950 pro raid on Extreme 9 Z97

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Smiffy

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Topic: 950 pro raid on Extreme 9 Z97
Posted: 31 Jan 2016 at 10:07pm

Hi All

After much fun I have a 950 pro running on a Bplus tech adapter board(M2P4A)

on my Z97 Extreme 9(bios1.90)

Is it possible to add another and go raid 0?Ta for any help

John

parsec

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Posted: 01 Feb 2016 at 2:22pm

Why did you use an adapter board when your Z97 Extreme9 board had an Ultra M.2 slot?

Is the 950 Pro not usable in the Ultra M.2 slot?

I assume you are using Windows 10 or possibly 8.1? Is your 950 Pro the OS drive?

Would the RAID 0 array be used as the OS drive?

Given my usage of PCIe SSDs like the 950 Pro in RAID 0 on my ASRock Z170 board, my opinion is no, it won't work.

The Z170 chipset is connected to the M.2 ports, not to the CPU's PCIe 3.0 ports. The new Intel IRST version 14 drivers allow RAID arrays of PCIe SSDs, but that is via the chipset connections.

Your board's UEFI would need the RST PCIe Remapping options for multiple M.2 slots. Your boards two M.2 slots each have different connections, one through the CPU, the other through the Z97 chipset. The Z97 chipset M.2 connection is only PCIe 2.0 x2.

RAID 0 on PCIe SSDs does not scale in performance like SATA SSDs do in RAID 0. The current Intel IRST drivers performance scaling with PCIe SSDs is surprisingly poor, but that may be due to supporting multiple storage protocols (SATA and NVMe) with the same driver.

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Posted: 02 Feb 2016 at 12:48am

Thanks for the reply Parsec

I tried the 950 pro in the M2 slot and had very weird results.Benchmarks up and down like a yo yo max reaching 1354mbs read and at one point only 450mbs read.And very slow boot times.That was on Win 10 with the Samsung NVME driver.In fact plugging it in the M2 chipset port(lower) resulted in a consistent 850mbs read speed and a noticeable faster boot time.Having now got the 950 in the adapter and plugged into the lower pci slot(X 8 I think)I'm getting the full 2500mbs read speed and pretty quick boots and also the 950 for whatever reason is noticeably cooler.

Yes the 950 pro is the os drive and if raided that will be the os drive.Also found while setting 2 850 evos to raid array lowered my old 840 pro from 550mbs to 395mbs on every port on the board.

Suprisingly the 950 pro on the adapter did surprisingly well on an old Asus P67 Sabertooth despite being PCI 2.

Considering your commemts and the cost of another drive I think i'll leave it as a single drive.Ta for the info.

Smiffy

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Smiffy Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Newbie Joined: 31 Jan 2016 Status: Offline Points: 4	Post Options Post Reply Quote Smiffy Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Topic: 950 pro raid on Extreme 9 Z97 Posted: 31 Jan 2016 at 10:07pm
	Hi All After much fun I have a 950 pro running on a Bplus tech adapter board(M2P4A) on my Z97 Extreme 9(bios1.90) Is it possible to add another and go raid 0?Ta for any help John

parsec Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Moderator Group Joined: 04 May 2015 Location: USA Status: Offline Points: 4996	Post Options Post Reply Quote parsec Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 01 Feb 2016 at 2:22pm
	Why did you use an adapter board when your Z97 Extreme9 board had an Ultra M.2 slot? Is the 950 Pro not usable in the Ultra M.2 slot? I assume you are using Windows 10 or possibly 8.1? Is your 950 Pro the OS drive? Would the RAID 0 array be used as the OS drive? Given my usage of PCIe SSDs like the 950 Pro in RAID 0 on my ASRock Z170 board, my opinion is no, it won't work. The Z170 chipset is connected to the M.2 ports, not to the CPU's PCIe 3.0 ports. The new Intel IRST version 14 drivers allow RAID arrays of PCIe SSDs, but that is via the chipset connections. Your board's UEFI would need the RST PCIe Remapping options for multiple M.2 slots. Your boards two M.2 slots each have different connections, one through the CPU, the other through the Z97 chipset. The Z97 chipset M.2 connection is only PCIe 2.0 x2. RAID 0 on PCIe SSDs does not scale in performance like SATA SSDs do in RAID 0. The current Intel IRST drivers performance scaling with PCIe SSDs is surprisingly poor, but that may be due to supporting multiple storage protocols (SATA and NVMe) with the same driver.


Smiffy Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Newbie Joined: 31 Jan 2016 Status: Offline Points: 4	Post Options Post Reply Quote Smiffy Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 02 Feb 2016 at 12:48am
	Thanks for the reply Parsec I tried the 950 pro in the M2 slot and had very weird results.Benchmarks up and down like a yo yo max reaching 1354mbs read and at one point only 450mbs read.And very slow boot times.That was on Win 10 with the Samsung NVME driver.In fact plugging it in the M2 chipset port(lower) resulted in a consistent 850mbs read speed and a noticeable faster boot time.Having now got the 950 in the adapter and plugged into the lower pci slot(X 8 I think)I'm getting the full 2500mbs read speed and pretty quick boots and also the 950 for whatever reason is noticeably cooler. Yes the 950 pro is the os drive and if raided that will be the os drive.Also found while setting 2 850 evos to raid array lowered my old 840 pro from 550mbs to 395mbs on every port on the board. Suprisingly the 950 pro on the adapter did surprisingly well on an old Asus P67 Sabertooth despite being PCI 2. Considering your commemts and the cost of another drive I think i'll leave it as a single drive.Ta for the info. Smiffy