[Pc_Support] PCI-Express SATA RAID cards -- HPT=FRAID? Areca=X-Scale

[Bryan J. Smith]

Damien McKenna <dmckenna at thelimucompany.com> wrote:
> Some PCI-Express SATA RAID cards new to the market. 
> Unfortunately I only have two PCI-E x2 slots, no x4's,
> so I can't use them :-\

You sure your slots are PCIe x2?  Or x1?

You _can_ use a PCIe x4 in a PCIe x1 slot, it's just going to
be a bottleneck.

> Too bad the second PCI-E x16 can't be made to run as a
> regular x8 or x4 slot when not in SLI mode.

Some PCIe x16 slots become PCIe x1 slots when not in SLI
mode.

Furthermore, have you tried putting it in SLI mode so x8
channels  are redirected?

>
http://www.cwol.com/serial-ata/rocketraid-2320-pci-express.htm
> HighPoint RocketRAID 2320 PCI Express SATA II RAID Host
> Controller 

Know that RAIDCore (now Broadcom) made *F*RAID PCI-X cards
that cost $200+.  You were paying for the intelligent
software, which _did_ integrate into Linux's LVM.  They had
massive overhead in RAID-5, especially rebuilds (like 5x as
slow as a 3Ware Escalade 9500S).  LSI Logic is getting into
this "Software RAID as a profit model" following Broadcom's
lead.

This is _great_ for dedicated storage subsystems.  But it is
_not_ great for end-servers, because all that redundant I/O
traffic to do the RAID falls on the CPU-memory-I/O
interconnect.

I'm trying to see if it's one of the first cards to use the
new Broadcom BCM8603.  That actually has on-board hardware
RAID, SAS/SATA support, and supports up to 768MB DRAM buffer.
 But I don't think it is.

But I think it's one of the Broadcom BCM4000/5000 series, and
still very much FRAID.  No intelligence, no SRAM or DRAM
other than the basic SRAM used for the nominal SATA (think in
the low KiBs ;-).  I think that's what this card is -- an
_expensive_ *F*RAID card with software under  license from
Broadcom or LSI Logic.

HPT has _never_ produced a non-FRAID card.  They are a 100%
FRAID product line.

> Areca ARC-1220 8 ports PCI-Express to SATA-II RAID 6
> Adapters

Now the Arecas are Intel IOP33x X-Scale (superscalar ARM)
based and kick serious butt.  The work most excellently in
Linux.  Well worth the price!



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