Promise FastTrak SX4000 Review

[Nethermancer]

I have a review of this product here for anyone interested:

http://www.hardwarereview.net/reviews/Promise%20FastTrak%20SX4000/FastTrakSX4000.htm

The only problem I have is that I cannot explain its poor performance compared to a FastTrak TX2000. Everything else is exactly the same and the latest drivers are used on both cards. If anyone has the SX4000 and can spot something I am doing wrong please let me know so I can retest this card. Thanks.

[Dr Mordrid]

Here are the results Promise's QC lab got;

http://digitalvideo.8m.net/ftsx4000_bench.pdf

Note the RAID5 sequential read/write numbers at the end. These were, however, with the card in a 66mhz slot.

and here's their test system;

System Testing Configuration:
-SuperMicro P4DL6
-ServerWorks Grand Champion – Low End (GC-LE) performance chipset
-64-bit PCI-X
-2 x 1.8GHz Pentium 4 Xeon CPUs w/ Hyperthreading enabled
-400MHz FSB
-256MB PC2100 Registered ECC memory
-Integrated ATI RAGE video
-Integrated Broadcom Gigabit Ethernet
-Integrated Intel 10/100 Server Ethernet
- IBM 60GXP connected to the onboard ATA100 controller (isolated boot drive)
- Windows XP Professional w/ applicable software
- FastTrak SX4000 was installed into PCI Slot 2 (32-bit / 66MHz mode)
- 4x IBM 7200RPM 20GB DeskStar 120GXP

Your results are FAR below mine, and I'm using just a 33mhz slot. Also; note that there is less "data spiking" (throughput dropouts) with the SX4000 vs. the TX2000. Those equal dropped frames when capturing/playing back.

Questions;

1. is SMART turned off in the systems BIOS?

2. is SMART turned off in the arrays PAM control panel?

3. did you do the minimum PAM installation as recommended for workstations, meaning no remote management tools?

Dr. Mordrid

[Nethermancer]

I didn't install the PAM utility for either the SX4000 or the TX2000. Disk SMART status should be off and the same 4 drives were used with both cards. Both cards were tested in the same 66MHz slot on an MSI K7D Master Dual Athlon board.

Is the memory OK at 133MHz or should I have used 66/100MHz?

There must be a setting somewhere that I have missed but I can't think what. It pains me to give a bad review to a card that should be one of the top IDE RAID solutions available. If only I could figure out what went wrong.

[Dr Mordrid]

You MUST turn off SMART in the PAM drivers or it's on by default. This is murder on transfer rates.

You can use either PC-100 or PC-133 memory.

Dr. Mordrid

[Nethermancer]

Thanks Doc, looks like the SMART status must be on even without the PAM installed. I'll redo the tests when I get home for the weekend.

On another note, is there someone at Matrox you can recommend I contact so I can persuade them to send me a RT.X10/RT.X100 for review? I know you passed some details on to someone at Matrox but there's been no response and I've found that for online sites to get taken seriously I have to send a letter explaining everything along with business cards etc.

Thanks for your help.