[Rikku]

I have a question about my setup and RAID 0 speeds and hard drive speeds in general. I don't seem to be getting what I should out of my setup.

I recently setup a computer with an Adaptec 1200a RAID card and configured a RAID 0 array. Installed Windows XP Pro and benchmarked it with SiSoft.

System Specs:
Intel D865PERL MB
Pentium 4 2.8 800mhz bus 1mb cache
2 x 512mb Crucial PC-3200 Dual Channel
2 x 120GB WD Special Edition HD (8mb cache)
Adaptec 1200a ATA RAID card / RAID0

It averaged 65mbs. Wow, pretty good I thought!

I decided to put a RAID system in my home computer.... I went for an Adaptec 2400a ATA RAID card (has 32mb cache) and setup RAID 0 - two of the same HDs. My System Specs:
Epox 8RDA+ MB
Athlon XP 2800+
2 x 256mb GEIL PC-3200 Dual Channel
2 x 120GB WD Special Edition HS (8mb cache)
Adaptec 2400a ATA RAID Card / RAID0

I ran the same SiSoft benchmark and got a result of 41mbs not too good.

I also have a Western Digital 180GB Special Edition and a Western Digital 200GB Special Edition in my system. Curious, I benchmarked those:

(Both are master drives on their own channels.)

WD 180GB (IDE0): 29mbs
WD 200GB (IDE1): 43mbs

I am totally stumped. I don't know where to go from here. I was expecting at least 60mbs with the RAID and now I'm finding out that my 200GB drive is actually the fastest. I also have NO idea why the difference between the WD180 and the WD200.

Futhermore, i copied the system partition from the RAID to the 180GB drive and ran the benchmarks again thinking maybe the drive that windows was on was doing something to the results. I got the same results booting from a different drive.

The only thing I think of is to try an Adaptec 1200a card. But why would a lesser card give better results? the 2400a is like $250 more!

Any ideas!? THANKS for reading such a long post!

 

[crjdriver]

Sounds like you have done everything right. I assume you are using the correct cables. Have you tried moving the raid card to another slot on your board? I generally install raid cards in the bottom slot. Most mb [however not all] do not share resources with the bottom pci slot.

Have you tried the card with different drivers; provided there are more than one driver available on the mgf's site. Although I have never had a problem with this, most raid cards say to match bios version and driver version.

 

[Rockn]

What are your hard drive caches and drive RPM's? The larger the cache and the faster they spin the better the performance. Are these drives both ATA 100 compatible and are you using the 80 pin IDE cables?
The speed of your slowest drive will pretty much be the bottleneck of your particular config. Your systems BIOS settings may also effect the performance.

Might be worth a read:
http://adaptec-tic.adaptec.com/cgi-...nl_JnBfY2F0X2x2bDE9fmFueX4mcF9wYWdlPTE*&p_li=

 

[Rikku]

All the Hard Drives are Western Digital 7200k rpm Special Edition Drives with 8mb cache. All 80 pin cables.

Hmm. I could try flashing the card's firmware. Drivers are newest as far as I know.

 

[crjdriver]

Have you run a benchmark before you installed the raid card? It would give an idea of how much performance improved with the card. Just ran SiSoft and it scored 82 meg per second. I am not familiar with Adaptec cards; do you select what mode of transfer for the card such as DMA 4 or 5? With the cards I use [Highpoint and Promise] it automatically selects the fastest mode of transfer.

 

[crjdriver]

Have you tried moving the card to another slot on your board?

 

[crjdriver]

Just wondered if you found out anything yet? I did do a benchmark test on this machine. Raid array scored 82 mps and a single drive [non raid] scored 44 mps. The single drive is also connected to the highpoint controller.