Adaptec RAID 2405 SAS / SATA Controller

Test Setup & Configuration

Published: 10th November 2008 | Source: Adaptec | Price: £217.12 | Author: James Napier

Test Setup

To assess the performance of the Adaptec RAID 2405 SAS/SATA controller we will be running a total of three tests. Each of the tests will feature two drives configured in RAID0 with comparisons being made to Intel's motherboard based 'Matrix' RAID controller. While not a directly comparable product to the Adaptec solution due to its lack of dedicated Memory and CPU, Intel's Matrix RAID is without doubt the most widely used controller in the enthusiast community, and it will certainly be interesting to see how the two compare.

Processor
Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 "G0" @ 3.6GHz

Motherboard
ASUS P5E64 WS Evolution (Intel X48 Northbridge, ICH9R Southbrdge)

Array 1
Adaptec RAID 2405 SAS Controller
Seagate Barracuda ES.2 500GB 7200RPM 16MB
Configuration: RAID0 / 128kb Blocks

Array 2
Intel Matrix RAID on ASUS P5E64 WS Southbridge (ICH9R)
Western Digital Velociraptor 300GB 10000RPM 16MB
Configuration: RAID0 / 128kb Blocks

Array 3
Adaptec RAID 2405 SAS Controller
Western Digital Velociraptor 300GB 10000RPM 16MB
Configuration: RAID0 / 128kb Blocks

A combination of both 'real-world' and synthetic benchmarks will be used to report the performance of each RAID Array. The benchmarks can be seen below:

Synthetic Benchmarks
• HDTune Pro v3
• Sisoft Sandra 2009

File Write & Manipulation
• WinAVI (with 500mb AVI file)
• Dummy File Generator (Write speed test with varying size files)
• Peazip (File Compression / Decompression)

OS & Gaming
• Racedriver GRID (Game loading times)
• Windows Vista x64 (Startup time)

With the exclusion of the Windows Vista (Startup Time) benchmark, all other benchmarks were performed from a fresh installation of Windows Vista x64 located on a separate Western Digital RaptorX master drive. This configuration ensured that the results from RAID arrays on test were not skewed by any random operating system disk access while also allowing us to perform all benchmarks on a completely blank Array.

Configuration

Setting up a RAID array for the first time can be quite a nerve racking affair. With so many different options to chose from including several different RAID types, stripe sizes and parity it's easy to get lost and end up with an array not suited to your required purpose. While the in's and out's of the various RAID levels and tutorials on how to configure them are beyond the scope of this review, the screenshots below from the 2405's configuration utility should give you an idea of what you're up against.

As we can see, the 2405 certainly doesn't have the most friendly of interfaces. However, anyone who has had previous experience navigating a Motherboard BIOS or indeed configuring a RAID array on a non-Adaptec controller, should have little problem getting used to it. In addition to all of the usual RAID configuration options, the 2405 also has a section dedicated to power saving as well as useful tools for formatting and secure wiping the hard disks.

Now let's move on to some benchmarks!

Most Recent Comments

10-11-2008, 07:29:56

Jim

"With an 800MHz processor, 128MB of DDR2 and a PCI-E 8x interface, can Adaptec's latest entry-level SAS/SATA RAID controller offer a boost in performance?"

http://www.overclock3d.net/gfx/artic...125605219s.jpg

Adaptec RAID 2405 SAS / SATA Controller

10-11-2008, 11:26:39

Luigi

Nice one Jim!

IT would seem that for a fairly small raid 0 array it is not really worth it...

It would be nice to see a 4 or even 6 disk comparison sometime in the future

10-11-2008, 13:43:29

n0nsense

I wondering ...

Why you don't mention missing RAID 5 (6) as "BAD".

My opinion, it is very bad.

The second thing that was more then surprising is 2 HDD configuration.

Dedicated Hardware RAID controllers may perform on the same level (or even worse) as software assisted with 1 disk attached.

With 4 disks you can get 300+ MBps read write.

Once, during my work in HP IT department i had an opportunity to play with few RAID setups and found that dedicated hardware controllers begin significantly outperform software assisted controllers like onboard controllers on almost any M/B when used in RAID 5 or 10 setups in system under load.

It worse nothing to compare them like you did.

Try to ran on top of your OS DB + Web serving 500+ connections per minute at least + ran some serious CPU intensive task (like C or C++ compilation) and then you'll see what you paid for with Hardware RAID controller.

But the bottom line, It is good to see that this site reviews not only i7 or HD4870 like others do.

Keep doing it

10-11-2008, 14:35:08

Jim

Quote:

Originally Posted by name='n0nsense'

I wondering ...

Why you don't mention missing RAID 5 (6) as "BAD".

My opinion, it is very bad.

Quite true, an oversight on my part. Thanks for bringing that up.

Quote:

Originally Posted by name='n0nsense'

The second thing that was more then surprising is 2 HDD configuration.

Dedicated Hardware RAID controllers may perform on the same level (or even worse) as software assisted with 1 disk attached.

With 4 disks you can get 300+ MBps read write.

Unfortunately two hard disks was all that Adaptec provided us with for the review. Not surprising either considering they are close to £200 each.

10-11-2008, 17:02:04

n0nsense

Unfortunately two hard disks was all that Adaptec provided us with for the review. Not surprising either considering they are close to £200 each.

Quite true, SAS or 10k SATA are expensive.

If you still have the adapter, try it with regular (7.2k) SATA drives.

(you don't even have to have same model or size drives)

Make 4 drives RAID 0, sit down, run the test

I guarantee you'll have a little orgasm

Adaptec RAID 2405 SAS / SATA Controller

Test Setup & Configuration

Published: 10th November 2008 | Source: Adaptec | Price: £217.12 | Author: James Napier

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