4 x 36GB Raptor, RAID-0 Benchmark. (x64)

[Matthias99]

Originally posted by: jose
Judging by forcesho's single 74g scsi getting 480MB/s, I really need a pci-e hba to go w/ my 15k scsi drives....only getting 116MB/s right now ...

I think it's the pci bus limiting me, because even my 7200rpm scsi drive gets 116.9MB/s .....

I wonder what my 2 - 36g 15k Atlas would get on a pci-x controller w/ raid 0 .....

That would be a neat trick, seeing as U320 SCSI tops out at 320MB/sec. for a single chain. A caching controller might be able to do better (because it can prefetch and use write-back caching), but that's hardly a fair comparison...

And yes, you are clearly being limited by the PCI bus. PCI can't do more than ~133MB/sec., counting traffic both ways.

 

[Zebo]

Jose

I think you'll find yourself much better off building a new box than buying a PCIe scsi card since they cost $600-$900 ea..

EX tyan NF4 professional mobo with intergrated U320 is $500 + two opteron 244's $400.

 

[jose]

If U320 tops out at 320MB/s , then how is forcesho getting 480MB/s on a single 74g 15k drive ??

I definitely need a faster controller. But the Opteron route is soo expensive.

2 - 248's $900
4 - 512mb reg ecc $280
1 - K8We $550
1 - LSI 320-2X $580

Total $2310 Opteron

1 - X2 4400+ $650
2 - 1 gig pc3200 dimms $240
1 - DFI SLI-DR $175
1 - LSI 320-2E pci-e $620

Total $1685 X2 4400+

That's $2310(Opteron) vs $1680 (X2) = $630 diff. in cost ..
But a major consideration is, the X2 system would oc'd alot better than the Opteron system...

Since I already have some of the parts, I think I'll wait and build the X2 + pci-e system....

Hey I did find a $300 Dell pci-e oem of the LSI pci-e card , might be worth looking into...

Regards,
Jose

 

[bob4432]

Originally posted by: jose
If U320 tops out at 320MB/s , then how is forcesho getting 480MB/s on a single 74g 15k drive ??

I definitely need a faster controller. But the Opteron route is soo expensive.

2 - 248's $900
4 - 512mb reg ecc $280
1 - K8We $550
1 - LSI 320-2X $580

Total $2310 Opteron

1 - X2 4400+ $650
2 - 1 gig pc3200 dimms $240
1 - DFI SLI-DR $175
1 - LSI 320-2E pci-e $620

Total $1685 X2 4400+

That's $2310(Opteron) vs $1680 (X2) = $630 diff. in cost ..
But a major consideration is, the X2 system would oc'd alot better than the Opteron system...

Since I already have some of the parts, I think I'll wait and build the X2 + pci-e system....

Hey I did find a $300 Dell pci-e oem of the LSI pci-e card , might be worth looking into...

Regards,
Jose

that is burst, look at the str, that is what is important

 

[Zebo]

Originally posted by: jose
If U320 tops out at 320MB/s , then how is forcesho getting 480MB/s on a single 74g 15k drive ??

I definitely need a faster controller. But the Opteron route is soo expensive.

2 - 248's $900
4 - 512mb reg ecc $280
1 - K8We $550
1 - LSI 320-2X $580

Total $2310 Opteron

1 - X2 4400+ $650
2 - 1 gig pc3200 dimms $240
1 - DFI SLI-DR $175
1 - LSI 320-2E pci-e $620

Total $1685 X2 4400+

That's $2310(Opteron) vs $1680 (X2) = $630 diff. in cost ..
But a major consideration is, the X2 system would oc'd alot better than the Opteron system...

Since I already have some of the parts, I think I'll wait and build the X2 + pci-e system....

Hey I did find a $300 Dell pci-e oem of the LSI pci-e card , might be worth looking into...

Regards,
Jose

I need to find out if you can OC the K8WE because if you can no chace in hell an X2 will overclock better than two rev E 244's (new 90nm) due to exponetial heat increases across one die on X2. Remember rev E chips hit 2800air mhz habitully while for X2, which is also rev E are 2600-2700 avg.

Also it's my understanding you can run regular ram now with Opterons...

Not to mention K8WE is a 1,000,000hr board compared to consumer junk found on desktop..


Anyway I'm researching this stuff now

 

[Matthias99]

Originally posted by: bob4432

Originally posted by: jose
If U320 tops out at 320MB/s , then how is forcesho getting 480MB/s on a single 74g 15k drive ??

that is burst, look at the str, that is what is important

You can't "burst" higher than the speed of the interface. A single U320 SCSI channel *cannot* go over 320MB/sec., even momentarily. And a single drive with today's technology (even 15KRPM SCSI) cannot transfer data that fast.

Either that number is way off, or he's using a controller with onboard cache.

 

[Zebo]

jose-- Unfortunatly it appears you can only OC 20% or so and only using ntune. Board has Vdimm but no HTT settings or Vcore http://www.k8we.com/?q=overclocking

20% aint so hot -- appears the passive small chipset HS can't handle more plus no chipset volts adjustment combined with above makes it lame

e.g. a $350 246 to say a $450 248, tops

 

[bob4432]

Originally posted by: Matthias99

Originally posted by: bob4432

Originally posted by: jose
If U320 tops out at 320MB/s , then how is forcesho getting 480MB/s on a single 74g 15k drive ??

that is burst, look at the str, that is what is important

You can't "burst" higher than the speed of the interface. A single U320 SCSI channel *cannot* go over 320MB/sec., even momentarily. And a single drive with today's technology (even 15KRPM SCSI) cannot transfer data that fast.

Either that number is way off, or he's using a controller with onboard cache.

that is what i needed to add, cache...sorry

 

[Vegito]

yes, its on board cache, its a lsi logic 64bit pcix dual channel megaraid with 256mb cache

 

[jose]

So for the dual raptor has a average read speed of 192.6MB/s, this is the sustained.

And for forcesho's single 74g 15k drive the avg. read speed is 65MB/s , big difference.. I was reading it wrong..

So on my 36g 15k Atlas I'm getting a burst of 116.2MB/s and a sustained of 66.9MB/s ...

So this means I'm not constrained by my current controller ??

Anyone tryout the LSI 320-2E pci-e controller yet ??

Regards,
Jose

 

[bob4432]

Originally posted by: jose
So for the dual raptor has a average read speed of 192.6MB/s, this is the sustained.

And for forcesho's single 74g 15k drive the avg. read speed is 65MB/s , big difference.. I was reading it wrong..

So on my 36g 15k Atlas I'm getting a burst of 116.2MB/s and a sustained of 66.9MB/s ...

So this means I'm not constrained by my current controller ??

Anyone tryout the LSI 320-2E pci-e controller yet ??

Regards,
Jose

where are you seeing dual raptor @ 196.6MB/s str? i think that might be 4x36GB striped

 

[Pariah]

So for the dual raptor has a average read speed of 192.6MB/s, this is the sustained.

Those are quad Raptors, not dual. Yes, that is average sustained. According to HDtach, which is notorious for throwing out bogus numbers for any non-standard hard drive configuration (ie, single drive tested on non-caching controller). The CPU utilization results in particular are completely worthless. Don't pay any attention to them. SCSI and SATA are pretty much on par with each other as far as CPU utilization go, with PATA significantly behind even with DMA transfers.

And for forcesho's single 74g 15k drive the avg. read speed is 65MB/s , big difference.. I was reading it wrong..

Correct.

So on my 36g 15k Atlas I'm getting a burst of 116.2MB/s and a sustained of 66.9MB/s ...

Correct again.

So this means I'm not constrained by my current controller ??

Not in the slightest. Upgrading your entire system and hard drive controller to improve burst speed is one of the least cost effective and simply dumbest ways to spend money in the pursuit of improving your system's performance.

Onboard cache for hard drive controllers is not there for read performance increases, nor does it give any in most situations. Windows uses main memory as a disc cache which is significantly faster than any controller cache that needs to travel through a PCI bus and also typically has a much larger capacity. Controller disk cache is akin to an L3 cache or more so like a very small solid state drive. Go take a look at Anand's benchmarks of the Gigabyte device and see how well it worked as a pagefile device. As long as you have enough main memory, the additional cache will do nothing. You're better off adding more system memory than buying a caching controller or upgrading the memory on it. The main purpose of onboard cache is for write caching when parity generation for ceratin RAID levels is needed (ie, not RAID 0 or 1).

 

[jose]

:beer: To all you guys....

You just saved me $620

 

[Fullmetal Chocobo]

Originally posted by: jose
:beer: To all you guys....

You just saved me $620

Awesome... Glad to hear the forums are actually useful to someone.
Tas.