AMD SB850/890GX with SSD RAID-0 first look

[F@32]

December 24, 2010 update: See 3, 4, 5 drives RAID-0 tests here.

July 5, 2010 update: Re-ran all benchmarks with tweaks and NCQ on. ICH10R slightly outperforms SB850 in small file read/writes - see AS SSD and ATTO benchmarks. Overall it offers amazing performance for SSD drives on par with ICH10R, so now at least AMD fans can have worthy controller and not feel left behind. Note that ICH10R was more forgiving in terms of partition alignment.

In a nutshell:
- ICH10R is faster with small files (<128Kb) performing read/write operations
- SB850 has higher sequential throughput. Multiple tests and users show it is about 1000MB/s (I reached a bit over 900MB/s). Thanks TassadarDavid's and mattkosem for the benchmarks. Vanilla ICH10R is capped at about 600MB/s
- In my 2R0 benchmarks it topped out at 61,000 IOps in 4K random read QD32.
- SB850 right now offers native SATA3, while Intel uses third party solutions, many were reported to be performing not so well with SSD SATA3 RAID-0

Looking at this graph, SB850 with 890GX config will be capped at theoretical 2GB/s, which SATA shares with PCI, USB, PATA, Ethernet and HD Audio.


To get maximum RAID performance from SSDs on SB850
1. You need to manually align partition even if you are on Vista or 7 (see alignment calculator by W1zzard here http://www.techpowerup.com/articles/other/157)
2. C1E and C&Q off
3. SATA3 should be off for SATA2 drives (x-18/25m saw 4K QD16 IOps quadrupled with SATA3 off.)
4. 8.71 and newer chipset, AHCI and RAID drivers
5. NCQ on in RAIDXpert - thanks to Ourasi for the tip
(For single drive that means SB 850 is in RAID mode, but drive is not RAID members. You will loose TRIM in RAID mode.)
6. Write back caching on in RAIDXpert and Windows drive properties.
7. Buffer flushing off
8. Other OS tweaks (i.e. Defrag off, Indexing off, etc.)
9. For factory resetting your drives: HDD Erase will only recognize drives attached to port 4 and 5 on SB850 in IDE mode or JMicron SATA connectors
10. Task xx timeout errors on your array. This is caused either by RAID option ROM (see more details in the Nov 5 update) or by having SATA3 enabled for SATA2 SSDs.

Hi folks!

The test:
- Intel x-18m G1 RAID-0 SATA2 on SB850 SATA 6Gb was tested after quick build
- Compared to ICH10R, performance is about the same
- Write-Back and NCQ options can be enabled in RAIDXpert application in Windows
- To eliminate the usual suspects I tested JMicron as well in RAID-0 and single drive mode on that board, after resetting drives to fresh condition
- It is possible, that bios/drivers will need some work.
- I hope SB850 will shine with SATA3 6Gbs SSDs
- TRIM support is available in AHCI mode with 8.7 and later drivers
- Make sure to grab latest (as of this writing it is 8.71 chipset/SATA/AHCI/RAID/RAIDXpert drivers from your motherboard manufacturer's website)

Test set-up:
ICH10R
Drives: Intel X-18M Gen1 80Gb
RAID set-up: Stripe 128Kb, 4K NTFS allocation unit, write-back caching enabled
Storage Driver: intel_rst_full_9.5.4.1001 with IntelMatrixWin764bit8.9.0.1023
Mobo: Gigabyte GA-EP45-UD3P, bios F10f
CPU: C2D E8400, TRUE-120 default clocks
RAM: 4x1Gb DDR2 Buffalo FireStix 800MHz (Micron D9s)
Video: Asus HD5850, Cat 10.2
Sound: X-Fi XtremeMusic, SBXF_W7DRVBTA_US_2_18_0013
NIC: Intel Gigabit CT PCIe
PSU: Antec Quattro 850Wt
Case: Antec 1200
OS: Windows 7 Ultimate 64bit

SB850
Drives: Intel X-18M Gen1 80Gb
RAID set-up: Stripe 128Kb, 4K NTFS allocation unit, write-back caching enabled
Storage Driver: AHCI/RAID 8.71
Mobo: Gigabyte GA-890GPA-UD3H, bios F6
CPU: Phenom II 965, TRUE-120 default clocks
RAM: 2x2Gb DDR3 G-Skill Ripjaws F3-12800cl9d
Video: Asus HD5850, Cat 10.6
Sound: X-Fi XtremeMusic, SBXF_W7DRVBTA_US_2_18_0013
NIC: Intel Gigabit CT PCIe
PSU: Antec Quattro 850Wt
Case: Antec 1200
OS: Windows 7 Ultimate 64bit

Benchmarks/tools used:
- iometer-2008-06-22-rc2.win.x86_64
- atto_234
- AS SSD Benchmark 1.4.3645.3568
- HD Tune Pro 3.5
- Crystal Disk Mark 3

AS SSD. SB850 on the left, ICH10R - right


HDTune Random Read. SB850 on the left, ICH10R - right. Don't know what to say here. SB850 performs very nicely in HDTune Pro...


ATTO Sequential read and write. SB850 on the left, ICH10R - right


SB850. IOMeter 4k random read, QD4, 1.5min test run


SB850. IOMeter 4k random read, QD16, 1.5min test run


SB850. IOMeter 512k sequential read, QD4, 1.5min test run


SB850 IOMeter 512k sequential write, QD4, 1.5min test run


SB850. Crystal Disk Mark.

[Ourasi]

You have to enable NCQ via the AMD Raid tool, things will look alot better then...... And "Tony TRIM" kills performance on X25 Gen. 1, a complete waste and image+HDDErase is the only way to go on Itel Gen. 1............ The WriteBack Cache you have enabled on ICH is fine for the odd bench, but useless in realworld, so direct comparison with other controllers this must be set to off.....

[SteveRo]

You have to enable NCQ via the AMD Raid tool, things will look alot better then...... And "Tony TRIM" kills performance on X25 Gen. 1, a complete waste and image+HDDErase is the only way to go on Itel Gen. 1............ The WriteBack Cache you have enabled on ICH is fine for the odd bench, but useless in realworld, so direct comparison with other controllers this must be set to off.....

Does the intel ssd toolbox work on G1's?

[Ao1]

No. Intel left G1 owners high and drive with no TRIM

[F@32]

OK, here are the challenges. AMD hasn't released RAIDXpert for 8xx series yet. HDDErase does not work on this board regardless of mode (SATA3, SATA2, AHCI, IDE) or controller (SB850, JMicron). There is no other way to reset Gen 1 x-18/25 on this board except PerfectDisk+AS_Cleaner.

Just installed OS on my third drive and going to bench SSDs in single mode and see what the hell is going on with SB850.

[Praz]

Just installed OS on my third drive and going to bench SSDs in single mode and see what the hell is going on with SB850.

Vertex LE100 on the 4A89GTD Pro/USB3, AHCI.

[F@32]

OK, I'm running them now as non-OS drives, will post proper benchies soon. Hint: it's not THAT bad ;-) BTW SB850 beats that crappy JMicron...

EDIT: Updated first post with link to the latest chipset drivers.

[BeepBeep2]

I have SB850 RAIDXpert on a disk here if you want I can zip it and upload it...

[F@32]

I have SB850 RAIDXpert on a disk here if you want I can zip it and upload it...

Thanks chief , I have updated first post with the link to 8.70RC1 and RAIDXpert for 850 chipset. Do you see NCQ option anywhere there? I'd better run several QD tests with IOMeter this weekend, otherwise picture is incomplete... Too bad my ICH10R system is all disassembled.

[felix_w]

Thanks chief , I have updated first post with the link to 8.70RC1 and RAIDXpert for 850 chipset. Do you see NCQ option anywhere there? I'd better run several QD tests with IOMeter this weekend, otherwise picture is incomplete... Too bad my ICH10R system is all disassembled.

Thank you very much for your tests F@32..

been waiting this for long time...

Can you see which RAID option ROM is your board using ? 3.2.1540.6 maybe ?

Seems that SB850 has become better than its predecessors, but still has room to improve...

I've also tried SSD RAID on AMD's controllers (SB600,SB710,SB750) but on Vertex drives. If you have any avail, maybe we can compare.

EDIT : And, i forgot (as usually)...Did you have the option of Write-Back in the RAID ROM Menu ?

[F@32]

Thank you very much for your tests F@32..

been waiting this for long time...

Can you see which RAID option ROM is your board using ? 3.2.1540.6 maybe ?

Seems that SB850 has become better than its predecessors, but still has room to improve...

I've also tried SSD RAID on AMD's controllers (SB600,SB710,SB750) but on Vertex drives. If you have any avail, maybe we can compare.

EDIT : And, i forgot (as usually)...Did you have the option of Write-Back in the RAID ROM Menu ?

Hey Felix,

RAID ROM on my F4c bios is 3.2.1540.15. When I set it up I didn't see Write-Back option. However I have write caching enabled and write-cache buffer flushing disabled in Windows. Sorry, I traded couple of Vertexes for x-18m's. I still have hope that with new RAID ROM and better drivers we might see some performance improvement, but probably it will not touch ICH10R.

Cheers mate.

[F@32]

Added IOMeter results.

[Praz]

IOMeter 512k sequential write, 4 outstanding IOs, 1Gb test file (yeah, it's not pretty)

Downloaded the 512k sequential write file and ran it on the Vertex LE100 with the controller set to AHCI.

[F@32]

Nice, the power of SandForce 1500 in action. Can't wait for wide availability of SF 1200 drives. SF 1500 are too pricey for MLC drives.

Cheers.

[Praz]

Nice, the power of SandForce 1500 in action. Can't wait for wide availability of SF 1200 drives. SF 1500 are too pricey for MLC drives.

Cheers.

Unfortunately I don't have two drives to test in RAID. A single drive is down slightly in benchmarks compared to the ICH10R. But I think one would be hard pressed to tell the difference in actual use between the two controllers.

[F@32]

Unfortunately I don't have two drives to test in RAID. A single drive is down slightly in benchmarks compared to the ICH10R. But I think one would be hard pressed to tell the difference in actual use between the two controllers.

Not a problem. One bit of information I'm really curious to see is maximum read throughput of SB 850. Wonder if it's higher than 660 MB/s limit of ICH10R. For that I would need another couple of x-25m. Hate spending money on HW I will not be using in the long run

[felix_w]

What was the maximum for SB750 ?

[F@32]

We need some real benchmarks for this. Will google. In a meantime, according to this OCZ forum post (no bench) it's tops out at 600MB/s. You also posted there.

I found that the 750SB will not run stable at max throughput about 600MB/sec any higher than that for 24/7 use causes me problems.

[felix_w]

lol, i'd forgotten this thread.
From my tests, seems that performance is very much dependable of driver version. So , if not driver limited, 600MB/s could be the limit.
I had atto runs on SB600 of 450max reads with just 2 drives, so maybe M.Yancey did reach the limit of SB750.

I haven't tried more than two drives (vertex is all i have) on SB750, but since i broke my LSI array for maintenance of drives, maybe if i have time this weekend, i'll try.

I meant official max throughput, though. I haven't found any reference on AMD's documentation for throughput of SB600/SB7xx.

[F@32]

Anand shows mild improvement with SB 850 using new BIOS on Asus board.

Unfortunately one of the ad servers on Anandtech has been hacked and it is serving malicious software right now, so FF is blocking most articles, but not the home page.

[felix_w]

I think he says that performance with latest bios was not improved, but after using latest AHCI driver (1.2.0.164) there was an increase :

I received an ASUS 890GX board for this followup and updated to the latest BIOS on that board. That didn’t fix my performance problems. Using AMD’s latest SB850 AHCI drivers however (1.2.0.164), did...sort of

[uwackme]

I figured out what was bothering my 2-80G G2's with the Gigabyte SB850.

If I enabled "Sata 3.0" mode, the raid controller wouldn't see the G2's any more, and even on the onboard jmicron connections, the G2's would still be flakey as hell just because the onchip controller had sata 3.0 enabled.

That was with F4 bios and the latest Intel firmware as well.

But otherwise, they work great and are fast as hell. With NCQ enabled they are running 170MB/s write 540MB/s read for 2-G2's in raid0.

[felix_w]

Did you have to increase SB voltage to get these results, or running stock?

[F@32]

I figured out what was bothering my 2-80G G2's with the Gigabyte SB850.

If I enabled "Sata 3.0" mode, the raid controller wouldn't see the G2's any more, and even on the onboard jmicron connections, the G2's would still be flakey as hell just because the onchip controller had sata 3.0 enabled.

That was with F4 bios and the latest Intel firmware as well.

But otherwise, they work great and are fast as hell. With NCQ enabled they are running 170MB/s write 540MB/s read for 2-G2's in raid0.

How do you enable NCQ? Don't see this option in RAID mode anywhere: BIOS, RAIDXpert, Device Manager...

[uwackme]

It is in the RaidXpert, if you highlight each drive and then pick settings, it has acces to write-cache and NCQ settings to enable/disable.

The drives come default NCQ off.