My MaximumPC mag came today (May 2008) which featured an article: "RAID Cards: Ultimate Showdown". My curiosity was piqued (actually more like a Homer D'oh!) at the results...It showed the Adaptec 5405 way outperforming the 3ware 9650SE-4LPML on HD Tach RAID0 Read 308.2 MB/s to 135.7 MB/s.But there are at least 2 hmmm's about this. The Adaptec 5405 used a 256k stripe in the test... the 3ware 9650SE a 64k stripe.And 2nd... I don't know if the BBU was used for either, which I have read (somewhere, idk where) can effect the 9650's performance substantially.(Also I wonder about the Adaptec

I know how that happened... they forgot (yea, right) to enable WRITE CACHE and also disable Q and a few other settings on that card. I am easily getting 250-350and no, you dont need the BBU but if the system crashes during a write operation, you will lose the array without the card BBU or a tower BBUthe card BBU is best to protect from a motherboar or oher hardware crash and then have to remove the card to upgrade or change hardware. It holds the 'writeback' memory till the system is booted again and can complete the operation

Ok Nick... thanks for that.

HDTach is a kids benchmark if they used that.They should be using ATTO MARK or I/O meter to test a RAID cardIf they didnt it tells me exactly where the reviewer is in technical abilityits also smells like a fix too

just so you know.. Adaptec is well known for kickback/strong-arm tactics in reviews and fudging benchmark compareshttp://www.3ware.com/products/pdf/3ware_Ad...605_121107c.pdfthey did it last yearAdaptec will tell the reviewer how to set up the cards... and of course the reviewer will follow their directions.

Hehe... dang I forgot you talking about that... the HDTach and the ATTO MarkI found the simviation thread on that... I'll be sure to read it again thoroughly before setting up the 3ware card.I haven't got my Nick N. threads organized yet. :-PThanks Nick

Ok is things like this I am looking for. I didn't see this at the 3ware site btw.I know the issue of "who to trust" came up in another thread (re: benchmarks/video cards). I relied on PC Magazine thru-out most of the 90s, but today seems so much harder to get a straight answer. PC Mag would rather do a review on a Lexus (cause it has a GPS and that uses software I reckon) than do a thorough review on software or whatever, like they used to do. :-(

It

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