Can i use both SSD slots in the laptop in a RAID 0 setup in SFX14-41G-R1S6

Hello. I'm new to the Acer community. I have a new (to me, anyway, it is a 2021 model) Swift X arriving later this week, and I'm trying to figure out if I can use both SSD slots in the laptop in a RAID 0 setup? If so, how would I go about doing that? Are there any issues with the fact that it has an AMD processor inside? I have cloning software and am comfortable using Disk Management, Storage Spaces, BIOS, etc. Just trying to figure out the process, do I clone to an SSD externally, then setup the two SSDs inside as a RAID 0, then clone from the external to the new RAID 0 setup internally? Any assistance or guidance or articles would be greatly appreciated, thank you! Also, if setup in RAID 0, can you realize faster speeds with the SSDs, or are the 4 lanes "joined" between the two SSDs and not individually going into the CPU?

[Edited the title and added the model name]

Accepted answers

billsey

So, the CTRL-S on that screen didn't show the RAID option? You can always RAID in Windows, though it's a software RAID so it will be a little slower. You can also merge partitions on multiple drives into one big partition in Windows, though you need to convert to dynamic disks first.

All comments

billsey

Which model of the Swift X did you get? There are several different ones. Some have the two SSD slots setup using Intel Rapid Storage, which can handle RAID0 for you, some will require Windows to set it up, and some you can setup, but the main drive will be throttled slower to match the secondary drive speed.

mdstorlie

Hey, billsey, thanks for your response! I believe it will be model SFX14-41G-R1S6, with the AMD Ryzen 7 5800U and Nvidia RTX 3050Ti GPU, so I'm pretty certain it won't be the Intel Rapid Storage option. I'm unsure if it is even possible with the AMD CPU.

billsey

Thanks, that helps a lot... The BIOS has a setting to choose either AHCI or RAID, but it's only displayed after a CTRL-S to switch to advanced mode, though there's a caveat saying some SKUs don't have that enabled. Both M.2 slots support NVMe, only one supports SATA. We will just have to wait for yours to arrive before digging deeper. You will want to use two identical (or close to it) SSDs so the RAID handling doesn't have to do too much asynchronous work.

mdstorlie

Thanks again. I'm trying to figure out if it would even be worth the effort and if there is enough of a benefit, honestly. If it is, I might throw in two 2tb Samsung 970 EVO Plus SSDs to make a single volume, or just use the secondary SSD slot as a separate drive and throw in a 4tb or 8tb if it is deep enough to allow a double-sided SSD, which it looks like from the pictures that it is. My laptop arrives on Thursday, so I'll update you then, thanks!

billsey

It's a tough call, I don't know enough about the underlying hardware to know if the RAID is handled by the chipset or if it's actually a software with just configuration handled low level. The PCIe bus on the Cezanne/Lusienne chipset has twelve channels. Four each are used by the two M.2 slots, one other is used for the WiFi/Bluetooth card and the other three aren't populated. If the chipset supports interleaved reads and writes then RAID1 would be essentially the same speed as a single drive and RAID0 would be twice as fast. If reads and writes aren't interleaved then RAID1 would be half as fast as a single drive and RAID0 would be the same speed. Your use really depends on if you are looking for larger partition sizes, faster disk access or better error handling...

mdstorlie

Fascinating. I think I've found the right person to potentially help me out. I will let you know once I have the laptop more specifics of the underlying hardware.

mdstorlie

If possible I'd like to run two 2tb Samsung SSDs in RAID 0, leaving about ~3.65TB or so of storage, hopefully faster than if they were in there individually. Where do I find out what kind of chipset I have (I now have the laptop in my possession) to see if it supports interleaved reads and writes? Thanks again!

mdstorlie

In Programs and Features, the version I have for AMD Chipset Software is 2.15.15.535, in Device Manager, the driver version I have for AMD SMBus is 5.12.0.38, and my IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers are both Standard SATA AHCI Controllers, driver version 10.0.19041.1288. I hope that helps, thanks!

billsey

My guess is you would have to wade through the technical documentation for the chipset to find out how they are handling simultaneous data transfer requests on the PCIe buss. It wouldn't be anything you can change however, so it's likely not worth doing. Set it up in RAID0 and do some performance tests...

mdstorlie

Thanks. I don't appear to be able to setup RAID in BIOS. What is the other alternative then? Boot into Windows off of an external drive with the two new SSDs internally, set them up in RAID 0 (through Windows?), then copy the image to the newly formatted volume? If there is an article already somewhere that details how to do it, please point me to it to save yourself some time.

mdstorlie

I'm not sure if I'll be able to figure it out or not. I may just end up using the two 2TB Samsung SSDs as separate drives. Thanks, though, for all of your assistance!

billsey

So, the CTRL-S on that screen didn't show the RAID option? You can always RAID in Windows, though it's a software RAID so it will be a little slower. You can also merge partitions on multiple drives into one big partition in Windows, though you need to convert to dynamic disks first.

mdstorlie

I didn't realize you could stripe a drive over two drives after converting to dynamic disks first. I shrunk my OS volume, then created a new striped drive over both SSDs about 3.5TB in size, and am getting 6,600mbps read and 6,000mbps write!! I was hoping to get it all on the OS volume, but this works just fine. Thanks again for all of your help!

billsey

Great to know it's working so well for you. Please accept the proper message here as the solution, so it will show up better for other users with the same question.

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