Newest 32GB Mtron Pro 7500 - Unexpected Behavior and Less than Stellar Results [Archive]

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Speederlander

08-02-2008, 04:11 PM

Got a pair of the new 3.5" 32GB mtron pro 7500.

Running on Supermicro X7DWA-N. Controller is Areca 1680ix-16. OS is Vista 64 bit.

Mtron firmware is 0.18R1H3 (appears to be latest available).
Areca firmware is the latest 1.45 version.

Observations so far:

They will not under any circumstances create a stable raid 0 array on an Areca 1680 class controller with Vista 64 bit. Not sure what is messing this combo up, the mtrons, the areca, Vista or 64 bit. Either way, no go. You can get Vista installed on a RAID 0 array, but chkdsk will always give errors and SP1 will fail to install. Often you will get corrupt files at install. Chkdsk with repair will say it repaired the problem but the issue actually remains. Tried to work through this for almost a day with no success.
I can create the RAID/Volumes in the Areca BIOS with no problems. No error events are being reported by the Areca on these drives at any time.
They will work off the mobo southbridge (ESB2) as single drives with no errors and no problems installing.
As single drives they are benching slower than expected (see below). This is with Vista at SP1, chipset drivers installed, LAN drivers installed, and nVidia drivers for video installed.

Single drive specs (published):
130MB/s read, 120MB/s write

But now look at these numbers (off the data drive):

Notice the CPU usage on HDTune vs HDTach. Notice the overall lower reads than expected (compared to published). Notice the lower burst on the HDTune. These numbers are very consistent in test after test.

Not only do the numbers appear lower than what is expected pretty consistently across different benching software, but the software doesn't seem to agree very well anyway.

Now, this COULD be the Intel southbridge I am using for these single drives giving lower numbers. I know intel SBs have had issues in the past with SSDs. However, I seem to recall flaky results and jagged tests more than solid consistent lower numbers. I don't know for sure. But unfortunately it's not like I have a lot of options beyond the mobo SB or the Areca.

Speederlander

08-02-2008, 04:22 PM

My next experiment is with a single Mtron as a pass-through on the Areca. About the only thing I haven't tried yet with these.

JustusIV

08-02-2008, 08:29 PM

How do they act if you raid 0 them off your mobo? I wonder if its a drive compatibility issue with areca.

NeedMoMegaHurtZ

08-02-2008, 08:51 PM

Speederlander

08-02-2008, 10:14 PM

Your single drive results are similar to the ones achieved in this review of the Mtron Pro 7500 vs Memoright GT: (on an Intel laptop controller, Santa Rosa? not sure)

http://forum.ssdworld.ch/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=32

Yeah, saw that. I am deciding on what I want to do. I really don't care so much about the RAID 0 if the single drive performance is there, but it doesn't seem to be. I may try talking to the place I got these two drives from and go for a switch if possible. I intend on adding 32 GB ssds as my OS/apps drive size requirements grow, so there's an incentive to the vendor. ;)

Ironically, I was going to go the memorights, but they were 2 weeks out when I called. I tend to shy away from things so new off the shelves but they had specs better than the memos so I bit in a moment of weakness...

Speederlander

08-02-2008, 10:18 PM

How do they act if you raid 0 them off your mobo? I wonder if its a drive compatibility issue with areca.

Started playing with it last night using the adaptec mobo controller (the intel controller doesn't have Vista drivers) but ran into issues. I will try again shortly.

Buckeye

08-03-2008, 07:23 AM

Speederlander

08-03-2008, 10:42 AM

When you built the Raid and installed the drivers durning the install of Vista did you use the latest drivers, not the ones on the CD that came with the card.

ftp://ftp.areca.com.tw/RaidCards/AP_Drivers/Windows/Driver/Vista/

When I installed my ARC-1231ML the drivers on the CD acted very strange. I then used the drivers from that link and they worked great.

Note: I am using a EVGA 790i motherboard and that required a BIOS flash to the latest version.

Is your BIOS on your motherboard the latest ?

Yes, used the latest storport for 64 bit. I haven't tried the scsiport yet, but the scsi port are rather ancient at this point...

I have the latest mobo bios, but even if I didn't, I would be leary about updating. Since it's a server class motherboard updating the BIOS is not recommended by supermicro unless you have major issues, and this thing with stable RAID 0 doesn't feel very mobo-related.

I'll try the scsiport just for completeness I guess.

Interestingly, I can make a raid 0 array and access it just fine when it isn't being used as the OS drive. Running Vista on one of the raptors and all looks well with RAID 0 SSD. It passes all scans and benches fine. But every time I try to put an OS on it, it will install, then come up with errors (as explained in post 1). I would say it's a driver issue, but then the driver should be causing errors with vista when installed to a single disk OS install.

Either way, I just tried a few tweaks, going to run an alt install quick and see what turns up.

Speederlander

08-03-2008, 10:57 AM

My next experiment is with a single Mtron as a pass-through on the Areca.

This failed by the way. Came up with errors. That's interesting. It takes the multiple disk thing out of the picture. Vista 64 doesn't like reporting in through this controller.

I will try to install Vista on a pass-through raptor next. If that fails, I'll know it's not an SSD issue but rather Vista + areca 1680 issue.

Speederlander

08-03-2008, 01:29 PM

Ok, two new attempts:

1. OS installed on RAID 0 SSDs using scsiport driver, failed. OS installed but errors afterward as usual.
2. OS installed on Raptor pass-through drive (storport drivers), failed. OS installed but errors again.

I assume the main issue with getting Vista 64 bit to install on an array on the Areca resides with the Areca 1680/64-bit Vista combo, not the SSDs.

When I bench the SSD raid-0 (when it's a data drive), it benches reasonably quick. Therefore, the low single drive performance I am seeing could be related to the historic Intel chipset issues with SSDs, though I don't see anything out there talking about this particular server chipset with SSDs.

Not sure at this point what I am going to do. If the raptor won't allow an OS, then exchanging the mtrons for something else won't necessarily solve my problem.

And maybe is really IS the areca not liking this board, though a server board like this not being compatible with major brand high end RAID controller would seem very unlikely.

I may try to return the Areca as defective but the ewiz RMA system looks like it will be a real fight...
I'll probably just run the SSDs as single drives off the SB, settling for lower performance. It's still decent, though now not particularly better better than single velociraptors.

I may look into the mobo BIOS afterall. I'm going to ping some areca people I know first.

What a pain.