[Chaoscraig]

Ok , I want to upgrade my drive system to a solid state system. I need help deciding on which ssd hardware configuration would be best for me.

I have a spacious computer tower with available cd and floppy bays with hot swap racks, i have a pcie 1x, a pcie 4x, and a spare pcie 16x ( all 2.0). My mobo is capable of over clocking the pcie slots. I Use this computer for everything from a work station to entertainment center. I use computationally and graphically intensive engineering design simulation software, and even play video games some times. I require dual boot ubuntu and windows 7.

Three main factors for me are ease of use, performance and price

Ease of use: I require a dual boot system. If i use two drives (one OS per drive) it may make it easy to update or replace a given OS. If i use one drive it must be easy to make partitions and boot from and install an OS on either partition.

performance and cost: a good performance to cost ratio is desired

I have contemplated two different configurations.

Configuration Option 1
Because my on board sata controller is a sata 2, i would want to add a sata 3 controller to my pcie 4x slot?

I am considering this "highpoint" sata controller because this model (correct me if i am wrong) allows for at least two drives with two pcie lanes each. Is two Pcie lanes enough bandwidth for sata 3 speeds?
http://www.amazon.co....ords=highpoint

There is also this one that uses 8 pcie lanes
http://www.amazon.co...controller+card

AT that price point i could probably by a new motherboard gerrr

Once i have this controller i would then want two 128GB SSD drives perhaps some kingston hyperxes, one drive for each OS. I could even keep both drives in a dual 2.5" drive hot swap rack. Placing the selected drive in the rack would be my boot selection. This configuration raises concerns about heat dissipation. How much heat would one expect a ssd drive to make?

I would also be willing to consider a hybrid drive like the seagate momentus xt if it is a better match for the speeds of the cheaper sata controller?

One benefit to this design is that, having separate drives and a separate controller would reduce the cost of repair or upgrade. I would only have to upgrade a single SSD or a single SATA controller.


Configuration Option 2
In this configuration i would use a 256 Gig revo drive 3 with two bootable partitions. Based on some of the amazon reviews this can be some work due to the lack of linux driver support?


Do you have any alternative configurations you would suggest?


I also must be able to continue using my onboard sata conttroller and old HDD drives for data storage. I also desire to retain the Raid capabilitiues of my onboard sata controller so that i can use the hot swap functionality in my hot swap racks for HDDs.

Thanks!

Mobo: Biostar I55 Tpower
BIOS: American Megatrends Inc. Version:080015
CPU: i5 760 @ 2.88 GHZ
RAM: 12 GB Kingston hyperx at 2000 MHZ
Vid: Nvidia GeForce 9500 GT (plan to upgrade too Nvidia GeForce GTX 660 TI OC. by MSI)
PSU: PS-S750GE
Chipset: Intel DMI host Bridge Rev. 11,Intel P55 South Bridge Rev. 05, And LPCIO ITE IT8720
OS: Dual boot ubuntu12.1(64bit)/windows7(64bit)

This post has been edited by Chaoscraig: 12 December 2012 - 12:00 AM

[Chaoscraig]

Trying to keep this thread alive, can really use some help!

This post has been edited by Chaoscraig: 12 December 2012 - 07:27 PM

[FastMHz]

I personally would go with multiple removable SSDs and a new motherboard (which might also gain you additional speed and benefits).

SSDs do not produce much heat at all.

[Chaoscraig]

i know . but i have only have had the mobo for like 2 years and it is loaded with features and overclocking features too. May be pretty expensive to get a new mobo of the same caliber. Do you have any mobos to sugest? i have a i5 760 with 1156 slot. I guess i would like the power supply cables to be the same as my curtrent board (http://www.biostar.c...php?S_ID=442#ov)

Have you ever heard of any one doing well with a highpoint 640 lite sata controller?

[Kdawgca]

Well price/performance wise, SATA 3 SSDs work on SATA 2 boards, so I would first try out the SSDs and see how well you like the performance. It will have a very fast access time(comes in handy with loading game and files), and speeds would be capped at around 280MB/s depending on SSD which is not bad depending on what you are coming from.

If it is not good enough for your needs, then yeah, time for a upgrade. In that case, then I agree with a probably new motherboard(besides extra features and not needing to waste a pci-e slot, it might be less hassles)

[Chaoscraig]

Kdawgca, on 13 December 2012 - 04:03 PM, said:

Well price/performance wise, SATA 3 SSDs work on SATA 2 boards, so I would first try out the SSDs and see how well you like the performance. It will have a very fast access time(comes in handy with loading game and files), and speeds would be capped at around 280MB/s depending on SSD which is not bad depending on what you are coming from.

If it is not good enough for your needs, then yeah, time for a upgrade. In that case, then I agree with a probably new motherboard(besides extra features and not needing to waste a pci-e slot, it might be less hassles)

Yea, running the drives off the mobo would be the first step in any event. I have plenty of pcie slots avilable (a 1x a 2x, and an extra 16x and two regular PCIE slots), dont really know what else i could use em for so loosing one is not really a concern. Except for maybe a usb 3.0 controller?

I relize a new MOBO is definatley the sensible route, but i like my current MOBO and i also have the option to overclock the pcie buss speed (duno if that would come in handy here). My processor is a 1156 socket and the newer MOBOs seem to be a 1155 socket? Which could be another problem for me (limiting my selection of MOBOs and/or having to buy another CPU). My MOBO is pretty fast it can basically clock any thing at any speed you want.

Its to bad you cant just drop a new chip in the socket and up grade your sata controler that way

This post has been edited by Chaoscraig: 13 December 2012 - 07:27 PM