SATA RAID CARD ROUNDUP

LSI Logic MegaRAID 150-6

LSI Logic is one of the leading names when it comes to storage and RAID.  Quality and performance were hallmarks of their RAID cards, and their storage chips were also found on many motherboards.  Below are images of the card and the contents of its retail packaging:

The MegaRAID 150-6 is a 6-port SATA RAID controller.  It uses a 64-bit PCI interface, up to 66MHz.  It has a buzzer and 64MB of cache memory on board.  Like the ICP Vortex card, the 150-6 has three SiI 3112A SATA controllers, one chip per pair of ports.  A familiar-looking ASIC handles the RAID duties.  Click on the thumbnails below to see details photos of the card itself:

Here are some specs from the LSI Logic website:

The MegaRAID Power Console Plus software allows users to configure the RAID card from within Windows:

It provides SMART monitoring at designated intervals:

When building a new array, the stripe size, read, write and caching policies can all be altered by the user:

Once the array is built, one can check the properties by way of this useful summary window:

Now here are the test results:

HARDWARE RAID_0

These first few tests will show the differences between Stripe Sizes:

Hardware RAID_0, 6x WD Raptor 740GD, 8k stripe size, Write Thru, Normal Read, Direct I/O

Hardware RAID_0, 6x WD Raptor 740GD, 64k stripe size, Write Thru, Normal Read, Direct I/O

Hardware RAID_0, 6x WD Raptor 740GD, 128k stripe size, Write Thru, Normal Read, Direct I/O

With the LSI card, a larger stripe size results in higher performance.

Next, we figure out the results of the different cache, reading and writing policies:

Hardware RAID_0, 6x WD Raptor 740GD, 64k stripe size, Write Back, Normal Read, Caching I/O

Setting the write policy to Write Back greatly improves write performance over write thru.  Caching I/O doesn't make noticeable difference though.

Hardware RAID_0, 6x WD Raptor 740GD, 64k stripe size, Write Back, Read Ahead Read, Direct I/O

Using Read Ahead, thee is not much improvement over Normal Read.

Hardware RAID_0, 6x WD Raptor 740GD, 64k stripe size, Write Back, Adaptive Read Ahead Read, Direct I/O

With the setting at Adaptive Read Ahead, there is no improvement over other Read modes.

Hardware RAID_0, 6x WD Raptor 740GD, 64k stripe size, Write Back, Normal Read, Direct I/O

Not too bad...

Hardware RAID_0, 4x WD Raptor 740GD, 64k stripe size, Write Back, Normal Read, Direct I/O

Strange HD Tach results with 4 drives...

Hardware RAID_0, 2x WD Raptor 740GD, 64k stripe size, Write Back, Normal Read, Direct I/O

...and with 2 drives too.  Overall, there is not much difference between 2, 4, and 6 drives.  This looks like a limitation of the RAID processor.

HARDWARE RAID_1

Hardware RAID_1, 2x WD Raptor 740GD, Write Back, Normal Read, Direct I/O

Again, strange HD Tach results, but very nice RAID_1 results.

HARDWARE RAID_5

Hardware RAID_5, 6x WD Raptor 740GD, 64k stripe size, Write Back, Normal Read, Direct I/O

Hardware RAID_5, 4x WD Raptor 740GD, 64k stripe size, Write Back, Normal Read, Direct I/O

RAID_5 results are disappointing.

SOFTWARE RAID_0

Software RAID_0, 6x WD Raptor 740GD

Software RAID_0, 4x WD Raptor 740GD

Software RAID_0, 2x WD Raptor 740GD

Using WinXP software RAID, we see more consistent and linear results.  However, write speeds are very low.  This is indicative of some kind of controller or firmware inefficiency.