Just a couple months ago, we built a similarly specced 1TB SSD raid using an expensive controller and 4 256 GB drives for a multipass batch processing job that we do. It gets about 1GB/sec read and write performance and cost about $1k altogether. A controller that can max out the PCI bus is about $300 alone.
The major benefit we found is that the higher random access speeds allow us to multiplex our jobs without completely thrashing the old RAID array that we replaced.
But it sucks that there are no PCI solutions for what we needed. OCZ had a couple cards but they were out of date and enterprise priced.
I think what we really need is some kind of slot for internal flash the same way DIMMs are slotted, maybe even have the controller and flash chips physically separated for more fine grained upgrades or have the SSD controller embedded in the motherboard chipset.
The weird 9.5mm enclosure and sata cables that SSDs currently use is some kind awkward weening phase off of spinning platters that needs to go away. Even single SSDs are starting to saturate SATA3 and the SATA specs aren't keeping up.
Hopefully a new trend in workstations that look like the Mac Pro will come along the same way that many "Ultrabooks" look vaguely like MacBook Airs. At which point we'll hopefully get more sensible SSD and interconnect management.
The major benefit we found is that the higher random access speeds allow us to multiplex our jobs without completely thrashing the old RAID array that we replaced.
But it sucks that there are no PCI solutions for what we needed. OCZ had a couple cards but they were out of date and enterprise priced.
I think what we really need is some kind of slot for internal flash the same way DIMMs are slotted, maybe even have the controller and flash chips physically separated for more fine grained upgrades or have the SSD controller embedded in the motherboard chipset.
The weird 9.5mm enclosure and sata cables that SSDs currently use is some kind awkward weening phase off of spinning platters that needs to go away. Even single SSDs are starting to saturate SATA3 and the SATA specs aren't keeping up.
Hopefully a new trend in workstations that look like the Mac Pro will come along the same way that many "Ultrabooks" look vaguely like MacBook Airs. At which point we'll hopefully get more sensible SSD and interconnect management.