Hardware Comparison Table and Test Setup
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| Manufacturer | Adaptec | Areca | Promise |
|---|---|---|---|
| Model | RAID 51645 | ARC-1680ix-16 | SuperTrak EX16650 |
| Internal Connectors | 4x SFF 8087 | 4x SFF 8087 | 4x SFF 8087 |
| External Connectors | 1x SFF 8088 | 1x SFF-8088, 1x LAN, COM | N/A |
| Cache | 512 MB DDR2-400 ECC on board | DDR2-533 512 MB DIMM | 512 MB DDR2 ECC on board |
| Profile | Full Height, half length | Full Height | Full Height |
| Interface | PCI Express x8 | PCI Express x8 | PCI Express x8 |
| XOR Engine | 1.2 GHz Dual-Core RAID on Chip (ROC) | Intel IOP348 1200 MHz | Intel IOP348 1200 MHz |
| RAID Level Migration | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Online Capacity Expansion | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| 2+ TB Volumes (64 bit LBA) | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Multiple RAID Arrays | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Command Line Interface | Yes | Yes | No |
| Hot Spare Support | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Battery Back-up Unit | Optional | Optional | Optional |
| RAID 5 init | 45 min | 25 min | 1h 16 min |
| RAID 5 rebuild | 33 min | 50 min | 55 min |
| RAID 6 init | 55 min | 25 min | 1h 30 min |
| RAID 6 rebuild Drive 1 | 40 min | 55 min | 1h 4 min |
| RAID 6 rebuild Drive 2 | 32 min | rebuilt simultaneously | 55 min |
| RAID 6 rebuild Total | 1h 12 min | 57 min | 1h 59 min |
| Spin Down Idle Drives | Yes | Yes | No |
| Power Consumption Power Saving | 298 W | 296 W | N/A |
| Power Consumption Idle | 368 W | 365 W | 364 W |
| Power Consumption Peak | 412 W | 409 W | 402 W |
| Supported RAID Modes | 0, 1, 1E, 5, 5EE, 6, 10, 50, 60, JBOD | 0, 1, 10(1E), 3, 5, 6, 30, 50, 60, Single Disk or JBOD | 0, 1, 1E, 5, 6, 10, 50, 60 |
| Fan | No | Yes | No |
| Supported OS | Windows XP, Server 2003/2008, Vista, Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL), SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES), SCO OpenServer, UnixWare, Sun Solaris 10 x86, FreeBSD | Windows 2000/XP/Server 2003/Vista Linux FreeBSD Novell Netware 6.5 Solaris 10 x86/x86_64SCO Unixware 7.x.x Mac OS X 10.x (EFI BIOS Support) | Microsoft Windows Vista, 2000, XP, Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2008 Red Hat Linux, SuSE Linux, Miracle Linux, Fedora Core, Linux open source driver (32/64-bit) FreeBSD, VMware 3.02, 3.5 |
| Other Features | Copy-back Hot-spare | Integrated Web server | Row 27 - Cell 3 |
| Warranty | 3 years | 3 years | 3 years |
| Price | $999 | $999 | $800 |
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| System Hardware | |
|---|---|
| Processor(s) | 2x Intel Xeon Processor (Nocona core); 3.6 GHz, FSB800, 1 MB L2 Cache |
| Platform | Asus NCL-DS (Socket 604)Intel E7520 Chipset, BIOS 1005 |
| RAM | Corsair CM72DD512AR-400 (DDR2-400 ECC, reg.)2x 512 MB, CL3-3-3-10 Timings |
| System Hard Drive | Western Digital Caviar WD1200JB 120 GB, 7 200 RPM, 8 MB Cache, Ultra ATA/100 |
| Test Drives | 16x Fujitsu MBA3147RC147 GB, 15,000 RPM, 16 MB Cache, SAS |
| Mass Storage Controller(s) | Adaptec RAID 51645Areca ARC-1680D-IX-16Promise Supertrak 16650 |
| Networking | Broadcom BCM5721 On-Board Gigabit Ethernet NIC |
| Graphics Subsystem | On-Board GraphicsATI RageXL, 8 MB |
| I/O Performance | IOMeter 2003.05.10Fileserver-BenchmarkWebserver-BenchmarkDatabase-BenchmarkWorkstation-BenchmarkStreaming ReadsStreaming Writes |
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| System Software & Drivers | |
|---|---|
| OS | Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Enterprise Edition, Service Pack 1 |
| Platform Driver | Intel Chipset Installation Utility 7.0.0.1025 |
| Graphics Driver | Default Windows Graphics Driver |
Test Drives: Fujitsu MBA3147RC (15,000 RPM)
We used 16 Fujitsu MBA3147RC 15,000 RPM SAS drives to make sure that the controllers could be saturated during our tests. These Fujitsu drives are state-of-the-art server models with 16 MB cache and throughput of over 150 MB/s.
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