MMM
Results 1 to 17 of 17

Thread: Attempting to use Areca ARC-1680-ix-8 with 4x 80GB Intel X25-M SSDs

  1. #1
    Xtreme Enthusiast
    Join Date
    Jun 2007
    Location
    Canada, eh?
    Posts
    824

    Attempting to use Areca ARC-1680-ix-8 with 4x 80GB Intel X25-M SSDs

    And so far no luck. My Windows Home Server isn't letting me connect right now, so I can't grab my HD Tune screenshots, but here's a summary of my results: Reads are good, writes suck the big one.

    http://www.linustechtips.com/build-l...-woes-continue

    Please note: I am not here to provide any kind of official NCIX support on these forums.

    For faster (and official) service please contact me at Linus@ncix.com, or please contact our customer care team at wvvw.NCIX.com (Canada) or wvvw.NCIXUS.com (America)

    Heatware: http://heatware.com/eval.php?id=25647

  2. #2
    Xtreme Addict
    Join Date
    Nov 2003
    Location
    NYC
    Posts
    1,592
    sorry you are having all that trouble :s

  3. #3
    Xtreme Mentor
    Join Date
    Sep 2006
    Posts
    3,246
    Quote Originally Posted by Linus@ncix View Post
    And so far no luck. My Windows Home Server isn't letting me connect right now, so I can't grab my HD Tune screenshots, but here's a summary of my results: Reads are good, writes suck the big one.

    http://www.linustechtips.com/build-l...-woes-continue

    Make sure that 1680 is flashed to the latest firmware. There are different versions of the 1.45 firmware. 80915 is the latest. Make sure you do firm, bios, boot and transport (all of them, before reboot). Do the firm last if you don't have ethernet. If you can plug your card into your router via ethernet, log on and do the update via firefox.

    ftp://ftp.areca.com.tw/RaidCards/BIO...680/145-80915/

    Also, did you add memory to the card? A lot of memory simply will not work.

    Post here for help:
    http://forums.2cpu.com/forumdisplay.php?f=26
    They have some areca reps/experts that helped me a lot.

    What are the settings on the areca? Wrong settings can take your numbers almost to zero.

    Did you try a single intel drive as a pass-through on the card? Figure out how basic the problem is. That pass-through drive should look about like your southbridge numbers. Get yourself a baseline.

    Anyway, when I put my mtron SSDs on the 1680ix-16, they failed miserably with corrupted OS and 1001 other problems until I updated the firmware. Now they are rock-solid stable. I originally had the first version of the 1.45 firmware.
    Last edited by Speederlander; 12-23-2008 at 11:51 AM.

  4. #4
    Xtreme Guru
    Join Date
    Dec 2002
    Posts
    4,046
    again.. arc1231 if you want the most out of your x25m until 1.2ghz controllers fully support ssd or new ssd friendly controllers are released.. than your 4x x25m will perform @ 1000MB/s read but dont expect more than 280MB/s write regardless of controller
    Last edited by NapalmV5; 12-23-2008 at 05:30 PM.

  5. #5
    Xtreme Mentor
    Join Date
    Sep 2006
    Posts
    3,246
    Quote Originally Posted by NapalmV5 View Post
    again.. arc1231 if you want the most out of your x25m until 1.2ghz controllers fully support ssd or new ssd friendly controllers are released.. than your 4x x25m will perform @ 1000MB/s read but dont expect more than 280MB/s write regardless of controller
    1680 supports SSD, at least with the latest two firmware updates.
    [SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]

  6. #6
    Xtreme Guru
    Join Date
    Dec 2002
    Posts
    4,046
    yeh but is it the same 1231 support ? many kinds of "support"

    if it does.. then 4x x25m should get linus no less than 900-1000MB/s @ hdtach

    then again iop348 has been a pain in the arse and badly underperforming since its intro

  7. #7
    Xtreme Mentor
    Join Date
    Sep 2006
    Posts
    3,246
    Quote Originally Posted by NapalmV5 View Post
    yeh but is it the same 1231 support ? many kinds of "support"

    if it does.. then 4x x25m should get linus no less than 900-1000MB/s @ hdtach

    then again iop348 has been a pain in the arse and badly underperforming since its intro

    But to what end is HDTach really capturing "performance"? There are a lot of metrics for storage performance. Raw sequential throughput tends to be one of many, and rather overrated for single user performance. But yes, 348 needs to seem some improvements in sequential throughput as new firmware is released.
    [SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]

  8. #8
    Registered User
    Join Date
    Feb 2006
    Location
    Germany (near Ramstein)
    Posts
    421
    @ Speederlander

    At the moment ARC-1231/1261/1280ML are the best controlers + SSDs. (only german http://www.forumdeluxx.de/forum/show...highlight=1680 )
    In future i will test the ARC-1680ix with new Firmware...


    Comparison iRam @ ASUS Striker II Extreme vs. my new ARC-1261D-ML

    ASUS Striker II Extreme





    left ARC-1261D-MLwithout Write-Back (Pass Through) - right ARC-1261D-ML with Write-Back (1024MB Non-ECC)






    ARC-1261D-ML without Write-Back - with Write-Back





    ASUS Striker II Extreme
    ------------------------------------------- ARC-1261D-ML without Write-Back




    ARC-1261D-ML with Write-Back (256MB ECC) -------------- ARC-1261D-ML with Write-Back (1024MB Non-ECC @ G.Skill GBHZ/F2-6400PHU2)





    ASUS Striker II Extreme ---------------------------------- ARC-1261D-ML without Write-Back ---------------- ARC-1261D-ML with Write-Back (1024MB Non-ECC)

    Last edited by F.E.A.R.; 01-18-2009 at 10:41 PM.

  9. #9
    Registered User
    Join Date
    Feb 2009
    Location
    Europe, Amsterdam
    Posts
    43
    Quote Originally Posted by Speederlander View Post
    1680 supports SSD, at least with the latest two firmware updates.
    That's quite a general statement I think. SSDs come in many forms and sizes. I'll take it that the 1680 supports the X25's, but support for Mtron SSDs for example is absolutely lacking. With version 1.45 of the Areca firmware, Mtron SSDs having firmware 0.19 or 0.20 simply don't work at all. With version 1.46 of the Areca firmware Mtron SSDs work, but all performance is completely down the drain.

    Take a look at this blog posting that we've been working on: http://jdevelopment.nl/hardware/one-dvd-per-second/

    It details some of the severe problems we encountered with the Areca1680.

  10. #10
    RAIDer
    Join Date
    Jul 2005
    Location
    Norway
    Posts
    699
    Quote Originally Posted by henk53 View Post
    That's quite a general statement I think. SSDs come in many forms and sizes. I'll take it that the 1680 supports the X25's, but support for Mtron SSDs for example is absolutely lacking. With version 1.45 of the Areca firmware, Mtron SSDs having firmware 0.19 or 0.20 simply don't work at all. With version 1.46 of the Areca firmware Mtron SSDs work, but all performance is completely down the drain.

    Take a look at this blog posting that we've been working on: http://jdevelopment.nl/hardware/one-dvd-per-second/

    It details some of the severe problems we encountered with the Areca1680.
    Looks like Raid-0 performance is ok

  11. #11
    Registered User
    Join Date
    Feb 2009
    Location
    Europe, Amsterdam
    Posts
    43
    Quote Originally Posted by Nizzen View Post
    Looks like Raid-0 performance is ok
    Raid-0 performance is ok-ish But not after the firmware of the Mtron disks was downgraded to 0.18r3.

    Still, the lower speced 1231 is supposedly giving an even better performance. For instance, fig 1. of the linked blog shows that the sequential read (which is admittedly not the most important aspect of an SSD setup) very quickly maxes out around 500 MB/s for 6 disks. With 12 disks its still 500 MB/s. Only adding a second controller approximately doubles that speed (for the same number of disks total).

    ssdisk.eu reportedly run the same kind of benchmark on the 1231 and got around 1200 mb/s if I'm not mistaken on a single controller for the same 12 disks (the mtron 7535). I would like to test this myself as soon as possible of course.

    Clearly, every other RAID level than 0 is not so okay. RAID10, RAID5 and RAID6 was tested and we observed those strange 'gaps' in performance for all of those. IOMeter (not yet in the blog) showed extreme long maximum response times; 3 seconds, 5 seconds and sometimes even up to 10 seconds.

  12. #12
    RAIDer
    Join Date
    Jul 2005
    Location
    Norway
    Posts
    699
    Looks like the Areca 1680ix likes SAS drives for the most.

    This is my little test with 10 Seagate 15k.5 SAS

    http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...d.php?t=213285

    I waiting for Some OCZ Vertex for the Areca. I hope for less problems than you :p

  13. #13

  14. #14
    Registered User
    Join Date
    Feb 2009
    Location
    Europe, Amsterdam
    Posts
    43
    The first link doesn't seem to work. The second link is interesting, although also confusing. The discussion starts with the statement that the 1680 seems to be limiting SATA throughput around 500 MB/sec:

    Tried default setting for both, tried different strip sizes and all I get is between 450-550MB/sec.
    The discussion ends with reports about a new firmware (1.45) that fixes all these problems:

    Raid5 16xSATA HDDs, READ, v1.45

    1.2ghz ~950MB/S
    800mhz ~700MB/S

    so what now to do.

    cancle the 1231ML and order the 1680...?
    The first statement exactly corresponds with what we measured. I'm not sure what the think about the last statement. Our controller came with 1.45 and we upgraded it to 1.46 later on. At no point in time did we ever see anything close to 950MB/s. Since 16 disks are reportedly used, I'll take it this is about the 1680ix-16. We used the 1680ix-12 with 12 mtron 7535 SSDs. But still...

  15. #15
    Xtreme Member
    Join Date
    Dec 2004
    Location
    Costa Frick'n Rica
    Posts
    417
    to be limiting SATA throughput around 500 MB/sec:
    that could be possible, i have 8 drives (Hitacvhi 750G) in raid 0 testing the card now and i stay around 490 and the BAM jumped to 577 and then quickly dropped.. once i get home will get some screens up.
    |Rig|Sold my monster, stuck on a Q8200 and 9500Gt with 4G of ram.


    Quote Originally Posted by
    Originally Posted by jimmyz
    This chip is gonna stop piracy like condoms prevented unwanted pregnancies and STD's.

  16. #16
    Xtreme Mentor
    Join Date
    Sep 2006
    Posts
    3,246
    No need to test honestly, I confirmed some time ago SATA throughput on 1680 was capped between 500 and 600 MB/s, varying somewhat by drive. These controllers aren't designed for enthusiast RAID 0 arrays. The 1680 is specifically for SAS and/or Raid 6 and Raid 60. It has the latest Intel Raid 6 technology.
    [SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]

  17. #17
    Xtreme Member
    Join Date
    Dec 2004
    Location
    Costa Frick'n Rica
    Posts
    417
    ^^ good to know then! i plan to use mine in raid 10 or thought raid 50? for a MySQL Database.... thinking raid 10 would give me better performance though
    |Rig|Sold my monster, stuck on a Q8200 and 9500Gt with 4G of ram.


    Quote Originally Posted by
    Originally Posted by jimmyz
    This chip is gonna stop piracy like condoms prevented unwanted pregnancies and STD's.

Bookmarks

Bookmarks

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •