RAID problem

[satanicoo]

dont know if this is the right forum, but here it goes:

i have a crappy hdtach 2.61 benchark from
a dual stripped seagate IV, with a promise ata66 card modded to be an fasttrack66 RAID controler.

does anyone know why the slow/unstable performance?

[jtroutma]

Could be the MB that you are using it on. I have heard reports of Fasttrak RAID cards not performing up-to-snuff on specific chipsets (more specifically server platforms). Try updating both the drivers and the BIOS to the lastest versions if you havent already.

Also try another PCI slot.....the card may not like the IRQ that it is using. (probably not the culperiate but worth a look)

Last, did you install the management software for the Fasttrak card?

I have performed this hack before on two other cards, works great. I have one running in my server but not in RAID (long story)

OH try updating the chipset software for the system you are running it on AND check the BIOS for PCI Lantency setting. I have heard that in RAID solutions, the HIGHER this number, the better your throughput.

[satanicoo]

finally a post!

gonna try that all up.

my board is a asus p4t533-c.

[Brad]

unfortunately I'd say it's most likely your hard drives. cuda 4's are known for performing like crap in raid 0. If they are under warranty I'd return them and try to get some differant model hard drives

[satanicoo]

ah man...

i did it all, and still i have crappy performance.

i did also hearded once that brad, but i didnt think it was true, after all, this drives are famous for being quite good...

oh well, gonna remove them from raid...

but how can i return them if they are working correctly?

edit: fixed! mailed seagate, they replyed with this:


Ricardo,

Seagate has created a version of the Barracuda ATA IV designed especially
for use in RAID 0 applications. Because you have reported a problem with
this model drive when used in RAID 0, we would like to offer to replace
the drives you currently have with drives which are tuned for optimum
performance in this application. Because these drives are tuned for RAID
0, if used in a desktop (single drive, non-RAID) application, the
performance may be slightly less than the drive you currently have.

You may obtain warranty information for your Seagate or Conner drive by
visiting our warranty verification page at the following address:

http://www.seagate.com/support/servi...alidation.html

[Brad]

lol told ya. you'll get replacement drives that are firmware 3.50.

In the mean time, why does that mention conner drives? seagate bought conner out about 10 years ago, and I'm sure conner never warranteed any drives over 3 years, and certainly not 10 years!

[Talik]

I used to do the promise mod thing back when I was a starving college student. I found that it wasn't very fast, and eventually my card died leaving me with a large loss of information. Now I own a 3ware card and get read speeds of around 95 Mb/s with a 5 drive raid 5. When you force a piece of hardware to do something it's not designed to do, you have to accept that it's not gonna be as good as the ones designed for that purpose which cost a lot more.

[jtroutma]

I NEVER expected Seagate to do that! Actaully contact you and offer a free replacement of HDDs that would work correctly but not in a certain method.....WOW! You got lucky

Maybe that is why I decided to go with Seagate for my SCSI 15K RAID set


BTW Talik, The difference between the Fasttrak and the regular Ultra cards IS simply a resistor and a different firmware. That is why that mod works. You simply dont notice the resistor that is missing becuase (I believe) it is located under the BIOS chip.

[Talik]

Originally posted by jtroutma
Maybe that is why I decided to go with Seagate for my SCSI 15K RAID set

really? What kind of speeds can you get? What size drives did you use? How many? I'm thinking of setting up something like this.
Raid 0, warp speed.

Originally posted by jtroutma
BTW Talik, The difference between the Fasttrak and the regular Ultra cards IS simply a resistor and a different firmware. That is why that mod works. You simply dont notice the resistor that is missing becuase (I believe) it is located under the BIOS chip.

Yes, I remember soldering on that resistor. All I know is that my card died after a couple of months. I don't believe that the fastrack raid card is all that good of a raid card, either.

[satanicoo]

Originally posted by Talik
Yes, I remember soldering on that resistor. All I know is that my card died after a couple of months.

the card's diference is only a resistor. there are both seen on tom's page

Originally posted by Talik
I don't believe that the fastrack raid card is all that good of a raid card, either.

no shit?

[jtroutma]

Talik:

I currently only have (2) Cheetah 15K 36Gb units (Model # ST336452LC) running in RAID 0 on an LSI Express 500 w/ 128Mb cache card. I am currently waiting for another one to pop-up on ebay for around $150 so I can go RAID 5. The drives are very nice and also very quiet!

As for overall speed, it depends on what settings I used in the SCSI BIOS. If I turn off read ahead optimizations, it jumps to around 70MBs but the system seems more sluggish. Turn the read ahead on and the overall system speeds up but my transfers dip to around 46MBs. One of these days I will optimize the whole setup for maximum performance.

Joe: if you have any suggestions on settings I can try to get these drives to kick it up a knotch, let me know