Perc 5i SAS Card For 680i SATA RAID?

[JesseV1.0]

I was cruising around ebay to try to find a loophole in the "Real RAID" market. I thought maybe if I look hard enough I'll find a real 4 port SATA RAID card for less than $150-- crazy I know. At the moment I'm using the onboard RAID controller for my 2 Raptor RAID 0, I would like to have 4 Raptors but I think I'm gonna be limited on throughput as I have been hearing about the 680i's RAID issues. As for myself, I get a burst of 126 mb/s and a minimum of 96 mb/s-- I'm pretty sure I should have a little higher read rate than that. I got the same score using 16kb stripes and 64kb stripes, + - 3.

I found this card: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ssPageName=STRK:MEBTOX:IT&item=220118311485&_trksid=p3984.cTODAY.m238.lVI


It's a real RAID card with lots of ram and a nice processor. It is for SAS drives but I read that SAS controllers and ports are compatible with SATA devices, but not vise versa. I read that here:
http://www.digit-life.com/articles2/sas-and-sata/

In one of its most significant advances, the SAS interface will also be compatible with lower-cost-per-gigabyte SATA drives, giving system builders the flexibility to integrate either SAS or SATA devices while slashing the costs associated with supporting two separate interfaces. As the next generation of SCSI, SAS bridges the parallel technology gap in performance, scalability and affordability.

My question is: Would there be any chance of this card working on my EVGA 680i mobo? I know it says its for dell workstations but I go on dell's site and they only mention that it's been tested to work on certain dell systems. The card is pci 8x and I do have a spare pci 8x port.

Anyone have any idea if this would work:confused:

[Blitzrommel]

It should work fine.

[thebeephaha]

Should work isn't exactly what he wanted to know.

I've looked into whether or not the perc cards work on a 680i based board for myself and have found cases where it does and doesn't for all kinds of reasons, from bios versions to board manufacturers.

[Blitzrommel]

Well, I haven't been given a reason to believe it wouldn't work; it's worked in a system I used which is 680i based. It's an XFX board.

[JesseV1.0]

Thanks for the info guys, I'm gonna give it a try. I'll also post here with my results, if any:D One last thing though, what about drivers? I'm pretty new to the RAID scene and this would be my first hardware RAID. I'm not sure if I even need any drivers, or maybe some sort of generic pci driver?..... Should be noted that I use Vista 64 bit ultimate.

[JesseV1.0]

Nevermind on that driver, I found it here: http://support.us.dell.com/support/downloads/format.aspx?releaseid=R149488&c=us&l=en&cs=19&s=dhs


I really can't wait to try it out:D

[Blitzrommel]

Good luck. :)

[Verge]

if you have the proper pcie slot, it will work fine with any motherboard...


however, i'm not sure what you are trying to accomplish, this is a server grade raid card, i doubt it speeds up raid0 since it was never really designed to do such things. The perc5 is a nice card, in a server... as far as gaming, eeeeh

[MixManSC]

It's not just for servers by any means - it's the top of the line controller option on Dell's ultra high end pro workstations like the machine in my sig. No idea on gaming specifics though since I don't use this box for gaming.

[shade_star]

If you have a chance could you do a test....
Setup the onboard raid on your board and create an array (the same array type as you will use on the card) and after you gt the OS loaded test its speed

The get your card rolling and repeat. Im curious to see how much faster the card is vs onboard.

[JesseV1.0]

It's not just for servers by any means - it's the top of the line controller option on Dell's ultra high end pro workstations like the machine in my sig. No idea on gaming specifics though since I don't use this box for gaming.

I want to get maximum throughput out of my 4 Raptor RAID 0, I don't believe I will get that with the onboard RAID controller on my EVGA 680i mobo, I don't believe so because I've been reading into this for quite some time. Also, I think having a good RAID card like the perc would lessen the chance of my array failing, though I may be wrong about that. Would it lessen the chance of the array failing?




If you have a chance could you do a test....
Setup the onboard raid on your board and create an array (the same array type as you will use on the card) and after you gt the OS loaded test its speed

The get your card rolling and repeat. Im curious to see how much faster the card is vs onboard.

Everyone across the internet is getting very limited results on the 680i's RAID. TBH it would be a waste of my time installing the os and stuff just to get the crappy results I know I'd get. I will however post on these forums (provided I get the card working) with my 4 Raptor RAID 0 results. It will be probably a few weeks before I post on that though, I'm doing a major system upgrade and I'm gonna wait until I'm done with that before I play with the perc card. If that card does work then I just got the deal of a lifetime, steal actually:D

[MixManSC]

Another thing you "may" be able to do is flash the Dell card with the bios for an LSI 8408E card. No idea if you can really do it or not but I did read somewhere at one point that some guy did do this and it worked just fine and he was then able to use LSI's drivers, config, and monitoring software.

[JesseV1.0]

Another thing you "may" be able to do is flash the Dell card with the bios for an LSI 8480E card. They are pretty much identical cards. No idea if you can really do it or not but I did read somewhere at one point that some guy did do this and it worked just fine and he was then able to use LSI's drivers, config, and monitoring software.


I did have a hunch that this card may exist under different names. A lot of the same hardware is usually branded with many different names. In a pic I noticed the foxconn name on the heatsink, is that who manufactured this card?

[Blitzrommel]

Foxconn makes lots of electronic components -- so they probably just made the heatsink.

[MixManSC]

Its made my LSI as an OEM card for Dell..... Even the Dell RAID Manager program for Windows is an LSI app with LSI branding on it still.

[thebeephaha]

I just ordered a Perc 5i and the SAS SFF-8484 Multilane to 4x SATA cable to go with it to test on my P5N32-E SLI mobo.

So I will find out if this works for you guys. It should as others have reported it works on the 680i reference boards.

Quick question for anyone who has gotten it to work on a 680i, which PCI-E slot did you use? The middle 4x slot or the second 16x slot at the bottom?

Thanks

[JesseV1.0]

I just ordered a Perc 5i and the SAS SFF-8484 Multilane to 4x SATA cable to go with it to test on my P5N32-E SLI mobo.

So I will find out if this works for you guys. It should as others have reported it works on the 680i reference boards.

Quick question for anyone who has gotten it to work on a 680i, which PCI-E slot did you use? The middle 4x slot or the second 16x slot at the bottom?

Thanks


I just tested mine to see if it works and yes, total success, what a STEAL!!! Anyway, I used the pci-e 8x slot. My board model: 122-CK-NF63-TR rev.: A2

I didn't set up my raid yet because I'm doing a new build, but I just wanted to see if I could access the card's setup utility and I can. People who don't get this card to work say that their system won't even boot.

My only problem is that I have to make a pci-e bracket because mine came without one, at least I work in a machine shop.

[Old Hippie]

My only problem is that I have to make a pci-e bracket because mine came without one, at least I work in a machine shop.
I was kinda wondering what this meant...
This card does not have any kind of bracket or plating that is normally seen on these.

Now I know. :)


JesseV1.0, you seemed to have found a great deal!
Good Luck and please post your results.

[thebeephaha]

Oh man, I can't wait for mine to come now. :D

[codegrinder]

cool, so these are backwards compatible with sata drives?

[JesseV1.0]

cool, so these are backwards compatible with sata drives?

Yes, you can use an SAS or SATA fanout expander to connect the card to SATA drives but you cannot connect SAS drives using SATA cables. The drives don't plug directly in to this card, you have to use an expander.

http://www.digit-life.com/articles2/sas-and-sata/

http://i201.photobucket.com/albums/aa248/jakkfrosted/11309068.jpg


http://i201.photobucket.com/albums/aa248/jakkfrosted/SAS8482P50Alarge.jpg

[thebeephaha]

I ordered a cable like this one so I could use my existing SATA power connectors.

http://i19.ebayimg.com/03/i/000/ag/0a/f37e_1.JPG

But yea its possible to use SATA drives on a SAS card, I just need to get mine now to actually test it out.... UPS needs to hurry up! :D

[codegrinder]

cool, where did you order the cable from. looks like you can get the card on ebay for 100 with battery backup.

[thebeephaha]

I got the cable from ebay as well. But there weren't many like the one I ordered.

[[LYL]Homer]

This is something I've been wondering about for a while now. But if you lose power your array is toast? (regarding the reference to a battery)

[codegrinder]

I don’t think so. I can’t remember exactly but I’m sure it had to do something with write operations when the power goes out.

[JesseV1.0]

I don’t think so. I can’t remember exactly but I’m sure it had to do something with write operations when the power goes out.

Heres a quote from the perc 5i manual:

Write-Back versus Write-Through
In write-through caching, the controller sends a data transfer completion signal to the host system when
the disk subsystem has received all the data in a transaction. The controller then writes the cached data
to the storage device when system activity is low or when the write buffer approaches capacity.
In write-back caching, the controller sends a data transfer completion signal to the host when the
controller cache has received all the data in a transaction. The cached data is not written to the
storage device.
The risk of using write-back cache is that the cached data can be lost if there is a power failure before it is
written to the storage device. This risk is eliminated by using a battery backup unit on selected PERC 5
controllers. Refer to Table 2-1 for information on which controllers support a battery backup unit.
Write-back caching has a performance advantage over write-through caching.
NOTE: The default cache setting is write-back caching.
NOTE: Certain data patterns and configurations perform better in a write-through cache policy.

Good thing mine came with a battery. I almost bought one without the battery then I saw some other ebay sellers that had the perc with the battery for only $20 more. I paid a total of $134 with shipping.

Heres my card's part number from Dell: Dell Part# : 341-4291

And here is my card on dell's site: http://accessories.us.dell.com/sna/productdetail.aspx?c=us&l=en&s=dhs&cs=19&sku=341-4291


Yep, thats right baby, I got an 800 dollar RAID card for 134 bucks:D Not only is it a good hardware RAID card but its also a card that will allow me to use some SAS drives, which I will be doing in a few days. I'm planning on setting up a 4x 36GB Cheetah 15.4k RAID 0 plus a 3 Raptor RAID 0 to put Linux on for a dual boot system. My total setup will be: 4 Cheetahs -RAID 0 for Windows and games, 3 Raptors -RAID 0 for Linux, and 1 WD 250GB 7.2k in a JBOD for storage.

[codegrinder]

i guess i should have bought one yesterday, i cant find one with a backplate for under 200 now.

[thebeephaha]

I got mine for $100 including shipping, without the bracket but I have one that will work that I pulled off a random sound card. I got my SAS to SATA cable for $35, tho I need to get one more eventually.

I plan to put my 4 Raptors in RAID0 or RAID5 depending on the speed of the 5 on this controller. I will for sure put my 4 320GB Barracudas in RAID5.

Hopefully my non-reference design ASUS 680i plays nice.

[young_one]

Heres a quote from the perc 5i manual:



Good thing mine came with a battery. I almost bought one without the battery then I saw some other ebay sellers that had the perc with the battery for only $20 more. I paid a total of $134 with shipping.

Heres my card's part number from Dell: Dell Part# : 341-4291

And here is my card on dell's site: http://accessories.us.dell.com/sna/productdetail.aspx?c=us&l=en&s=dhs&cs=19&sku=341-4291


Yep, thats right baby, I got an 800 dollar RAID card for 134 bucks:D Not only is it a good hardware RAID card but its also a card that will allow me to use some SAS drives, which I will be doing in a few days. I'm planning on setting up a 4x 36GB Cheetah 15.4k RAID 0 plus a 3 Raptor RAID 0 to put Linux on for a dual boot system. My total setup will be: 4 Cheetahs -RAID 0 for Windows and games, 3 Raptors -RAID 0 for Linux, and 1 WD 250GB 7.2k in a JBOD for storage.

Cheetah 15.4's are U320 drives, they arent going to run on a SAS controller.

Also JBOD doesnt really count when its just one drive.

Otherwise the Perc5i is a good solid card, wouldnt use it in a desktop as it simply isnt worth it but for a server environment it is pretty nice.

[codegrinder]

not wroth it?

[JesseV1.0]

Cheetah 15.4's are U320 drives, they arent going to run on a SAS controller.

Also JBOD doesnt really count when its just one drive.

Otherwise the Perc5i is a good solid card, wouldnt use it in a desktop as it simply isnt worth it but for a server environment it is pretty nice.


I have the drives right next to me and they have an SAS interface, I think you need to do your research before you start telling people how it is:cool:

Also I'm putting the one drive in a JBOD because I figure I may as well connect the drive to the card because if I don't I'll have 7 hdds connected to the card and 1 hdd connected to my mobo. I just think it would keep things (and cables) a bit more organized if I used the same controller for all my drives. Maybe I'm wrong...

[thebeephaha]

Got my Perc card yesterday. It came with a capacitor thing broken off due to terrible packaging but I managed to get it back on thanks to my mad soldering skills. The card works flawlessly in my computer in both 16x and 8x slots. My 4 Raptors SCREAM in RAID0 (not only speed but of course noise) though sadly my battery backup unit doesn't work so I need to get a new one of those else I'm stuck with RAID 1 & 0. But for now thats fine.

**********

I did some benches and it seems 2 to 4 drives gives a minimal increase, but I'm not using the best settings in my initial raid setup. Heres some benches, the first two benches here have 64kb stripes, no read ahead, and are using write through cache (write back won't enable as I need that battery, or to update my firmware)

http://www.joshuahenryproductions.com/computer/benches/perc5_2raptors.jpg
^ (Two Raptors)
http://www.joshuahenryproductions.com/computer/benches/perc5_4raptors.jpg
^ (Four Raptors)

This third bench I enabled adaptive read ahead and the burst went up like crazy but the sustained still sucks because of the caching limitations.

http://www.joshuahenryproductions.com/computer/benches/perc5_4raptors_2.jpg
^ (Four Raptors)

**********

I also just read that with the newest firmware I can force write back cache even without a battery but when I try to update it always fails. WHY?

Heres some pics of the BIOS info, as you can see it detects the card, shows the old firmware vs the newer version and tries to update but then it fails. I tried the update off a floppy, and off my hard drive using both of Dells utilities. What gives?

http://www.joshuahenryproductions.com/computer/raidbios.jpg
^ Raid BIOS Post screen.
http://www.joshuahenryproductions.com/computer/failedupdate.jpg
^ Firmware update process.

[JesseV1.0]

Hmm.... seems low for 4 raptors. Which raptors do you have? With my onboard raid I get 130 burst with 2 raptors-- 74GB 8MB cache.

[thebeephaha]

I've done a little looking into this and it seems without the write back cache im losing quite a bit of performance.

I wish I could get this damn firmware update to work.

[young_one]

I have the drives right next to me and they have an SAS interface, I think you need to do your research before you start telling people how it is:cool:

Also I'm putting the one drive in a JBOD because I figure I may as well connect the drive to the card because if I don't I'll have 7 hdds connected to the card and 1 hdd connected to my mobo. I just think it would keep things (and cables) a bit more organized if I used the same controller for all my drives. Maybe I'm wrong...

http://www.storagereview.com/ST3146754LW.sr

I accept I may be mistaken, it was just the onlu 15.4's I have seen are U320 and the only SAS Cheetahs I have seen are 15.5's. I accept however there may well have been a crossover in models/interfaces.

I wasnt saying that keeping your cables clean isnt good I just meant whenever I have put a single drive on a Perc5i (for testing) I have set it up in dummy raid 0 config, never actually seen the option for JBOD inside the Perc5's bios, then again I may well be wrong there as I have never been looking for it.

[kleox64]

got myself one aswell, the writeback can be forced on according to the instructions so can all the other RAID levels. The heatsink is getting very hot and does burn if touched, ive remounted it using some AS so thats definetly doing its job. Currently looking for a better heatsink, mounting it is gona be impossible due to the clip mechanism, no mounting holes and no ability to use epoxy (its a bare die).

[thebeephaha]

You can only force write back with the newer firmware, mine is pretty old firmware and I can't get it to flash to the new version. (check post above)

It's really pissing me off. Any ideas? If I can't get this one to flash I'm going to buy another card and sell this one.

Also due to heat I too replaced the heatsink with a Zalman ZM-NBF47. I also added a tiny little Vantec chipset heatsink too on the other chip. Much cooler temps.

http://joshuahenryproductions.com/computer/images/moddedperc5_1.jpg

http://joshuahenryproductions.com/computer/images/moddedperc5_5.jpg
^ I had to put the mounting clips on backwards and bend the heatsink fins in a little bit as to not bump some caps on my mobo, but it wasn't too hard.

[kleox64]

I made my own bracket, used a VGA one with one screw mounting them epoxied part of another for the 2nd screw.

I epoxied a bigger heatsink, its light enough to hold. The zalman looks like a better mount however my soundcard is directly underneath so I will end upcompletly bending that thing. I dont think heat will be an issue as the card is designed to take it and I have a 120mm fan blowing accros it 6" away.

Got this for £60 by the way, refurbished no battery.

[kleox64]

Dude you are so write about that, it falls back to write through in the windows RAID manager, I cant update the firmware either through the RIAD manager or DOS boot floppy.

Any ideas?

[Old Hippie]

Uh Oh, I hope you fellers get this worked out. Some how, this looked like it was to good to be true.

Good Luck to all!

[thebeephaha]

Dude you are so write about that, it falls back to write through in the windows RAID manager, I cant update the firmware either through the RIAD manager or DOS boot floppy.

Any ideas?

Maybe there is a reason so many of these cards get on Ebay for so cheap, maybe something went wonky in their firmware so that updates could not be applied. :confused:

However I doubt this, more likely is either there is some sort of conflict when the firmware tries to update and it fails. I'm going to try to remove my 8800 Ultra which is also on the PCI-E bus and use an ancient PCI Cirrus Logic 1MB graphics card and try it again, that way only the Perc is running on the PCI-E, I'm also going to disable everything extra on my mobo like sound, usb, etc and see if that works.

I also just ordered a "new" backup battery to try, maybe the card needs the battery attached to update the firmware??? If not, the battery will at least let me turn on the write back cache and use the RAID5 functionality which is why I really bought this card in the first place.

Just FYI, I read that the newer firmware also enhances speed and stability of the card and of course gives you more configuration options as well. I posted all my progress so far on a Perc 5i thread on the 2CPU forums so maybe they will have an answer.

Uh Oh, I hope you fellers get this worked out. Some how, this looked like it was to good to be true.

Good Luck to all!

I hope we get it worked out too, else I'm going to have a lot of extra hardware to ebay off again! :eek:

[JesseV1.0]

I haven't set up my array yet, I'm having UPS issues. I can't wait to join the bandwagon:)

On the firmware issue, someone posted in this thread that this card may possibly be flashed to an LSI, the model of which is in an earlier post.

[thebeephaha]

I figured it out!

READ THIS (http://www.dellcommunity.com/supportforums/board/message?board.id=pes_hardrive&thread.id=26371&c=us&l=en&cs=&s=gen)

BAM.

There are two versions of the Perc 5i. Dell bastards trying to confuse us!

Perc 5i Adapter & Perc 5i Integrated

Most cards are the Integrated version on ebay, thats the one I have, I was trying to flash it with the wrong version of the firmware. I just updated with the right firmware to the latest version and have several more options, like the forcing of write back without a battery.

Excellent.

[codegrinder]

did it get any faster?

[thebeephaha]

Not yet, but I think I still need that dammed battery. Even though the array shows that the write back is enabled, I don't think its doing anything. :confused:

Or its possible my Raptors just can't go any faster, I mean, 130MB sustained is pretty dang fast anyways, IMO. I guess I was just hoping for a little more speed?

[codegrinder]

dang. i wanted to get this, but on board raid it already giving close to that anyways.


http://upload.codegrinder.net/files/1/woot.PNG

[thebeephaha]

Those Intel raid controllers are really good for RAID 0 & 1 but for anything else though you NEED a hardware raid which is why I really bought this, I just haven't moved my other drives to the Perc yet as I need to back up my existing RAID5 as it is.

My Perc card is infinitely better than my onboard 680i nvraid controller so I'm happy.

I will upload results once I get the battery backup (I hope the cache options really get enabled) and get the RAID5 going.

[kleox64]

mine flashed OK with the integrated firmware, however I think my memory is borked. Everytime I try to format a RAID 5 array the PC freezes at the end, I get battery/cache error on a reboot.

In the end Ive ordered a PERC 5/E (with battery) from a reputable retailer, and yes I know exactly what cables/adapters to use.

[thebeephaha]

Actually, the RAM for these things are pretty cheap, around $30. Just FYI.

I've read you need 256MB DDR2-400 (PC2-3200) ECC in single sided x16 configuration. No idea on CAS timing requirements though.

I might buy new RAM just to be safe, I've had two BSODs and a "unknown hard error" message from Windows since I installed this thing.

[kleox64]

Actually, the RAM for these things are pretty cheap, around $30. Just FYI.

I've read you need 256MB DDR2-400 (PC2-3200) ECC in single sided x16 configuration. No idea on CAS timing requirements though.

I might buy new RAM just to be safe, I've had two BSODs and a "unknown hard error" message from Windows since I installed this thing.

I'm not taking any chances with my data, if your system was fine before hand then blame the BSOD's on the RAID controller.

I should be getting the PERC 5/E tommorow so I'll try swapping the memory, the only issue being that it's called a transportable battery backup unit(the battery is bolted on to the memory).

[kleox64]

I've got 2 new internal sas to sata fan out cables if anyone is interested.

[codegrinder]

I'm not taking any chances with my data, if your system was fine before hand then blame the BSOD's on the RAID controller.

I should be getting the PERC 5/E tommorow so I'll try swapping the memory, the only issue being that it's called a transportable battery backup unit(the battery is bolted on to the memory).


i thought the PERC5/E only had external connectors?


I've got 2 new internal sas to sata fan out cables if anyone is interested.


im interested depending on price.. shoot me a pm

[kleox64]

i thought the PERC5/E only had external connectors?

im interested depending on price.. shoot me a pm

it does, I'm going to be using one of the connectors for four internal drives, later on I can attach an external storage solution.

[codegrinder]

here is the stock 680i raid 0 with two raptorX

ill post one after i get my card too

http://upload.codegrinder.net/files/1/680i.PNG

[thebeephaha]

I had one more BSOD and since I updated the firmware on the card when I rebooted it actually TOLD ME I have bad memory on the card.

I just ordered a new ram unit, $7.99 + $10 shipping. :rolleyes: Anyways, we shall see how that goes. My under $150 ultimate raid card endeavor just got blasted after having a bad battery and bad ram.

To recap for anyone too lazy to read through the entire thread.

Bought Perc 5i for about $100 with RAM & BBU + Bought $35 SAS to SATA cable.
Got card, had a capacitor thing broken off but was able to solder back on.
Card worked in my system fine, but no write back caching without new firmware or BBU.
Tried to update firmware but failed several times.
First BSOD while defragmenting my RAID0. (just great...) Second BSOD just surfing the web. (whatever)
Updated firmware after I discovered there are TWO models of the Perc 5i, the Adapter & the Integrated.
Ordered a new BBU for about $35.
I got a "unknown hard error" message Windows "freaked out", third BSOD. I have bad RAM.
Ordered new RAM for about. $20


Learn from my mistakes.

[kleox64]

Got my PERC5/E today, it works flawlesly. Flashed to the latest firmware thenpluged in 3 drives RAID5 with writeback and look ahead enabled, no freezes what so ever.

The card:
http://img142.imageshack.us/img142/7840/28112007132800x600gm8.th.jpg (http://img142.imageshack.us/my.php?image=28112007132800x600gm8.jpg)

TBBU:
http://img142.imageshack.us/img142/9083/28112007130800x600dn5.th.jpg (http://img142.imageshack.us/my.php?image=28112007130800x600dn5.jpg)

SFF8470 to 4xSATA device expander:
http://img142.imageshack.us/img142/4053/28112007128800x600fx1.th.jpg (http://img142.imageshack.us/my.php?image=28112007128800x600fx1.jpg)

SFF8470 x 2 connectors:
http://img142.imageshack.us/img142/7838/28112007133800x600qq9.th.jpg (http://img142.imageshack.us/my.php?image=28112007133800x600qq9.jpg)

[Old Hippie]

OK. You know the drill. Installed pics. and specs when you got 'um. :D

[kleox64]

OK. You know the drill. Installed pics. and specs when you got 'um. :D

ok will do but only in the weekend, my OS is currently on nvidia RAID so Im gona shift the install 1st.

[thebeephaha]

Well I got my new battery today, ran some tests, write back did NOT make my RAID0 array any faster, I'm bottlenecked somewhere at around 130MB reads be it the card or my hard drives themselves. But at least I have the battery to make the error messages shut up so that feels good.

I also found my BSOD errors stopped when I disabled adaptive read ahead, but I have new ram coming so I will test that feature again later.

[JesseV1.0]

This thread has been very informative, thanks guys!

I should be installing my card along with 4 cheetahs, 3 raptors and 1 7.2k wd250 real soon.

Funny how I started this thread and I ended up being the last to install the damn thing:cool:

I've been waiting on other hardware for my new build, got a new Lian Li case, a G0 Q6600 that I'm gonna OC till it begs me to stop, and I also have to decide on placement of my water cooling components. Some of this work includes cutting a hole on the top of my case so I can mount my thermochill pa120.3 radiator internally, what a pain. I'm shooting for 4.4GHz for the old Q6600, right now I have my E6600 at 3.6GHz-- but all this is for another thread which everyone will see soon provided that nothing catastrophic happens.

[morpheus6d9]

might have to pick up one of these cards

[kleox64]

I picked up mine from http://www.itcsales.co.uk/ brandnew and sealed, for those in the UK.
they have PERC cards galore from £80-£190.

[brinox]

well i just pulled the trigger on one of these on ebay - total price comes out to be $132 shipped (including x4 fan-out cable).

i have a bfg 680i sli so im fairly certain that it will work as others have confirmed the vanilla 680i boards work.

now i just have to fit it into my watercooling situation...

[JesseV1.0]

well i just pulled the trigger on one of these on ebay - total price comes out to be $132 shipped (including x4 fan-out cable).

i have a bfg 680i sli so im fairly certain that it will work as others have confirmed the vanilla 680i boards work.

now i just have to fit it into my watercooling situation...

Don't tell me you're gonna water cool the RAID card. That would be a sight to see:D

Like: "yo dude I got my 8800GTX, Q6600, Northbridge, AND my PERC 5i water cooled!!"

[Dan_D]

I've got some experience in this area so I'll chime in. The onboard RAID controller isn't that bad on the 680i SLI boards. I've built quite a few arrays with it and they are all still working. The performance of the NVRAID controller is about 97% the equal of the Intel ICHxR series south bridges. In other words good enough 95% of the time for most people.

That being said I went with an aftermarket controller as well because I wanted better RAID 5 performance. In any case flashing to BIOS P30 and P31 caused my controller to no longer function in Windows. Something to think about. If I take that controller and put it on another EVGA 680i SLI board running BIOS P28 it works perfectly. It's just a word of caution.

[brinox]

have any benchies on a raid 5 system using nvidia's onboard controller?

when i tried it my write performance was god awful and a detriment to my system...

i have no problem going back to P28 - im only running my G0 Q6600 at 3.2ghz 1.32v vcore.

[Dan_D]

have any benchies on a raid 5 system using nvidia's onboard controller?

when i tried it my write performance was god awful and a detriment to my system...

i have no problem going back to P28 - im only running my G0 Q6600 at 3.2ghz 1.32v vcore.

I haven't tried RAID 5 on the 680i SLI but previous NVRAID implementations had pretty aweful write performance as you stated. For RAID 0, 1, 0+1 I think the NVRAID controller is fine. For RAID 5 I'd rather use another solution.

[[LYL]Homer]

I got one of these off eBay with a battery for $90. Does anyone have a suggestion where to get the 4-to-1 cables? They show up here and there on eBay, is that the best way to go? Dell part #? I've read that the Dell cable has built-in interposers. What does that mean and is it critical to get the a cable with them, either aftermarket or Dell? Is this a standard 32 pin or 29 pin cable?

Mine came without the bracket. Does anyone have a source for these or something that works just as well, or a Dell part #, or a link directly to Dell?

[brinox]

Don't tell me you're gonna water cool the RAID card. That would be a sight to see:D

Like: "yo dude I got my 8800GTX, Q6600, Northbridge, AND my PERC 5i water cooled!!"

well i was more referring to getting it to fit inside the tubing system i have going - i have an EK FC8800, and the exit fitting is on the bottom, making it hard to insert and remove expansion cards, and in this case, having a SAS->SATA fan out cable coming off an already full-width raid card.

so along with backing up 500 gigs of data on my company's 7TB server (right now, grueling task, even over a 1gigE connection before i can begin creating arrays.

ill keep you posted though, either tonight or tomorrow will spell the end of the onboard raid 5 ails!

[brinox]

Ok so i spent about 5-6 hours working with this new card yesterday/today (this morning), and after finally realizing that windows vista ultimate x64 has vastly different symptoms when trying to install with > 3gb of ram, i FINALLY now have vista running with the latest drivers for the PERC 5\i integrated card i got!

so far its pretty farkin badass for those inquiring. as its been previously stated, vanilla 680i SLI boards pretty much require bios P28 (no later) to utilize this specific RAID card. my experiences confirm this, P31 does not allow windows vista to see the VD when installing, even while using updated drivers.

I have a 4 drive RAID 5 VD going, with read ahead (not adaptive yet) and write back (with BBU installed). this is using an array of WD2500KS drives, 4x 250 gig 16mb cache western digital's (3.5" 7200rpm of course).

my burst read (using hdtach 32mb zone test) came in initially at 430mb/sec, and a sustained transfer at about 110mb/sec.

i tried a quick file copy of a 34gb zip file, and the sustained copy speed bottomed out at 70mb/sec.


the heat that the card gives off without any direct airflow is quite hot, as others have attested to, and yes if you let the card sit there without any airflow, touching the heatsink will burn your finger.

i just threw the slowest 120mm fan to the side of the card i could find laying around and now its just above the case ambient temperature, easy fix if you ask me.

so thats what ive been doing tonight. ill get some more benchies later on, after i have more of my stuff transferred back onto the array.

[thebeephaha]

I have a 4 drive RAID 5 VD going, with read ahead (not adaptive yet) and write back (with BBU installed). this is using an array of WD2500KS drives, 4x 250 gig 16mb cache western digital's (3.5" 7200rpm of course).

my burst read (using hdtach 32mb zone test) came in initially at 430mb/sec, and a sustained transfer at about 110mb/sec.

i tried a quick file copy of a 34gb zip file, and the sustained copy speed bottomed out at 70mb/sec.

Thats great! Much faster than my NVRAID 5 I have now. I just need to borrow a 1TB drive and backup my current raid then rebuild it on my Perc 5.

Hopefully my Seagate drives will perform similar do your WDs.

[brinox]

ok been doing some searching on cabling, and i found a right angled 29 pin SAS connector (on the perc card) that fans out to 4 sata connectors:

http://www.cs-electronics.com/images/img061906/large/R-A-Multilane-L-crpd.jpg http://www.cs-electronics.com/images/img061906/large/4-1x-R-re-do.jpg

from this website:

http://www.cs-electronics.com/sas-cables.htm



i also found:

http://www.ocp.com/high_performance/hp_images/60-00840-xx.JPG

on this website: http://www.ocp.com/high_performance/sas_multilane.html

[thebeephaha]

OMG that first cable would have made my life so much better........... :eek:

I ordered two of those cheap ones off ebay that stick right out. :mad:

[Dan_D]

I've never seen those. The ones I've seen at Fry's and the one that my LSI came with are quite different than those.

[brinox]

http://i125.photobucket.com/albums/p64/brinox/ATTO-perc5i.jpg

[[LYL]Homer]

I got the PERC card and cables and by the time I received everything I got my Windows Home Server built and read up that WHS does not like RAID cards. Further I couldn't get it to run in my Asus P5K-VM mobo.

I've got the PERC 5/i w/256mb, Dell backing/mounting plate, battery, battery cable, 29pin to 29pin (or is it 32pin?) cable, and (2) 4 drop SATA/SAS cables. I'm into it $150 and am just looking to cover my costs. If someone is interested in this send me a PM or I'll eBay it. I can send photos if you'd like.

cables (http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=320185067299&ssPageName=STRK:MEWN:IT&ih=011)
card (http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=270191428964&ssPageName=STRK:MEWN:IT&ih=017)

edit: eBay under kogut4

[brinox]

I've got some experience in this area so I'll chime in. The onboard RAID controller isn't that bad on the 680i SLI boards. I've built quite a few arrays with it and they are all still working. The performance of the NVRAID controller is about 97% the equal of the Intel ICHxR series south bridges. In other words good enough 95% of the time for most people.

That being said I went with an aftermarket controller as well because I wanted better RAID 5 performance. In any case flashing to BIOS P30 and P31 caused my controller to no longer function in Windows. Something to think about. If I take that controller and put it on another EVGA 680i SLI board running BIOS P28 it works perfectly. It's just a word of caution.


so ive had my perc 5i (integrated) running on my BFG 680i sli for about 2 solid months now, and i really was itching to try the P31 bios out again.

long story short, my travels have discovered that the perc 5i works on the P31 BIOS of most vanilla 680i sli boards if you flash the card's bios to an LSI branded one

[Dan_D]

Well my LSI card doesn't work with the reference boards flashed to BIOS P31.

[mouawad]

how does one attach the BBU to one of these cards?

i've got one coming that doesn't include the BBU and i'm just wondering whether there's any special cables etc that's needed.

[thebeephaha]

You do need a special cable, unfortunately I do not have the model # for it but they can be easily found online.

[mouawad]

ok thanks for the info, i've found a place that has the BBU but it doesn't say whether it comes with the cable ...have sent them a msg.

[mouawad]

what a cruel joke, it appears dell don't sell the BBU unit or the cable on their UK site - i can see both of the items on the USA site.

even though they sell Perc 5/i cards with their systems here!!!

guess i should ring them up and see what the deal is, maybe they would ship one from the US if i rang??

[thebeephaha]

Ebay mayhaps?

[mouawad]

i think i found the last BBU kit in the UK :) got it today, battery/cable/holder.

not from dell, a spare parts warehouse ...now just waiting on my Perc to arrive.

[fuji_man]

Hey I read that this unit don't have an alarm on board.. is that true? I know that the LSI 8408E have the alarm, is it just a matter of firmware or is it a physical thing?