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RAID controller $24 + shipping

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Hey.. I have (2) Maxtor 120GB w/2MB (cache), and (1) WD 120GB 8MB (cache). What's the best RAID setup I could do utilizing all of these drives? Could I do a RAID 5, since I have 3 drives?

-Merlin
 
I was going to order with these guys, but check out the S&H on this, wtf?

Product Qty. Price Warranty Total
195917 KOUTECH Ultra ATA/133 ULTRA133 PCI DUAL CHANNEL ( 2 channel) RAID Controller RAID 0 1 0+1 (IOFLEX-PIR133)
1 $24.00 $24.00
215721 Eumax "IDE 18"" Round Cable (Black)" (ABK3182)
1 $3.85 $3.85
215720 Eumax "IDE 18"" Round Cable (Blue)" (AB3182)
1 $3.85 $3.85
215725 Eumax "IDE 18"" Round Cable (Clear Copper)" (ACC3182)
1 $3.85 $3.85
215722 Eumax "IDE 18"" Round Cable (Red)" (AR3182)
1 $3.85 $3.85
214045 Thermaltake Technology Inc. P4 VOLCONA 478-INTEL SOCKET 478 (TK-A1119)
1 $7.98 $7.98

Sub-Total: $47.38
Discount: $0.00
Shipping&Handling: $50.90
Tax : $0.00
Total: $98.28


 
I got this for my new Epox motherboard (8RDA) cause I was upgrading from a board with built in RAID. Nforce2 boards RAIDless, when I ordered.

You can download this program File to benchmark your access speed.

I ordered from Newegg and it came with a CD. You'll want to download the latest drivers from Silicon Image, not the outdated one's on the Koutech CD/website, onto a floppy. Reload Windows as bootdisk, and press F6 to load RAID drivers from your floppy during fresh install.

 

Here are my benchmarcks using a RAID 0 and Atto benchmark (I linked it above) with this card:
2x40 Gb IDE IBMs @7500 RPMs


File Read Write (Mb/Sec)
0.5 4128 8195
1.0 8769 14618
2.0 18663 24892
4.0 39232 37724
8.0 56201 52947
16 57527 59030
32 54120 58885
64 57995 55435
128 51781 58885
256 59030 56959
512 53947 59323
1024 58138 58311
 
Originally posted by: soltrain
What the hells 5?
Click to expand...

Raid 5 is striping with parity.
i believe you need at least 3 drives to run a raid 5
Click to expand...

That's correct, but you don't get added storage space of a RAID 0 array, and the array is as large as the smallest in the array. You'll also need a 4-channel hardware RAID card for RAID 5, as the parity calculations aren't generally supported by softRAID controllers with no dedicated mathCPU. Nice thing about RAID 5 is that if one drive fails, the array can rebuild itself (while fully functional) b/c of the parity data stored on the 3rd drive.

These cards are based on the Sil680 softRAID controller; I had the one from Newegg for those of you asking. Its an excellent performer, but it used up quite a few CPU cycles in some apps and also didn't have functional LED headers. The one linked in the original post does. The results I had were very good, but I went with a 3ware Escalade 7000-2 hardware RAID card, and have been very pleased with it. I get read and writes in the 70mbps to 90mbps range and it uses significantly less CPU utilization.

Chiz
 
Is anyone using this card for drives >137BG? I'm thinking of doing a dual WD2000JB (@200GB) RAID 1 setup, but the WD page talks about needing 48-bit addressing for drives > 137GB, and even ships with a special Promise (non-RAID) Ultra ATA card. Will these big drives work with this Koutech RAID card?

Thanks!
 
Originally posted by: chizow
Originally posted by: soltrain
What the hells 5?
Click to expand...

Raid 5 is striping with parity.
i believe you need at least 3 drives to run a raid 5
Click to expand...

That's correct, but you don't get added storage space of a RAID 0 array, and the array is as large as the smallest in the array. You'll also need a 4-channel hardware RAID card for RAID 5, as the parity calculations aren't generally supported by softRAID controllers with no dedicated mathCPU. Nice thing about RAID 5 is that if one drive fails, the array can rebuild itself (while fully functional) b/c of the parity data stored on the 3rd drive.

These cards are based on the Sil680 softRAID controller; I had the one from Newegg for those of you asking. Its an excellent performer, but it used up quite a few CPU cycles in some apps and also didn't have functional LED headers. The one linked in the original post does. The results I had were very good, but I went with a 3ware Escalade 7000-2 hardware RAID card, and have been very pleased with it. I get read and writes in the 70mbps to 90mbps range and it uses significantly less CPU utilization.

Chiz
Click to expand...

For a quick overview of different RAID levels, look here
You ned a minimum of 3 drives for a RAID-5 Array. The total array is reduced by 1 drive. (eg: if you use 3 drives of 80GB each, the RAID 5 array will be 2x80=160GB. If you use 5 drives of 80GB each, the arrray will be 4x80=320GB.)
 
there's a lot of misconceptions going around about raid...

raid 0: fastest you can get, but effectively divides your MTTF in half

raid 1: increases your read speed, decreases your access times, but write speed is slowed down just a little, very good with small I/O, large I/O not improved, 50% space utilization

raid 2: slow like heck, slightly better in large I/O than raid 1, but terrible in small I/O, 71% space utilization

raid 3: drastic improvement over raid 2, beats raid 1 in large I/O, but still horrible in small I/O, 91% space utilization

raid 4: a little better than raid 3, 91% space utilization

raid 5: night and day difference above raid 2,3, and 4, very fast large I/O and a small I/O that is just behind that of raid 1, the parity is spread across all disks, 91% space utilization

terms:
small I/O - data is located on only one disk drive
large I/O - data is spread across multiple drives

references:
Patterson, Gibson, Katz, A Case for Redundant Arrays of Inexpensive Disks (RAID), UCB circa 1980's
Burkard, Storage System Architecture lecture notes, UCSD 2003
 
Originally posted by: diablonhn
there's a lot of
references:
Patterson, Gibson, Katz, A Case for Redundant Arrays of Inexpensive Disks (RAID), UCB circa 1980's
Burkard, Storage System Architecture lecture notes, UCSD 2003
Click to expand...


Good summary. I've always thought it was "independant" disks not "inexpensive"

Kevin
 
Is everyone happy with this controller? I'd order it, but it bothers me if they are advertising the model with IDE activity jumpers and shipping the cheaper one. Is that still the case?
 
Originally posted by: TheToddler
Is everyone happy with this controller? I'd order it, but it bothers me if they are advertising the model with IDE activity jumpers and shipping the cheaper one. Is that still the case?
Click to expand...
Nevermind, I just ordered the better model from NewEgg. It was $33 with free FedEx shipping.
 
Originally posted by: TheToddler
Originally posted by: TheToddler
Is everyone happy with this controller? I'd order it, but it bothers me if they are advertising the model with IDE activity jumpers and shipping the cheaper one. Is that still the case?
Click to expand...
Nevermind, I just ordered the better model from NewEgg. It was $33 with free FedEx shipping.
Click to expand...

I posted on this earlier, but I returned 2 of the PIRFLEX 133's from NE b/c they don't have functional LED headers, just 2 very weak LEDs that aren't visible even with a case window (they face down and are very dim). Just an FYI for those who need to see a LED indicator to know their HDDs are spinning. Card performance is quite excellent though, comes very close to a Highpoint RocketRAID 133 card that costs 2.5x as much.

Chiz
 
Originally posted by: RazeOrc

4xRAID0 is insane, it's faster than SCSI hands down, gives you tremendous storage (even using boring 40GB HDDs) but you have to be concerned about corruption of a disk or failure of a disk.
Click to expand...

I'll accept that challenge. See below. In a price vs performance conversation I would agree with you, but I will smoke almost anyone in raw disk performance.

 
Originally posted by: Nosferatu
I was looking at symantec's site a little while ago. If I recall correctly. Most of the time, Ghost can not do a clone of a RAID.

ghost

Before you scream that it says ghost 2001, look down under solutions where it says 2003 and below....

Now if anyone does know how to clone a hardware array, I would love to know how....
Click to expand...

If it's mirrored, pull one of the drives, replace, store the first one in a safe location. Replace as needed.
 
Originally posted by: chizow

I posted on this earlier, but I returned 2 of the PIRFLEX 133's from NE b/c they don't have functional LED headers, just 2 very weak LEDs that aren't visible even with a case window (they face down and are very dim). Just an FYI for those who need to see a LED indicator to know their HDDs are spinning. Card performance is quite excellent though, comes very close to a Highpoint RocketRAID 133 card that costs 2.5x as much.

Chiz
Click to expand...

Chiz,

I saw your posts, which was why I ordered that specific item from NewEgg instead of Neutron. Maybe I'm confused. You said the card in the original post has a functional IDE activity LED jumper. That card is IOFLEX-PIR133 (the green PCB with black drive connectors). But people said they were actually receiving the IO-PIR133 (black PCB with blue and white drive connectors) from Neutron. So I assumed you meant that the green PCB was the card to get. Didn't you thank Kevman for telling you that J2 is for the HD LED?

Toddler
 
Originally posted by: TheToddler
Originally posted by: chizow

I posted on this earlier, but I returned 2 of the PIRFLEX 133's from NE b/c they don't have functional LED headers, just 2 very weak LEDs that aren't visible even with a case window (they face down and are very dim). Just an FYI for those who need to see a LED indicator to know their HDDs are spinning. Card performance is quite excellent though, comes very close to a Highpoint RocketRAID 133 card that costs 2.5x as much.

Chiz
Click to expand...

Chiz,

I saw your posts, which was why I ordered that specific item from NewEgg instead of Neutron. Maybe I'm confused. You said the card in the original post has a functional IDE activity LED jumper. That card is IOFLEX-PIR133 (the green PCB with black drive connectors). But people said they were actually receiving the IO-PIR133 (black PCB with blue and white drive connectors) from Neutron. So I assumed you meant that the green PCB was the card to get. Didn't you thank Kevman for telling you that J2 is for the HD LED?

Toddler
Click to expand...

Yah, I thought it was, but it didn't work :| Upon further inspection, I saw that J1 has jumper solder points, but no jumpers 🙁 Not sure what Koutech was thinking, maybe they thought internal LEDs were better than a header for an external LED indicator. You might have better luck, but its definitely a different card, and I didn't realize that Kevman and the others that ordered in this post actually had a different card until after I received my 2nd board. If you don't mind the possibility of not having an external LED header, the IOFLEX is an excellent card (based on the Sil680) for the price.

Chiz
 
Originally posted by: chizow
Originally posted by: TheToddler
Originally posted by: chizow

I posted on this earlier, but I returned 2 of the PIRFLEX 133's from NE b/c they don't have functional LED headers, just 2 very weak LEDs that aren't visible even with a case window (they face down and are very dim). Just an FYI for those who need to see a LED indicator to know their HDDs are spinning. Card performance is quite excellent though, comes very close to a Highpoint RocketRAID 133 card that costs 2.5x as much.

Chiz
Click to expand...

Chiz,

I saw your posts, which was why I ordered that specific item from NewEgg instead of Neutron. Maybe I'm confused. You said the card in the original post has a functional IDE activity LED jumper. That card is IOFLEX-PIR133 (the green PCB with black drive connectors). But people said they were actually receiving the IO-PIR133 (black PCB with blue and white drive connectors) from Neutron. So I assumed you meant that the green PCB was the card to get. Didn't you thank Kevman for telling you that J2 is for the HD LED?

Toddler
Click to expand...

Yah, I thought it was, but it didn't work :| Upon further inspection, I saw that J1 has jumper solder points, but no jumpers 🙁 Not sure what Koutech was thinking, maybe they thought internal LEDs were better than a header for an external LED indicator. You might have better luck, but its definitely a different card, and I didn't realize that Kevman and the others that ordered in this post actually had a different card until after I received my 2nd board. If you don't mind the possibility of not having an external LED header, the IOFLEX is an excellent card (based on the Sil680) for the price.

Chiz
Click to expand...

Hmm...well I found a posting in the newsgroups where someone with the IOFLEX said that their case HDD LED flashes via the motherboard when there is RAID activity on the card. Is that the case? Should I have ordered the cheaper model? What exactly is the difference between these cards?
 
Originally posted by: TheToddler
Originally posted by: chizow
Originally posted by: TheToddler
Originally posted by: chizow

I posted on this earlier, but I returned 2 of the PIRFLEX 133's from NE b/c they don't have functional LED headers, just 2 very weak LEDs that aren't visible even with a case window (they face down and are very dim). Just an FYI for those who need to see a LED indicator to know their HDDs are spinning. Card performance is quite excellent though, comes very close to a Highpoint RocketRAID 133 card that costs 2.5x as much.

Chiz
Click to expand...

Chiz,

I saw your posts, which was why I ordered that specific item from NewEgg instead of Neutron. Maybe I'm confused. You said the card in the original post has a functional IDE activity LED jumper. That card is IOFLEX-PIR133 (the green PCB with black drive connectors). But people said they were actually receiving the IO-PIR133 (black PCB with blue and white drive connectors) from Neutron. So I assumed you meant that the green PCB was the card to get. Didn't you thank Kevman for telling you that J2 is for the HD LED?

Toddler
Click to expand...

Yah, I thought it was, but it didn't work :| Upon further inspection, I saw that J1 has jumper solder points, but no jumpers 🙁 Not sure what Koutech was thinking, maybe they thought internal LEDs were better than a header for an external LED indicator. You might have better luck, but its definitely a different card, and I didn't realize that Kevman and the others that ordered in this post actually had a different card until after I received my 2nd board. If you don't mind the possibility of not having an external LED header, the IOFLEX is an excellent card (based on the Sil680) for the price.

Chiz
Click to expand...

Hmm...well I found a posting in the newsgroups where someone with the IOFLEX said that their case HDD LED flashes via the motherboard when there is RAID activity on the card. Is that the case? Should I have ordered the cheaper model?
Click to expand...

I doubt that's the case, as a RAID controller isn't recognized as a standard IDE drive, its a standalone AIB in both the BIOS and in Windows. I'm not even sure its possible for that data to be sent via the PCI bus through the mainboard and output via the mobo's LED header. 😕 I could be wrong, but I did have the case header attached to the mobo, not to see if the RAID card would show activity thru the mobo header, but actually to use it as the LED indicator for my stand-alone IDE drives attached to the mobo's IDE headers. I have my RAID controller attached to my CoolMod and my case LED attached to my IDE mobo LED.

I'm not sure what performance difference there is between the black and green one is, so I'm not sure. By the time I went thru the second one, I had already been eyeing the 3ware 7000-2. Newegg was great about RMA'ing and I told them I'd like to go with the 3ware at $125 since I already had ~$60 tied up in 2 RAID cards. It performed very well, but CPU utilization was still a bit high. The 3ware is awesome though, excellent card if you are only looking for RAID 0 or RAID 1 with 2 disk drives.

Chiz
 
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