Owners of multiple SSDs will be familiar with this dilemma: do you opt for RAID 0 to put all those precious GBs to use, or do you go for AHCI mode in order to gain TRIM support and maintain performance over time? Well, the next release of Intel’s RST should support TRIM for RAID 0, so switching to solid state storage will become an even smarter decision than it is right now.

[Thanks, Brian]

TRIM or RAID 0? SSD owners will no longer have to choose originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 21 Nov 2011 08:02:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Q. What’s RAID, what’s the best RAID for a gaming rig and hwo to install it. A. RAID stands for Redundant Array of Inexpensive (Independent) Drives. RAID 0 is best for a gaming rig because it’s the fastest.
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www.Alfred.TV READ ME FIRST In this video, I provide viewers with information on RAID 0 (Striping), RAID 1 (Mirroring), as well as RAID 5 in addition to a succinct review of data recovery programs for the Macintosh. Ifyou’d like to receive alerts to interesting articles as well as updates on my latest videos and live webcasts, then please subscribe to my microblog on Twitter: www.twitter.com Bookmark my uStream page for future live webcasts: www.alfred.tv If you’d like to Email me, use the link below www.alfred.tv Please visit my sponsors: www.SolidNutrition.com http Enjoy the video! Warm regards, Alfred www.Alfred.TV

OCZ just rolled out the deets about its latest PCI-Express-powered SSD and man is it impressive. Forgot about that WD Velociraptor SATA 3.0 drive announced a few minutes ago, the new Z-Drive RS leaves that one back in the Jurassic Period.

Just like the previous three generations, the Z-Drive R2 is designed for high-speed enterprise usage and not for your average enthusiast – that’s why the Velocripator exists. But think about how fast you’ll be able to move you 8.5GB MKVs with the Z-Drive RS p88 1 or 2TB drive that features 1400MB/s read and write speeds. The smaller Z-Drive RS p84 still zips right along at 850MB/s read and 800MB/s write speeds.

These speeds are achievable with 8 PCI-E lanes along with an eight-way RAID 0 configuration. The drives are bootable and even feature interchangeable memory modules making the drive truely field-serviceable and upgradeable.

The word is mum on pricing just yet but seeing as the older and smaller 256MB PCI-E drive commands $1,335 from Newegg right now, chances are these drives are probably going to cost more than a used Honda.

Carbon fiber, people. That’s the ticket right there. It’s the miracle substance that allows Sony to stuff super fast components into a 13.1-inch laptop while keeping the weight at around 3.2 pounds. And while most ultraportable notebooks favor style over substance, the impending VAIO Z Series due from Sony in March will feature an Intel Core i7 CPU, NVIDIA graphics, 1920×1080 screen resolution, and the ability to stack four solid state drives in a Raid 0 configuration. Again, all at just over three pounds.

The line has been announced in Europe with a release window sometime in late March. It’d stand to reason that we’d see something similar here in the US sooner or later as well. The notebooks will be available in various configurations – here are a couple possibilities:

It’ll be interesting to see what Sony’s able to do as far as battery life is concerned. Those Core i7 chips suck quite a bit more power than the ultra low-voltage and Atom CPUs that we’re used to dealing with. Pricing, of course, will be a factor as well. Four solid state drives aren’t cheap but, hey, maybe there will be a configuration with a single drive.

We’ll find out more as we get closer to the actual launch — hopefully some info about US models as well.

Sony Press Release [Sony Europe via SlashGear]

By Chris Scott Barr

Over the last year or so, we’ve heard a lot of talk about USB 3.0. The new standard has the obvious advantage of speed over its earlier versions. While we’ve seen manufacturers release add-on cards and even motherboards equipped with these newer ports, there haven’t been a lot of drives that truly take advantage of the throughput that can be achieved. While walking the floor at CES, I came across one company that was showing off just such a product.

The new USB 3.0 RAIDDrive from SuperTalent is boasted as the first such drive to actually hit the market. Utilizing a pair of drives crammed into one case and setup with a RAID 0 configuration, this flash drive is by far the fastest I’ve ever seen. After the jump I’ve got a shot of the monitor on which they ran the CrystalDiskMark test. These numbers are in many areas higher than some of the SSD’s that I’ve benchmarked. With that sort of speed and capacities ranging from 32GB-128GB, it walks that line between oversized flash drive and undersized hard drive.

Of course with great capacity and speed also comes a hefty price tag. These were just released the day before the show and I’m currently unable to track down a solid MSRP. I’ll update the article once I have that info.

[ SuperTalent ]