X51 R2, SSD RAID 0

Question

Hello all,

I've been on these boards for months, and I can clearly see SSD are easy to install, etc. Some people have configured Raid 1, which is a good sign. Some people have to SSD's, but not in RAID, no worries there (not what I want). See my issue below and any advice will help:

I upgraded my X51 R2 with the following components:

330 watt power supply (came with 180)
GTX 1060 6 GB Founders Edition (Blower style obviously)
2 Samsung 860 EVO SSD's 250 GB each.
Intel Core i7-4770S UP TO 3.90 GHz - Haswell - LGA1150
Removed old HDD and burned it with a ritual

As of now, I am waiting on the special molex connectors and the molex to SATA connectors. Once I get them I will splice the molex connectors into the main board so I can power my second SSD Samsung 860 EVO 250 GB.

I have Windows 10 clean fresh install on the single SSD 860 EVO. I downloaded Samsung Magician and enable Rapid Mode. My read and write speeds are off the MF chain!! I mean high 5000's on both ends. I know this is due to the VRAM the Rapid Mode enables, so it's really a false positive, but hey, VRAM tech is great and I am happy with these current read write speeds. The issue is, I have always been a fan of RAID 0 and will never go back. Redundancy to me is IRRELEVANT, Everything is on the cloud and if my rig fails I will just install Windows again, etc.

Finally we get to the meat and potatoes. Once I get the molex connectors and have the 2 860 EVO's hooked up and the system recognizes both drives via BIOS screen, how can I configure RAID 0? I don't see any RAID options in the BIOS screen, and Ctrl i doesn't do anything. I have the latest BIOS version.

Perhaps I have to do a clean install of Windows, and then when it recognizes both drives, I can somehow configure RAID 0?

PLEASE HELP LOL.

I just want RAID 0. If this cannot be accomplished then I will install an nvme SSD into the M2 socket, just take out the WiFi card, and only use the 2 lanes, and get possible true RAW 1500 read write speeds?

Any advice will help and thanks in advance guys and gals!

XANDERG72 · Answer

I also forgot to add that the one SSD installed and running is connected to the SATA port where the HDD was.  I didn't want to change this as I am certain some sort of proprietary stuff happening with logic inside the board and this interface to make the drives run better, but I could be wrong.  I am using the old HDD tray, with my 2 SSD's mounted on that, the one SSD is just on top with electrical tape and is just fine this way.

XANDERG72 · Answer

HELLO ALL,

If anyone ever comes across this, I hope they will share with others. I would up fixing my own issue.

I basically disabled boot security, and changed the boot mode from one value to another inside the bios. I don't recall the names, but I will update this in the next few days once I boot to bios and take a picture.

Once I did this, and restarted, the bios now recognized both SSD's installed. I think restarted and had the option for raid config auto pop with no control i intervention required.

Because I already has one SSD non raid with Windows installed, I decided to configure in RAID 0, which is what I wanted to begin with, and then reinstalled Window on the newly striped dual SSD's in RAID 0.

In the end all is well and using crystal disc my read write speeds are approximately 1200 to 1300's. I am very happy with this and yes, you can configure RAID ) with dual SSD's on an X51 R1, R2 or R3.

I hope this helps someone in the future. I've been on these boards for months searching, and never found an article about RAID 0. I found one guy who did it like me, but in RAID 1. Anyway, it works!

HMU and best of luck.

MY current X51 R2 build below after ripping out the processor, video card, and hard drive:

GTX 1060 6 GB GDDR5 Founder Edition

16 GB RAM DDR3 1600

Dual SSD Samsung EVO 860's RAID 0

330 watt power supply

Intel Core i7-4770S UP TO 3.90 GHz - Haswell - LGA1150

Alienware Desktops

X51 R2, SSD RAID 0

Was this post helpful?