Slow read speed on P4C800E Dlx

[Dave]

I've just upgraded my system to P4C800-E, One problem that I encounter is
low read speed on
Raid using Intel ICH5

Here's a brief system spec
P4 2.8C
P4C800-E Dlx
512 OCZ PC4200 EL
ATI AIW 9800 Pro
2 x Maxtor 160 Gig (6Y0160P0 i think) on RAID 0 @ Promise PATA
2x Western Digital 100gig on RAID 0 @ Intel ICH5 SATA (Using PATA->SATA
adapter)
Win XP sp1 w/ only DX9.0b installed
Using default driver that was supplied with the mobo and graphic card

I've run HD Tach v2.70 with maxtors @ Promise PATA I got:

Read speed - Max : 809.3 MB/s (yes 809, I was amazed too)
Min : 31.3 MB/s
Avg : 68.2 MB/s
Cpu Utilization 4.3 %


Now.. with the Western digital @ Intel ICH5 SATA
Read speed - Max : 37.6 MB/s
Min : 22.8 MB/s
Avg : 30.3 MB/s
Cpu utilization 1.6%
I don't understand why I got low score using Intel ICH5. Because from what I
read from various sources ICH5 raid supposedly have their own bus and
bypassing PCI right?
So technically I should get higher data read correct?
Now at this point I'm thinking of moving this raid setup to promise
controller.. Now my question is
Will it be straight swap? or am I gonna loose any data migrating from ICH5
controller to promise controller?

Any ideas?

Thanks

 

[Philip Callan]

I've just upgraded my system to P4C800-E, One problem that I encounter is

Read speed - Max : 809.3 MB/s (yes 809, I was amazed too)

I think your program is busted, even in RAID 0, how is two max ata 133
drives getting that speed?

 

[Dave]

Phillip,
Beats me how I got 809.3mb/s but the program that I'm using is HD tach v2.70
http://www.simplisoftware.com/Public/index.php?request=HdTach

 

[Steve]

I just ran HDTach 2.70 on my 2 x 36Gb WD Raptors using the IC5HR and got a
max of 90Mb/sec, a minimum of 38Mb/sec, an averge of 62Mb/sec, a random
access time of 9ms, and a cpu utilization of 4.5%.

-Steve

PS-Which bios version you using?

 

[Dave]

Steve,

I recently updated my bios to 1014 and installed Intel Application
Accelerator v3.5r and ran the benchmark once more
here's the result:

Version 2.61
Promise 320 gig Promise 200gig
Acess time 14ms 13.6ms
Burst Speed 80> 80>
Max 105898 Max 97863
Min 7695 Min 15710
Avg 47658.2 Avg 52276.3
Utilz 2.70% Utilz 2.10%

Version 2.70
Promise 320 gig Promise 200gig
Acess time 14.7 13.6ms
Burst Speed 200> 200>
Max 116.9 Max 82.7
Min 23.4 Min 33.3
Avg 57.9 Avg 54.1
Utilz 3.5 Utilz 3

Version 2.61
Promise 320 gig Intel 200gig
Acess time 14.1ms 13.4ms
Burst Speed 80> 36.6
Max 105360 Max 27934
Min 13548 Min 2989
Avg 47543.8 Avg 24301.6
Utilz 2.6 Utilz 1.10%

Version 2.70
Promise 320 gig Intel 200gig
Acess time 44.3ms 13.4ms
Burst Speed 200> 38.1
Max 100.7 Max 37.3
Min 18.7 Min 22.6
Avg 56.9 Avg 30.1
Utilz 3.4 Utilz 1.5


using version 2.61 the rate was in KB/s (or Kb/s? anyway you get the point)
but in version 2.70 is MB/s notice I no longer get that blazing fast read
speed (809 MB/s). But still
slow nonetheless on intel raid. So what I'm doing now is moving my raid
array from intel to promise controller. Just a warning here you CANNOT
migrate your array from intel -> promise and vice versa you WILL loose your
array! I did some testing and it indeed wiped out my array. Luckly I backed
up my data (im ghosting it back as we speak ) Until anybody can shed a
light on why my read rate using intel so low, I will be using promise
controller for now

In your case, I might suggest you test your RAID setup using promise
controller rather than Intel. From what I've seen I got better read speed
using promise controller

Dave

 

[The Black Wibble]

I just ran HDTach 2.70 on my 2 x 36Gb WD Raptors using the IC5HR and got a
max of 90Mb/sec, a minimum of 38Mb/sec, an averge of 62Mb/sec, a random
access time of 9ms, and a cpu utilization of 4.5%.

-Steve

PS-Which bios version you using?

Max 104.2MB/s Min 34.8MB/s Avg 71.5MB/s CPU 4.4%

I ran it again:

Max 928.9MB/s Min 43.8MB/s Avg 91.5MB/s CPU 4.7%

So HDTach is getting data from the system cache or 8MB HDD cache. It's as though HDTach randomly searches the
same places on the drive each time and therefore gets cache hits. That's my theory anyway. Running a file
seach first, then using HDTach always returns normal results.

HDTach 2.70, 2 X SATA WD Raptors 36GB on the Promise controller.

Tony.
--
3GHz P4 (HT enabled)
Asus P4C800-E Deluxe
PDC20378 IDE/SATA controller
ADI AD1985 audio
MSI FX5900U-VTD256 (BIOS 4.35.20.22.0)
2x 512MB Kingston PC3500
2x 36.7 SATA WD Raptors
52/32/52 LiteOn CD-Writer
16x Pioneer DVD-120S
Enermax 550W PSU
Windows XP Pro & Linux Fedora
PC-70 Lian Li case w/ side window
Hitachi 174SXW B 17" LCD

To email me, replace org.nz with net.nz

 

[Steve]

I would reflash the bios back to 1010.