[KLUG Hardware] Re: hardware RAID cards (was Informal Survey)

[Bryan J. Smith]

Quoting Mike Williams <knightperson@zuzax.com>:
> Anybody know of any real world performance tests on these real RAID 
> cards?  I've seen some of them for about $250, but I have no idea how 
> they compare to each other.  Or even how they compare to a Promise 
> FastTrak except that they can do RAID 5.

Promise FastTrak ATA RAID = "regular" ATA Card  It just has a "trick BIOS"
on-board.  *ABSOLUTE 0* extra hardware.

It is _exactly_ like comparing a "dumb hub" with an "intelligent switch" --
right down to the fact that the "dumb hub" relies on external systems (like the
OS driver in a "Trick BIOS" ATA RAID) whereas the "intelligent switch" has an
on-board, real-time ASIC and 0 latency SRAM (_static_ RAM, not SDRAM).

For more on the comparison, see this incomplete draft article I wrote for
SysAdmin (which was rejected):  
   http://www.smithconcepts.com/files/articles/ata_raid.pdf

> I've been all over storagereview.com and Toms Hardware Guide without success.

Actually, StorageReview has done some in the past.  The 3Ware cards have the
ultimate in threading and command queuing -- better than plain SCSI, and better
than most hardware RAID SCSI at everything but lots of random RAID-5 writes
(where it's better to have more SDRAM than a smaller amount of SRAM).

Again, read my article.

> I keep hoping Maximum PC will let a few of these into the lab, but
> so far they haven't.

There's just so much _ignorance_ out there on the differences.

-- 
Bryan J. Smith, E.I.            Contact Info:  http://thebs.org
A+/i-Net+/Linux+/Network+/Server+ CCNA CIWA CNA SCSA/SCWSE/SCNA
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