SCSI RAID solution. What do you guys think?

[Rickard]

2 x Seagate Cheetah X15 36LP 18.4GB U160 15Krpm
AMI MegaRaid Express 500 - Single channel U160 SCSI RAID card

Will be running RAID 0 on ASUS P4B266 mobo with 32-bits PCI bus running @ 37.5Mhz = 150Mb/s. Please ignore the security problem with RAID 0 because i really dont care . I dont think the PCI bus will be a bottleneck because i cant see even these disk exced either the 1 channel (160Mb/s) or the PCI bus (150Mb/s).

 

[MrGrim]

*drool*

 

[Wolfsraider]

i asked the same question and was reminded of the 90 mb cap on i850 and i860 boards but i am not sure if this also affects the i845 boards so

hope this helps

link to our discusion on 2cpu.com

 

[Rickard]

This guy is running 2 x Cheetah's 36LP 15Krpmin RAID 0 on ATTO UL3D SCSI card using the following hardware:

ATTO ULD3D dual channel U160 SCSI RAID
2 x 36G Seagate Cheetah X15 36LPs RAID0
Win2KSP2
Asus P4T-E >>>>>>>>>32-bit PCI bus and i850 chipset<<<<<<<<<<
Week 46 2.0A Northie @ 2668MHz (133.4FSB)

Would you call this a 90Mb/s cap on i850 chipset ???

Screenshoot here of an ATTO bench32 score that pretty much kills the 90Mb/s cap theory, atleast on the i850 chipset. We will soon see what the result will be on i845D chipset.

 

[Wolfsraider]

thanks Rickard
just what i wanted to hear

good luck and let me know how it goes please

 

[Rickard]

Hehe... Maybe he was lucky

I just hope i have choosed the right card. I havent read any reviews of it tough.

 

[Wolfsraider]

turn about is fair play

for your reading pleasure

link 1

link 2

hope this helps

and thanks again

 

[mastertech01]

Im using an ATTO and love it. Just remember that it is a sofware driven Raid Controller so CPU utilization is a little higher. Compared to the Adaptec controllers I have used in the past however, the performance of the ATTO is miles ahead.

The very expensive lines of hardware raid controllers (in the range of 2000.00) would be killer, but way out of the ordinary for the home user or SOHO user. I use a dual channel controller so the performance is markedly better than a single channel controller as well. SO keep these things in mind. Ideal would be 4 X15 on two dual channel ATTO working as one array.

Another thing to consider is that the ATTO has no RAID option for PC but Raid 0.
So no fault tolerance at all.

 

[Rickard]

I seriously doubt that running 2 36LP on 1 channel each (ATTO UL3D) will improve speed much over running both disks at 1 channel. Even 2 x 36LP in RAID 0 cant exced 1 U160 channel speed (160Mb/s?, dont think so).

I have no plans at all to use the ATTO card, partly due to the lack of WinXP support and because there is faster adapters. I have done ALOT of research before making up my mind. ATTO UL3D is a very very good and fast card. The only one that i know of that kicks butt with the ATTO card (below 900$) is the AMI MegaRaid Elite 1600. That costs approx 800$ witch is kinda much. The AMI MegaRaid Express 500 is basicly an AMI MegaRaid Elite 1600 without 64-Bit PCI support and with only 1 channel (this is what i think). Read reviews over at amdmb.com when the Elite 1600 kick butt with ATTO UL3D

My hops are that the AMI Express 500 can show me the same numbers that the Elite 1600 can produce with 2 36LP's in RAID 0 on a 32-Bit PCI bus.

Next week we will see if the 32-Bit PCI bus and 1 U160 (160Mb/s) channel will bottleneck my 2 36LP in RAID 0.

 

[mastertech01]

Im running WinXP Pro on my ATTO.. you just have to know how to manipulate the boot disk to make the array seen by XP..

 

[zzzz]

can that scsi card handle high pci speeds? My Adaptec 29160 can not handle pci bus beyond 36.

 

[mastertech01]

I dont OC, (or cant with this Tiger MP anyway) so I dont really know.. sorry