OCZ core V2 60 GB on various configs and various controllers Reviewed - **56K WARNING

[tekjunkie]

I have put my new system together(Rampage extreme based) and decided to write up a review with the OCZ core V2 on the ICH9R,Areca 1231-ML, 790i SLI MCP. This will be done on both XP and Vista ultimate x64.I am also thinking about testing it in non-windows environment namely Ubuntu linux,if time permits. This will throw some more light on whether windows isthe culprit.The problem with testing in linux is that I am not that familiar with Linux and the benchmarking programs that run under linux. I might have to do some more research on this.

I know about the AT review, which narrowed the problem down to the JMicron controllers on these, but I think these paired up with a good caching controller like the Areca will be kick ass. I might be totally wrong about this, in which case I intend to promptly return this to the place where I brought this from, even though I will be charged 15% restocking and then wait for a better product.Since I also have a day job to take care of, this might take some days to finish off, so please be patient and bear with me.

Without further adieu, I present you with the components that this review will be run on.

Test Setup
Rampage Extreme Motherboard -(X48/ICH9R)
QX9650 on True Black with S-Flex push/pull @ 3.01 GHZ
Gskill 2x1GB BHZ DDR3-1600
Samusung F1 1 TB - OS drive
Sapphire 4870x2 - Catalyst 8.8
Samsung DVD SATA drive
Corsair HX1000
4x OCZ core v2 60GB
Areca 1231 ML PCI-E x8 - 2GB Raid card

Windows XP Professional SP3
Windows Vista Ultimate x64 SP1
Ubuntu 8.04 x64(maybe)


Benchmarking programs

HDtach 3.0.4.0
HDtune pro trial version
Everest Ultimate 4.60.1500
IOMeter 2006.07.27


Various Configurations

For all the below configurations, the OS will be on the samsung F1 on ICH9R, so that the write tests can be performed on the SSDs. Also, the SSD drives will be unformatted.


1x OCZ Core 2 60 GB on ICH9R - IDE mode
1x OCZ Core 2 60 GB on ICH9R - Raid mode
4X OCZ Core 2 60 GB on ICH9R Raid 0 -Raid mode
1x OCZ Core 2 60 GB on ARC-1231ML
4x OCZ Core 2 60 GB on ARC-1231ML Raid 0


Some images as an appetizer

http://img218.imageshack.us/img218/6994/dsc00331vo6.jpg

http://img87.imageshack.us/img87/9193/dsc00335oq5.jpg

http://img229.imageshack.us/img229/5940/dsc00336li2.jpg

[tekjunkie]

All these tests were done on XP SP3 with all updates

HDTach 32MB zone
http://img221.imageshack.us/img221/3833/hdtach32mbzoneset5.jpg


HD tune Read
http://img228.imageshack.us/img228/6797/hdtunereadjh6.jpg


HD tune Write
http://img229.imageshack.us/img229/448/hdtunewriters4.jpg

Everest Read Suite
http://img221.imageshack.us/img221/7610/everestreadsuitecf1.jpg

Everest Linear Write
http://img228.imageshack.us/img228/2052/everestlinearwriteig9.jpg

Everest Random Write
http://img502.imageshack.us/img502/2361/everestrandomwritejz6.jpg

Now for the IOMeter test. All the IOMeter tests below were done with 64K size and 25 outstanding IOs and the screen shots were taken after atleast 5 minutes into the test.

64K Sequential Read
http://img505.imageshack.us/img505/4624/iometer25ios64ksequentimh5.jpg

64K Random Read
http://img505.imageshack.us/img505/9065/iometer25ios64krandomreki0.jpg

64K Sequential Write
http://img527.imageshack.us/img527/3061/iometer25ios64ksequentifs7.jpg

64K Random Write
http://img522.imageshack.us/img522/815/iometer25ios64krandomwrlw8.jpg

Now for some one drive ICH9R raid mode test.


The Raid on the ICH9R are having interesting results. Stay tuned.

The ICH9R Raid mode was almost the same with 1 SSD. But when I put 4 of the SSDs in Raid 0, the write performsnce was pretty bad. I used a 64K stripse size.

Screen shots (http://rapidshare.com/files/148193826/4xICH9R_Raid_0.zip.html) if anybody is interested.

I am going to test it on the RAID card now.

[LuckyNV]

you should put a couple of placeholder posts so that people like me don't post ahead of you

Also you might want to consider testing an Intel SSD, a bit pricey though, I await your other results :)

[tekjunkie]

What a world of difference when it's run on the Areca. A sneak peak at the performance with 4 SSDs in RAID 0 on the ARC

http://img519.imageshack.us/img519/9486/hdtachcy8.th.jpg (http://img519.imageshack.us/my.php?image=hdtachcy8.jpg)http://img519.imageshack.us/images/thpix.gif (http://g.imageshack.us/thpix.php)

I have zipped up all the results from various benchmarking tools(XP SP3) and uploaded to rapid share



1 SSD on the ARC (http://rapidshare.com/files/148482365/1xAreca.zip.html)
4 SSD in Raid 0 on the ARC (http://rapidshare.com/files/148482422/4x_Areca_Raid_0.zip.html)


Does anybody else want to see any more tests beacause I am now convinced that I am going to keep the SSDs and I want to put the OS on them. But before I do that(probably Sunday), does anybody want me to do any more write tests on these??

[tekjunkie]

Reserved

[tekjunkie]

Reserved

[tekjunkie]

you should put a couple of placeholder posts so that people like me don't post ahead of you


Done :D

Also you might want to consider testing an Intel SSD, a bit pricey though, I await your other results :)

Maybe. Is it available yet?

[Turkish Bull]

Here are a couple of my results:
3x OCZ V2 SATA 60GB on ICH9R Raid0

http://www.uploadimage.co.uk/uploads/590ba1ec64.jpg (http://www.uploadimage.co.uk)

http://www.uploadimage.co.uk/uploads/3a48e71e18.jpg (http://www.uploadimage.co.uk)

http://www.uploadimage.co.uk/uploads/3cf1d3a4e2.jpg (http://www.uploadimage.co.uk)

http://www.uploadimage.co.uk/uploads/446e7ac8e1.jpg (http://www.uploadimage.co.uk)

http://www.uploadimage.co.uk/uploads/a912de9e59.jpg (http://www.uploadimage.co.uk)

I also did a lot of testing on the Areca 1210 but it gave me a lot of stuttering and slow copying.
Somehow the inbuilt Intel Raid controller worked better for me. I also understood that the Areca has a max read of 450 MB/s