Highpoint RocketRaid 454 - Very high CPU usage

[Stan]

I’m experiencing very high cpu usage with a raid 5 array. Ie. 99% on
disk writes and around 60% on disk reads using ‘task manager’ in
Windows XP and Windows 2000. The mouse pointer jumps around the screen
and freezes for short periods. Both using USB and PS/2.
HDTACH reports 70% cpu usage but from the forum this isn't totally
reliable under XP.

Hardware is as follows:-

Abit KR7A-raid motherboard (latest CX bios) (VIA KT266 chipset)
Athlon 1900+
2x256MB Crucial PC2100
ATI Radion 9700 pro
Highpoint Rocket RAID 454 (2.03 bios)
4x120GB IDE hdd. (3x IBM and 1xMaxtor) (raid 5)

I have removed all other devices from my system including COM2,
parallel port, no soundcard, no onboard raid, I have even disabled the
2 normal IDE channels.
(The system performs exactly the same with all my hardware installed
anyway, including having the onboard raid enabled!)

I have tried the card in 3 different PCI slots on the motherboard.
I've tried installing XP with ACPI and no plug n play set in the bios.
APIC has always been off.

The Card always displays in the motherboard bios as using the same IRQ
for both “mass storage controller” entries for the card.

I don’t believe the problem is software based as I’ve tried all
combinations of drivers under both Windows XP and Windows 2000. Latest
VIA chipset drivers and OS service packs. Tried the VIA IDE filter
driver for raid to no effect.

Is this normal behaviour? Anyone help please?

 

[Dave Hau]

I'm experiencing very high cpu usage with a raid 5 array. Ie. 99% on
disk writes and around 60% on disk reads using 'task manager' in
Windows XP and Windows 2000. The mouse pointer jumps around the screen
and freezes for short periods. Both using USB and PS/2.
HDTACH reports 70% cpu usage but from the forum this isn't totally
reliable under XP.

Hardware is as follows:-

Abit KR7A-raid motherboard (latest CX bios) (VIA KT266 chipset)
Athlon 1900+
2x256MB Crucial PC2100
ATI Radion 9700 pro
Highpoint Rocket RAID 454 (2.03 bios)

Don't know if "2.03 bios" was a typo. But the latest firmware and driver is
3.03. If it's not a typo, try upgrading to 3.03.

Otherwise, the 454 is a software raid controller. So the parity calculation
is done in the software driver. So you can expect a certain level of CPU
usage on disk writes. 60% on disk reads is kind of surprising though. I
would expect a RAID 5 read to be just a regular striped read, no different
than a RAID 0 read, unless one of the drives is down in which case (and only
in which case) would you need to do parity calculation on read.

My suggestion is to either beef up the computer (buy a faster CPU) or beef
up the RAID controller (buy a hardware raid controller like 3ware escalade.)
3ware is highly regarded as the standard in the IDE RAID market. Their
driver is pretty well written I've heard.

HTH,
Dave

 

[Stan]

Thanks for the reply Dave,
I received a reply from Highpoint tech support (see below.) It would
appear that the card uses the cpu for the XOR processing.
The card is totally unusable as a Raid 5 solution I wouldn't recommend
it to anyone.
Typo yes it is 3.03.

""Dear Sir / Madam,

Thanks for your contacting us!
When you write the data to the RAID5 array, RAID5 will do XOR
operation. Because our RAID5 is based on software, the XOR operation
is done by host CPU. So this problem may happen.
We are sorry that this problem trouble you.

Regards,
HighPoint Technologies Inc."