In comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.storage news.tele.dk wrote:
Hi,

We've bought the following server:

2 x Xeon 3.2Ghz 1mb lvl2 cache
Intel Server Board SE7320SP2LX
4 Gb of DDR400 REG/ECC
12 x +9 SATA, 120GB, 8MB, Fluid (in hotswap casings)

And put in an Adaptec 21610SA + battery option.

The server should do massive SQL-database transactions.

Just to test the setup we created on big stripe with all the disk's ....

But no matter what we cannot get read/write performance to exeed 100mb/sec
Considering that we can do around 55mb/sec on just one of the disk's
(configured as a single volume),
we consider this SUB-optimal...

Are we doing something wrong or is it just a very crappy card ???
We are sure it is mounted in a PCI-X (66Mhz / 64 bit) slot, so that's not
it.

I have recently had bad experiences with an adaptex SATA raid
card for 8 disks. Bedises being unreliable and having unusable
software, it was also quite slow (66MHz/64bit PCI). I how have
the 8 disks on two promise 150TX4 with software-RAID5 (linux 2.6.9)
and that is faster!

I would say the card is overpriced trash. 3ware has a good name,
maybe try their cards. You can also try a pair of the promise
SX8 cards and software-RAID.

AAAAArrhhhggggggggg money out the window....

Yes, I felt that way too. Adaptec is not getting any momey from
me for the next decade or so. Their SATA producst are a rip-off
IMO.

Arno
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