DELL PE1800 Raid 5 cerc-sata 1.5/6 with 6 WD4000YR

[azev]

Just finished setting up file server with dell pe1800 dual 2.8ghz xeon, 2gb ram, and dell cerc-sata 1.5/6 (adaptec) controller with 6 Western Digital Caviar RE2 WD4000YR, running Windows 2003 Enterprise server.
The OS is installed on a separate 73GIG 10k fujitsu drive via onboard LSI scsi controller.

The raid setup is raid 5 (all 6 drives), and I believe write cache is disabled, but read cache is enabled.
The array is set as built and verify, and I've waited over a day for the array to finished checking consistency before funning the test.

HD.Tach only shows a max of 62MB/s throuput. I think this is ridiculous, most of my sata desktop beched around 150MB/s.

Is there a way to improve performace ??, I want to see at least 150MB/s, which is about what most of my desktop benched at.

Any input or suggestion is desperately needed, I gotta get this server into production starting this weekeend.

Thank You

 

[GrammatonJP]

Like to know who suggested the machine or card ?

Thats a slow card to begin with, I couldn't find it but someone else here had the card...

http://pics.bbzzdd.com/users/GrammatonJP/DellCercR0.jpg - 2x 250gb maxtor maxline II
in raid 0

then again, a lot of people here say hd tach is not a good benchmark.

I have the card on my desktop and I just put it into my PE 650...

I dont think it'll get any better.

I think a lsi or acera sata controller would be better but dell doesn't offer it oem..

 

[GrammatonJP]

Adaptec 2410SA is basically the same card...
Just making sure, http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=8818303744 thats the same card..

http://www.tomshardware.com/2004/06/25/...ble_raid_5_storage_compared/page3.html

Adaptec in red - also bottom of barrel.. you can also see it on page 13, etc... its not a fast card at all
http://www.tomshardware.com/2004/06/25/...le_raid_5_storage_compared/page12.html

Recommend http://www.lsilogic.com/products/megaraid/sata_150_6.html
You can either return that dell or buy a new card.. or live with it..

 

[azev]

Does the LSI card offers much better performance ??

 

[mamisano]

Any specific tests you want me to run? I have the card with 4x Hitachi T7K250's in Raid 5. System consists of SuperMicro H8SSL-i skt. 939 Server board, Athlon X2-3800+, 2GB DDR, Windows Server 2003 x64. OS is running off a Hitachi 80GB SATA.

 

[gsellis]

Just making sure, you did not specify creating a RAID volume while creating the partition in W2K3, right? You did it in the card BIOS. NOT THAT YOU DID, but nothing makes RAID perform poorly as putting software RAID on a hardware RAID volume. Have seen it done once.

 

[GrammatonJP]

Originally posted by: mamisano
Any specific tests you want me to run? I have the card with 4x Hitachi T7K250's in Raid 5. System consists of SuperMicro H8SSL-i skt. 939 Server board, Athlon X2-3800+, 2GB DDR, Windows Server 2003 x64. OS is running off a Hitachi 80GB SATA.

Just do a basic hd tach on any array you got... i'm sure its similar.. i compared my scores to others.. its not that different

 

[GrammatonJP]

http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview.cfm?catid=27&threadid=1855241

Another thread with his score

http://www.pbase.com/joony/image/59708250.jpg
Same power edge 1800 with dell cerc

Oh BTW, my system is a A8N SLI Premium, not a dell system.

I also have it now in my poweredge 650 server.. I'm just using it for raid 1.. drive failure purpose..

I'll rebench it when my WD 500gb re2 comes.. it might be drive issue but I doubt it.. i have a pair of maxtor maxline II 250 in the current system and I also got some dell oem maxtor 80gb sata

 

[mamisano]

Well, similar scores in HDTach with the setup mentioned earlier. I did run ATTO Disk Benchmark and read speeds are above 90MB/s.

 

[azev]

Thanks for the wealth of info guys, I guess it is down to a very slow raid card made by adaptec .
I've done some atto bechmark, and like mamisano said, I got similar result, 90MB/s read max, but only 12MB/s write.
The results are ridiculous when compared to my single 80GB WD800JB can do 30MB/s write and 60MB/s Read on atto bench.
Western Digital Caviar RE2 WD4000YR is a much faster drive I believe and supposedly its optimized for raid use.
When I finished building this server, I was expecting to see close to 200MB read, and 60-100MB writes. Maybe I was way too optimistic about it.
Any suggestion on any raid 5 card that can improve the bechmark results, but not broke the bank? My budget are very limited after the servers, and drives.

 

[EatSpam]

The LSI MegaRAID 150-6 card is old and slow.

Areca makes the fastest SATA RAID cards on the market - they come in PCI-X and PCIe x8 flavors. 3ware's newer cards are pretty fast, too.

 

[GrammatonJP]

Yeah i do recommend areca.. but at that price.. it cost more than my scsi adapters.. i can't bring myself to buy a 600 sata card.. 600 scsi or sas would be different..

LSI is faster than adaptec but cheaper..

 

[bob4432]

Originally posted by: azev
Just finished setting up file server with dell pe1800 dual 2.8ghz xeon, 2gb ram, and dell cerc-sata 1.5/6 (adaptec) controller with 6 Western Digital Caviar RE2 WD4000YR, running Windows 2003 Enterprise server.
The OS is installed on a separate 73GIG 10k fujitsu drive via onboard LSI scsi controller.

The raid setup is raid 5 (all 6 drives), and I believe write cache is disabled, but read cache is enabled.
The array is set as built and verify, and I've waited over a day for the array to finished checking consistency before funning the test.

HD.Tach only shows a max of 62MB/s throuput. I think this is ridiculous, most of my sata desktop beched around 150MB/s.

Is there a way to improve performace ??, I want to see at least 150MB/s, which is about what most of my desktop benched at.

Any input or suggestion is desperately needed, I gotta get this server into production starting this weekeend.

Thank You

how are your desktops benching at 150MB/s? raid 0/5?

 

[wallsfd949]

I am using a 3ware 9550sx-8LP and would recomend it.

The good : Hot spare, hot swap, fast card, nice webGUI.
The bad : $500 for the 8port card
The ugly : We did not check the compatibility guide this go around and ended up having to order new disks.

There is a reason Dell calls it the "Cost Effective Raid Card", it should be called the "Performance Lacking Raid Card" - PLRC.

 

[GrammatonJP]

Whats worse is they charge 345 to add that on... you're better off buying aftermarket... the only good card they got are the lsi scsi

Morning rebench - on poweredge 650 p4 using raid 1
Read Cache Only
R

Read/Write Cache On
RW

I had the old 3ware 8500.. it was decent card..

 

[azev]

Originally posted by: bob4432

Originally posted by: azev
Just finished setting up file server with dell pe1800 dual 2.8ghz xeon, 2gb ram, and dell cerc-sata 1.5/6 (adaptec) controller with 6 Western Digital Caviar RE2 WD4000YR, running Windows 2003 Enterprise server.
The OS is installed on a separate 73GIG 10k fujitsu drive via onboard LSI scsi controller.

The raid setup is raid 5 (all 6 drives), and I believe write cache is disabled, but read cache is enabled.
The array is set as built and verify, and I've waited over a day for the array to finished checking consistency before funning the test.

HD.Tach only shows a max of 62MB/s throuput. I think this is ridiculous, most of my sata desktop beched around 150MB/s.

Is there a way to improve performace ??, I want to see at least 150MB/s, which is about what most of my desktop benched at.

Any input or suggestion is desperately needed, I gotta get this server into production starting this weekeend.

Thank You

how are your desktops benching at 150MB/s? raid 0/5?

I've got those numbers from HDTach benchmark, 210MB/s burst speed and 65MB/s average read.

 

[azev]

Originally posted by: GrammatonJP
Whats worse is they charge 345 to add that on... you're better off buying aftermarket... the only good card they got are the lsi scsi

Morning rebench - on poweredge 650 p4 using raid 1
Read Cache Only
R

Read/Write Cache On
RW

I had the old 3ware 8500.. it was decent card..

what kind of speed are you getting from that old 3ware card ?

 

[GrammatonJP]

I dont remember... ill have to check my files.. dont remember if I did any benchmarks with it.. but I know it was faster.. I didn't realize this adaptec was that slow till I benched it..

 

[bob4432]

Originally posted by: azev

Originally posted by: bob4432

Originally posted by: azev
Just finished setting up file server with dell pe1800 dual 2.8ghz xeon, 2gb ram, and dell cerc-sata 1.5/6 (adaptec) controller with 6 Western Digital Caviar RE2 WD4000YR, running Windows 2003 Enterprise server.
The OS is installed on a separate 73GIG 10k fujitsu drive via onboard LSI scsi controller.

The raid setup is raid 5 (all 6 drives), and I believe write cache is disabled, but read cache is enabled.
The array is set as built and verify, and I've waited over a day for the array to finished checking consistency before funning the test.

HD.Tach only shows a max of 62MB/s throuput. I think this is ridiculous, most of my sata desktop beched around 150MB/s.

Is there a way to improve performace ??, I want to see at least 150MB/s, which is about what most of my desktop benched at.

Any input or suggestion is desperately needed, I gotta get this server into production starting this weekeend.

Thank You

how are your desktops benching at 150MB/s? raid 0/5?

I've got those numbers from HDTach benchmark, 210MB/s burst speed and 65MB/s average read.

how are you coming up with 150MB/s? your speed would be 65MB/s str... w/ a 210MB/s burst

 

[azev]

I honestly forgot where I got that number, I think you are correct though, I just did another test and teh result is the same number you mentioned