Hello Daneile,
Since my last posting I've replaced the Crucial 4 SSD with two Samsung 840 PRO Series 128 GB SSDs running in Raid 0 format giving me 255 GB storage. One SSD is rigid fixed to the Velocity Solo running on the PCI slot (make sure it's the 16 (I think) slot not the lower value 4 one). The second SSD is connected using a bog standard SATA II cable connected directly to the Velocity Solo board. Any SATA II/III cable will do, just £4.00 from PC world. If you're installing two or more SSDs in raid, the storage will only be to the doubled value of the smallest SSD so make sure they're of the same value and size. (ie) one 128 GB SSD and one 256 GB SSD will only give you a storage of 256 GB not 384GB
I'm using the Raid as my start up drive and my 1TB Hard Drive as a back up. I also have the 350 GB Hard Drive as a second back up drive so if any of the 3 fail I have two others to back up. I've done this because in trying to clone the SSDs I errased my back up drives twice....numpty that I am.
So as well as the drives, I've also installed a new 1TB ATI Radeon HD 5770 video card and am running it alongside the 250 meg original card. I'm now running 3 monitors(but have the ability to run 5). I'm also running the computer on 14 gig of RAM ( how you install the RAM dictates how fast it performs and unless your using multiple mega fast programs, your unlikely to use the amount of memory I have. Make sure that all slots are filled or that the RAM is equally paired. For example 8 x 1 gig RAM (8 GB using all the slots) will work faster than 2 x 4GB RAM. It will even be quicker than more RAM if it's not balanced.
I'm presently running on OS X 10.3.8.
So the benefits. In RAID the start up times are the same as the HDD but using just a single drive halves that time (bare in mind your splitting the information between two drives). The RAID backs up every 10 minutes using Time Machine to the 1TB HDD and then every couple of months I change it to the 350 GB HDD for belt and braisers.
But the speeds of read, write are blisteringly quick. Read speed is 700 MB/S and write speeds are 600 MB/S. with a single SSD it was 506/199 using the Crucial SSDs but the Samsung SSD should do it at 530/390.
And finally the best bit. I'm saving money cause I use less power. As the SSDs are chips, they don't get hot and therefore don't need fans to cool them down. I've at least halved my power usage, probably more plus the room's a lott cooler in the summer as well.......OK, I'll conceed we haven't had a summer yet and with snow forecast tomorrow it's going to be a while, but I'm really chuffed with the performance.
Now the down side. After spending nearly £700 upgrading the computer.....I've lost interest. Because there's no lag once you hit the key and the calculation is done instantly, it's taken the fun out of computing. A bit like riding a high powered motor bike and travelling 10 miles in 30 seconds. The pleasure of the ride is taking in the journey not just getting from A to B as quick as possible. If you're looking to save working time then it's a real benefit. If you're looking to enhance your experience, unless your a gamer, be prepared to have the fun taken out of it.
Leo