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#1
PCI-E Sata II RAID 0 slow....driver issues?
Well, I've searched now for several days and played with every setting I can think of, but still can't coax better than average performance out of a recent install of RAID 0 using an Silicon Image 3132 based PCI-e (x1) Sata2 card (should have bought the UD3LR!). I've convinced myself it's a driver problem, but I can't find anyone having a similar problem in all of my searching. The actual card is the SYBA SD-SA2PEX-21R. Looks like a reference design.
With Raid 0 and a 64KB stripe, I'm only getting between 80MB/s - 133MB/s on HDTune with a burst speed of 145MB/s (max). I'm using two new Hitachi Deskstar 500GB drives. I've tried all the block sizes and yes, the larger block sizes produce the high end of the range, the smaller block sizes bring it down significantly.
If I connect the drives directly to my MB, the transfer rates are essentially the same +/- 10MB/s and the burst mode is much much better about 240MB/s (as expected for SATA II).
I've flashed the card, installed and uninstalled the 64bit drivers from the Silicon Image website, the vendor website, etc. Now I'm just shooting in the dark.
I've tested with every available stripe size and it always tops out at around 133MB. I switched from IDE to AHCI, trying anything, but I'm doubtful that setting affected the card or the drivers. The other drives run fine under AHCI.
Anyone? I know the difference between hard and soft RAID, but I think this performance stinks for a soft RAID 0 with SATAII drives sitting on a x1 PCI-e bus....
am I stuck? crummy card/chipset? (the only benefit has been that these hitachi drives are very quiet!)
thanks!
Gigabyte GA-EP45-UD3L
E8500 (running 4ghz)
HD5850