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LSI LOGIC SAS3041X-R PCI-X-133 SAS

DearthnVader

DearthnVader

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Original poster
Dec 17, 2015
2,207
6,399
Red Springs, NC
I have this card an I have been testing it in a G5 that is PCI 33mhz 64bit.

Right now I have nothing good to report other than the card shows up proper in Open Firmware.

Booting Leopard takes forever with the card installed and seem to disable all the PCI slots.

Booting Tiger as normal but still all the PCI slots seem to get disabled.

I'm not sure if it's an issue with the cards FCODE driver or an issue with the 64bit PCI 33mhz.

The card was cheap and seems to have a compatible FCODE ROM on the card, so if anyone wants to try and test it in a PCI-X G5 that would be nice:

www.ebay.com

LSI Logic Sas3041x-r Pci-x-133 SAS RAID SATA Controller Card 4-port for sale online | eBay

Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for LSI Logic Sas3041x-r Pci-x-133 SAS RAID SATA Controller Card 4-port at the best online prices at eBay! Free shipping for many products!
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Ok I tricked it into working.

I booted into OF and was able to figure out the path for an attached SATA SSD.

OF was able to read a directory of the disk so I provided the path to boot from it to OF and was able to boot from the SSD attached to the SAS card and it seem to work just fine with 10.5.4.

However quick benchmarks with QuickBench are only showing peak speeds of 134.xMB/s.

So I'm not really getting close to the 266MB/s I should be seeing with 64bit 33mHz PCI, tho more testing is required!
 
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Joy!peffpwpc
192MB:s.jpg
LSI-SAS133.jpg
 

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I'm not real sure the issue I was having before, just a bad connection of the cheap SATA cables or an issue with some of the ports on the card itself.

There maybe an issue with one of the ports on the SAS card, I'll test further, but we get some great joy on QB now!

And the drive is bootable and shows up in the boot-picker.
 
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Has anyone tried to setup a RAID volume on the PC using the LSI RAID BIOS Configuration Utility, then putting the card in a PPC Mac to see if the volume still works?

I think the LSI card has some sort of NVRAM to save setting, I'm just not sure it will work as far as RAID volumes on PPC after a swap from a PC.

I'm setting up a bootable RAID volume with Disk Utility from Leopard now, but that's softRAID right?

Do these LSI card have a builtin CPU to the SAS RAID card at all, or do these cards really just do softRAID anyway like the PATA RAID cards?
 
DearthnVader said:
I'm setting up a bootable RAID volume with Disk Utility from Leopard now, but that's softRAID right?
Click to expand...
Yes, that's pure softRAID.

DearthnVader said:
Do these LSI card have a builtin CPU to the SAS RAID card at all, or do these cards really just do softRAID anyway like the PATA RAID cards?
Click to expand...
I suppose so. This page says it has some kind of on-board processor to offload the host's CPU, but a whitepaper pertaining to the SAS3041E-R implies the ASIC is not quite the same as a full-fledged CPU. It's also interesting that it doesn't do RAID 5 on its own.
 
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DearthnVader said:
I'm setting up a bootable RAID volume with Disk Utility from Leopard now, but that's softRAID right?
Click to expand...
Code: 
QuickBench(TM) 4.0 Test Results
�2000-2007 Intech Software Corp.
Test file created on Friday, March 17, 2023 at 12:19:15 AM
Test Volume Name: Untitled RAID Set 1
Test Volume Type: MacOS Extended
Test Volume Size: 446.892 Gigabytes
Test Volume Free Space: 434.631 Gigabytes
Allow Disk Cache Effects: Enabled
Read Cache Delay:      30 milliseconds
Write Cache Delay:     20 milliseconds
All reads and writes performed sychronously

Standard Test Results:
Test Cycles: 1

Transfer Size   Sequential Read   Sequential Write    Random Read      Random Write

   4 KBytes      19.413 MB/Sec     12.937 MB/Sec     11.256 MB/Sec     9.987 MB/Sec
   8 KBytes      36.353 MB/Sec     17.806 MB/Sec     21.743 MB/Sec     15.446 MB/Sec
  16 KBytes      46.529 MB/Sec     41.367 MB/Sec     30.611 MB/Sec     39.139 MB/Sec
  32 KBytes      58.763 MB/Sec     57.897 MB/Sec     45.245 MB/Sec     58.131 MB/Sec
  64 KBytes      61.617 MB/Sec     71.277 MB/Sec     73.984 MB/Sec     79.543 MB/Sec
 128 KBytes      80.192 MB/Sec     89.483 MB/Sec     88.550 MB/Sec     91.938 MB/Sec
 256 KBytes      109.812 MB/Sec    116.810 MB/Sec    133.778 MB/Sec    111.145 MB/Sec
 512 KBytes      139.244 MB/Sec    125.033 MB/Sec    152.443 MB/Sec    145.860 MB/Sec
1024 KBytes      184.534 MB/Sec    145.820 MB/Sec    181.286 MB/Sec    152.160 MB/Sec

Standard Ave     81.829 MB/Sec     75.381 MB/Sec     82.100 MB/Sec     78.150 MB/Sec


Large Test Results:
Test Cycles: 1

Transfer Size         Large Read         Large Write

  2 MBytes           197.368 MB/Sec     165.322 MB/Sec
  3 MBytes           202.781 MB/Sec     170.674 MB/Sec
  4 MBytes           206.584 MB/Sec     172.165 MB/Sec
  5 MBytes           207.869 MB/Sec     174.104 MB/Sec
  6 MBytes           209.659 MB/Sec     174.861 MB/Sec
  7 MBytes           210.086 MB/Sec     175.465 MB/Sec
  8 MBytes           212.071 MB/Sec     175.754 MB/Sec
  9 MBytes           197.146 MB/Sec     175.946 MB/Sec
 10 MBytes           211.785 MB/Sec     176.680 MB/Sec

 Large Ave           206.150 MB/Sec     173.441 MB/Sec


Extended Test Results:
Test Cycles: 1

Transfer Size        Extended Read      Extended Write

 20 MBytes           214.650 MB/Sec     177.887 MB/Sec
 30 MBytes           214.285 MB/Sec     177.144 MB/Sec
 40 MBytes           215.641 MB/Sec     175.008 MB/Sec
 50 MBytes           216.984 MB/Sec     172.721 MB/Sec
 60 MBytes           217.973 MB/Sec     172.815 MB/Sec
 70 MBytes           217.552 MB/Sec     173.003 MB/Sec
 80 MBytes           217.814 MB/Sec     173.053 MB/Sec
 90 MBytes           218.947 MB/Sec     173.068 MB/Sec
100 MBytes           217.321 MB/Sec     173.154 MB/Sec

Extended Ave         216.796 MB/Sec     174.206 MB/Sec


Custom Test Results:
Transfer Size: 200 Megabytes
Transfer Count: 10
Test Cycles: 2
Contiguous File Only: No

Maximum Measured Read Speed: 218.098 MB/Sec
Average Measured Read Speed: 217.320 MB/Sec
Minimum Measured Read Speed: 215.794 MB/Sec
Maximum Measured Write Speed: 174.943 MB/Sec
Average Measured Write Speed: 173.197 MB/Sec
Minimum Measured Write Speed: 172.891 MB/Sec
 
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DearthnVader said:
Code: 
QuickBench(TM) 4.0 Test Results
�2000-2007 Intech Software Corp.
Test file created on Friday, March 17, 2023 at 12:19:15 AM
Test Volume Name: Untitled RAID Set 1
Test Volume Type: MacOS Extended
Test Volume Size: 446.892 Gigabytes
Test Volume Free Space: 434.631 Gigabytes
Allow Disk Cache Effects: Enabled
Read Cache Delay:      30 milliseconds
Write Cache Delay:     20 milliseconds
All reads and writes performed sychronously

Standard Test Results:
Test Cycles: 1

Transfer Size   Sequential Read   Sequential Write    Random Read      Random Write

   4 KBytes      19.413 MB/Sec     12.937 MB/Sec     11.256 MB/Sec     9.987 MB/Sec
   8 KBytes      36.353 MB/Sec     17.806 MB/Sec     21.743 MB/Sec     15.446 MB/Sec
  16 KBytes      46.529 MB/Sec     41.367 MB/Sec     30.611 MB/Sec     39.139 MB/Sec
  32 KBytes      58.763 MB/Sec     57.897 MB/Sec     45.245 MB/Sec     58.131 MB/Sec
  64 KBytes      61.617 MB/Sec     71.277 MB/Sec     73.984 MB/Sec     79.543 MB/Sec
 128 KBytes      80.192 MB/Sec     89.483 MB/Sec     88.550 MB/Sec     91.938 MB/Sec
 256 KBytes      109.812 MB/Sec    116.810 MB/Sec    133.778 MB/Sec    111.145 MB/Sec
 512 KBytes      139.244 MB/Sec    125.033 MB/Sec    152.443 MB/Sec    145.860 MB/Sec
1024 KBytes      184.534 MB/Sec    145.820 MB/Sec    181.286 MB/Sec    152.160 MB/Sec

Standard Ave     81.829 MB/Sec     75.381 MB/Sec     82.100 MB/Sec     78.150 MB/Sec


Large Test Results:
Test Cycles: 1

Transfer Size         Large Read         Large Write

  2 MBytes           197.368 MB/Sec     165.322 MB/Sec
  3 MBytes           202.781 MB/Sec     170.674 MB/Sec
  4 MBytes           206.584 MB/Sec     172.165 MB/Sec
  5 MBytes           207.869 MB/Sec     174.104 MB/Sec
  6 MBytes           209.659 MB/Sec     174.861 MB/Sec
  7 MBytes           210.086 MB/Sec     175.465 MB/Sec
  8 MBytes           212.071 MB/Sec     175.754 MB/Sec
  9 MBytes           197.146 MB/Sec     175.946 MB/Sec
 10 MBytes           211.785 MB/Sec     176.680 MB/Sec

 Large Ave           206.150 MB/Sec     173.441 MB/Sec


Extended Test Results:
Test Cycles: 1

Transfer Size        Extended Read      Extended Write

 20 MBytes           214.650 MB/Sec     177.887 MB/Sec
 30 MBytes           214.285 MB/Sec     177.144 MB/Sec
 40 MBytes           215.641 MB/Sec     175.008 MB/Sec
 50 MBytes           216.984 MB/Sec     172.721 MB/Sec
 60 MBytes           217.973 MB/Sec     172.815 MB/Sec
 70 MBytes           217.552 MB/Sec     173.003 MB/Sec
 80 MBytes           217.814 MB/Sec     173.053 MB/Sec
 90 MBytes           218.947 MB/Sec     173.068 MB/Sec
100 MBytes           217.321 MB/Sec     173.154 MB/Sec

Extended Ave         216.796 MB/Sec     174.206 MB/Sec


Custom Test Results:
Transfer Size: 200 Megabytes
Transfer Count: 10
Test Cycles: 2
Contiguous File Only: No

Maximum Measured Read Speed: 218.098 MB/Sec
Average Measured Read Speed: 217.320 MB/Sec
Minimum Measured Read Speed: 215.794 MB/Sec
Maximum Measured Write Speed: 174.943 MB/Sec
Average Measured Write Speed: 173.197 MB/Sec
Minimum Measured Write Speed: 172.891 MB/Sec
Click to expand...
That's pretty damned good folks!

It's peaking around 82% of the max theoretical speed of PCI 33mHz 64bit.

It is peaking at around 145% of the max theoretical speed of the builtin SATA ports.

It's $25 plus two really cheap SATA SSD's.

Bear in mind that each of the Netec drives benchmarks around 500MB/s peak on a native SATA III( 6Gb ) bus in a fast PC.
 
Last edited:
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DearthnVader said:
That's pretty damned good folks!
Click to expand...
What are the results if you disable "Allow cache effects"?

DearthnVader said:
It's peaking around 82% of the max theoretical speed of PCI 33mHz 64bit.
Click to expand...
If you can configure the SATA port(s) to 3 Gbps link rate (the source to LSIUtil is here, so maybe it can be compiled on Linux on PPC), you might be able to get these results with a single SSD.

DearthnVader said:
It is peaking at around 145% of the max theoretical speed of the builtin SATA ports.
Click to expand...
I sez RAID 0 iz cheetin' :p
 
Amethyst1 said:
What are the results if you disable "Allow cache effects"?


If you can configure the SATA port(s) to 3 Gbps link rate (the source to LSIUtil is here, so maybe it can be compiled on Linux on PPC), you might be able to get these results with a single SSD.


I sez RAID 0 iz cheetin' :p
Click to expand...
I wonder if we can port this to Leopard? @joevt
 
DearthnVader said:
However quick benchmarks with QuickBench are only showing peak speeds of 134.xMB/s.

So I'm not really getting close to the 266MB/s I should be seeing with 64bit 33mHz PCI, tho more testing is required!
Click to expand...
At least that's greater than the 33MHz 32bit limit of 133MB/s

Amethyst1 said:
If you can configure the SATA port(s) to 3 Gbps link rate (the source to LSIUtil is here, so maybe it can be compiled on Linux on PPC), you might be able to get these results with a single SSD.
Click to expand...
DearthnVader said:
I wonder if we can port this to Leopard? @joevt
Click to expand...
directhw will let a user app do stuff to PCI cards. It can be modified to do other stuff if necessary.
pciutils uses directhw to list pci devices and set PCI config space registers.
flashrom uses pciutils and directhw to read and write PCI card roms.
I've updated them recently to work in Mac OS X on Power Macs.
https://tinkerdifferent.com/threads...ac-impossibru-updated-2-21-23.1494/post-21003

It may be possible to add a Mac OS X Makefile to LSIUtil.
So if you can figure out how LSIUtil sets 3Gbps then that could be translated to a command line for Mac OS X.

But why would the card only be working at 1.5Gbps? Maybe it doesn't like the 6Gbps Netec SSDs? Maybe it's like the MacPro3,1 EFI issue with 8 GT/s PCIe devices where it sets them to work at 2.5 GT/s but you can use a command to force them to 5 GT/s.
 
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joevt said:
But why would the card only be working at 1.5Gbps?
Click to expand...
Really, it's not but something funny going on...

If you look at the BM from post #3 that was a single drive and it's well exceeding 150MB/s.

The first BM it did was on "port 2" that BM was "port 4" without any other real changes.

The BM from post #9 was "port 2" and "port 4" in RAID 0 from the disk utility.

Only gained about 30MB/s in striped RAID, but the more I fiddle with the card the more speed gains I see, so I think I should be able to get it to 90%-95% of the 266MB/s.

Not real sure the issues I'm having with the card. Why it didn't work the first day I tested it other than in OF. Booting the OS and the card became "invisible".

Not sure what port on the card I was using that day, but when I connected the drive to port 2 and found the correct OF path to boot from the card, now everything works.

I'm not sure what the driver for Leopard does with the card, if it can interact with the NVRAM of the card to setup proper configuration. So maybe forcing booting from that drive fixed a configuration error and the driver saved the changes to the cards NVRAM?

Anyway, some weird stuff going on, but all seem stable now but sleep.

I'll toy around with it some more and see what I can get out of it. I have one more of these Netac 240GB SSD's so maybe I'll order a fourth just to see how the card does with a 4 drive striped RAID array.

That way I can also test each port without swapping drives around. Really I should be able to get pretty close to 266MB/s with just one of these drives on a single port......
 
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Amethyst1 said:
What are the results if you disable "Allow cache effects"?
Click to expand...
I've tested this on a 2007 MacBook Pro with 1.5Gbps SATA. It makes no difference at all (137 MB/s max in both cases).

joevt said:
But why would the card only be working at 1.5Gbps? Maybe it doesn't like the 6Gbps Netec SSDs?
Click to expand...
I have the PCIe version of this card (SAS3041E-R) and 6Gbps SSDs with Silicon Motion or YeeStor controllers (also used in Netacs) only get 1.5Gbps indeed. A 3Gbps SSD using an Indilinx Barefoot controller gets 3Gbps.
 
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Also as a note I was unable to get this card to work with Tiger other than Tiger Server. Even when copying the .kext file from Leopard or Tiger Server.

Seems to rely on deeper parts of the OS than just the LSI .kext. It's a pain because I don't really want to run Leopard or Tiger Server, but if someone can figure it out it isn't me.

Tiger does have an LSI kext too, it's just too old to support this card.
 
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