LSI 9211-8i versus LSI 9260-8i versus Areca 1231ML-2G

[Computurd]

yes scaling has not been good, part of it was firmware, when i ran those i did it with 1.42 FW for the vertex which is slower, and those results are definitely not optimal. try running cached i/o on the 9260 and see if that helps your sequential, there is some settings for acards that would not be the same though. my typical read for this setup with 9260 is 1450 so the scaling is not perfect. there is also the question of burst speeds etc, i run the i/o meter with a 5 sec ramp to avoid burst readings.

[Computurd]

9211 hardware raid:



9211 software raid:


Look at those random reads on the software raid, i have thought of taking the 9211 with two devices in raid 0 as boot device, then having the other 6 drives as a software raid device to load games etc on, would be the perfect marriage i think HOwever, the software raid is not much faster than the hardware raid in practical application, so i am not sure it is worth trouble. I have many more tests etc to show you, gonna do some more game load load testing trying to finish it up tonight

[SteveRo]

CompuT - I am trying to see if I can increase the 9260 vantage score to match the other 2 controllers - no luck yet.
Based on what you have seen of the acard numbers so far and your knowledge of the 9260 what is the best 9260 settings to maximize seq throughput?

[Computurd]

do you have NCQ enabled within the bios of the card itself? much higher returns are gained without ncq in mine and a few others experience. also some may be your motherboard setting, in my experience there are major gains to be made with pci-e packet expansion i run 1024, and several voltages on my board do not like to play nice, so they have to be adjusted, NF200 voltage, IOH/ICH, ICH vcore, and IOH Vcore. i have also recieved great returns from pcie overclocking to 104 is where i usually run. disable background initialization. for straight up max sequential try cached I/O as well. there is also the question of disk cache i leave mine enabled. the 9260 can be tricky to play with, and some boards do not like it at all. however it at least seems to be working with yours direct i/o usually gives the best latency on the ssd's though.
there seems to be something a little weird here as my max vantage with this 9211 is being less so far with vantage. we are backwards. my 9260 beats the 9211. this may have to do with the variance in the handling of our respectable storage mediums and how the controllers interact with them.

[Computurd]

try 'always read ahead' that may give you some justice with those acards

[Computurd]

steve-ro i need a favor... i am using the driver supplied with win7 retail which is 2.0.2.71 and i think this is why ia m not getting same results as you with 9211-8i. i was wondering if there is any way you could somehow host that driver, or attach it on here so that i could get it? LSI site does not allow you to receive old versions of the drivers...

[SteveRo]

Computurd - The 9211 with your 8 vertex aught to be a killer set up for vantage.
From what I can see, pcmark vantage loves arrays with high seq read speeds - what is your best seq read speed so far?
Have you tried a max pcmark vantage run with it yet?

[Computurd]

reference previous post^^^ i do not think i am using the best driver available.

[SteveRo]

reference previous post^^^ i do not think i am using the best driver available.

understood - I will try to extract - will be early am tomorrow.

[Computurd]

i would appreciate it very very much!

[ehorn]

Enjoying the read here...

Is anyone aware of a internal SAS 2.0 Expander card. Something like this. Only supporting the SAS-2.0 standard?

Thanks for any replies.

[SteveRo]

Cool

Then I have to try the 1231ml soon too

But it is no proof of using the Areca 1231ml in vantage. You can use whatever you want it looks like. The "Hard drive model" is just the first boot device on the computer

Good morning Mr Nizzen, When you say "The "Hard drive model" is just the first boot device on the computer" does that mean that you can boot from one partition but run the vantage benchmark using a different paritition (provided it is also bootable)?

[SteveRo]

i would appreciate it very very much!

Good morning, you have email at msn.
If you get this working with your 8xvertex array - you might give Mr. Nizzen a run for his money.

[Tiltevros]

stevero can u email me also the driver for the 9211 plz i want to test it with 8 intel x25ms

[SteveRo]

stevero can u email me also the driver for the 9211 plz i want to test it with 8 intel x25ms

done.
post your results - 8x x24-m should be a screamer array on the 9211 at 128KB seq reads.

[Tiltevros]

resent the driver in zip plz

[Tiltevros]

1660Mb/s 13.278,46 ios per sec

[Tiltevros]

those results are with a 7xintels x25ms the 8th is at my sisters house i will get it later this day

[Tiltevros]

just for the record everything over 32k files i have the same speed of 1660Mb/s with 16 32 64 and 128 queue depth

[Tiltevros]

driver details LSI sas2 2008 falcon version 2.0.8.0

[SteveRo]

Wow Tilt, that's great!
When you say everything over 32K you get the same speed - check your speed at 2, 3, or 4MB - is it still 1660?
With the acards I saw a drop off starting at 256KB -

[SteveRo]

driver details LSI sas2 2008 falcon version 2.0.8.0

and wow again - I thought this was a bad driver - maybe its just bad for my array? I will check again.

[SteveRo]

resent the driver in zip plz

I just recent this zipped to both you and Comput.

[Tiltevros]

do u want to creat a senario and post it here so i could do the same test that u do? and then i will sent u over the xls file to fix it

[SteveRo]

Tilt, you have hotmail, thanks.