OCZ Revodrive or Supertalent RAID PCIE?

[boed]

Hello,

I'm debating between buying a new OCZ 3x2 max iops drive or a Super Talent RAID PCIE card - http://www.anandtech.com/show/5417/...ased-raiddrive-upstream-and-raiddrive-ii-ssds

Neither card is out yet so I could try either. I've had mixed luck with the revodrives in the past so I'm not locked in to either one at the moment.

I had a couple of revodrives on order for over a month now but they've just cancelled the orders since they've been delayed so long. As a result I'd like to consider more options as there is no way of knowing how long the OCZs are being delayed while they try to fix the performance issues.

I had a Max IOPS 960 GB drive on order for $2200 and a 480 GB on order for $1270 from Amazon but amazon cancelled both orders due to supply issues.

 

[Emulex]

they are just ssd's with a cheap controller on them. i'd get regular drives personally. easier to swap out and raid-0 works great. should have trim on raid-0 any day

 

[boed]

Thanks - I really want the fastest possible. I think the latency with a standard controller would be noticeable.

 

[groberts101]

Thanks - I really want the fastest possible. I think the latency with a standard controller would be noticeable.

you would be wrong about that then as the differences are hardly perceivable. Plus ram caching is nearly seamless and very good these days at reducing said latency of raids.

You'll not hit the massive IOPS and won't reach far beyond 1400MB/s sequential speeds onboard though.

If you want top performance then wait for the next gen PCI-E drives which will result from the next gen controllers(past mid year or so)..

or just buy a top line LSI and get the fastpath key for ultra low latency with multiple sata SSD. Then you get performance, versatility, and pricing out of the deal.

 

[boed]

I like the LSI controllers - they are a bit pricey but they are by far the best ones I've used so far.

 

[LokutusofBorg]

Thanks - I really want the fastest possible. I think the latency with a standard controller would be noticeable.

The main thing you're going to get going with a PCIe card over a SATA drive is better performance in higher queue depth scenarios (server or workstation loads). If you aren't going to be putting those loads on your system then a card solution like this is not worth going for.

Having said that, I am a big fan of these card solutions, and am really looking forward to the progress in native PCIe SSD controllers over the next year or two. OCZ has the edge right now, however, with their VCA advances. It's too bad they can't get the RevoDrive 3's to market.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/4470/ocz-revodrive-3-x2-480gb-preview

 

[boed]

Thanks - I'm looking forward to a review of the new maxi iops 3x2 and the new super talent raiddrive II.
http://www.nordichardware.com/news/...ddrive-ii-reach-data-speeds-up-to-24-gbs.html

 

[Mfusick]

nice choices

 

[boed]

I just found the SuperTalent RAIDdrive Gen II's in Europe for a little more per MB than the OCZ revodrive. Hopefully the price will drop on both by the time they are shipping in quantity in the US and competition begins.

 

[nanaki333]

i was on the fence for revodrives, but reading reviews.... one of the chief complaints is you can't use them as a boot drive, which is where i want my fastest SSD (array).

 

[boed]

I have an older revodrive as my boot drive on the computer I'm sending this from. Some motherboards they work on and some they don't. I happen to have a motherboard that they do work on.

 

[nanaki333]

yeah, you got lucky. for desktop boards it's a crapshoot.

 

[boed]

Agreed about being lucky but you can also look at tested motherboards to find out if yours is listed and post to find out if anyone else has tested your motherboard.

 

[boed]

It looks like the RAIDDrive II is shipping in Europe and a couple of the Max IOPS 3x 2 are shipping in the US

 

[Obsoleet]

I like the LSI controllers - they are a bit pricey but they are by far the best ones I've used so far.

they are just ssd's with a cheap controller on them. i'd get regular drives personally. easier to swap out and raid-0 works great. should have trim on raid-0 any day

This and this

 

[boed]

There is one thing (besides the price) I don't like about the LSI boards - the post. One thing I like about my existing revodrive is that it doesn't take too long on boot up to go through identification. The LSI's seem to hang a bit during the boot process to verify config and drives.

 

[groberts101]

most cards are like that though anyways and is the small price to be payed for the actual speed found in usage. I tell people like this when they speak of longer post speeds. How long do you spend booting the system?.. compared to actually using it? Usage is where the bulk of the time is saved in the end. And for that matter.. most who start using raid array of SSD's and have matched storage arrays to even take advantage of those higher transfer speeds.. often leave the machines booted far longer/more often than those who just use onboard solutions. Raidcards are typically bridging of "casual".. with "workstation" type environments and the boot regimine often corrsponds to it as well. Good luck on the hunt

 

[boed]

I happen to test a lot of software and make frequent changes to my system so I do reboot relatively frequently. First thing I do in the morning is turn on my PC so in my case boot speed is actually important. I may send an inquiry to LSI to find out if they have any fast booting RAID 10 cards.

I unfortunately believe LSI is going to start using sandforce controllers.

 

[boed]

FYI - I did send an email to LSI - they are going to test for me post times. I'll let you know the expected post time. They say I can turn off the bios to increase boot time.

My current case that I love has bays for 3.5" drives. Are there any good adapters for the much smaller SSD drives?

 

[boed]

As much as I like the LSI controllers, I've decided to go with a Supertalent or possibly an OCZ PCIE solution.

The post time for just an LSI would be between 15-20 seconds. And while I get tremendous speed once the system is booted, that 15 additional seconds is something to consider but the other is that I have limited phyiscal space in my case for storage and if I wanted to even do RAID 10 I'd need 4 slots - leaving me little space for my 4 Spindle drives I use for bulk storage (too expensive and large for SSD).

 

[LokutusofBorg]

There are all kinds of 3.5" to 2.5" mounting brackets. Some let you mount two 2.5" drives in a single 3.5" bay.

 

[groberts101]

or even up to 6 x 2.5's in a single 5.25 bay

 

[boed]

I think I'll wait for the Super Talent before making a decision. They've dropped the specs significantly on the Max IOPS 3x2 card.

 

[LokutusofBorg]

or even up to 6 x 2.5's in a single 5.25 bay

4 I've seen, but never 6. Link?

 

[groberts101]

4 I've seen, but never 6. Link?

here's the one I use for my SSD array. There are a few others on the market as well but tend to cost more.
http://www.thermaltakeusa.com/Product.aspx?C=1336&ID=2031http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_results.phtml?product_id=0353931