ATTO ExpressPCI RAID vs DPT SmartRAID VI

[Stormblade]

Ok, I give. I've seen the review for the ATTO and it's impressive for sure. Then I see that in the dream system Anand lists the SmartRAID IV. I can't find that card anywhere so I do a search for the model number they list and up pops the SmartRAID VI. So I figured it's a typo on their part.

Then I go nosing around Adaptec's site and I do find references to the SmartRAID IV under their support section but I can't find any information on it. I did find spec sheets on the SmartRAID VI but that doesn't help me.

Anyone know of any reviews on that card? How does it stack up against the ATTO card. I looked on pricewatch and got back a whopping 1 entry. It was priced at $420 but the one Anand referred to they mention a price tag of $900!!

What gives? I'm completely confused. I'm returning my 2100s Adaptec RAID controller and as soon as I get the credit I want to purchase a really good one. If I don't get any info I'll go with the ATTO because I've seen the review on it and since I've decided to go RAID-0 having a card that can do RAID-5 is nice but I probably won't be using it.


The worth of your opinion is in direct proportion to the number of people who have asked for it

 

[Guest]

The SmartRAID was made by DPT, which was a company owned by Adaptec.. I don't think they sell the SmartRAID models anymore (they certainly have limited support for it now) since Adaptec makes there own RAID LVD 160 versions with the 2100s, 3200s, 3400s. And you will notice if the review of the ATTO you posted points out anything, it shows that having dual channels (or multiple controllers) is a big bonus on a RAID setup hardware or software, which makes perfect sense as it helps to handle the heavy IO traffic that obviously can be present on even a 2 drive RAID 0 setup. But also.. your system will determine overall performance on software RAID, granted on a 2 drive RAID 0 array a 700+ cpu (I'm just guessing, the reviewer used a 1GHz Athlon) will probably handle whatever is thrown at it. Since the 3200s is about 200$ more than the ATTO and you only want a 2 drive RAID 0 and I assume this will be on a nice system (since the RAID setup alone will run you around 1200$) it's probably not a bad deal. As the review noted as well it will scale with CPU too. It also noted that it had different overhead .. more with Win2k than Win9x. But it does sound like some interesting RAID software.

It would be a tough choice for me between the ATTO and it's software RAID or the 3200s (what's 200$ since you are looking at 1200 anyways). I think if you limit it to a lower number of drives 2 or 3 in RAID 0 you probably be well off with the ATTO. Anybody on a slower machine, using more drives, and/or redundancy would probably be better off with the 3200s or even 2100s. You put the 2100s and the ATTO on a slower machine and you might not see such a big difference..



***Hey I run Intel... but let's get real***

 

[Stormblade]

Thanks for the reply! Yes my system is going to have a 1.1 ghz (Probably overclocked a tad bit) or a 1.2 ghz so I definately will be running at over 1 ghz.

I'll at most put 3 drives into that RAID setup. My starting configuration will be 2 Cheetah X15s along with 2 IBM Deskstar's (Probably 60 gig ones). I'm not sure yet what I'll do with those two. I've thought about putting the Promise Fastrack RAID and RAIDing those as well. Not sure how both cards would like that.

But it depends. I will be doing some video captures and editing. If those drives are fast enough for captures with no frames dropping then I may RAID them and I'll stay with a 2 SCSI RAID setup along with a 2 IDE RAID setup. (Probably do daily/weekly backups)

However, if those drives can't handle it then I'll slowly add X15s (As I can afford them) and use them and simply keep the IDEs as NON-RAID.




The worth of your opinion is in direct proportion to the number of people who have asked for it

 

[Guest]

To put it in simple terms, anandtech had no clue what the hell they were talking about when they recomended the Smart Raid card for a dream system. They just looked for whatever card supported Win9X as well as everything else while being low cost. They obviously didn't know anything about scsi raid performance, much less had any real experience with it.

The Smart Raid VI was actually sold under the name Decade and Century which is why you will have a hard time finding them as Smart Raid VI. When adaptec bought DPT they rereleased those two models as the 2100s and 32/3400s respectively. The only difference was they upgraded the onboard chip on the Decade from a 33mhz i960 RP to a 100mhz i960RS as well as upgrading the default factory cache from 4MB to 32MB. The Century series was not even altered at all really. They just added an extra 16MB of cache for a total of 32 and sold it as a 2 and 4 channel version instead of as one 2 channel card that is upgradable to 4. The DPT smart raid VI series is actually even slower than the adaptec series of Ultra160 controllers. It is definately not the stuff dream systems are made of. If you want true scsi raid performance your choice is either the ATTO software based card or Mylex (any one of their cards NOT based i960 processor is what you should be looking for)for hardware based raid.

 

[Guest]

well we just tripled the price for a Mylex not based on the i960.. The RISC processor based controllers are easily around a 1000$ by themselves. We are borderline insane for even a heavy duty Workstation.

***Hey I run Intel... but let's get real***

 

[Guest]

Yeah I know, I was going to mention something about Mylex prices. Unfortunately its the price you have to pay if you want true hardware raid that can really perform. I've worked with all the DPT and adaptec cards mentioned and would never recomend them to anyone unless your only need is data redundancy. Their performance is physically sickening. I've tried them with multiple X15's and other 10K rpm cheetahs and you know something is not right when performance ranges from worse than a single drive to only very slightly better than a single drive regardless of whether 2,3, and even 4 drives are used. I would recomend a single X15 or good 10K rpm drive with a standard scsi controller over those raid cards and a raid setup any day even if cost wasn't an issue.

 

[Stormblade]

Thanks for the info. This explains much. It's funny, at Anand's they even gave the link to the review that showed the ATTO blowing away the 2100s by almost 50% in performance.

Well, that's good to know then. I returned the 2100s today and since I get paid this monday it's on! I'll be purchasing the ATTO as well as a good Smart UPS system too.


The worth of your opinion is in direct proportion to the number of people who have asked for it