PERC 5/i RAID Card: Tips and Benchmarks - Page 47 - Overclock.net

XFreeRollerX · 10-25-08

that looks like its on the ONBOARD controller.. maybe soemthing against the PERC 5/i setup?

BTW GUYS BENCHES FROM ME WILL BE UP TONIGHT! I am nearly done wiring my case!!!!

HD Tune,
HD Tach,
Everest utilities

anything else?

SoulkeepHL · 10-25-08

Just got the rest of parts in for my new file server after getting the issues with the cables for the 5/i sorted last week. Card works fine on a G31 chipset (no pin mod). Running a Celeron 430 (woo 35W TDP) on a Gigabyte GA-G31M-ES2L board with 2GB of ram, an oooold 40GB IDE drive for the system (Server 2k8 Standard) and 3x 1.5TB Seagate drives for the RAID5 array. Following are the benches with the stock Dell firmware, 128K stripe, Adaptive Read Ahead and Write Back turned on:

And for grins, this is the 5+ year old server it's replacing, 12x200GB drives (11+1hot spare) in RAID5 on a 3Ware 7506-12 on a SuperMicro Serverworks based board with 2x P3 1.0ghz, 768MB ram, and a U320 9GB boot drive:

The-Fox · 10-25-08

Hey guys,

First, let me say this is a great thread with many helpful info on this card, helped me a lot so far

but now I need further help...

Recently I purchased the Dell Perc 5i along with 4 WD 640AAKS drives.
I am using the "good" old DFI Lanparty NF4 Ultra (until future upgrade).

I flashed the card to the latest LSI (v60) Firmware.

Now, the thing is I can't get the board to identify the controller once I set the two main (the X16 size) PCI-E ports to 8X/8X mode.
it is some sort of SLI mode for those who know/knew the board.
I tried the Pin 5/6 trick but to no avail.
The only two methods I managed to get the MB to identify the controller is when the PCI-E ports are set to X16/X2(or it is X1).
So at the beginning I got my VGA card using the X16 port while the Perc5i was chucked full on the X1, HDTach was showing a flat line on the 150 MB/s.
so now I switched the slots and the VGA card is stuck with a PCI-E X2 bandwidth while the card gets all the X16 bandwidth

Anyone has Ideas regarding this ?

And another thing:
performance wise, I ran different setting of the card and it seems to be a bit slow, for instance:
Raid0 with 64K stripe and Adaptive read ahead, i get a flat line around 275 MB/s.

Why is it flat (should be a curve) and why only 275 mb/s when I know 4 of these drives can get more than 400 MB/s at the top and should get around 350 on average.
Am I missing something ?
128K stripe gives better results for both Read and write, what are the cons and pros of using bigger strips like 128/256 ?
I set the array using the LSI MegaRAID Storage manager from Windows, if it matters anything.

Another strange issue regarding different test results: HDTune Vs. HDTach.
I am using Windows XP Pro SP3 with the latest LSI drivers.
with HDTune I get lower read speed and lower access times.
in HDTach I get higher reads but with higher access times.

Here is an example of two benches using the same Array settings:

HDTach (Long Bench):

HDTune (64K):

Again, your thoughts/ideas are more than welcome.

gridstop · 10-25-08

Has anyone tried the Perc 5/i with the basic solid state drives? (OCZ Core, Master Drive OX, etc...) They don't support AHCI which some RAID controllers don't like, and I believe they report themselves as removable, which freaks out some controllers.

I know for sure at least one LSI SAS RAID chip that doesn't work with them (says wrong disk type) but it was older, not the modern ones.

XFreeRollerX · 10-26-08

toasted my mobo.. chipped my nb

comparisons delayed

LuckySevn · 10-26-08

Quote:

Originally Posted by DuckieHo

The maximum support memory is 512MB.

For benching, I will be using 3 74GB Raptors. I will compare the PERC 5/i against a SB700. I would do it against a ICH9R but I don't have a spare drive to install an OS. I plan to use the same OS and bench the arrays in RAID0 and RAID5.

BTW, the CPU is ridiculously hot. I need to figure out how to get a better HS on it.

Duckie thx for the great info and review, +rep. Did you try 2x Raptors in RAID0 and run Vista on it? If so, how's it running for you? I kept getting crashes, disk errors with 2x VR's in RAID0 with mobo setup....someone said a RAID controller card will resolve that, is that true?

legoman786 · 10-26-08

Quote:

Originally Posted by XFreeRollerX

toasted my mobo.. chipped my nb

comparisons delayed

That blows... You sure your rig gonna be up for the after Thanksgiving LAN party?

xboxor · 10-26-08

Here are a couple benches from me. My array is 5x300Gb SATA1 RAID 5, 64K block size. These drives are quite old now. Maybe 3 years old now.

I will also explain that Vista was running from the array, and I feel that always cripples benchmarks.

Here is a bench mark with the controller in CachedIO mode.

Here is one with the card in DirectIO mode.

Also, I have this card in a PCI-e x4 slot.

After X-Mas I'm getting 5x1Tb Samsung Spinpoint F1's.

XFreeRollerX · 10-27-08

Quote:

Originally Posted by legoman786

That blows... You sure your rig gonna be up for the after Thanksgiving LAN party?

I have EAR Premium (EVGA Advanced RMA Premium service) they ship me a new board first, gets here in ~1 week and i send them the old one within 1 month.. Ill be totally fine for the LAN.. im pissed cuz I am on the folding team - this will mess up our November month in competition

JustusIV · 10-27-08

What settings do you guys have for consistency checks etc? I have turned mine off but do manual scans every now and again. I don't really care for my pc doing anything without me telling it to LOL. How about if a hd dies? will i get notified etc or will i just be running in scary mode till i log into the megaraid storage manager and see it?

PS
I will be adding hds soon, do you guys think it is best to add 1 hd at a time or add all 4 in one bang? If adding more then 1 at a time is even possible, i dont know.
If i do 1 at a time i would have enough storage to backup atleast for the first couple added hd's

10-25-08	#463 (permalink)
The-Fox New to Overclock.net Join Date: Oct 2008 Posts: 1 Rep: 0 Unique Rep: 0 Trader Rating: 0	Hey to all Perc 5i ppl Hey guys, First, let me say this is a great thread with many helpful info on this card, helped me a lot so far but now I need further help... Recently I purchased the Dell Perc 5i along with 4 WD 640AAKS drives. I am using the "good" old DFI Lanparty NF4 Ultra (until future upgrade). I flashed the card to the latest LSI (v60) Firmware. Now, the thing is I can't get the board to identify the controller once I set the two main (the X16 size) PCI-E ports to 8X/8X mode. it is some sort of SLI mode for those who know/knew the board. I tried the Pin 5/6 trick but to no avail. The only two methods I managed to get the MB to identify the controller is when the PCI-E ports are set to X16/X2(or it is X1). So at the beginning I got my VGA card using the X16 port while the Perc5i was chucked full on the X1, HDTach was showing a flat line on the 150 MB/s. so now I switched the slots and the VGA card is stuck with a PCI-E X2 bandwidth while the card gets all the X16 bandwidth Anyone has Ideas regarding this ? And another thing: performance wise, I ran different setting of the card and it seems to be a bit slow, for instance: Raid0 with 64K stripe and Adaptive read ahead, i get a flat line around 275 MB/s. Why is it flat (should be a curve) and why only 275 mb/s when I know 4 of these drives can get more than 400 MB/s at the top and should get around 350 on average. Am I missing something ? 128K stripe gives better results for both Read and write, what are the cons and pros of using bigger strips like 128/256 ? I set the array using the LSI MegaRAID Storage manager from Windows, if it matters anything. Another strange issue regarding different test results: HDTune Vs. HDTach. I am using Windows XP Pro SP3 with the latest LSI drivers. with HDTune I get lower read speed and lower access times. in HDTach I get higher reads but with higher access times. Here is an example of two benches using the same Array settings: HDTach (Long Bench): HDTune (64K): Again, your thoughts/ideas are more than welcome. Last edited by The-Fox : 10-25-08 at 06:58 PM

		Overclock.net - Overclocking.net > Components > Hard Drives & Storage > RAID Controllers and Software
PERC 5/i RAID Card: Tips and Benchmarks

10-25-08	#462 (permalink)
SoulkeepHL New to Overclock.net Join Date: Oct 2008 Posts: 5 Rep: 0 Unique Rep: 0 Trader Rating: 0	Just got the rest of parts in for my new file server after getting the issues with the cables for the 5/i sorted last week. Card works fine on a G31 chipset (no pin mod). Running a Celeron 430 (woo 35W TDP) on a Gigabyte GA-G31M-ES2L board with 2GB of ram, an oooold 40GB IDE drive for the system (Server 2k8 Standard) and 3x 1.5TB Seagate drives for the RAID5 array. Following are the benches with the stock Dell firmware, 128K stripe, Adaptive Read Ahead and Write Back turned on: And for grins, this is the 5+ year old server it's replacing, 12x200GB drives (11+1hot spare) in RAID5 on a 3Ware 7506-12 on a SuperMicro Serverworks based board with 2x P3 1.0ghz, 768MB ram, and a U320 9GB boot drive:

10-25-08	#464 (permalink)
gridstop New to Overclock.net Join Date: Oct 2007 Posts: 16 Rep: 2 Unique Rep: 2 Trader Rating: 0	Has anyone tried the Perc 5/i with the basic solid state drives? (OCZ Core, Master Drive OX, etc...) They don't support AHCI which some RAID controllers don't like, and I believe they report themselves as removable, which freaks out some controllers. I know for sure at least one LSI SAS RAID chip that doesn't work with them (says wrong disk type) but it was older, not the modern ones.

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