OS Installation on a RAID 0 Array

[jameelfm]

Hey,

My intended storage configuration will be the following:

2 x 250GB Samsung EVO SSD (In RAID 0)
1 x 2TB Western Digital Black HDD

All of the RAID 0 tutorials I've seen so far involve installing OS X on a third drive, then cloning it to a RAID 0 array made using disk utility. As I see it, I have two options:

#1: Install OS X on the HDD, then clone it over to the RAID 0 array and format the hard drive using disk utility, which will later be used for video and other miscellaneous storage.

#2: Configure a RAID 0 array in the BIOS (Gigabyte GA-Z87X-UD5 TH ATX LGA1150 Motherboard) and install the OS to that directly.

Either way, I will later be partitioning the RAID 0 array and using a portion of it for Windows 8.

I need to know which way is better, or if there is yet a better method.

P.S. I am planning on using a GTX 780, and with the motherboard I am using, would it be a better idea to get the EVGA model or the Gigabyte model?

Thanks.

 

[Shiitaki]

Hey,

My intended storage configuration will be the following:

2 x 250GB Samsung EVO SSD (In RAID 0)
1 x 2TB Western Digital Black HDD

All of the RAID 0 tutorials I've seen so far involve installing OS X on a third drive, then cloning it to a RAID 0 array made using disk utility. As I see it, I have two options:

#1: Install OS X on the HDD, then clone it over to the RAID 0 array and format the hard drive using disk utility, which will later be used for video and other miscellaneous storage.

#2: Configure a RAID 0 array in the BIOS (Gigabyte GA-Z87X-UD5 TH ATX LGA1150 Motherboard) and install the OS to that directly.

Either way, I will later be partitioning the RAID 0 array and using a portion of it for Windows 8.

I need to know which way is better, or if there is yet a better method.

P.S. I am planning on using a GTX 780, and with the motherboard I am using, would it be a better idea to get the EVGA model or the Gigabyte model?

Thanks.

Raid is cool, but SSDs have made them pointless. My EVO boots OSX in less than 4 seconds, 2 seconds less would not make any difference. But even if you just had too, you are kinda stuck. Motherboard raid isn't supported in OSX, real Mac's can native boot Apple's software raid. Microsoft's software raid won't work in OSX. You really want to, you are going to have to buy a hardware raid card, and those work because they hide the physical drives, so no smart data or TRIM.

Use one SSD for Windows, and the other for OSX. And use which ever graphics card you like more, EVGA or Gigabyte.

 

[jameelfm]

Alright. But installing OS X on the HDD then transferring it over to the RAID created with disk utility wouldn't work? Why not?

I'll think about using one drive for Windows and one for OS X. Do you think 250GB will be enough for the OS's, a lot of apps, and on windows, a bunch of games? I'm really only using the HDD to store video and backups on (which currently take up the bulk of my storage on my Macbook Pro.)

 

[Going Bald]

Alright. But installing OS X on the HDD then transferring it over to the RAID created with disk utility wouldn't work? Why not?

I'll think about using one drive for Windows and one for OS X. Do you think 250GB will be enough for the OS's, a lot of apps, and on windows, a bunch of games? I'm really only using the HDD to store video and backups on (which currently take up the bulk of my storage on my Macbook Pro.)

The problems with RAID and dual booting are well known:
OS X does not recognize BIOS RAID setup as a valid RAID array.
OS X will not recognize a Windows software RAID array as a valid RAID array
Windows will not recognize OS X software RAID array as a valid RAID array.
Using RAID for a boot drive is pointless with SSD's and is asking for trouble on spinning platter drives. One small error and you lose everything.
RAID your storage drives RAID 5 or 10, but never use RAID 0 if trying to store anything important.

120Gb for OS X and 250 for Windows is plenty of room on an SSD for the OS's + apps + games on Windows.

 

[jameelfm]

Alright then, thanks to all of you. I suppose I'll be going with one OS on one SSD.

It'll still be pretty fast, though.