Replacing raid0 volumes with M.2 SSD on older system

[James G Maker]

current system

i7-2600k

ASUS p8p67pro

gtx560ti

16g ram

Samsung 850 EVO 500g os/programs

2x1tb in raid0 for media&projects

2x1tb in raid0 for exports

I just recently had my os/program c: disk take a dirt nap.  Got it successfully replaced with a Samsung 850 EVO 500g and loaded Win7x64 and CS6Master Collection.  After running the CD Mark program on my 2 raid0 volumes Bill here recommended some more improvements.

This is what I now have on order:

Samsung 960 EVO Series - 500GB PCIe

Asus PCI3.0 4 M2 4 1 3PIN 32GBIT SUP PCIE SSD Only HYPERM.2X4MINICARD

WD Blue 4TB Desktop Hard Disk Drive - 5400 RPM SATA 6 Gb/s 64MB Cache 3.5 Inch - WD40EZRZ

I'm looking for info from those that have gone this route before or have the knowledge of the order of operations I need to follow.  I have around 2TB between the media & projects raid and exports raid i would like to move to the 4TB WDBlue drive.  At this time there are no extra SATA ports on the MB.  However, I do have a HDD dock on the top of the computer that I have never used.  Could I just plug the new drive into the dock and drag all my files from the raid volumes to it?  Then remove the raid hard drives and install the 4TB drive in their place?  This drive will be only for backup.  when running PPro, I plan on having the assets on the new Samsung 960, crunching the video and then archiving back on the 4TB drive.  This will free up some of the sata ports on the computer. 

which sata ports should I use? and should I remove the raids then move my c: cable to the 6G port then start up, then shut down and install the 4TB cable to the other 6G port?

What bios change do I need to perform?  The intel rapid storage screen also comes up before the bios and that is where I assembled the raid volumes.

Which slot should I plug in the HYPERM.2X4MINICARD into?

The red circle is where my gtx560 is.

Thanks

[RoninEdits]

i would just temporarily unplug the dvd drive and connect the 4tb drive to that cable to transfer the files.

a good spot for the m.2 drive is slot x16_2. it will drop the gpu to x8 speed, but that should be plenty for that gpu.

the m.2 drive will be somewhat handicapped by the gen 2.0 speeds, as it was designed for gen 3 speeds. should still be plenty fast, but a normal sata ssd would probably be more reasonable for that computer.  the WD blue hdd is a basic hdd, enterprise drives are more reliable and less prone to data corruption, if that's important to you.

[James G Maker]

Thanks Ron for the reply.

The 960 Evo showed up today.  Can't believe how small it is.  Still waiting on the adapter to get it installed.

Any more thoughts on bios or INtelRapidStorage changes?

As well as changing where the sata for my 850Evo and the 4TB will be plugged into?

[RoninEdits]

the samsung 850 evo will get its best performance on the intel sata III 6.0gb port. changing the bios setting from raid to ahci should also help the 850 evo perform better.

if you haven't installed windows yet, you can change the bios to ahci and windows will pick up that setting during windows install. if you already have windows installed on the 850 evo and its installed using the raid or ide setting in the bios, changing the bios to ahci may make windows crash on boot. if that happens changing the bios setting back to its previous setting will let windows boot normally. you can search the internet for guides how to change windows to use ahci, so windows won't crash after changing the bios to ahci, like this article https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/922976

[James G Maker]

I got my raid 0 volumes removed and replaced with the WD4TBBlue.  I plugged the 850EVO and the 4TB into the 6G SATA ports. Started the computer and set the SATA to AHCI in the bios then continued with startup.  It Started fine except for a driver that wouldn't install for the PCI device.  Tried to update the driver through the Device Manager.  No luck.  The ASUS site doesn't have a driver available either.  I'm guessing it's looking for the driver for the

Asus PCI3.0 4 M2 4 1 3PIN 32GBIT SUP PCIE SSD Only HYPERM.2X4MINICARD

Not the Samsung960EVO.

Any Ideas???

[RoninEdits]

you can open the properties of the pci device in the device manager, go to the details tab, and check the hardware IDs. copy and search the web to identify it, this website can also help identify by ID  DevID.info

there is a driver for the samsung m.2 drives, if you haven't installed that already...

Tool & Software | Download | Samsung V-NAND SSD

[James G Maker]

I couldn't get any info from the hardware ids

However......

Your link to the samsung driver looks like it did the trick.

I'll try and get some CD Mark info up for this setup over the weekend.  Then I need to crunch a few basketball games.

Thanks for your help.

[James G Maker]

Here's a few CD Mark tests.  The Samsung 850 Evo is now plugged into the intel 6G Sata ports.

BEFORE When plugged into 3GSATA

Same SSD plugged into 6GSATA

Here's the Samsung960EVO plugged into the ASUS adaptor

Not smoking fast as compared to the tests that Bill had, but remember this is on a system built in 2011 with a p8p67pro MB.  I'd have to agree with Bill that there is little reason for raid0 if buying new parts.

[JFPhoton]

the 960 Evo performs great for cheap !

[Bill_Gehrke]

Great results.  When you eventually upgrade to a new motherboard that has PCIe 3 instead of your PCIe 2 motherboard you will get the full speed that that 960 is capable of delivering!  But for right now you are in great shape.

[James G Maker]

That little gum stick sized SSD seems to work well.  There's no heat sink at all.   I wonder if it needs a fan screwed onto the side of the case.  I open up CPUID HWMonitor when I crunch video and there are temps that show up for the 850 and 960Evo.  I just don't know what the range should be.