Adaptec MaxIQ: Flash SSDs Boost RAID Performance

Test Hardware And Setup

Adaptec RAID 5805, Fujitsu SAS HDDs

Test Setup

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System Hardware
HardwareDetails
CPUIntel Core i7-920 (45nm, 2.66 GHz, 8MB L3 Cache)
Motherboard (Socket 1366)Supermicro X8SAX Revision: 1.1, Chipset: Intel X58 + ICH10R, BIOS: 1.0B
RAM3 x 1GB DDR3-1333 Corsair CM3X1024-1333C9DHX
HDDSeagate NL35 400GB ST3400832NS, 7,200 RPM, SATA 1.5 Gb/s, 8MB Cache
Test HDD (x3)Fujitsu MBA3147 147GB 15,000 RPM, SAS 3 Gb/s, 16MB Cache
RAID AdapterAdaptec RAID 5805 Eight Port SAS Controller, Firmware Ver. 5.2.0 Build 17544
Adaptec MaxIQ SSD ASM-00603-01-A-R (v2009.3 / v6.3), Intel X25-E 32GB
Power SupplyOCZ EliteXstream 800W OCZ800EXS-EU
Benchmarks
I/O PerformanceIOMeter 2006.07.27Fileserver-BenchmarkDatabase-BenchmarkWebserver-BenchmarkWorkstation-Benchmark
System Software and Drivers
DriversDetails
Operating SystemWindows Vista Ultimate SP1
Intel ChipsetChipset Installation Utility 9.1.0.1007
AMD GraphicsRadeon 8.12
Intel Matrix Storage8.7.0.1007

In order to analyze the benefits of a 32GB cache, we decided to limited the arrays in four increments: 5GB and 25GB capacities ensure that the 32GB cache can still buffer all the data on the hard drive-based RAID array, while 50GB and 100GB array sizes reflect the performance scenario if you’re working with larger arrays.