From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Sun Jul 23 11:04:22 2006 Return-Path: X-Original-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id C91BC16A4DF for ; Sun, 23 Jul 2006 11:04:22 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from nikolas.britton@gmail.com) Received: from ug-out-1314.google.com (ug-out-1314.google.com [66.249.92.169]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 91DD343D60 for ; Sun, 23 Jul 2006 11:04:19 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from nikolas.britton@gmail.com) Received: by ug-out-1314.google.com with SMTP id m2so1962773uge for ; Sun, 23 Jul 2006 04:04:18 -0700 (PDT) DomainKey-Signature: a=rsa-sha1; q=dns; c=nofws; s=beta; d=gmail.com; h=received:message-id:date:from:to:subject:cc:in-reply-to:mime-version:content-type:content-transfer-encoding:content-disposition:references; b=oSl4Paxn+5nE0MJsKI99lqdRXAKBm0nSxVg0NtZeMzDP9k9qPA/YzIrjTJDtRzknnDHVkFaAzwIAmDK19wQSFG3XbKWncuMtQnwnVvEr1yYul18JOSamWms4uZPtnvbXOIc7ZP+OJr0dqOesmzX/kFvapVR+BzpXQSuQrvWEOpU= Received: by 10.78.140.17 with SMTP id n17mr1078687hud; Sun, 23 Jul 2006 04:04:17 -0700 (PDT) Received: by 10.78.143.13 with HTTP; Sun, 23 Jul 2006 04:04:17 -0700 (PDT) Message-ID: Date: Sun, 23 Jul 2006 06:04:17 -0500 From: "Nikolas Britton" To: "Chad Leigh -- Shire.Net LLC" In-Reply-To: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Disposition: inline References: Cc: "freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.org" Subject: Re: Areca RAID Card. X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Sun, 23 Jul 2006 11:04:22 -0000 On 7/22/06, Nikolas Britton wrote: > On 7/22/06, Nikolas Britton wrote: > > On 7/22/06, Chad Leigh -- Shire.Net LLC wrote: > > > > > > On Jul 22, 2006, at 4:14 AM, Nikolas Britton wrote: > > > > > > > The motherboard I just bought, SuperMicro X7DBE, has both PCI-X > > > > 133MHz/64-bit and PCI-Express 8x slots, I can't decide what version of > > > > the Areca card to get... I'd like to see some benchmarks of the > > > > ARC-11xx (PCI-X) Vs. the ARC-12xx (PCI-Express). > > > > > > > > The PCIe device has a faster bus (PCIe 8x = 2000MB/s) but PCI-X is > > > > tried and true and not too shabby (PCI-X 133/64 = 850MB/s) ether. > > > > > > > > I have the option of ether a 1130ML (Infiniband connections) or a plan > > > > jane 1230. I've had troubles with SATA cables in the passed so the > > > > 1130ML is very desirable from this stand point. Another thing I'm > > > > worried about is the 1230 will have to much weight on the PCIe 8x slot > > > > because of all the SATA cables. and routing them all is a pain. Does > > > > anyone have a source for an ARC-1230ML? On the other hand I've never > > > > tried the latching SATA cables yet... but the ARC-1130 is $40 > > > > cheaper... > > > > > > I was just looking at the difference between the 1130 and the > > > 1130ML. ML cables are EXPENSIVE and look heavier than 4 normal > > > cables... > > > > But they latch on and you only need 1 ML cable for every 4 SATA > > cables. The PCI-X card/slot should be sturdy enough but I don't think > > PCIe is, I've played with PCIe 1x cards and their super small... > > picture a normal low profile PCI card, now take half that. Maybe they > > don't make them (ARC-12xxML) for this reason. > > > > > I just ordered an 1120 from > > tekram.html> and they were the cheapest I've seen. > > > > > > Will be needing an 1130 myself soon I think. > > > > > > Can't help you with the 1130 vs 1230. I would think the PCIe would > > > be the way to go for future proofing your investment. > > > > > > > Yes I think your right here. If you look at the "ATTO STRs and cache > > transfer rates"[1] the ARC-1120 (PCI-X) is up against the bus limit. > > theoretically the 1120/1220 could do up to 2400MB/s (8 drives * > > SATA-II transfer limit of 300MB/s). > > > > "The results of the Areca ARC-1120 in the RAID 0 tests cleary show > > this adapter does not have any trouble with ATTO's tiny dataset. > > Floating high above the crowd, the ARC-1120 has a perfect view on the > > struggles of the other adapters. Exceeding 750MB/s, the transfer rates > > from the Areca ARC-1120 are almost equal to the effective bandwidth of > > the 133MHz PCI-X bus." [1] > > > > [1] http://tweakers.net/reviews/557/18 > > > > The only difference between the ARC-11xx and the ARC-12xx's Intel > XScale processor is the IOP333 on the ARC-12xx* has a "PCI Express to > PCI-X Bridge"... Both chips are otherwise identical and both chips use > PCI-X133 internally. Also it appears the IOP333's internal bus > operates at 333MHz while the IOP331 operates at 266MHz but I can't > confirm this, it's possible older IOP331's worked at 266MHz but new > ones are 333MHz now. > > ftp://download.intel.com/design/iio/prodbref/25341301.pdf > ftp://download.intel.com/design/iio/prodbref/30658301.pdf > > *The ARC-1210 uses a IOP332. > > I decided to go PCI-Express. The deciding factor was that PCIe slots on my motherboard have a direct connection to the Intel 5000p MCH (north bridge) whereas PCI-X slot are connected to the Intel ESB2 (south bridge) using a PCI-X to PCIe 8x bridge... The choice was very easy to make after I notice this. -- BSD Podcasts @: http://bsdtalk.blogspot.com/ http://freebsdforall.blogspot.com/