RocketRaid 620 + 2xC300 64GB

DanielGrout · 20 Sep 2010 at 23:55

Hi

I'm having an issue with the RocketRaid 620. I seem unable to break 400 mbps using 2xc300 in RAID 0.

I've tried attaching them to the motherboard SATA connectors but the bios only wants to know them as SATA 1 (1.5 gbps). The board is obviously SATA 2 but I was thinking I could get better performance out of them that way.

The RocketRaid card is sat in a 16x slot as I though the 1x slot might not have been operating at 2.0. I have also checked the cables.

Please look at these benchmark screen shots and let me know if you have any thoughts. The ATTO one seems to just brickwall at 400....

The wierd thing is that the write speeds are fantastic and exactly where I think they should be.

So my thoughts are around the bandwidth across the PCI-E controller. The 620 is a PCI-E 2.0 1x card and if my p*ss poor maths are correct the bandwidth should be 500 mbps (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_device_bit_rates)

So my answer is probably not to be so cheap and stump up for a better RAID/SATA 6gb controller......but if anyone else has any thoughts - here are the benches...

Cheers
Dan

Zarf · 21 Sep 2010 at 01:39

So my thoughts are around the bandwidth across the PCI-E controller. The 620 is a PCI-E 2.0 1x card and if my p*ss poor maths are correct the bandwidth should be 500 mbps (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_device_bit_rates)

So my answer is probably not to be so cheap and stump up for a better RAID/SATA 6gb controller......but if anyone else has any thoughts - here are the benches...

Stump up for a new controller, it definitely looks like the Highpoint can't handle more than 400MB/s throughput in RAID0. You'd even do better than the 500MB/s theoretical max that a 1x connector gets you by using your onboard SATA 3Gb/s ports to set up your RAID.
Unfortunately for you the most affrdable choice for decent 6Gb/s raid performance is the LSI 9240-4i at ~£160. Personally I wouldn't bother unless you were wanting to RAID 3 or 4 SSD's and could really justify the extra throughput (HD video editing etc; General Windows use and game loads don't actually benefit a noticable amount from one SSD to RAID0 SSD's, the bottlenecks are elsewhere now)

If you're not booting from the drives, try running the drives in JBOD mode and using Windows to software RAID0 them instead.

DanielGrout · 21 Sep 2010 at 09:36

I tried connecting them to the Sata 3 ports on the motherboard but it would not recognise them as anything but Sata 1.5

I'm betting I'll get far better throughput using the fakeraid of the 750 southbridge but unless I can get them to sync at 3gbps there's no hope!

Any ideas anyone?

Zarf · 24 Sep 2010 at 01:30

DanielGrout said:
I tried connecting them to the Sata 3 ports on the motherboard but it would not recognise them as anything but Sata 1.5 I'm betting I'll get far better throughput using the fakeraid of the 750 southbridge but unless I can get them to sync at 3gbps there's no hope!

Any ideas anyone?

Bios update I'd guess. Have you made sure they connect at 3Gb/s on the Sata2 ports?

reygjabla · 24 Sep 2010 at 09:27

Have you installed the AMD Raid expert and enabled NCQ?

DanielGrout · 24 Sep 2010 at 14:36

Did the ATM Raid Expert and NCQ

and when I connect them to the Sata 2 ports they come up as 1.5G on the post screen.

No bios update beyond the one I have installed is available

Thing I will just have to get the card recomended above and comend the rocketraid to burial at sea.

Just a thought - how can they pitch this as a Sata 6gbps card if the max it can theoretically pass is 500mbs (not the 600 of the standard).....I know the answer will be a crafty - it syncs at Sata 6....not a good buy!

edit: above where I refer to SATA3 ports on the mobo I mean SATA2 - sorry