Skip site navigation (1)Skip section navigation (2)
Date:      Wed, 13 Aug 2008 03:27:38 -0700
From:      Jeremy Chadwick <koitsu@FreeBSD.org>
To:        Lukas Razik <freebsd@razik.name>
Cc:        freebsd-hardware@freebsd.org
Subject:   Re: Issue with 7.0-RELEASE and Realtek RTL8168/8111 PCI-E Gigabit Ethernet NIC
Message-ID:  <20080813102738.GA89899@eos.sc1.parodius.com>
In-Reply-To: <48A2B5BC.7080701@razik.name>
References:  <200808110000.58666.freebsd@razik.name> <20080810234421.GA90311@eos.sc1.parodius.com> <200808112221.00672.freebsd@razik.name> <20080811205530.GA54217@eos.sc1.parodius.com> <20080813091654.GA86595@eos.sc1.parodius.com> <48A2B5BC.7080701@razik.name>

next in thread | previous in thread | raw e-mail | index | archive | help
On Wed, Aug 13, 2008 at 12:21:48PM +0200, Lukas Razik wrote:
> Hello Jeremy!
>
> Jeremy Chadwick schrieb:
>> On Mon, Aug 11, 2008 at 01:55:30PM -0700, Jeremy Chadwick wrote:
>>
>>> But in this day and age, one of the best SATA controllers for FreeBSD is
>>> an Areca controller.  They're somewhat expensive (comparatively), but
>>> the performance is apparently stunning, combined with decent FreeBSD
>>> drivers that utilise CAM and da(4) (yes, despite the disks being SATA).
>>> Every time people mention them on the lists, the response is the same:
>>> amazing performance, and really good driver + administrative support
>>> (e.g. software administrative utilities).
>>>
>>> I do wish Areca made a less expensive controller with less features,
>>> intended for "tech-savvy" consumer use, in the US$125 or less price
>>> range.
>>
>>
>> And it appears they now do: the ARC-1200.  PCIe x1, has 2 ports, and
>> on-board cache.  It lacks an IOP, so the performance won't be that of
>> one of the more expensive cards.  Either way, quite good for 2-disk
>> servers:
>>
>> http://www.areca.com.tw/products/2ports.htm
>>
>> Cost is ~US$175.  A little steep, but the on-board cache supposedly
>> justifies it (IMHO, barely).  Hopefully the price will come down to
>> US$100-125, which would be perfect.
>>
>
> Ooops, I haven't seen your eMail when I wrote you the last some minutes  
> ago... :-)
>
> I know this controller (as I wrote you) for some days now. Here in  
> Germany I've only seen one Online-Shop where this controller is listed.
> If the HighPoint RocketRAID 3120 (100EUR =~ 150USD) isn't as good as I  
> hope, then I will test the Areca ARC-1200 (140EUR =~ 210USD).

I've stayed away from HighPoint since the release of their HPT366 and
HPT370/372 chips, which were horrible.  That said, *please* let me
know how their RocketRAID products perform and behave under FreeBSD.
I'm interested to know if they've learned from past mistakes.

> But you wrote "It lacks an IOP [...]". Do you mean that it will have no  
> Intel IOP because they only write it has a "500MHz Storage processor"  
> and therefore it will be not as fast as the other controllers from Areca?

Correct.  I'm lead to believe that the ambiguous "500Mhz Storage
processor" item refers to a non-Intel processor of some sort.

-- 
| Jeremy Chadwick                                jdc at parodius.com |
| Parodius Networking                       http://www.parodius.com/ |
| UNIX Systems Administrator                  Mountain View, CA, USA |
| Making life hard for others since 1977.              PGP: 4BD6C0CB |




Want to link to this message? Use this URL: <https://mail-archive.FreeBSD.org/cgi/mid.cgi?20080813102738.GA89899>