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

[SteveRo]

yes but they r not bootable that is the reason why i dont have acards

I boot from acards 9010's all the time.
All of my pcmark vantage scores that I have posted in this thread - 1231ML, 9211, 9260 and ich10r have all been with the acards as the boot array.
Acards look like any other hard disk except usually much smaller.

[Tiltevros]

sorry stevero i didnt know that i thought that acard are something like i-Ram's. ok any ideas what should we do with 9211?? any thoughts?? any ideas???

[SteveRo]

full benchmark suite with PCmark Vantage

http://service.futuremark.com/compare?pcmv=260172

Your HDD score is good, particularly your windows vista start score - but I still say a 9211/7xX25mR0 should be way faster than what you are seeing.

[SteveRo]

sorry stevero i didnt know that i thought that acard are something like i-Ram's. ok any ideas what should we do with 9211?? any thoughts?? any ideas???

I wonder if other devices might be conflicting.

For example - in my case - I wonder if quad SLI affects the start time score (my start time score is very low).

There might by competition between video cards and raid controller for pcie lanes and/or b/w.

There might be a irq conflict

Did you check the event log for anything unusual?

[Anvil]

I've opted for a quote on the 9211-8i KIT on one of the webstores in Norway.
If the price is right I might order one.

A 64KB stripe size should be fine in most cases so I guess a new firmware could fix things.
I use 8-16KB stripe sizes on the 9260-8i for my VM's.

Tiltevros,
Have you tried it on other motherboards?

[Tiltevros]

Tyan S7025 is coming today but my CPUS will come tomorrow so... i will try to setup as soon its possible to make some results... do u think that we will see any difference?

[Ao1]

@audienceofone

No, not yet, but it's on my list of things to try

I was thinking of using 3-4 G2 160GB with 40GB spare area each.
Hopefully I'll be able to do the tests this week.

I've just rebuilt using a 70GB partition on a G2 160GB drive and there is a modest benchmark increase using AS Benchmark. Modest, but enough I think for top spot on your forum?

AS SSD Benchmark 1.2.3577.40358
------------------------------
Name: INTEL SSDSA2M160G2GC ATA Device
Firmware: 2CV102HD
Interface: IDE
Size: 149.05 GB
Date: 28/12/2009 13:34:20
------------------------------
Sequential:
------------------------------
Read: 255.64 MB/s
Write: 105.06 MB/s
------------------------------
4K:
------------------------------
Read: 21.69 MB/s
Write: 52.24 MB/s
------------------------------
4K-64Threads:
------------------------------
Read: 158.81 MB/s
Write: 65.58 MB/s
------------------------------
Access Times:
------------------------------
Read: 0.057 ms
Write: 0.084 ms
------------------------------
Score:
------------------------------
Read: 206
Write: 128
Total: 441
------------------------------

[SteveRo]

I've just rebuilt using a 70GB partition on a G2 160GB drive and there is a modest benchmark increase using AS Benchmark. Modest, but enough I think for top spot on your forum?

AS SSD Benchmark 1.2.3577.40358
------------------------------
Name: INTEL SSDSA2M160G2GC ATA Device
Firmware: 2CV102HD
Interface: IDE
Size: 149.05 GB
Date: 28/12/2009 13:34:20
------------------------------
Sequential:
------------------------------
Read: 255.64 MB/s
Write: 105.06 MB/s
------------------------------
4K:
------------------------------
Read: 21.69 MB/s
Write: 52.24 MB/s
------------------------------
4K-64Threads:
------------------------------
Read: 158.81 MB/s
Write: 65.58 MB/s
------------------------------
Access Times:
------------------------------
Read: 0.057 ms
Write: 0.084 ms
------------------------------
Score:
------------------------------
Read: 206
Write: 128
Total: 441
------------------------------

What's the best raided throughout for any 8 drives on any controller (areca, LSI, HP, ich, ...).
I think highest throughput would also contribute greatly to the highest pcmark vantage score.
Which wins - x25m's, vertex, vertex Turbo or if someone has deep pockets - x25-e's?
I would think the e's but at a heavy cost - ~3K$?

[Tiltevros]

ok here is mine comment plz so i can figger out what i can do more

[One_Hertz]

It looks like your drives are very degraded. You need to secure erase.

[Anvil]

I tried 8 M's on the 9260-8i and throughput was ~2100MB/s, iops wise it didn't make any difference.
(I used the old firmware for the 9260-8i, the firmware dated oct-23 is clearly an improvement so iops wise it should be better than the old one)

Performance wise there is only one imho, the X25-E but it won't help much if the controller is holdning it down.
I've got 2 of them, one in a webserver and the other one is my boot drive.
The X25-E is an exceptional SSD, but I'll wait for the next generation (Lyndonville), it should be cheaper (per GB) and faster and will come in 100/200/400GB sizes.

The current Indilinx controller just isn't in the same league as the Intel controller, SandForce 1500 is looking like one to watch out for though.

@audienceofone
Hmmm, you've made me rethink my schedule
Your result is definitely an improvement, if it wasn't for the X25-E's you'd be on top of the list.

[SkOrPn]

I can tell you one thing, Im not replacing my Vertexs until SATA 6Gb/s SSD's become avail, lol. I wonder if those will be considered Generation 3 drives, or if Gen 3 will still be sata 2?

@ Computurd: Thanks for the info, Biker directed me to his compatibility list but it did not show my mobo on it so I told him I will just give it a try and report back. Now to figure out which card I want, that is the tough part. The featureless state of 9211 is very close to a deal breaker for me, they should have at least given us the options of stripe sizes, if even only a few selections, similar to the options of a mobo, imo. jeez lol

[Ao1]

@audienceofone
Hmmm, you've made me rethink my schedule
Your result is definitely an improvement, if it wasn't for the X25-E's you'd be on top of the list.

Should SLC & MLC not be in different catergories? If so no contest. I'm just under double the OCZ Vertex 250gb score of 222.

TBH if I needed the space I would not have bothered to try and squeeze out a bit more speed, but I can easily manage with 70GB and plus it really helps reduce wear on the nand.

@ SteveRo, sorry don't mean to highjack your thread......maybe it helps to put a bit of context to the speeds you guys are getting.

EDIT: @ Anvil. Your score of 564 using 2 Kingston V40gb in raid 0 on a ICH10R is quite impressive!!

[Anvil]

@audienceofone

Is the AS SSD score on your system drive?

[Ao1]

@audienceofone

Is the AS SSD score on your system drive?

Yes. Win 7 AHCI driver. ICH9

[Tiltevros]

@ audienceofone if u have read at earlier posts u will see that we have problems atleast i have problems in Vandage :S in IOmeter i get 1680+ MB/s and in Vandage i get very low scores... the problem is that the LSI 9211 gives diff. results in any benchmark. HDD tune max speed 850MB/s, Everest ultimate 789MB/s, IOmeter 1686MB/s, HD tach 450MB/s.... we would like u all to share ur knowledge and help us understand if there is a wrong move that we make, if we have to consider something else or even the controller is a turd... :S sorry for speaking in this way but i really dont know what else i have to think or do!

[Ao1]

@ Tiltevros. If you are getting big differences between different benchmarks I would not be so worried. That is more to do with the benchmarks programs than anything else. Try a fresh format as One_Hertz suggested. At least then you can take out degradation from the equation.
I wish I could help but my knowledge is very limited and there are ppl on this forum with considerably more knowledge who I'm sure will help if they can. I tried playing with a raid card and ssd's but I dumped it as soon as I realised that outside of benchmarks it gave me nothing in return. Now I like running a slimed down system. Less to go wrong, much cheaper, less power and no perceivable performance loss.
I don't do any tweaks apart from:
Superftech - disabled.
Defrag - disabled.
System restore - disabled.
File indexing - disabled.

[One_Hertz]

@ audienceofone if u have read at earlier posts u will see that we have problems atleast i have problems in Vandage :S in IOmeter i get 1680+ MB/s and in Vandage i get very low scores... the problem is that the LSI 9211 gives diff. results in any benchmark. HDD tune max speed 850MB/s, Everest ultimate 789MB/s, IOmeter 1686MB/s, HD tach 450MB/s.... we would like u all to share ur knowledge and help us understand if there is a wrong move that we make, if we have to consider something else or even the controller is a turd... :S sorry for speaking in this way but i really dont know what else i have to think or do!

It has been mentioned before in this thread but the 9211 does not do well with large files. The results differ a lot because different benchmarks use different sized blocks to make their measurements.

Your X25-Ms are also degraded hence the high access times. You need to run HDDErase on all of them (3.3 I think).

[Spoiler]

ok here is mine comment plz so i can figger out what i can do more

If you still have the same setup going, you mind running ATTO and posting it?

+1 on the secure erase.

[SteveRo]

ok here is mine comment plz so i can figger out what i can do more

I agree with one-hertz - this doesn't look right - I assume this is 9211 and 7 or 8 x25m's?

[Tiltevros]

i cant get hdderase working does anyone here have an iso file that work?? i took off the raid connect the drives to ich9r IDE compatible but my iso doesnt boot...... help guys

[trans am]

i cant get hdderase working does anyone here have an iso file that work?? i took off the raid connect the drives to ich9r IDE compatible but my iso doesnt boot...... help guys

you have this ver? http://www.iishacks.com/index.php/20...ate-drive-ssd/

yes set to native ide. reboot and set 1st hdd as dvd drive. it should work. You can also do sanitary erase method with the win7 dvd. lemme know


also make sure to anable acpi 2: go into BIOS > Power Menu and make sure ACPI 2.0 support is enabled and Suspend Mode is set to S1 (POS).

[Tiltevros]

can u plz tell me the steps one over the time?
1rst i download the file from the web site
2nd i c/p (unrar first) in the USB
3rd config my bios
4th boot from the usb???

[trans am]

im doing it too.

DO you have a the usb key already set for boot? You need to format it using this method then copy the hdd erase files to the key once its been set up for usb boot disk. go here: http://www.ocztechnologyforum.com/fo...00&postcount=1




I also found out how to flash to latest FW on these in DOS using usb boot device.

[Tiltevros]

it doesnt work... it doesnt see the keydrive at all...