Areca 1880

[Rubycon]

Are there any newer (than posted) firmware files for the 1880 yet?
I tried the ones linked to the beta ftp site earlier and they don't seem to do much.
Something does not seem right.
Also this card does not like the EVGA Classified 762 (4 way SLI) at ALL! Card does not initialize unless it's in the top PCI-E slot!

[Nizzen]

Finally I got the battery for my 1880ix-24 -4g

Now the system is complete. Anyone else tested the battery on 1880?

[Computurd]

nice results tilt! wow! has anyone else even got a HDD that high yet?

@odditory, cant wait to see your results

the presence or absence of the parity chip also seems the dividing line between whether its a $125 or $450 part

i know its a mother!

Anyone else tested the battery on 1880?

yes, seems to work well, except if you have a bad boot, or some other type of issue, it seems the controller will not want to restart unless you remove the battery first. very strange. has happened 3x for me now...

Also this card does not like the EVGA Classified 762 (4 way SLI) at ALL! Card does not initialize unless it's in the top PCI-E slot!

try changing your memory low gap to as high of a setting as possible.

[Rubycon]

nice results tilt! wow! has anyone else even got a HDD that high yet?

@odditory, cant wait to see your results



i know its a mother!



yes, seems to work well, except if you have a bad boot, or some other type of issue, it seems the controller will not want to restart unless you remove the battery first. very strange. has happened 3x for me now...




try changing your memory low gap to as high of a setting as possible.

I've had that issue with the battery on a sudden shutdown. With the system off the speaker on the battery will tick. Unplugging the battery for a few seconds resets the card and allows it to boot again.

Never though of trying THAT setting. Funny thing is this board works perfectly with my 1680s.

What firmware/bios is everyone using?
Are Intel 160G2s holding me back?

Bandwidth is okay - just over 3.2GB/S W, 2.7GB/S R.

winsat disk will NOT give me a 7.9 across the board with this card regardless of stripe size, read ahead, etc. No problem with the 1680. I know should forget about the MS stuff. Other things it does fly - things that matter most. Using 1880ix-16s here. All of 'em have displays attached to them, 4GB cache. BBUs not in my possession however the ones I use on the 1680s work fine. No change in speed with BBU as suspected possible, however. (longer flush times?)

It's a neat controller that's cheap (IMHO) for what it does.

C:\Users\operator-c6ft7>winsat disk
Windows System Assessment Tool
> Running: Feature Enumeration ''
> Run Time 00:00:00.00
> Running: Storage Assessment '-seq -read -n 0'
> Run Time 00:00:03.06
> Running: Storage Assessment '-ran -read -n 0'
> Run Time 00:00:00.30
> Running: Storage Assessment '-scen 2009 -drive C:'
> Run Time 00:00:50.72
> Running: Storage Assessment '-seq -write -drive C:'
> Run Time 00:00:01.51
> Running: Storage Assessment '-flush -drive C: -seq'
> Run Time 00:00:00.33
> Running: Storage Assessment '-flush -drive C: -ran'
> Run Time 00:00:00.28
> Running: Storage Assessment '-hybrid -ran -read -n 0 -ransize 4096'
NV Cache not present.
> Run Time 00:00:00.00
> Running: Storage Assessment '-hybrid -ran -read -n 0 -ransize 16384'
NV Cache not present.
> Run Time 00:00:00.00
> Disk Sequential 64.0 Read 919.12 MB/s 7.9
> Disk Random 16.0 Read 129.35 MB/s 7.3
> Responsiveness: Average IO Rate 0.09 ms/IO 7.9
> Responsiveness: Grouped IOs 3.48 units 7.9
> Responsiveness: Long IOs 0.51 units 7.9
> Responsiveness: Overall 1.77 units 7.9
> Responsiveness: PenaltyFactor 0.0
> Disk Sequential 64.0 Write 2908.15 MB/s 7.9
> Average Read Time with Sequential Writes 0.138 ms 7.9
> Latency: 95th Percentile 0.279 ms 7.9
> Latency: Maximum 2.529 ms 7.9
> Average Read Time with Random Writes 0.050 ms 7.9
> Total Run Time 00:00:56.60

[Tutto]

Finally I got the battery for my 1880ix-24 -4g

Now the system is complete. Anyone else tested the battery on 1880?

I was having all kinds of problems with the controller/battery on a P6T Deluxe that went away completely after I flashed the onboard SAS controller. With all the trouble I was having I ordered a Classified E770/A1 and am using that currently and haven't had so much as a hiccup.

This is a little off topic but I ordered 5 SAMSUNG Spinpoint F4 HD204UI 2TB Drives for storage and have been reading that they are 4K sector drives? In the greater than 2TB option there are 2 choices. Which should I choose?

[Rubycon]

OK I'm convinced the EVGA 762 does not like the 1880ix at ALL. No BIOS settings will get the card to initialize. (except in the top slot) Does little good when you have three video cards. LOL!

Even tried the brand new EVGA BIOS (77) released yesterday (full CMOS reset). 1880 just sits there with a rapid blue LED flashing in back. No beep from card on power up. System completely ignores it.

[xeon_1]

That is strange my 1222 and 1680ix-24 don't have a problem with my classified 759
and they where installed in the third and fourth slot of the board

[Rubycon]

That is strange my 1222 and 1680ix-24 don't have a problem with my classified 759
and they where installed in the third and fourth slot of the board

Yes my 1680s don't have a problem either. It's the 1880.

I have not tried the 1880 in the 759 (original Classified). Not sure if it would work or not. The 1880 does work in P6T7 and REXIII as well as Super Micro single and dual socket 1366 boards. (they are server boards, it better hehe)

[SteveRo]

Good morning all,

I continue to make slow but steady progress with the 1880.

Pcmv scores are good but could be better if I could get the acards to run at sata300 (currently they only format at sata150 under the 1880).

Good enough for a new record anyway, so I shouldn't complain to much!

http://hwbot.org/community/submissio...0x_43381_marks

Temps are starting to drop here in Virginia, should help my oc's a little!

Probably time to pick up some C300s and give that a try

[dinos22]

Congrats mate

man those three HDD intense tests carry soooo much weight dont they

HDD - application loading
Windows Contacts - searching
HDD - Windows Defender

[SteveRo]

Thanks Mr Dinos - funny how pcmv is so different than pcm05 - pcmv puts so much more emphasis on HDD

[dinos22]

it's only a little disappointing that there is no benefit going subzero on GPU....it's supposed to be a full system benchmark and PCMARK05 does have some impact from higher GPU clocks. That's the only thing i would like to see change for the new version of PCMARK

[youngpro]

congrats my good friend, again very well deserved,

you are definatly right, pcmv has a great deal more to do with optimizing your raid array...

in pcmark05 it is definatly at least 50% of your score (try getting much past 20K on a single optical drive), but it also has some nice components like scaling with graphics cards..

i really like pcmark vantage but thats my only gripe, i just run GPU on air in this benchmark because it doesnt seem to matter if I underclock or overclock my GPU, the end score hardly scales...

i will spend some time now to work on my pcmv efficiency before i rebench, i can see some areas where i am certainly lacking..

[SteveRo]

Thanks much Mr Youngpro, yes, seems like there is always a better sweet spot its just a matter of how long will it take to find it.

[Computurd]

Good enough for a new record anyway, so I shouldn't complain to much!

Awesome work steve...now we can see why you, sir, are my hero

cant wait to see what you do with some c300's should be epic! also, if you can get them acards going that would be very interesting!

[Tiltevros]

PCmark05 with arc and intels (and as we know PCmark05 doesnt like SSD's)

[SteveRo]

Good morning Mr Tilt, that's some very nice HDD scores there sir!

[Tiltevros]

Good morning Mr Tilt, that's some very nice HDD scores there sir!

steveR0 can u run pcmark05 HDD suite for me plz and post the results?
the test is with 16k stripe size i havent try it with 4k stripe size yet

[Computurd]

nice run tilt!

[SteveRo]

steveR0 can u run pcmark05 HDD suite for me plz and post the results?
the test is with 16k stripe size i havent try it with 4k stripe size yet

remind me in a couple days - i'm currently working on a lowly E6600.

[phoeniXfury]

Hey guys...I haven't been on these forums for a long time. A search brought up this thread (I was randomly searching for this card's benchmark numbers).

Anyway, I saw on here and a few other places that it is difficult to find memory for this controller. I happened to come across another forum post (a review site where they found a compatible module) and figured I'd share that info.

This is the module: http://www.mushkin.com/Memory/Proline/991822.aspx
This is the forum thread: http://www.techreaction.net/forums/s...ead.php?t=3869

Server memory with DDR and DDR2 has always given me headaches in the past. I work as a Network/Systems Administrator. What we can see from the Mushkin module is that it is:

- Registered
- ECC
- Dual Rank
- DDR2-800
- 6-6-6-18
- x8 (8bit)
- but doesn't mention parity

Registered adds a bit of latency but improves signaling for better stability. Anyway, a quick swing onto Kingston's website shows two modules that matches this description:

- KVR800D2D4P6/4GEF
- KVR800D2D4P6/4G

The second one mentions Parity in the product description. Did a search on NCIX (I'm in canada) and they have it in stock: http://www.ncix.com/products/?sku=52...cture=Kingston

Did a search for KVR800D2D4P6/4G and areca 1880 online and found this:
http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=1006329

If you search that model number inside, it mentions that someone is building a MacPro 12-core with Areca 1880ix-12 with this module. However a response to that says that the controller requires x8 (8bit instead of 4bit). The Mushkin/Proline module known to be compatible is x8, but the Kingston is x4. In fact, Kingston doesn't make 4GB single module with x8!

If anyone's brave enough, they can try the x4 from Kingston. I've never actually seen issues with x4 versus x8 on servers. I've only seen issues of dual or single rank being a pain in my behind. Those specifications in point form above is what you'll want to look for in a module (exact timings might not be a requirement).

I shall get my 1880 at some point, when I have the cash for it.

[SteveRo]

Awesome work steve...now we can see why you, sir, are my hero

I have learned at the foot of the masters - Mssrs. Tiltevros and yourself - standing on the shoulders of giants ...

[Tiltevros]

areca loves cores... this is the only thing that i can say... wait for some suprises from me
competition is on!!!

[dinos22]

loves cores? in what way

[Tiltevros]

have u ever tried running PCmark05 with SSD(no acards or irams just ssds) only in HDD suite?
if u did can u post the results so i can explane to u the difference in ur config.
for me it scores ~220.000 on HDD suite with intels