RAID controller for $600 AUD

[SoulsCollective]

I'm looking at picking up a new SATA RAID controller, with a budget of around $600 AUD. Needs to actually have an on-card processor and cache and support eight channels, battery backup not essential. Must run on PCI-E, not PCI or PCI-X. Needs to support RAID-6. Will be used primarily on a Vista machine, but .nix support (specifically Slackware) would be nice. MACOS I'm not fussed by.

Current front runner is the Highpoint RocketRaid 3520 (http://www.highpoint-tech.com/USA/rr3520.htm#top), which I can get for $600, but I have absolutely no brand loyalty. I've used the little brother, the 3150, in a build for a client and was quite impressed, and eva2000 seemed to get good results from the card over at i4memory, but if there's a better card available for about the same price I'd love to hear about it.

[tiro_uspsss]

this fellow used the same card ur thinking of:

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=207116

& he got some impressive results too! :up:

EDIT: or theres this:

http://cgi.ebay.com.au/New-Dell-Perc-6-E-SATA-II-SAS-PCIe-x8-RAID-5-6_W0QQitemZ270304857962QQcmdZViewItemQQptZControll er?hash=item270304857962&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=66%3A2%7C65%3A1%7C39%3A1%7C240%3A1318

[SoulsCollective]

Hmm, I'd like to avoid non-retail parts if at all possible. Cheers for the link though!

So the general thinking is the 3520 is a beast, grab it?

[tiro_uspsss]

Hmm, I'd like to avoid non-retail parts if at all possible. Cheers for the link though!

So the general thinking is the 3520 is a beast, grab it?

only others I can think of is Areca 1231ML or Areca 1222 - not sure on price tho :)

[Logos]

3WARE 9650SE-12ML (Kit).......................674,00 euros
Promise SuperTrak EX16300 (Retail)...........649,00 euros (error: this one is not PCIe)

[tiro_uspsss]

3WARE 9650SE-12ML (Kit).......................674,00 euros
Promise SuperTrak EX16300 (Retail)...........649,00 euros

lol I think the OP means either $600 AUD or USD - 600 euro is waaaay too much

[Logos]

lol I think the OP means either $600 AUD or USD - 600 euro is waaaay too much

Promise SuperTrak EX12350 (Retail)................549,00 euros ;)

[tiro_uspsss]

Promise SuperTrak EX12350 (Retail)................549,00 euros ;)

mmm... if its USD$600 the OP is referring too, then yes, maybe just affordable.. if its AUD$600, then definitely not! :p:

1 euro = 2 AUD
1 euro = ~1.25 USD

:up:

[SoulsCollective]

I'm looking at picking up a new SATA RAID controller, with a budget of around $600 AUD.
AUD, people - not USD, and certainly not Euros :p:

But thanks for the input :)

[SoulsCollective]

Bump. Looking at reviews of those Areca cards, there's some comment about erratic performance, as shown in the thread linked to above. Can anyone speak from experience on this?

[tiro_uspsss]

Bump. Looking at reviews of those Areca cards, there's some comment about erratic performance, as shown in the thread linked to above. Can anyone speak from experience on this?

this may be only slightly related: what HDD brand u gonna use?

[SoulsCollective]

After reading around, I'm settling on WD640000AAKS drives, as they're reputed to be the quietest with the high-density platters. Thinking about getting six in a RAID-6 array.

[tiro_uspsss]

After reading around, I'm settling on WD640000AAKS drives, as they're reputed to be the quietest with the high-density platters. Thinking about getting six in a RAID-6 array.

'desktop grade' western digitals? mmm.. in that case i'd say stay away from arecas.. i've heard issues crop up between the two.. u can contact user stevecs to confirm.. :up:

[SoulsCollective]

Right, so not only can they perform erratically they're known to have problems with WD drives.

I'm thinking it's the Highpoint :p:

[tiro_uspsss]

Right, so not only can they perform erratically they're known to have problems with WD drives.

I'm thinking it's the Highpoint :p:

:lol: hear hear! :D :up:

*pssst* whats it for? :)

[SoulsCollective]

Desktop rig. One of my ancient 200GB SATA-1 drives is dying, so rather than just bare-minimum replace it I thought I'd go the whole hog - it's about all I can upgrade on my rig without having to spend several hundred, and to be frank with a Yorkfield at 3.6 and a 4870X2 I really don't need to :p:

[jcool]

I would recommend you the Adaptec 5805. It's a real beast for parity raids, and it's in your desired price range.
Plus I run its little brother, the 5405, with 4x WD6400AAKS in Raid 5. Performance is pretty impressive if you ask me:

http://database.he-computer.de/Bilder/raidbenches/raid5.jpg
http://database.he-computer.de/Bilder/raidbenches/raid5atto.jpg

That was with the initial release firmware btw, they probably evened it out by a bit more by now.

Only known issue of the Adaptec 5 series: The stock passive cooler is way too small so it will overheat if you don't modify the cooling. Mine is watercooled...

http://database.he-computer.de/Bilder/CIMG1033.JPG

[SoulsCollective]

Cheers for that, really appreciate the input. Currently the cheapest place I can find it lists it for $750 AUD, which is beyond what I'm prepared to spend, but I'll have a look around. Love the watercooling :p:

[NeedMoMegaHurtZ]

awesome mod, jcool!

what kind of block is that? and where did you get it?

[jcool]

Cheers for that, really appreciate the input. Currently the cheapest place I can find it lists it for $750 AUD, which is beyond what I'm prepared to spend, but I'll have a look around. Love the watercooling :p:

What the :banana::banana::banana::banana:.. you Aussies get ripped off even worse than us Germans :/
It's 430€ here currently (used to be 380€, prices went through the roof lately) and around 550 USD.

I suggest you let someone in the US send you one ;)

[jcool]

awesome mod, jcool!

what kind of block is that? and where did you get it?

Thanks :)
That's an Aquacomputer (the guys that make the Aquaero/Cuplex XT etc) Twinplex XT for the southbridge of MSI P35 mobos :ROTF:
46mm hole distance, centered above and below the controller core, it is a perfect fit. Also available with a GPU top so the fittings are flipped by 90°.

45C controller temp at 24/7 load :up:

Here is another pic:

http://database.he-computer.de/Bilder/CIMG1034.JPG

Only downside: It's G1/8".. but it wouldn't be possible to use G 1/4 there, not enough space really. Good thing I don't give a :banana::banana::banana::banana: about flow :p:

[SoulsCollective]

What the :banana::banana::banana::banana:.. you Aussies get ripped off even worse than us Germans :/
It's 430€ here currently (used to be 380€, prices went through the roof lately) and around 550 USD.

I suggest you let someone in the US send you one ;)
I'd prefer not - with current exchange rates, 550 US dollars is equal to 893 Australian dollars, and 430 Euros is equal to 873 Australian dollars - and that's before shipping ;)

[jcool]

Hm, sad. The 5805 is one of the best-performing raid controllers out there, especially for raid 5/6. On par with the Areca 1680xi (unless you feed the Areca 2GB+ ram) at a fraction of the cost.

[SoulsCollective]

Okay, looking at MaximumPC review (http://www.maximumpc.com/article/raid_controllers_compared?page=0,4) it seems like the 3510 (basically the same card, just with four channels rather than eight) beats the 5405 in parity read speeds - which is more important to me than write. Is the only difference between the 5805 and the 5405 the number of channels?

[jcool]

No, the 5805 has double the cache (512MB vs. 256MB).
And I do know for a fact it scales up all the way to 8 drives in a raid 5/6 setup. 8 WD6400AAKS in Raid 5 would yield you 550-600MB/s average read on a 5805.

I dunno what went wrong on that maximumPC test, but reads shouldn't be way slower than writes, or something is out of order. See my screens, that's how it's supposed to look in a raid 5. Guess they used drives the adaptec didn't like, or the wrong driver or whatever.
If the average write was 214 in that test, reads should be at 260MB/s+.

[jcool]

Ok, did a quick comparison between the 3520 and 5805 for you and came up with 3 major differences:

1. XOR. The Highpoint uses the Intel IOP 81341, an 800Mhz singlecore chip that used to be top of the line. The Adaptec 5 series, however, uses the latest Intel IOP 348 which is a 1,2Ghz Dualcore (!) chip. Apart from the Adaptec 5 series, AFAIK only the highest-end Arecas use these XORs (1680xi and the likes).
2. Cache. The 5805 has double the cache at 512MB.
3. SAS. The 5805 can handle both SAS and SATA drives, which may come in handy some time. The 3520 is SATA only.

In Germany those 2 cost the same, so unless the Highpoint is way cheaper for you, I'd go for the Adaptec any day of the week.

Here (http://www.intel.com/design/iio/iop348.htm) is the Intel spec sheet on the IOP348, says something about hardware raid 6 acceleration with near raid 5 speeds as well, which might be nice with 8 drives (I'd run a raid 6 with 8 drives I think, 8 standard desktop drives in raid 5 isn't that safe really :D )

For comparison, Raid 6 on my 5405, still with 4 WD6400AAKS:

http://database.he-computer.de/Bilder/raidbenches/raid6.jpg
http://database.he-computer.de/Bilder/raidbenches/raid6atto.jpg

Though obviously you need more drives for a raid 6 ;)

[Gogeta]

I've been running a RocketRaid 3520 since May in a file server 24/7. Aside from my own understanding of benchmark results under Linux, I've had zero problems. The speed has been right in line with what I expected from a R5 array spanning 4 disks. It gets my vote. :up:

Edit: Controller is hosting 4x500GB Seagate ES.2 in R5 and 2x250GB ES.2 in R1, booting OS from the R1 array.

[NapalmV5]

since jcool/you guys are talking about 5805

heres my 5805 stock cooling/4x 16gb ssd
http://img141.imageshack.us/img141/2374/tach5805pq7.png

a 3520 read performs about the same but the write is in q

[SoulsCollective]

As posted in the OP, yes, I'll be running -6.

Ok, I'm sold on the Adaptec 5805 from a performance perspective. However, as I've said above I can't find it for anything less than $750 AUD, whereas the Highpoint 3520 I can find for $600. I simply don't have an extra $150, I need that for the drives themselves. I'll keep looking, but I think I'm going to have no choice but to go with the 3520.

Thanks everyone for your input :)

[NapalmV5]

if the 3520s write performance is better than my 3510:

http://img171.imageshack.us/img171/6003/tach3510el6.png

go for the 3520..

[jcool]

Wow Napalm, I thought the Adaptecs didn't like SSDs.. guess that ain't true after all.
What kind of drives exactly?

[SoulsCollective]

Hmmm? That posted graph above is for the Highpoint 3510 -
if the 3520s write performance is better than my 3510

[jcool]

Yeah, and it shows the lack of write performance the 3510 apparently suffers from. Since you said yourself that the 3510 is virtually identical to the 3520 you are looking to buy, I guess that bench applies :(

It doesn't really say anything about the Raid 5 performance tho. Theoretically, the Adaptec will give you double the write speed of the 3520 with 8 drives in raid 5 as well. If you hardly ever do writes, that doesn't matter I guess.

[NapalmV5]

Wow Napalm, I thought the Adaptecs didn't like SSDs.. guess that ain't true after all.
What kind of drives exactly?

supertalent masterdrive px

yeh the 5805 performs marvelously @ 4x ssd.. though needs a bit more calibration/tweaking from adaptec.. nonetheless very well balanced controller


Hmmm? That posted graph above is for the Highpoint 3510 -

as for 3520s write performance.. eva2000s 4x ssd and ender17s 4x raptor..

was encouraging enough for me to order a 3520

3510 vs 3520 - not quite the same.. my 3510 is v1.0

[NapalmV5]

3520 v1.3: same performance

http://img135.imageshack.us/img135/7614/3520pd8.png

the 3510/3520 bios/firmware are old and dont fully support my ssd..

thus not surprised @ same performance on both the 3510/3520

unfortunately i dont have any other 4x array i can test..

the 3510/3520 afterall should perform the same.. the difference is the hdd/ssd used to run on the controllers

[SoulsCollective]

Ok, I found the 3520 for $525 at a clearance sale, full retail package apparently, not OEM and cable-less. Of the few places that actually listed the Adaptec card as in stock, they were all charging $800+. I simply can't afford that, and for the majority of the time what will matter to me will be read speed, write merely needs to be adequate - so the 3520 will be nearly as good.

Order placed for the 3520 @ $550 inc shipping and six WD6400AAKS drives @ $90/drive = $1,090 tot. :eek:

Will post pics and results when the loot arrives. 2.5TB RAID-6 array here we come :yepp:

[jcool]

Nice, we can compare numbers then, as I use the same drives. My raid 6 screenie with 4 WD6400AAKS is in post #26 :)

[SoulsCollective]

90184

The trial version from their website doesn't appear to have the write speed option :down:

Burst speed is lower, probably due to less cache, but access times are improved and sequential read is very good. Going from the above graphs re write speed, I'm assuming write is somewhere around the 200MB/s range.