Crucial C300 256g 8xR0 lsi 9211/9260

[mbreslin]

I guess this is cache

[Tiltevros]

lol !!!!!!!!!!

[Anvil]

That's the cache. (a bit low on the 16KB random)

MSM_Controller_upgrade.JPG

Log on to the MSM using your Windows username and password

Select the controller and click on Go To in the menu.
Select Controller and Update Controller Firmware.

You should end up with this.
MSM_Controller_upgrade_2.JPG

Now just browse for the firmware.

[Metroid]

4457 - 2800 = 1657. 50% more Sequential read speed performance. I guess the only thing missing is to upgrade the Crucial Marvel and LSI Megaraid controller firmware.

[mbreslin]

Firmware updated, Is there a way to make windows see the virtual disk besides using the w7 cd which takes forever to get to the partition creation app. I assume you do it with diskpart but it doesn't want to make a partition.

[Anvil]

I'm not sure that I follow
Are you still using all 8 drives for the "OS" or are you using a separate drive for the OS?

I never use diskpart, I use Disk Management but then again I'm using a separate drive for the OS.
(a separate drive for the OS is a real timesaver for testing and on top of that you get better results on the array, for benchmarking)

[mbreslin]

I'm using a seperate drive for the os now, what I'm saying is after I build the array in the lsi bios windows doesn't see the disk, though it's listed under disk drives in device manager.

Edit: got it fine with Disk Management, thanks

[Anvil]

OK, I get it.

Right click on the Computer icon, then Click on Manage, then click on Disk Management.

This is what you need.
mbreslin.JPG
Having defined the virtual drive you probably have to initialize the drive and then just right click create the partition.

I urge you to download the MSM, it's a lot easier to use than the bios.

edit:

Link to LSI downloads

You'll find the MSM under Miscellaneous. (way down)

[mbreslin]

Yeah I had it since you meantioned it I just didn't know about disk management, I don't think I've so much as added a hard drive in 8 years.. certainly never made any raid arrays.

[Anvil]

It's never too late

Now, enjoy!

When you have the time, could you bench just one C300 on the LSI 9260, I've ordered one C300 and I'm curious to how it handles 6Gb/s drives.

[mbreslin]

Results seem all over the place and seem to be degrading a bit logging out tonight for gc will hopefully help, I'll do your 1 disk shortly.

[Tiltevros]

disable windows Search and windows Defender.
enable the cache policy and write back flusking.

[Metroid]

The results are much better but the 4K random marks are still too low

I suppose the 4K random marks do not increase while working on raid. Probably there are exceptions.

[Computurd]

I would highly recommend going to the 9260 for the begging of your test. the latency on it with the latest firmware is superb. i think you will be amazed what the cache and read ahead on that much more powerful IOP will do for you. the 9260 is leaps ahead of the 9211 in brute strength, and for an array of this speed believe me you will need it . I will link a configuration document for LSI that they changed recently to reflect the changed behavior of the 9260 with the new firmware. if you follow their setup recommendations for SSD you should be able to get some pretty amazing numbers. your latency with that 6gb/s interface should be killer. you need to use everest to measure your latency, because it is the best to measure latency with. nothing measures it closer or more accurately. you should focus on using iometer and everest to test with. also winsat runs. at least that is my recommendation. atto is trash. here is your link:

http://www.lsi.com/DistributionSyste..._2010_v2_0.pdf

[Metroid]

I think he used the LSI 9260 for this comparison test.

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...7&postcount=18

[Anvil]

Thanks mbreslin,

A single run of CDM 3.0 at 1000MB or 2000MB is sufficient, it's just to establish that it treats 6Gb/s SATA drives like SAS 6Gb/s drives.
(meaning > 3GB/s sequential reads etc)

I've never seen the C300 benched in raid, degrading performance shouldn't be an issue but all drives degrade to some extent.
The C300 probably needs TRIM to perform at it's best, I'm not sure how GC is handled.
(idling overnight might do the trick)

[mbreslin]

When I'm creating the partition in windows should I match the stripe size with the unit size or leave unit size in windows as default (I think default is 4096)?

[Anvil]

I suggest using the standard 4KB allocation unit size on SSD's.

[mbreslin]

That's 1 drive with your usual 9260 r0 settings from earlier only thing I turned on cache, I bet that skewed it, I have to go out for an hour I'll fix it when I get home if you need something different. (64k stripe)

[mbreslin]

@computurd I somehow missed your post earlier, thanks! I had been testing between 64/128 stripes and now I see they recommend 256 so tomorrow should be fun, I've consistantly gotten better results with 64k though, so we'll see, also I'm dissapointed that 4k randoms don't seem to scale much at all.. here is 8x drives 64k stripe/no read ahead/write back/cache:

[SteveRo]

I guess this is cache

Wow Mr mbreslin, great numbers!

[mbreslin]

Thanks steve, I don't think I'll get too close to your acard scores though. I definitely like my ~2tb though.

[SteveRo]

Thanks steve, I don't think I'll get too close to your acard scores though. I definitely like my ~2tb though.

Very good point - 2tb vs 40gb - your 100% to my 2%.

[Metroid]

Very good point - 2tb vs 40gb - your 100% to my 2%.

Regardless, it has been a great show, thanks for the results mbreslin.

I once thought about buying the C300 256GB version, problem is the latency. I want to see how the Corsair and OCZ Sandforce drives will perform.

[Computurd]

you need to run PCmark vantage!