Adaptec 31605 and Vertex 2 SSD: poor random R/W performance

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GotBass?

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I recently picked up four brand new OCZ Vertex 2 120GB for cheap. I decided to test them in RAID 0 on my Adaptec 31605. Here are my results in AS SSD:

vertex2-4drives-adaptec.png


Sequential performance is not bad, but 4K and 4K-64Thrd results are very disappointing.

To figure out if this was a drive issue, I connected the four drives in RAID 0 to the on board Intel ICH10R RAID controller. Here's the results I obtained:

vertex2-4drives-intel.png


4K and 4K-64Thrd results are significantly better.

The drives are running the latest firmware. I tried different stripe size but always get similar results. Results above are at 128k.

Does anyone have an idea of what might be the problem and how I could fix this?

System specs are as follows:

Asus Sabertooth X58
Intel Core i7 920
24GB Corsair XM3 1600
Adaptec 31605 RAID controller
Four Hitachi Hitachi Deskstar 7K2000 2TB hard drives
Four OCZ Vertex 2 120GB (OCZSSD2-2VTXE120G) solid state drives
eVGA GT440

It's normally used as a home VMware ESXi lab.
 
That's a big difference in access times. Have you tried just running two drives? or two other SSDs? just to see what would happen?
 
Yes, I tried different drives and RAID configurations. Results are always about the same.

Single drive:
vertex2-1drive.png


Two drives RAID0:
vertex2-2drives.png


Three drives RAID0:
vertex2-3drives.png


The Adaptec 31605 is also running the latest version. AS SSD was run from a fresh Windows 7 install, using the latest Adaptec drivers.
 
I would try some different benchmarks though. AS-SSD is great and all, but I've seen some strange behavior. Try CrystalDiskMark and Anvil Storage Utilities. It will only take a moment, and if they all "agree" then I would start looking for the cause.

How much cache does the does the Adaptec 31605 have?
 
ckryan said:
I would try some different benchmarks though. AS-SSD is great and all, but I've seen some strange behavior. Try CrystalDiskMark and Anvil Storage Utilities. It will only take a moment, and if they all "agree" then I would start looking for the cause.

How much cache does the does the Adaptec 31605 have?
Click to expand...

I simply used AS SSD as an example. Other benchmarks give similar results.

The Adaptec 31605 has 256MB of cache.
 
Anyone else running an Adaptec 3x05 controller with SSDs? Are you getting similar results?
 
Just as a thought,

The 31605 has the older IOP333 processor clocked in the 500-800MHz range, which is probably 4+ generations old at this point (thinking the IOP348 generation cards, the first now second generation SAS 2 cards.) Plus you have an onboard expander on those correct? The 256MB of memory has something like 3.2GB/s of max bandwidth which is not crazy in today's terms.

My guess though, is that you have way newer drives than controller and the IOP 333 is choking.

One thought, try one Vertex 2 per SFF-8087 port. Who knows. Maybe that will help?
 
pjkenned said:
Just as a thought,

The 31605 has the older IOP333 processor clocked in the 500-800MHz range, which is probably 4+ generations old at this point (thinking the IOP348 generation cards, the first now second generation SAS 2 cards.) Plus you have an onboard expander on those correct? The 256MB of memory has something like 3.2GB/s of max bandwidth which is not crazy in today's terms.

My guess though, is that you have way newer drives than controller and the IOP 333 is choking.

One thought, try one Vertex 2 per SFF-8087 port. Who knows. Maybe that will help?
Click to expand...

Thanks for your input! Yes the 31605 uses a 800MHz IOP333 and I believe it does have an onboard expander. I tried connecting one drive per port as you suggested, but the results remains the same.

I realize the 31605 isn't the latest and greatest, but I would expect it to perform at least on par with the ICH10! I guess I may have to get a new RAID controller, if ever I decide to use the SSDs in my ESXi build...
 
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