Premium Controllers Under Scrutiny: Ultra160 RAID Adapters from Adaptec and LSI

Test Setup

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Test System
ProcessorIntel Celeron 1.7 GHz128 kB L2 cache
MotherboardAOpen AX4B Pro-533
RAM256 MB DDR/ PC2100, CL2 Micron/ Crucial
Hard drives4x Fujitsu MAN3367MP U160 SCSI36,7 GB, 10,000 rpm
Graphics cardNVIDIA GeForce 2 GTS, 32 MB DDR
Network card3COM 905TX PCI 100 MBit
OSWindows 2000 Pro 5.00.2195 Service Pack 3
Benchmarks and Measurements
Office applicationsZD WinBench 99 - Business Disk Winmark 1.2
High end applicationsZD WinBench 99 - Highend Disk Winmark 1.2
Performance testZD WinBench 99 - Disc Inspection Test
I/O PerformanceIntel I/O-Meter
Drivers and Settings
Graphics driverNVIDIA Reference driver 29.42
IDE drivverIntel Application Accelerator 2.2
DirectX Version8.1
Monitor resolution1024x768, 16 Bit, 85 Hz Refresh
Adaptec driverVer. 3.10
LSI driverVer. 5.09

Test Results

Data Transfer Performance

The results in the RAID 0 mode clearly demonstrate which bandwidth the PCI bus can provide. Proof of this is the straight line in the data transfer diagram.