RAID Round Up

[WhiteRabbit]

Over the next few days i will be posting some benches/reviews of various hardware raid controllers

All benching will be done with 5 x 320gb WD SATA Disks running RAID 0 with a 64kb Stripe - if you want any other configs let me know and i will see what i can muster.

The first is the Adaptec 3805

HD Tach Short Bench :

http://i123.photobucket.com/albums/o307/sjonesnz/Adaptec3805-Short.jpg

HD Tach Long Bench :

http://i123.photobucket.com/albums/o307/sjonesnz/Adaptec3805-Long.jpg

PC Mark 05 Results :

http://i123.photobucket.com/albums/o307/sjonesnz/AdaptecPCMark2.jpg

http://i123.photobucket.com/albums/o307/sjonesnz/AdaptecPCMark.jpg


Look/Feel of card :

What can i say - its a PCIe x 4 Card - one stand out feature though is the use of red LED's on the side of the card - when the disks are idle they strobe like night rider.

Price/Performance :

Price is about $850nz - fastest read speeds so far - slowest writes.

[sparkles]

No work to do at the moment? :p

Joking! Umm, may I also request a test on Software RAID as a comparison? I understand that there should be a considerable difference between a hardware and software solution, but I'd be curious as to how much.

[antil33t]

ooh... might do this with my pair of 500gb Segates

[Boob]

Interesting results. Ill see if I can dig up my last RAID0 array figures which were software controlled, had 4 x 250GB 16MB Cache SATAII's hooked up in 2006, was pretty damned quick too but not as quick as this no doubt.


No work to do at the moment? :p

Joking! Umm, may I also request a test on Software RAID as a comparison? I understand that there should be a considerable difference between a hardware and software solution, but I'd be curious as to how much.
Yarrr as would I

[Growly]

ooh... might do this with my pair of 500gb Segates

Yes, why not use a RAID controller more expensive than all your hard drives put together....

He managed to get a Highpoint controller for demo today.

- Mevunky

[antil33t]

Yes, why not use a RAID controller more expensive than all your hard drives put together....

He managed to get a Highpoint controller for demo today.

- Mevunky

i was more refering to information for the average user, (the ones without ****loads of money)

because, even though it's software, RAID0 has made a difference in speed between drives.

anyways, i can't show you as HD Tach doesn't work on Vista.

[Dstruktiv]

anyways, i can't show you as HD Tach doesn't work on Vista.

Well everyone else is junking up what could have been a well laid out and informative thread, so I may as well chip in, you do realize all the screens WR posted show HDTach running in Vista right?

[WhiteRabbit]

i was more refering to information for the average user, (the ones without ****loads of money)

because, even though it's software, RAID0 has made a difference in speed between drives.

anyways, i can't show you as HD Tach doesn't work on Vista.

Run it in compatibility mode for XP as admin

Just preparing the 3ware Benches now

[WhiteRabbit]

This is the 3Ware 9650SE (Kindly provided by Quay Corporate (http://www.quaycorp.co.nz) & BDT (http://www.bdt.co.nz))

HD Tach Short Bench :

http://i123.photobucket.com/albums/o307/sjonesnz/3Ware9650-Short.jpg

HD Tach Long Bench :

http://i123.photobucket.com/albums/o307/sjonesnz/3Ware9650-Long.jpg

PC Mark 05 Results :

http://i123.photobucket.com/albums/o307/sjonesnz/3WarePCMark2.jpg

http://i123.photobucket.com/albums/o307/sjonesnz/3WarePCMark.jpg

Look/Feel of card :

Again what can i say - its a PCIe x 4 Card - it does lack the knight rider lights that i liked

Other notes :

The write perofrmace of this card RAPES THE ARSE off the adaptec - which is especially critical for things like video rendering, db work etc etc

Price/Performance :

Price is about $750nz - this card is strong on write and weak on read.

Tomorrow i will be looking at the HP Smart Array E200 controller (i promise - just need to find cables).

[farns]

Id be keen to see Intel Matrix raid benchies with 2 drives in 0+1, if you have the inclination.
Common as raid controller for sure and 0+1 with only 2 drives sounds win for this RAID neophyte lol

[antil33t]

Pair of Seagate Barracuda 7200.11's (500GB 32mb) in RAID 0
on an intel ICH9R Controller.

Short Test

http://img213.imageshack.us/img213/7474/hdtach1ni5.jpg (http://img213.imageshack.us/my.php?image=hdtach1ni5.jpg)

Long Test

http://img370.imageshack.us/img370/7525/hdtachlongow2.jpg (http://img370.imageshack.us/my.php?image=hdtachlongow2.jpg)

Pair of Hitatchi Deskstars (400GB 8mb)
on the same controller

Short Test

http://img507.imageshack.us/img507/2266/hdtachshorthitatchidm5.jpg (http://img507.imageshack.us/my.php?image=hdtachshorthitatchidm5.jpg)

Long Test

http://i38.tinypic.com/29pb1ae.jpg (http://i38.tinypic.com/29pb1ae.jpg)

[antil33t]

You posted the same long test results. ;)

look verry closely. they are different results, it's just damn hard to spot. :P

how the hell did i not notice that.