Lab Tests: Single PCI Ultra-Wide SCSI Controller RAID Tests
By Mike Breeden
Published: February 1998Part 3 - Single SCSI Card/Dual Drive Raid Tests. Intro | Cards Tested | ATTO Benchmark | FWB Benchtest | Time Drive | MacBench | Graphs MacBench 4.0 Results with One SCSI Card/Dual Drive Raid 0 Array
MacBench 4.0 Disk and Publishing disk tests could only be run with the Conley SoftRaid 2.0 disk driver, as MacBench would not recognize the PCI SCSI when the FWB driver was used. This is a known bug in MacBench and the workaround is to have all drives connected to the PCI SCSI card. Raid arrays connected to a PCI SCSI card always seem to be recognized by MacBench, unlike most standard volumes. If the MacBench scores seem low, remember this test was run with a 180mhz 604e processor and a single drive (not an array).
MacBench 4.0 Results - One SCSI Card/Dual Drive Raid 0
(Disk cache size noted in parenthesis)
[Numbers in brackets are Dual SCSI card results]
Red = Best Score, Blue = Worst Score.Card Driver Disk Pub Disk Adaptec 2940
Bios 3.0Anubis Raid 382 [386] (512K)
523 [527] (4MB)540 [551] (512K)
462 [496] (4MB)Adaptec 2940
Bios 2.5Anubis Raid 387 [385] (512K)
523 [522] (4MB)543 [553] (512K)
465 [493] (4MB)Adaptec 2940
Bios 3.0ATTO Raid 389 [390] (512K)
532 [518] (4MB)543 [559] (512K)
467 [480] (4MB)Adaptec 2940
Bios 2.5ATTO Raid 386 [389] (512K)
530 [533] (4MB)544 [558] (512K)
467 [494] (4MB)Adaptec 2940
Bios 3.0Remus Lite 379 [381] (512K)
515 [522] (4MB)554 [562] (512K)
435 [478] (4MB)Adaptec 2940
Bios 2.5Remus Lite 382 [386] (512K)
562 [519] (4MB)509 [557] (512K)
437 [465] (4MB)Adaptec 2940
Bios 3.0SoftRaid 2 426 [424] (512K)
543 [542] (4MB)555 [564] (512K)
592 [602] (4MB)Adaptec 2940
Bios 2.5SoftRaid 2 425 [TBD] (512K)
543 [536] (4MB)555 [TBD] (512K)
598 [602] (4MB)Adaptec 2940 RTK 2.06 N/A N/A ATTO Anubis Raid 384 [390] (512k)
522 [532] (4MB)517 [542] (512k)
481 [502] (4MB)ATTO ATTO Raid 388 [391] (512k)
532 [536] (4MB)524 [542] (512k)
469 [504] (4MB)ATTO Remus Lite 383 [386] (512K)
503 [517] (4MB)528 [562] (512K)
446 [483] (4MB)ATTO SoftRaid 2 423 [429] (512K)
538 [539] (4MB)531 [547] (512K)
577 [600] (4MB)ATTO RTK 2.06 N/A N/A Initio Miles Anubis Raid Errors Errors Initio Miles ATTO Raid Errors Errors Initio Miles Remus Lite 382 [385] (512k)
500 [521] (4MB)555 [555] (512k)
414 [468] (4MB)Initio Miles SoftRaid 2 548 [Errors] (512k)
Errors [Errors] (4MB)556 [Errors] (512k)
Errors [Errors] (4MB)Initio Miles RTK 2.06 N/A N/A Jackhammer Anubis Raid 394 [395] (512k)
533 [541] (4MB)548 [556] (512k)
465 [505] (4MB)Jackhammer ATTO Raid 388 [392] (512k)
532 [539] (4MB)550 [546] (512k)
474 [492] (4MB)Jackhammer Remus Lite 383 [383] (512K)
517 [519] (4MB)561 [560] (512K)
442 [474] (4MB)Jackhammer SoftRaid 2 430 [439] (512K)
557 [562] (4MB)562 [566] (512K)
608 [622] (4MB)Jackhammer RTK 2.06 N/A N/A Stock SCSI
IBM AV
7200rpm Dr.FWB 347 165 BEST PERFORMERS: Jackhammer and Conley SoftRaid 2 View Single Card/Drive Scores for this Test Notes:
- N/A = the drive was not recognized by MacBench 4.0 when running Raid ToolKit 2.06.
- Errors = The Initio card could not run the tests as Macbench reported an immediate "Error 505" (Read/Write error) immediately after the test files were created, and the test started to run.
- The Initio card was able once to run the test with Conley Softraid, but repeated attempts failed repeatedly (see above).
- TBD = Test Not run on this configuration.
You can see that the cards delivered nearly identical MacBench performance (the Initio is an unknown with some software due to the inability to run the tests.).
The stock disk did well on the standard disk mix test, but was about 3.5 times slower in the Publishing Disk test. I was surprised the stock drive Pub Disk test score was so low. Possibly the driver is optimized for large file I/O (being an AV drive) and therefore suffers on smaller file I/O speeds.
After I catch up on some other reviews (initial G3 Specific pages, MP540/3DO video card and XLR8 G3 CPU card) I'll summarize the results and activate that link. A graph of the results is planned as well.
Watch the main site for updates, news and more!
Index of One SCSI Card/Dual Drive Raid Comparison
Intro | Cards Tested | ATTO Benchmark | FWB Benchtest | Time Drive | MacBench Graphs | Go to Dual SCSI Card Raid Tests | Go to Single Card/Drive Tests
- or -
Back to WWW.XLR8YOURMAC.COM
Copyright © Mike, 1998.
Thanks to my better half for tolerating all the time I spend on this site.No part of this sites content or images are to be reproduced or distributed in any form without written permission. Please ask before using quotes or images.
All brand or product names mentioned here are properties of their respective companies.
Users of this site must read and are bound by the terms/conditions of use
