Constructing a PCIe 4. RAID array is silly exciting

RAID, Redundant Array of Reasonably priced Disks, is a whole lot a lot less related than it utilized to be. With super-fast SSDs and effortless-to-use backup devices both of those easily offered, the key demands to chain multiple drives alongside one another definitely aren’t there any more. Except if you are Gordon Ung, and you materialize to have a bunch of the fastest PCIe 4. SSDs on the market sitting all over a Pc developing lab. To view Gordon’s descent into madness experiments with incredibly quick RAID arrays, check out the hottest movie on the VFAB YouTube channel.

You can just about listen to the cackle in Gordon’s voice as he installs the Platinum P41 M.2 4th-gen PCIe SSDs sent to us by SK Hynix. The set up is enabled by the Asus ROG Maximus Z690 Hero motherboard with triple M.2 slots, in addition an incorporate-on “Hyper M.2 PCIe” incorporate-on card with two more M.2 slots and RAID capacity. The enlargement card is necessary, simply because the onboard M.2 slots didn’t thoroughly distribute the PCIe lanes. Gordon says he experimented with many configurations of the onboard slots and incorporate-on card extra than two dozen moments.

There are other hurdles, much too. It is always challenging to convey to which M.2 slot is the “primary” on any presented motherboard, and Gordon identified that seeking to string alongside one another four or a lot more drives truly resulted in slower speeds, hitting a sweet location of a few. Acquiring the RAID array setup in the BIOS is a little bit of a suffering, far too. But just after a bunch of experimentation and tweaking, he ended up with a 5.7 terabyte array which is the envy of anybody with a bloated Steam library.

Gordon Mah Ung/IDG

But the $64,000 query is “how rapidly is it?” A normal, thoroughly put in SK hynix P41 PCIe 4. generate can hit 7 gigabits for every 2nd read and 6.5Gb/s write speeds on its own. In the triple RAID array, Gordon strike approximately triple those people numbers: 21.3 Gb/s examine and 18.7Gb/s write speeds. It is frankly insane in phrases of read and publish efficiency, and there is barely something you can operate on Home windows that would really be able to use that kind of Ludicrous Velocity.

But that is not the stage. Gordon did it because he can. And for that, we salute him. And if you want to see more ridiculous Laptop constructing excess, be absolutely sure to subscribe to the VFAB YouTube channel.