Storage Spaces/Software Raid | What Are My Best Options?

Hi guys,

So this is a multiple question on same topic thread.

So my current set up is 3 SSD drives, two the same running in software RAID0 (I think they call it resilient mode in Storage Spaces settings) which I use to install games not sure if this is worth it or not, does it just affect loading times, will it really help games having them running on a separate RAID0 disk from the OS?

The other SSD I obviously am using to boot/run my OS, but recently have gone to do a fresh install, and noticed the windows install (unlike BIOS) is still treating that drive as one RAID0 drive, and while back in Windows on the new install all that drives data is still perfectly intact and working in Windows as it was and should be. But am I right in thinking I could install a copy of Windows to that drive and it would actually install and be bootable? Which drive would you give priority in BIOS as it sees them as two separate disks and does not have software or hardware raid support. I could of got a RAID controller but I'm using a pretty much maxed out 2012 motherboard and I don't have a slot for one?

And finally, with you knowing all my options how would you set things up? Would you have the OS on the SSD with no RAID0 and put games on the RAID disk like I'm currently doing? Or the OS on RAID0 with games as well or on the non-RAID SSD.. or even buy another identical drive and have two storage pools set up in RAID0 and have games and OS on separate drive that are both in software RAID0/storage pools? I know this is long, don't feel you need to answer everything, any help is appreciated

Hi, you might find it interesting to review the threads on the forum by people who have used storage spaces.
There's quite a reasonable list (besides the tutorials).

My impression is that a number came to dislike the idea of storage spaces. Few members seem to have used it.


simply put
storage space
in the forum's search field

My experience with software raid is that it's not worth the effort to set it up with today's drives, the whole point of a raid was for redundancy to protect from "immediate data loss", ie losing data before it's backed up, and to increase data storage available - the original acronym was after all Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks.

If you are using RAID on a server or workstation, then there is a case for Hardware RAID as the processing power and the hardware raid controller means that there is a possibility of data retrieval speed increases but not with software or Storage spaces which is, as I understand it, simply a new version of the MS Dynamic Disk.

If you want speed the only guaranteed way is some form of Solid state system

Optane memory use a a raid structure basically 16 gig M2 nve married to a Hard drive to increase speed.
I haven't tested the speed with a ssd yet, but I'll you know.









Intel Optane Memory is a caching device for HDDs that intelligently learns which applications and games you run most frequently and over time speeds up how quickly they load. ... A PC with a hard drive as primary storage and an Optane cache could load the OS and applications faster than an all-SSD system.

Optane Memory as far as I Know will only work with Conventional Disk Drives

I have one in my current photographic workstation to basically act as a Cache/buffer where Input speeds to the drive are faster than the possible read speed of the drive

Full drive spec I use is ...

Internal 512GB ADATA SU800 M.2 2280 (560 MB/R, 520 MB/W) OS Drive
HDD 500GB Samsung 860 EVO 2.5" SSD, SATA 6Gb/s (upto 550MB/s Lightroom Library database Drive
32GB INTEL® OPTANE MEMORY - USE WITH MECHANICAL 520MB/s 8TB SEAGATE BARRACUDA PRO 3.5", 7200 RPM 256MB CACHE Crucial CT256 Data Drive

Optane could work with an SSD, but you will see very minimal to no performance increase as the SSD is almost as fast. What makes Optane so good with a mechanical drive is the latency for reads on cached data, those are actually faster than an equivalent SSD.
Also some SSD's are not liked by the Optane drivers, you will get a "no suitable drives" message.
There are other conditions to use Optane as well, GPT partitions, unallocated space at end of drive etc.
And yes Optane + HDD is a form of software raid, my system boots as fast if not faster than with an SSD boot drive. Most often used apps load almost instantly.
But Optane is a niche setup, it would be preferable to have an all SSD setup with external HDD backup drives.
Optane is a method for OEM's to create cheap but fast systems, I believe 16Gb Optane costs £40 or less (that's retail, I'm sure OEM's get a bulk discount) which is a lot cheaper than a decent sized SSD.