13 uMB and didn't see any performance hits across either bay (SATA 3.0) Seconds to load Photoshop, while running a VM (Visio is a required tool for me). Productivity benefits are big when added up each day.</p> I have this setup in a 13 uMB and didn’t see any performance hits across either bay (SATA 3.0) Seconds to load Photoshop, while running a VM (Visio is a required tool for me). Productivity benefits are big when added up each day.

]]> By: Marcio http://echeng.com/journal/2009/04/18/raid-0-striped-intel-x25-m-160gb-ssd-drives-macbook-pro-17-unibody/comment-page-1/#comment-3129747 Marcio Mon, 28 Sep 2009 15:15:06 +0000 http://echeng.com/journal/?p=2655#comment-3129747 <p>Hi Eric, I'm going to purchase a new 13" Macbook Pro this week and here is my question.</p> <p>The Intel X25 is the way to go for RAID 0? or there is any other ssd good performance drive?</p> <p>I don't need lost os space so I may get 2x 64Gb or 120GB</p> <p>Thank you</p> Hi Eric, I’m going to purchase a new 13″ Macbook Pro this week and here is my question.

The Intel X25 is the way to go for RAID 0? or there is any other ssd good performance drive?

I don’t need lost os space so I may get 2x 64Gb or 120GB

Thank you

]]> By: fred http://echeng.com/journal/2009/04/18/raid-0-striped-intel-x25-m-160gb-ssd-drives-macbook-pro-17-unibody/comment-page-1/#comment-3124770 fred Sat, 05 Sep 2009 02:48:27 +0000 http://echeng.com/journal/?p=2655#comment-3124770 <p>Eric,</p> <p>This looks really interesting. I have ordered the MCE kit to use with my 15" unibody. However, I am undecided about whether to go with the RAID 0 setup like yourself. I could also just use the Intel x-25 as the startup disk and use my current HDD in the additional space.</p> <p>But I would like to know what the advatages are of each setup. I'm pretty sure that the speed gains from a striped RAID are impressive, but are they significant when compared to the performance boost I will see from upgrading my 5400RPM drive?</p> <p>Also, I'm doing a lot of photo editing and have a pretty large Aperture and iTunes library. Would it be better to keep these files on an SSD or a HDD?</p> Eric,

This looks really interesting. I have ordered the MCE kit to use with my 15″ unibody. However, I am undecided about whether to go with the RAID 0 setup like yourself. I could also just use the Intel x-25 as the startup disk and use my current HDD in the additional space.

But I would like to know what the advatages are of each setup. I’m pretty sure that the speed gains from a striped RAID are impressive, but are they significant when compared to the performance boost I will see from upgrading my 5400RPM drive?

Also, I’m doing a lot of photo editing and have a pretty large Aperture and iTunes library. Would it be better to keep these files on an SSD or a HDD?

]]> By: ron http://echeng.com/journal/2009/04/18/raid-0-striped-intel-x25-m-160gb-ssd-drives-macbook-pro-17-unibody/comment-page-1/#comment-3119927 ron Thu, 13 Aug 2009 21:28:13 +0000 http://echeng.com/journal/?p=2655#comment-3119927 <p>Eric - turn out one of the 80GB was dying slowly. Trying to get a replacement from Intel. Thanks.</p> Eric – turn out one of the 80GB was dying slowly. Trying to get a replacement from Intel. Thanks.

]]> By: echeng http://echeng.com/journal/2009/04/18/raid-0-striped-intel-x25-m-160gb-ssd-drives-macbook-pro-17-unibody/comment-page-1/#comment-3119316 echeng Mon, 10 Aug 2009 21:57:12 +0000 http://echeng.com/journal/?p=2655#comment-3119316 <p>Ron - that is bizarre. I'm still running my striped setup, and it's still going strong. It would be nice to have new firmware that implements <a href="http://hothardware.com/News/OCZ-and-Indilinx-Collaborate-On-New-SSD-Garbage-Collection-Scheme/" rel="nofollow">SSD "garbage collection"</a>, but mine still seems to be running fine after months of daily use.</p> Ron – that is bizarre. I’m still running my striped setup, and it’s still going strong. It would be nice to have new firmware that implements SSD “garbage collection”, but mine still seems to be running fine after months of daily use.

]]> By: ron http://echeng.com/journal/2009/04/18/raid-0-striped-intel-x25-m-160gb-ssd-drives-macbook-pro-17-unibody/comment-page-1/#comment-3119312 ron Mon, 10 Aug 2009 21:07:22 +0000 http://echeng.com/journal/?p=2655#comment-3119312 <p>I am doing this implementation on the first generation unibody 15" plus 2 Intel 80GB SSD flashed with latest firmware in raid 0. The system run fast and great for 2 days. Then everything slows down to the point where the system is not usable, lots of spinning beach balls. Has anyone encountered and soloved this? Someone mentions this could be cause by OS X journaling. Is this true? Help....</p> I am doing this implementation on the first generation unibody 15″ plus 2 Intel 80GB SSD flashed with latest firmware in raid 0. The system run fast and great for 2 days. Then everything slows down to the point where the system is not usable, lots of spinning beach balls. Has anyone encountered and soloved this? Someone mentions this could be cause by OS X journaling. Is this true? Help….

]]> By: Chen http://echeng.com/journal/2009/04/18/raid-0-striped-intel-x25-m-160gb-ssd-drives-macbook-pro-17-unibody/comment-page-1/#comment-3107873 Chen Mon, 22 Jun 2009 02:56:38 +0000 http://echeng.com/journal/?p=2655#comment-3107873 <p>For those of you who had the MCE optibay: Can somebody please confirm that it has three screw holes that fits the 17" unibody macbook pro? Any pictures? Thanks in advance!</p> For those of you who had the MCE optibay: Can somebody please confirm that it has three screw holes that fits the 17″ unibody macbook pro? Any pictures? Thanks in advance!

]]> By: echeng http://echeng.com/journal/2009/04/18/raid-0-striped-intel-x25-m-160gb-ssd-drives-macbook-pro-17-unibody/comment-page-1/#comment-3104558 echeng Wed, 17 Jun 2009 06:35:22 +0000 http://echeng.com/journal/?p=2655#comment-3104558 <p>For those of you having 20-second delays on booting, be sure your Startup Disk is set to your current internal drive. It should fix the problem.</p> For those of you having 20-second delays on booting, be sure your Startup Disk is set to your current internal drive. It should fix the problem.

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