Caldigit RAID card

[noushy]

Performance and Apple's raid card

Thanks for the props Nano, I am quite happy with this card. Truly I think any professional or hardcore user looking to do hardware raid should really give this a consideration (highpoint 4322). As for Apple's new card, they are not shipping yet, and no one really knows much about how it connects or performs. On a side note, I have had one on order since they announced it, and have not yet cancelled the order. It probably would be overkill to run side by side with the card of have, but well, so is my Mac Pro. The estimated ship date is first week of June, and I did get a special price ($525) so I may keep it. I really would like to see how it works, and how it performs. I was thinking of keeping 4 internal drives as the scratch disk (say WD RE4 drives, or Seagate ES2 drives, possibly even sas drives) and then making an 8 drive external array for backup and storage.

Peace,
Noushy

 

[nanofrog]

Thanks for the props Nano, I am quite happy with this card. Truly I think any professional or hardcore user looking to do hardware raid should really give this a consideration (highpoint 4322). As for Apple's new card, they are not shipping yet, and no one really knows much about how it connects or performs. On a side note, I have had one on order since they announced it, and have not yet cancelled the order. It probably would be overkill to run side by side with the card of have, but well, so is my Mac Pro. The estimated ship date is first week of June, and I did get a special price ($525) so I may keep it. I really would like to see how it works, and how it performs. I was thinking of keeping 4 internal drives as the scratch disk (say WD RE4 drives, or Seagate ES2 drives, possibly even sas drives) and then making an 8 drive external array for backup and storage.

Peace,
Noushy

I hadn't seen anything on it shipping, but I haven't looked in awhile either. I figured when someone actually gets their hands on it, a thread or two would appear.

Performance wise, it can only operate 4 drives, but the update to a 500MHz PPC should help. SAS and SSD throughput would be interesting to see.

 

[noushy]

Apple raid card

Nano, I have 2 intel x25-M 80gb drives, and 4 velociraptors. I am thinking of doing 4 450gb seagate sas drives, 10k I think. Let me know if you have any suggestions.

Noushy

 

[nanofrog]

Nano, I have 2 intel x25-M 80gb drives, and 4 velociraptors. I am thinking of doing 4 450gb seagate sas drives, 10k I think. Let me know if you have any suggestions.

Noushy

A stripe of the two SSD's would make a really nice OS set.

What do you want to do with the VR's (0/10/5)?

For the SAS drives, do you mean the Cheetah 15K.6's (15k RPM)?

If that's the case, those are nice drives, particularly for database use, but not the best selection for workstation duty. That crown belongs to the Fujitsu MBA3300RC. ATM.

 

[noushy]

SAS array

Nano, I get a special price on 4 Seagate SAS drives. They are the 450 10k drives. I think the 15k drives only go up to 300GB, but I might be wrong. They are not on our price list. The VR are in RAID0 for a scratch disk right now, and that is how I get close to 600mb/s. They truly are great drives, quiet, fast, cool running (only warm to touch) unlike larger 3.5 inch drives. I wish the 160GB intel SSDs were not so expensive, a pair of them Raid0 would be perfect for a boot drive, but I need more than 160GB (the 2x80GB SSDs) I have now. And 4 drives gets to be cumbersome.

Noushy

 

[nanofrog]

Nano, I get a special price on 4 Seagate SAS drives. They are the 450 10k drives. I think the 15k drives only go up to 300GB, but I might be wrong. They are not on our price list. The VR are in RAID0 for a scratch disk right now, and that is how I get close to 600mb/s. They truly are great drives, quiet, fast, cool running (only warm to touch) unlike larger 3.5 inch drives. I wish the 160GB intel SSDs were not so expensive, a pair of them Raid0 would be perfect for a boot drive, but I need more than 160GB (the 2x80GB SSDs) I have now. And 4 drives gets to be cumbersome.

Noushy

Special pricing...Mind sending a few drives my way then?

Seagate does make a 450GB Cheeta 15K.6. They sold for around $900 when they first arrived, and can be found for a much more tolerable price these days. It might get slightly lower, as the 15K.7's are due out Q3 this year, along with the newer Constellation ES models. //Drool

The Fujitsu's MB3300RC is nice, but quite pricy, though still not quite as bad as the Cheetah's in price/GB.

For a fast OS disk set, I agree the VR's in a stripe can offer decent speed and capacity. SSD's win out in the performance arena, but the cost/capacity issue can't always be ignored.

Out of my range ATM. Now if they'd just get cheap enough, I'll give 'em a whirl for a boot disk.

 

[Sharky1337]

The bridge chip (LSI1064) and 500MHz IOP are under the heatsink.
Other than the pair of Marvell controllers, do you mean the part located in the socket?

I believe it's an FPGA.

What socket? Are we even looking at the same Apple RAID card?

There are two heat sinks. I agree that under one is a 1064 and processor, but can't tell what the other one is. Doesn't look like a xilinx or altera FPGA.

 

[nanofrog]

What socket? Are we even looking at the same Apple RAID card?

There are two heat sinks. I agree that under one is a 1064 and processor, but can't tell what the other one is. Doesn't look like a xilinx or altera FPGA.

Oops. Sorry about that. I was actually looking at a CalDigit card, when I mentioned the FPGA, which looks like a Xylinx Spartan II.

Can you send me an image, or a link to a good one of the Apple card?

 

[Rick Here]

The bridge chip (LSI1064) and 500MHz IOP are under the heatsink.
Other than the pair of Marvell controllers, do you mean the part located in the socket?

I believe it's an FPGA.

It is not a IOP PowerPC at 500MHz but AMCC

Nanofrog, you have many excellent posts, don't guess.

 

[nanofrog]

It is not a IOP PowerPC at 500MHz but AMCC

Nanofrog, you have many excellent posts, don't guess.

I was thinking in a more generalized sense. I figured people know PPC, but wouldn't recognize 500MHz AMCC. AMCC now owns the IP and manufactures the parts, and perhaps even added/changed a few things. It's been 5 years afterall. But it's still a PPC.

Found an article from 2004 "AMCC forms division to explore PowerPC assets" (EE Times).

 

[Rick Here]

But it's still a PPC.

The IOP processor is from Intel, this is on CalDigit. The 2008 Apple RAID Card does not use a IOP part, it appears to use a AMCC PPC along with a LSI 1064 and some other large part.

 

[nanofrog]

The IOP processor is from Intel, this is on CalDigit. The 2008 Apple RAID Card does not use a IOP part, it appears to use a AMCC PPC along with a LSI 1064 and some other large part.

I'm not saying is an Intel part at all. They did not design it, nor did they manufacture it. Not even under a license agreement. The rest of the post you didn't quote indicated it was a PPC manufactured by AMCC, as they bought the Intellectual Property back in 2004. They also managed to acquire some talent at that time as well.

BTW, I tend to think of IOP in a more general sense: Input/Output Processor. Rather general acronym, as it could apply to so many parts by different manufacturers.

Perhaps Intel could have come up with a better naming scheme, particularly given the codename and final product naming schemes they use with their CPU's.