SAS: CARDS, ETC. WORTH THE MONEY?

Pradeep

Storage? I am Storage!
Joined
Jan 21, 2002
Messages
3,845
Location
Runny glass
In the ideal case such errors would cause a noticeable problem. Worse is the insidious silent corruption that goes unnoticed.
 

LunarMist

I can't believe I'm a Fixture
Joined
Feb 1, 2003
Messages
16,698
Location
USA
But would it be any better without the cache? UPS is good for ~20 mintues, so power outages are not likely to affect anything.
 

LunarMist

I can't believe I'm a Fixture
Joined
Feb 1, 2003
Messages
16,698
Location
USA
They have a fairly indifferent rep, actually. They sell many cards, including major OEMs, and I don't hear much about them. I take that as a good thing.

So David, would you buy this one or wait for other 6Bs cards?
 

ddrueding

Fixture
Joined
Feb 4, 2002
Messages
19,536
Location
Horsens, Denmark
I have one in my newegg shopping cart right now. Next to the 7D and a printer. I wouldn't hesitate if I actually needed one. None of my SSDs saturate the bus yet, so there isn't a need. I also haven't seen a performance increase going to a dedicated RAID card vs. the onboard RAID for RAID-0.
 

LunarMist

I can't believe I'm a Fixture
Joined
Feb 1, 2003
Messages
16,698
Location
USA
I don't understand onbroad RAID 0. I recall the 10R allows that function somehow. Yet I'd rather use a PCIe controller if it naturally supports hot swapping. I'd rather have a single, faster drive than RAID 0. Eventually...
 

ddrueding

Fixture
Joined
Feb 4, 2002
Messages
19,536
Location
Horsens, Denmark
Buying faster drives has always been more expensive than multiple drives. The reason RAID-0 wasn't as good before was that it didn't help access time. Now that access time is insignificant, RAID-0 is the affordable way to go. Even the faster SSDs out there just use internal RAID-0.

The ICH10R does RAID-0 just as well as the expensive expansion stuff. And your OS/swap drives can't be hot-swappable anyway ;)
 

LunarMist

I can't believe I'm a Fixture
Joined
Feb 1, 2003
Messages
16,698
Location
USA
OK, OK. I'm a Dumbo for not buying a second X25-E about 6 months ago. Now, I'm waiting on the new generation.
 

LunarMist

I can't believe I'm a Fixture
Joined
Feb 1, 2003
Messages
16,698
Location
USA
The ICH10R does RAID-0 just as well as the expensive expansion stuff. And your OS/swap drives can't be hot-swappable anyway ;)

I might want to have a couple of drives in RAID 0, but use some other ports for backup drives that will be powered off most of the time. Hence there is a need for the hot swapping.
 

Santilli

Hairy Aussie
Joined
Jan 27, 2002
Messages
5,078
Buying faster drives has always been more expensive than multiple drives. The reason RAID-0 wasn't as good before was that it didn't help access time. Now that access time is insignificant, RAID-0 is the affordable way to go. Even the faster SSDs out there just use internal RAID-0.

The ICH10R does RAID-0 just as well as the expensive expansion stuff. And your OS/swap drives can't be hot-swappable anyway ;)

DAVID?

I notice a BIG difference in access time, due to the added processor and cache, both the 128 mb on the raid card, and, perhaps, the doubling of the cache on the drives.

I don't notice any increase over two drives in access time, in fact, it seems a bit slower the times I've done it. Don't know if actual tests back this up, but, that was my experience in Raid 0, with scsi and 15k drives.
 

Pradeep

Storage? I am Storage!
Joined
Jan 21, 2002
Messages
3,845
Location
Runny glass
Bonus of 3.0 seems to be that in addition to doubling the transfer rate, overhead has gone from 20% to 1.5%
 

LunarMist

I can't believe I'm a Fixture
Joined
Feb 1, 2003
Messages
16,698
Location
USA
They probably could have done that with half as many X25-E drives.
 

MaxBurn

Storage Is My Life
Joined
Jan 20, 2004
Messages
3,245
Location
SC
I also thought it was interesting that anand initially didn't like the samsung drives as they had performance issues so seeing them pop up here in a deniable manner makes me think underground marketing. Course that was a different model right?
 

LunarMist

I can't believe I'm a Fixture
Joined
Feb 1, 2003
Messages
16,698
Location
USA
I have one in my newegg shopping cart right now. Next to the 7D and a printer. I wouldn't hesitate if I actually needed one. None of my SSDs saturate the bus yet, so there isn't a need. I also haven't seen a performance increase going to a dedicated RAID card vs. the onboard RAID for RAID-0.

How is that LSI card working out for you? Is it possible to create separate arrays on the same controller without interference in performance? For example, I'd like to have two SSDs in RAID 0 and use the other ports for single drives.
 

Bozo

Storage? I am Storage!
Joined
Feb 12, 2002
Messages
4,396
Location
Twilight Zone
How is that LSI card working out for you? Is it possible to create separate arrays on the same controller without interference in performance? For example, I'd like to have two SSDs in RAID 0 and use the other ports for single drives.

I have done something similar with 3Ware controllers. 4- RAID 1's from the same card.
 

LunarMist

I can't believe I'm a Fixture
Joined
Feb 1, 2003
Messages
16,698
Location
USA
I should just buy the damned thing. I'm procrastinating for no good reason other than cost. How is NewEgg for returns if I simply don't like it?
 

LunarMist

I can't believe I'm a Fixture
Joined
Feb 1, 2003
Messages
16,698
Location
USA
Didn't pull the trigger on that one. Got the OCZ Z-Drive instead.

I thought about getting the smaller version of that OCZ unit, but it makes more sense to have a controller than can be used in the future with better SSDs. Unfortunately the OCZ is not a viable option anyway because there is only one free PCIe 8x slot and the computer must support 16 hard drives in total.
 

ddrueding

Fixture
Joined
Feb 4, 2002
Messages
19,536
Location
Horsens, Denmark
I was actually going to start playing today...that OCZ Z-Drive has an exposed SAS connector on the back side. I'm going to see what I can plug into it ;)
 
Top