RAID card for performance.

[davidco]

I am researching RAID card for purchase with performance in mind for video editing workstation.
My intention it use it in RAID 0 with SATA drives for work drive, while still having SSD as system drive.

What do I need to pay attention to. I see both PCIe 2.0 and 3.0 have 6Gbps speeds and 600MB/s transfer rates.
Let's say budget is not a problem, but lets find the sweet-spot where performance line crosses price.
Any recommendation is appreciated. Thanks!

 

[popatim]

ideally you want to invest in a real raid card (=expensive) otherwise just use your motherbds built in raid. The 600mb/s sounds like a pcie x1 card and you really should get a minimum of x4 because you'll want a minimum of 2 raid0's. One for the source file and one for the destination. You may even do another raid0 for the scratch drive for an optimal configuration. The optimal configuration is dependant on which software you use but most do use a scratch disk for temp files.

 

[davidco]

You mean I would need multiple RAID cards? If a card has multiple SATA sockets, is it able to use them only for one RAID configuration or also multiple? Can you recommenced a card that you would have in your configuration for this purpose?
I would use SSD for Scratch.

 

[popatim]

the number of lanes a pcie card has the more bandwidth it can handle. an x1 pcie version2 card has a max of 500gb/s and an x4 has 2000gb/s. Three raid0's can potentially have 900mb/s throughput with hdds and 3000+gb/s with SSD's. With anything more than 2 drives on an x1 raid controller you would just be crippling yourself. Plus there are few x1 raid cards that are worthwhile anyways. Most are built on fake-raid chips and don't even have any cache. This is true of several x4 raid controllers too. The decent ones start at $200 and up. Riad cards typically supports multiple raids all on the same card.

If you are not looking to spend that much, and I'm thinking not, then just use the raid built into your motherbd. Most are as decent or better than the fake raid cards.

If you truly want recommendations on a real raid card then post up a budget and let us know which motherbd you have and what pcie slots are free.

 

[davidco]

Thank you popatim for the answer. I would like a suggestion for a real and decent RAID card. I have EVGA SR2 with 6 PCIe x16/8 available. Thank you.

 

[FireWire2]

You would kick yourself so hard, once the hrs of work is gone due the HDD failed.

With less than $200.00 and no drivers requires you can have a RAID50 that can transfer 450MB/s (Yes MB not mb)
http://www.amazon.com/multiplier-hardware-RAID0-CLONE-Controller/dp/B004JPUZWU
Look at the reviews, this set up is fast, data protect, low cost and VERY easy to use

If you intend to use RAID0, then you DO NOT need RAID card. Most of the time any raid card for RAID0 is wasted of money.
Just set HDD to Dynamic

 

[popatim]

Yeah keep thinking you'll see 450mb/s with that.

Highlights
1 to 5 SATA 3Gb/s (3.0Gbps) Port Multiplier

Notice its sata 2 and uses port replication. So its limited to about 250mb/s and the sata port you connect it to has to support port multiplication or this will only work with 1 drive

Here is a users review of the product.
http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?p=1036102576

 

[FireWire2]

Do you realize the diff with MB and mb?
The solution I mention is 6Gb/s solution, don't you read? It is RAID50 !

Also the link that you post - the guy use it as LARGE volume - it's a SPAN volume

If as you're saying see ONE drive, then how come in DM, it shows 8TB large4 volume?!!!

 

[davidco]

Thank you for the suggestion.

Can I use 3 or more HDDs with in RAID 0 with onboard RAID controller? Will the speed increase with each additional drive?
I know about the increased probability of failure, but I will backup on daily basis 😉

 

[FireWire2]

Yes ! you can have as MANY HDD as your MB allow.
For RAID0, you can software RAID instead. This will take advantage of SATA NCQ feature, where MB's RAID kind off iffy
Set BIOS to AHCI
Cconnect all HDD
Convert those HDD to dynamic
Create RAID0 from them via Disk Manager
for 3x Seagate you should get about 425~500MB/sec
for 4x Seagate you should get about 500~600MB/sec

 

[popatim]

Firewire, you are lacking some knowledge or something. First off all raids show up as 1 drive to the OS unless you partition into smaller pieces.

Sata 2 is 3 megabits per second max which is a theoretical top speed of approx 300 megabytes per second. You cannot get more speed out of it by connecting five 500mb/s SSD's to it. For the moment I'll assume raid50 was a typo because this device is incapable of that. And the fact that this is a raid card has no bearing on the fact that sata2 has a limit on its top speed. Plenty of users have hooked up fast SSD's to their sata 2 ports only to be disappointed in their benchmarks. This is no different.

If you bother too actually look up specs on this device you will see for yourself that it is indeed sata2, not that they are going to tell you that on the amazon page. You actually have to invest some time to dig up the model# and then google that; like I did and you apparently didn't so heres some links to it so you can see for yourself.

The manufacturers page:
http://www.ioisata.com/products/Port-Multiplier/SPM393.htm

The Amazon Sellers page:
http://www.datoptic.com/5x-drive-hardware-raid-controller.html


Heres a comment from the product from your amazon link.

I've had this card for about a year now running 24/7. The card is fast. I get > 100 mbyte/sec transfer to/from the raid 5 setup.

100mb/s read speed is pathetic for a raid5. A single fast drive can do better all by itself. Hell my 8 year old old seagate 320's can to 80mb/s all by themselves.

The sad part in all this is you're spewing out some rebuttal and you obviously never even investigated to see if just maybe you were wrong. Thats pretty embarassing imo.

 

[FireWire2]

popatim - first thank you. You make me to relook at my post.
Then i realize what a shame a guy like you helping other member in here! What a joke.

Let me point out things that you need to learn more from other member like me 🙂 hehehe!

... The 600mb/s sounds like a pcie x1 card

WT... Where the hell is this came from.
PCIe x1 GEN1 is 2.5Gb/s, where GEN2 is 5Gb/s

...because you'll want a minimum of 2 raid0's

WT... Speed of RAID0 is a proportion to the number of HDD when pp do raid0 they are looking for speed. Why do half a## job with TWO RAID0?!!!

Sata 2 is 3 megabits per second max which is a theoretical top speed of approx 300 megabytes per second. You cannot get more speed out of it by connecting five 500mb/s SSD's to it.

What is this sh#$t??? SATA 2 is 3 megabits and top speed is 300 megabytes?!!! What school that you went to??!

I've had this card for about a year now running 24/7. The card is fast. I get > 100 mbyte/sec transfer to/from the raid 5 setup.

Does it ever occurred to you that is the speed of a SINGLE 7200rpm SATA drive that read/write to/from the RAID5?

You cannot get more speed out of it by connecting five 500mb/s SSD's to it.

When that OP said 5x SSD will be use? BTW what is 500mb/s SSD

100mb/s read speed is pathetic for a raid5. A single fast drive can do better all by itself. Hell my 8 year old old seagate 320's can to 80mb/s all by themselves.

Yes 100mb/s is TOO darn slow - that is 12.5MB/s or 12.5 megabytes per second. The user stated > 100mbytes
So when you quote - please quote correctly.

I stated

With less than $200.00 and no driver requires you can have a RAID50 that can transfer 450MB/s (Yes MB not mb)
http://www.amazon.com/multiplier-hardware-RAID0-CLONE-C...
Look at the reviews, this set up is fast, data protect, low cost and VERY easy to use

What does this mean to you? RAID50 with five drives in a five ports SPM393 controller? How the heck could you able to do a RAID50 with 5x drives?! Do you know anything about RAID?!

$200.00 cost, where a controller @ $95 each. What does it mean to you?
Arrrggg let me spell it out to you, because i don't think you get it.
This mean gets TWO (2) controllers
Each of them gives you 3Gb/s RAID5 , or 6Gb/s RAID50. Get it?!

Let me know if you don't understand. I will help you

 

[davidco]

Thanks guys for your help. I decided to go with onboard RAID. I tested it and the results are:
Seq Read/Write cca 150MB/s one HDD, 300MB/s with 2 and 450MB/s with 3 HDDs in Raid0.
SSD I have has 430 MB/s

 

[FireWire2]

Since it is an early in the set up, why don't you just test the AHCI BIOS setting as well.
AHCI mode works acrose the Windows OS - It does not matter what MB your are using, where RAID mode, it may have an issue when move the RAID0

 

[popatim]

You're the one that brought up raid 50 ...

Yes
sata2 is 3gbits/s which is about 300mbytes/s
sata3 is 6gbits/sec = about 600mbytes/s

what school I went to? Clarkson University school of computer engineering. I suggest you go to school since you seem dazed and confused by these factoids. At least read up on them on wiki or something...

I mentioned the OP would at least want two raid0 arrays because it is very beneficial when doing video editing to only read from one raid (the source drive) and only write to the other (the destination drive). This way one raid isn't being forced to read and write at the same time. Repositioning the heads is a very time consuming process for HDD's. Since I too edit video's I will mention my rig has three raid 0 arrays because adobe software like to use a scratch disk which they also recommend not to be one of the other two (source or destination).

Arrrggg let me spell it out to you, because i don't thing you get it.
This mean gets TWO (2) controllers
Each of them gives you 3Gb/s RAID5 , or 6Gb/s RAID50. Get it?!

Let me know if you don't understand. I will help you

I don't think YOU get it. Those use a sata2 (300GB/s top speed by your own admission) connection down to the motherboard. Even if the motherboard is sata3 it will not speed up beyond sata2 speed. The sata system will run at the speed of the slowest device - which in this case is that sata2 controller. Using two controllers in yet another raid0 would give us 600MB/s maybe and I say maybe because there are no reviews of this device exceeding 100MB/s. If there were any I'm sure you would have linked them to support you.

Anything else you need? Feel free to PM me.

 

[popatim]

Thanks guys for your help. I decided to go with onboard RAID. I tested it and the results are:
Seq Read/Write cca 150MB/s one HDD, 300MB/s with 2 and 450MB/s with 3 HDDs in Raid0.
SSD I have has 430 MB/s

Yes raid0 scales like that very well up to the limit of however the sata ports were implemented. You can google for some raid0 setups using ssd's benchmarks to see where that top speed is for your motherbd.

 

[FireWire2]

I don't give out links, unless there is a need.
Since you are asking - Look at the reviews:
http://www.datoptic.com/review/product/list/id/320/

Read the third review - there is 200MB/s + transfer rate from a user

Hmm wondering about your major Computer Eng.
Gb/GB/MB/Mb <- I guess it's too complicated to you 🙂

 

[popatim]

Nah - I lost the use of my left arm in the war so I dont like typing capitol letters or some punctuation like apostrophies. In my later posts I tried to make sure I typed them correctly for you.

edit - thanks for the link. It still showing sata2 speeds which is still a complete waste of modern fast drives IMO. Motherbd controller, if it supports raid, can do better without spending $100 and you dont have to worry about the port replication support issue. not all motherbd sata ports support port multiplication.