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

[Anvil]

Of course they have to say February! I finally get some money to pour into some more SSD's and I have to wait some more. Who knows though...those drives might not even be ready then.

According to several websites Micron will start shipping to OEM's within January while the consumer drives (Crucial) will be available for purchase in February.

If you are in a hurry there's always the G2 and it won't disappoint you.

[Tiltevros]

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...1&postcount=21

[trans am]

hey guys I got my indilinx supertalent ultradrives and latest ssd fw with trim and gc is on them. Since I am on p7p55d dlx I have 3 pcie x16 slots but if 2 are populated it goes to x8/x8 or I can do 1 x16 vga / 3rd pcie x16 slot is 4x for the 9260-4i. will putting the card on the 4x lane really make a big difference on my bandwidth? or should I do the x8/x8 I really dont want to run my 5850 in x8 but I also dont want to lose any bandwidth on the LSI. let me know asap so i can get going on this. thanks.
-alvin

[Tiltevros]

witch LSI do u have? i4 or i8?

[trans am]

hey tilt yeah I'm on the 9260-4i its in my sig. everyone was complaining about not having my specs in the sig but i didnt want to get rid of that amazing tng lcars animation gif. I downloaded a gif animation freesoft and modded it with my specs.
i went ahead and built a quick 64kb stripe on the 4x windows is installing right now. I'll bench it quick and then move the card over to the x8 and we can all see the changes. be back soon.

[Tiltevros]

u r not even close to the limit of 4x so no problem

[trans am]

u r not even close to the limit of 4x so no problem

thats what I was thinking but I took a huge hit on that x16 (4x) slot. Take a look..

specs were:

lsi 9260-4i (latest fw and win7 64 drivers)
64 kb stripe
webbios LSI raid settings adaptive read ahead, disk cache enabled, i/o direct, ncq disabled, always write back cache, not sure what pci packet size was but default. in windows policy on lsi was enable write caching checked. (bottom one unchecked)
indexing off, power profiles PERFORMANCE, hard disk never turn off, enabled trim using cmd prompt. all other cpu and ram was untouched. i turned off all the win7 services crap in the ocz thread.

here we go:

last best bench on 2 summit 60gb (samsung controllers) drives 64kb stripe on amd sb750 and 9260-4i





******Today*******
3rd 16x slot (4x mode) using 2 x 60gb super talent ME (indilinx barfoot controllers=identical to ocz Vertex) 64kb stripe and 9260-4i on i5 p7p55d dlx


now heres the 2nd x16 slot (8x /8x mode) same config as previous (i just swapped slots)



my 4k read/writes bother me a bit. not sure why they would be lower than the summits on the same stripe size. I'm gonna rebench and see if it changes.
I'm still playing with it. You guys need to help me setup iometer so we can compare. I have no idea.

[One_Hertz]

This has been beaten to death but those CM benchies do not show anything but your cache speed, which doesn't really matter. It would show you the same thing with one 5400rpm HDD.

[trans am]

This has been beaten to death but those CM benchies do not show anything but your cache speed, which doesn't really matter. It would show you the same thing with one 5400rpm HDD.

okay I realize that but since that was the only bench I ever used on this card and wanted to compare to the AMD rig and the fact that I have no idea what I am doing in iometer.

after that last ss I went back into services and shut off superfetch again. Not sure why but I benched with sf and without and the better one was with it on. but I went back and tried again and this time my 4k improved with it disabled. .



i'll run as ssd bench next since thats easy.

okay here's a REAL test:

atto with same settings as last cdm in this post:

using x16 (4x slot)


using x8 / x8


im gonna run a 3dmark quick on x16 and x8 to see the changes.


*****3dmark2006 16x/4x was 15893 no oc

x8/x8 was 15805

i think its safe to say i'm better off with x8/x8 rather than x16/x4
I'm very surprised. I thought for sure the vga hit would be much harder but the 9260-4i seems to use the bandwidth the best on this setup.

[Tiltevros]

trans am when u r testing with crystal disk use 1000MB file because u r testing the cache speed of the controller... thats why u r not taking stady results. try to test big files like 500MB 1000MB and 2000MB to avoid the cache from the controller. U said that u have test it in 4x and 8x the speed of 4x is 2000MB/s in Ver.2 pcie and for x8 is 4000MB/s speeds that even i cant get... so u dont have any problems with that. now the cache speed yes may be diff. but this is at least of ur problems. Every benchmark that u r using needs a diff. setup to ur controller like in IOmeter u have to dissable everything to get maximum results in it. Just search the forum for each setup with benchmarks. Computard me and stevero have post some setups. take a look of them and make one new post to see what is ur problem each time. We r here to help u understanding this controller how it perfom each time

[trans am]

okay. so i see. heres atto again at 2gb max length. on x8/x8

[Computurd]

the x4 v x8 might only matter for burst speeds from cache. the top of x4 may be lower, however, if you have items in your cache that is what cache is for. faster reading from cached items.
so it DOES affect your card to go to the slower bus speed. everyone always downs cache but during usage there are gonna be periods of time where info comes straight from cache to your system. that is why they have it.
so if it affects your cache transfer speed....it affects your speed!
regardless of whether or not the info comes straight from the disk it is still info. going to your system. it is strangling your cache usage. thus your card is not operating at its highest intended usage.

however, it will not apply to all situations, probably a small percentage of use. depends upon your system usage.

[trans am]

okay. so i see. heres atto again at 2gb max length.


16x /4x


on x8/x8


now i'm getting somewhere! Thanks onehertz for getting my ass in gear eventhough your flippant post didn't really tell me what was actually wrong. it was tilt that kindly explained it what was happening. thank you both. Now I kinda wish i knew this sooner when I had the summits on amd *not really) but it wouldve been nice to see a true comparison. I am so happy with this setup. it was so easy to get rolling on this intel compared to the amd chipset and samsung controllers. so after seeing this is it safe to say I can run on the 16x vga /4x lsi? the differences seem so marginal after about a 3rd of the way down. I think the greater loss would be running the 5850 at 8x. okay so now I have the board insulated and you helped me decide where i'll be running the add on cards. now i should prob start doing some air cooling benches to get used to my bios settings and new ram so I have the best chance of breaking the cpuz wr on i3 tomorrow night.

[minhgi]

I could never get my Supertalent Ultra drives to work with 3ware 9690SA. After seeing this thread, I have order an open box LSI 9260 8i for $372 from Newegg.

Rather than spending 400 on new SSD, I hope this controller will give me the full speed of 4 SSD.

Goood Thread

[SkOrPn]

Off Topic but for you guys with Vertex drives, Firmware 1.5 has been released today.

http://www.ocztechnologyforum.com/fo...ad.php?t=67815

[minhgi]

Trans Am:

When you connect the LSI to your Supertalent SSD, do you get any kind of activity lights? (Drive access)

[minhgi]

Off Topic but for you guys with Vertex drives, Firmware 1.5 has been released today.

http://www.ocztechnologyforum.com/fo...ad.php?t=67815

Thanks...just update my Vertex to 1.5. Drop in performance but does not care much about reaching max speed. I just wanted things on my main rig to work.

[trans am]

Trans Am:

When you connect the LSI to your Supertalent SSD, do you get any kind of activity lights? (Drive access)

Yes my friend. I never noticed those red leds but they are both on the drives and they work flawlessly with the setup im on.

[trans am]

is it just me or does this seem insanely low for a 64kb stripe with my setup?

I saw a guy with a single summit on amd 750sb with a better score. wtf am I missing here?

[Levish]

now i'm getting somewhere!

The 8x benches are better for sure in those two charts, not sure if thats more important or not with respect to graphics card performance. I'd bet if you played with stripe size alittle bit you might get another 10-20% at certain file sizes.

Could someone with a 9260i tell me if you can change the cache policy between read/write and say, only doing write back caching? I don't have access to one and I'm mulling over possibly getting one.

Also if you can disable Read caching on the controller Trans Am you might get better results with SSD.

[minhgi]

So what would be the optimum setting for the SSD. 64KB Block /No read ahead/ Write Cache enable?

[Levish]

64/128/256 stripe, depends on what you want to tune for. I'd go with no Read cache since that gives me the lowest read latency but you would loose out on the cache burst if something happened to be in there and write back cache assuming you are on a UPS or have a BBU on the controller.

[Computurd]

side note: new driver for 9211-8i out today!!

[minhgi]

64/128/256 stripe, depends on what you want to tune for. I'd go with no Read cache since that gives me the lowest read latency but you would loose out on the cache burst if something happened to be in there and write back cache assuming you are on a UPS or have a BBU on the controller.

IC...I would just leave it on normal setting. Anyway, I will be using the SSD for my main rig.

What would you suggest to install games on a raid 5 or 10 setting. Games that I have Crysis Warhead, Street Fighter 4, Haegemonia, and Sin of the Solar Empire. Hard drive are set of 4 Fujitsu 15K 3.5.

[minhgi]

I should be getting the LSI today and will do a benchmark on 4 32GB Supertanlent Ultra Drive.

I be using ATTO and Everest.