Intel Gen2 SSD firmware released and upgraded

[nanofrog]

For the 2009 model there is a limitation in the ICH10R south bridge controller which restricts the SW RAID0 speeds. This does not apply to fast RAID cards. They have other complications like the need to boot their firmware into the Mac Pro firmware and log out. This takes additional time whenever you start and shut down. It does not matter much for servers which were the first machines RAID cards were developed for. For workstations it is a bit of a PITA when you boot frequently.

I've been looking into the ICH issue with other models (previous families), and unfortunately, it seems that the older ones will have the limit as well.

VirtualRain and I have been checking into the ICH9, and there seems to be evidence it's there as well.

So the ARC-1210 will likely be quite useful for anyone wanting to run SSD's in RAID on a MP to avoid throttling, especially if the HDD's are full (i.e. mechanical drive stripe set used for working data).

 

[ungraphic]

For the 2009 model there is a limitation in the ICH10R south bridge controller which restricts the SW RAID0 speeds. This does not apply to fast RAID cards. They have other complications like the need to boot their firmware into the Mac Pro firmware and log out. This takes additional time whenever you start and shut down. It does not matter much for servers which were the first machines RAID cards were developed for. For workstations it is a bit of a PITA when you boot frequently.

I'm on a first gen Mac Pro. I guess im out of luck, huh?

Would you say its better to get 2x60gb SSD drives, or just one really fast 80gb or 120gb SSD drive at around 240mbs/150mbs read/write speeds? If I can't get passed the 240 (or 300mbs) SATA controller speed limit, then i guess there isnt much point in getting a RAID setup.....??

 

[nanofrog]

I'm on a first gen Mac Pro. I guess im out of luck, huh?

Would you say its better to get 2x60gb SSD drives, or just one really fast 80gb or 120gb SSD drive at around 240mbs/150mbs read/write speeds? If I can't get passed the 240 (or 300mbs) SATA controller speed limit, then i guess there isnt much point in getting a RAID setup.....??

It's not the speed of a single port, but the overall bandwidth allowable in the ICH. They max out at ~660MB/s (ICH10 and ICH9 family have been proven, and there's no reason to suspect the earlier versions are immune ). So 3x Intel SSD's stripe set (or a few others, such as the OCZ Colossus that can hit ~250MB/s each), will throttle. It can also happen with a combination of SSD and HDD (mechanical) running simultaneously. Say a SSD boot drive/array with a mechanical stripe set for working data for example.

By using a PCIe based hardware RAID card, you can get around the ICH on the board (i.e. use it for the SSD's, and leave the mechanical on the logic board, unless you need an array type not supported via OS X's software RAID functions = parity based levels 5/6/50/60).

 

[ungraphic]

It's not the speed of a single port, but the overall bandwidth allowable in the ICH. They max out at ~660MB/s (ICH10 and ICH9 family have been proven, and there's no reason to suspect the earlier versions are immune ). So 3x Intel SSD's stripe set (or a few others, such as the OCZ Colossus that can hit ~250MB/s each), will throttle. It can also happen with a combination of SSD and HDD (mechanical) running simultaneously. Say a SSD boot drive/array with a mechanical stripe set for working data for example.

By using a PCIe based hardware RAID card, you can get around the ICH on the board (i.e. use it for the SSD's, and leave the mechanical on the logic board, unless you need an array type not supported via OS X's software RAID functions = parity based levels 5/6/50/60).

But the PCIe raid cards for mac pro are insanely expensive, are they not? If i can still get 400-500mb/s read speeds (assuming 200+ mb/s per drive) in a 2xSSD RAID0 setup by using software raid on my first gen mac pro, i dont really see a reason to go full out on getting the pcie raid card.

 

[nanofrog]

But the PCIe raid cards for mac pro are insanely expensive, are they not? If i can still get 400-500mb/s read speeds (assuming 200+ mb/s per drive) in a 2xSSD RAID0 setup by using software raid on my first gen mac pro, i dont really see a reason to go full out on getting the pcie raid card.

If you won't be throttled, then by all means use the SATA ports on the logic board (or plan to run an array for OS X and an array for Windows).

But if you want to run a mechanical stripe for working data as well, then you're almost certain to run into that problem. That's one of the reasons for using a RAID card (there are others; muliple OS's as well as port counts and array levels not supported on OS X). And the one I linked, can be had for $300USD from newegg, and IIRC, they do ship to Canada (if you do need one).