UD3R REV 2.0 + RAID 0 (SATA 3)

[derekc]

Thanks for reply.

Searching the Internet confirms this over and over again!!

[KyrreS]

I've received the RocketRAID 640  

Before I begin I would like to point out that I upgraded to the latest MoBo BIOS and made sure both SSD's had the same, and latest, firmware. Also, I tried alot of different settings in the BIOS (Integrated Peripherals -- > GSATA 6_7 settings), just to see if any of these could help (In example: Made sure the SATA III firmware was updatet).  None of this made any difference: It all pretty much gave the same result.

Bottom line is, this is what the onboard Marvell 9128 SATA III controller could do:



I really dont get these numbers at all! Both of these disc's have a 400/210 MB/s read/write spec. So what are we gonna read out of these numbers? Well, first of all, the controller is no good. That conclution is easy, but not very informative ... The raid array is working, because the two discs have merged and the amount of space (GB) is double. So what then??

Maybe the controller support raid but the controller is so crappy, it only give about 210/130 MB/s read/write per SSD?? If this is the case, then for the love of god use ICH10R!!

I have no idea what these numbers are about.... Anyone care to give me their POV?

Anyway, I made a new raid array on the RocketRAID 640. After a fresh Win7 install I upgraded the drivers for the card, and had another go.

This is what the RocketRAID 640 addon-card could do:



Now, this is better! I'm not 100% happy, I would like to see about 80 MB/s more on the read ... The write is fine!
Give me some tips on how to get the read up a notch, plz...


Conclusion from me is: Gigabyte UD3R Rev 2.0 onboard Marvell 9128 SATA III controller is not working ...  

EDIT: The Intel 510 120 GB should actually give 450 MB/s read ... hmmmm .... Then I would like to see even more, not the 80 i just said!

[Aussie Allan]

  Well nothing like doubling the SSD  performance in one afternoon..... as I stated before......the 640 card has four port and 2 controllers across those four port.

  Have you connected the drives so you have one controller dedicated for each drive ? .....start here.......also read this.....

  http://www.ocztechnologyforum.com/forum/showthread.php?63273-*-Windows-7-Ultimate-Tweaks-Utilities-*&p=442159&viewfull=1#post442159

  There's about 10 things in here to kill for re SSD performance and optimization.....Enjoy...

  Aussie Allan         P.S Thanks for posting for prosperity.

[Tinker]

The best I got with X58A, PCIe x1 add on card (Marvell) single drive with OCZ Vertex 3 max iops was 300 write 425 read
that was set at IDE at time. Just trying LSI card at present & won't work with SSD.

Still, a lot better speed now  KyrreS.


Regards tinker.

[KyrreS]

Yes, I think I'm using one SSD on one controller, and the other SSD on the other controller. I didn't bother to check the manual regarding which ports are driven by which controller, so I just used common logic. The card has 4 ports, lets say 2 ports are on the side of the card (port 1 & 2), and 2 ports are on the end of the card (port 3 & 4). I guessed that the 2 ports that sit together, on the same side of the card, is driven by the same controller. So I've got 1 SSD on port 1 and 1 SSD on port 3.

I'll play around with some more settings, and run through the tips u refer to Aussie Allan.

But: Yes, I agree, the speeds are lot better now, and it only cost me 78 euro to double my SSD performance    
If I get more speed out of the disc's over the next days I will post the results.

Thanks a lot for your help.

Hmmm ... Wonder how this controller would deal with 4 Kingston HyperX SSD's .... Tempting!

[derekc]

May I just ask into which PCIx you would put a Rocketraid 640, since it's not a full width connector.
Does it matter?

[Dark Mantis]

KyrreS You might well get better performance by using a different size of stripe.

derekc It should work in any slot it will physically fit into. (By the way PCIx is a different spec so be careful when typing that)

[derekc]

Thanks for reply.

I've actually got a Startech 2-Port SATA III 6Gbps PCI-Express Controller Card, which I put into the PCIEX1_1.  I've now discovered that this, and the PCIEX1_2 are both version 1 with a max speed of 2.5
Does the reply mean that I can put it in, for example, the lefthand end of the PCIEX8_2?

Thanks for your continued patience with someone who knows little about these things!!

[Dark Mantis]

Yes that is exactly what I meant. If it fits in the PCIE slot (obviously the left hand side) then it should work fine.

[derekc]

Thanks.

I'll give it a try!!

[Aussie Allan]

  If your quoting the 640 card......manufacture recommends 4x slot as minimum .... I think this would flow to other cards.

  Aussie Allan

[Dark Mantis]

Hi Allan

I don't think it would physically fit in a PCIE x1 slot would it ?

[derekc]

It's the Startech 2-Port SATA III 6Gbps PCI-Express Controller Card.

http://intrl.startech.com/Cards-Adapters/HDD-Controllers/SATA-Cards/2-Port-SATA-6-Gbps-PCI-Express-SATA-Controller-Card~PEXSAT32

(I would imagine a poor man's Rocketraid! Supports RAID 0 and 1 but compliant with PCI Express 2.0 standards).

I only want to essentially use it just for my System Drive (Kingston HyperX 120GB 2.5" SATA-3 Solid State Drive) so I assume that the raid settings are irrelevant.

[Dark Mantis]

I have just checked with your card and it would indeed fit in a single  slot but you would lose some performance then. You need to have it in a x4 slot at least for full bandwidth.

The maximum throughput of this card is limited by the bus interface. If used with PCI Express Gen 1.0 enabled computers, the max throughput is 2.5 Gbps. If used with PCI Express Gen 2.0 enabled computers, the max throughput is 5 Gbps.

[derekc]

Thanks.

In the correct slot, and with one drive, would it be as good (as regards speed) as the RocketRaid 640, which seems the favoured choice of the forum?