3Ware RAID controllers?

[Jkun]

Anyone try the RAID0 controllers from 3Ware (www.3ware.com)yet?

Their 6000 series seems very interesting and contrary to the Promise and Highpoint controllers, they have a dedicated RAID processor onboard.

I wonder if they have less PCI utilization than the Promise.

J-kun

[Dr Mordrid]

You'll likely see quite a few of these kinds of products coming in the next few months.

The reason: Intel came out with an I/O processor, the i960, that they started using in their own RAID devices. Intel also published reference designs for other manufacturers to use in producing their own products.

Now the bandwagon has started rolling with IDE RAID using up to 8 drives being the latest wrinkle.

i960 info:

http://www.intel.com.ar/design/IIO/p_boost.htm

I would exect the bus utilization to be lower, but remember that it can only go down so much because of the high data flow of RAID's using ATA66/ATA100 devices. Just 2 ATA100 drives can sustain upwards of 70 mb/s in a RAID0.

IMHO the now rather high prices will start droping once everyone gets production ramped up.

Dr. Mordrid


[This message has been edited by Dr Mordrid (edited 08 August 2000).]

[yeast]

Hi Y'all,
My next project in my summer job is to build a 400GB storage solution. I actually was looking at 3ware a few days ago before reading this post! SCSI easily costs $15000+, while the 3ware solution costs a bit over $4000. I contacted 3ware, and they are willing to send me a demo 8-port to test! WOW! Free of charge! I'll tell ya'll how cool it is when I get it. =)

p.s. They have the 6000 series that supports DMA66. I heard they will have a DMA100 soon too. Also, you can stick as many of these cards in your machine as you have PCI slots, making almost unlimited storage! WOW!

-Ethan

[Jkun]

Thanks for the reply! This is very interesting.

You wouldn't happen to know if the new Adaptec IDE Raid controller is also based on Intel i960? This just was tested in C'T and they called it a piece of crap. Very slow and driver issues.

J-kun

[Jkun]

Thanks for the info, Ethan!

Please do let us know how it works! They're a bit more expensive than Promise, but they do have processors on board, each drive = master etc. If it works well this certainly would be a great alternative.

What setup will you use to test it? Intel chipset or VIA? Will you be doing video grabbing? It would be very interesting to see if those audio issues pop up with this device like with the Promise. If it's a better device this should fix that issue.

J-kun

[yeast]

jkun,

What's C'T?

Go for the 6000 series to support DMA66. It's only a few 10 bucks more. I heard they will raise the price, so maybe you should get it soon. Jkun, where do you live now?

We're using it to store images, not to capture. Currently we are using (sadly) the Dazzle USB to capture into MPEG1 and then burn them into CD's. Later, and if you have comments about this, we'll goto MPEG2. This 400GB storage is used to store these MPEG's.

The motherboard for this storage could be a ASUS CUSL2 Intel 815E chipset w/ PIII 733mhz, 256MB ram. something like that. I'm afraid we aren't capturing data, we're more of a storage thing. But writing in RAID 0 will be really fast with multiple HD's!

http://www.raid5.com/04_01_00.html

-Ethan

[Dr Mordrid]

It's no suprise if the Adaptec is a poor performer. That thing is a 12" by 4" in size and looks to me to be a kludged together affair. Makes you wonder if they just threw together the reference design with few changes.

As for other new offerings I have no experience....yet ;-)) (hint hint).

Dr. Mordrid

[Jkun]

[QUOTE]Originally posted by yeast:
>What's C'T?
C'T is one of Europe's leading PC magazines. It's German, well known even outside Europe (you'll also find references to it on Tom's Hardware or The Register very often). It's the kind of magazine that's not afraid to step on any toes. Very good reviews, very in-depth and technical, and they review stuff other magazines don't/can't do such as ATX powersupplies.

>Go for the 6000 series to support DMA66. I'd love to, but I'd like to hear something more in the line of practical experiences.

>Jkun, where do you live now?
Belgium

>We're using it to store images, not to >capture.
dang

>Later, and if you have comments about this, >we'll goto MPEG2. This 400GB storage is
Dazzle DVCII?

>The motherboard for this storage could be a >ASUS CUSL2 Intel 815E chipset w/ PIII
double dang. Classic setup. Intel chipset. Should work, but pricy. With the Durons running at 900 for $100...

Well, if I read any positive reviews on the 3Ware 6400, I'll take the plunge and see if it works on my Asus A7V too.

J-kun

[Ducky]

The 3Ware Cards aren't any better than Adaptec's

Their drivers aren't very mature and I can't see recomending them to anyone at this point.

IMHO the Promise cards are better if you can live with 2 channels(Of course the 3Ware and Adaptec cards only support 1 driver per channel so it's the same)

Barry

[yeast]

Ducky, 3ware has 3 flavors of the 6000 series : 2 port, 4 port, and 8 port. With 8 ports going directly to a single HD, there's no shared bus! And, you hook up 8 IBM 76GB's together, you get a 610 GB Raid solution! I have yet to see how fast this will go.

I'll be installing it on NT, so I'm not too comfortable with that yet...but I've heard it shouldn't be too hard.

There aren't any other solid competitors out there yet, is there? If you know of any other brands that have IDE RAID solution, please notify me asap! =)

Anyway, it should be built in a week, report back later.

-Ethan