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Anyone using OCZ Vertex 4 + Areca cards here ?
- Thread starter Spacedust
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According to Newegg.com, that Areca card is only capable of SATA II speeds. Both the card and drive need to support SATA III to get up to 6GBps
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816151053
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816151053
I know, but why I'm getting only SATA/150 instead of SATA/300 ?
The same card was working fine in SATA/300 mode with A-Data S599 SSD's...
Try experimenting with some of the settings.
You might also need to upgrade the firmware to 1.51 (released July 4, 2012; direct download link).
You might also need to upgrade the firmware to 1.51 (released July 4, 2012; direct download link).
I got firmware 1.51 already:
Disabling NCQ didn't helped. Forcing SATA mode is available only for Seagate, Western Digital or Hitachi drives...
Previous screen shot only indicated v.1.5, not 1.51. Since issues like this are usually firmware related (drives as well as the card), it was worth mentioning.
As per card settings, I meant the SSD settings.
Unfortunately, you may not be able to do anything about this (seen it numerous times with mechanical drives). If you can't get this adjusted, it still may not be time to panic anyway (run a speed test). 😉
Both Areca and OCZ offered some support.
Areca told me to login to SAS expander via RJ-11 cable and set to 3G mode only, while OCZ offered a speed fix which removes SATA600 support so it would be SATA300 only then controller will work on max speed too.
Kingston V200 128 GB SATA/600 SSD isn't recognized at all by my card.
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It has a more difficult time, as it was designed before SSD's were prevalent. Not impossible to use SSD's with the 1680 series, but it will have additional caveats, even with the newer settings made available in the firmware as it doesn't have the additional hardware support that's in the newer LSI chips used in the 188x series.
Firmware incompatibilities as I expected. At least they will work, even if not with the settings you'd hoped to use, unlike the Kingstons you mention.
Unfortunately, this will continue to be a problem over time (even happens with mechanical disks, so it's not solely an issue with SSD's). Which is why checking the HDD Compatibility List can really be worthwhile (will indicate limitations if it's not 100% functional, such as a reduced setting or need to disable a feature, such as NCQ).
At least you've got them running. 🙂
I'm ordering special Areca RJ-11 to DB9 cable and will check if this forcing ports to 3G will work 🙂
I just got rid on my all my A-Data drives which were failing like crazy. I hope Vertex 4 will be very reliable just like the 3 was. My two 120 GB Vertexes 3 in RAID1 are working more than a year 24/7 and absolutely no issues with about 1500 MySQL databases and high load !
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