Benefits of SATA card with onboard DDR2 when using a single drive? (3ware 9650SE)

**sillyeagle** · 03-17-09, 08:39 PM

I don't know that I could possibly find justification for one of these $300 controllers if not using RAID, but I'm wondering how the use of a card like this could benefit performance? Specifically it would be used for my FSX RaptorX drive which streams large amounts of photoreal terrain textures. I also have two other drive, an OS drive and a storage drive.

I'm not sure how the 256MB of DDR2 is utilized on the board, if its a cache or what, but if the use of a controller like this would free up some CPU cycles I might consider it.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16816116042

Bman212121 · 03-17-09, 08:54 PM

The DDR2 is for caching. It might help it might not. I can't imagine that you're maxing out the read speed of the drive itself, but rather you're causing a lot of I/O requests with small reads.

Personally I think if you were going to test anything that the 80GB Intel SSD would be the best option. There is very little latency versus your raptor, so trying to load textures on the fly I'd really think it would be the fastest solution. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...Tpk=80GB%20SSD

As for getting the controller I really don't see you gaining any advantages with it. There isn't that much CPU power needed for 1 drive so you won't really notice that, and the DDR2 cache might help here or there but anytime another texture needs to come from the raptor it's going to be slow.

**sillyeagle** · 03-17-09, 11:01 PM

Yeah for nearly the same price the SATA board looks like a waste. Good tip, thanks!

Bman212121 · 03-18-09, 10:23 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by slaWter

I'll get a X25-M soon but I'm going to use it as a system and app disk. Not for games.
A second one solely for FSX would be nice though

I just can't believe that I haven't seen anyone here using them. I've really been wanting to get one if they are as fast as claimed. I'd like to throw TDU onto it and see if that resolves the stuttering that game can have.

**bacon12** · 03-18-09, 10:34 AM

I refuse to pay that much for the amount of storage. I just did a hd upgrade for my main system, and I looked at a lot of options.

I ended up getting a very economical solution of 2 WD 6401aals and used the ICH10R raid. It only cost me $140 and the performance is impressive. I really wanted a nice raid card, but I couldn't justify the $300-$400 or more a good one would have cost.

**saturnotaku** · 03-18-09, 11:04 AM

Corsair's SSD has been getting some pretty good reviews. Its performance is pretty comparable to the X25-M, but has higher capacity (128 GB) and a lower cost. It's basically a re-branded Samsung so it shouldn't suffer from any of the stuttering issues that plague SSDs that use the far more common JMicron controller. I'm seriously considering this, as the noise from the two 74 GB Raptors I currently use is really getting on my nerves.

Bman212121 · 03-18-09, 05:12 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by saturnotaku

Corsair's SSD has been getting some pretty good reviews. Its performance is pretty comparable to the X25-M, but has higher capacity (128 GB) and a lower cost. It's basically a re-branded Samsung so it shouldn't suffer from any of the stuttering issues that plague SSDs that use the far more common JMicron controller. I'm seriously considering this, as the noise from the two 74 GB Raptors I currently use is really getting on my nerves.

Thanks for the link Sat!

I'm in the same boat. I'd love to get rid of the raptors and just get one or two SSDs.

I wonder if Samsung's 256GB version is just two of those with internal RAID0. The drives that were used in that 24 drive test were supposed to be 230MB read / 200MB write. I'm pretty sure I found it at Dell. http://accessories.us.dell.com/sna/p...9&sku=341-9999

Hmm I'm really tempted to get one of those from Tiger. The main reason is that if you really don't like it you can return the item. http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicati...802&CatId=4147

That's the one thing that I've noticed a lot of lately is most of the stuff on Newegg is non-refundable now. I don't think I've ever returned something but this might be one of the few things where I would really want the option.

**saturnotaku** · 03-18-09, 08:53 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bman212121

Hmm I'm really tempted to get one of those from Tiger. The main reason is that if you really don't like it you can return the item. http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicati...802&CatId=4147

That's the one thing that I've noticed a lot of lately is most of the stuff on Newegg is non-refundable now. I don't think I've ever returned something but this might be one of the few things where I would really want the option.

That is odd that it wouldn't be returnable, at least not for a refund. TigerDirect's price is only a couple dollars more than Newegg, but I would have to pay sales tax. I might stop at the store closest to my house to see if they stock the Corsair drive. If not, it would be a bit of a hassle to drive to their main warehouse.

Bman212121 · 03-18-09, 10:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by saturnotaku

That is odd that it wouldn't be returnable, at least not for a refund. TigerDirect's price is only a couple dollars more than Newegg, but I would have to pay sales tax. I might stop at the store closest to my house to see if they stock the Corsair drive. If not, it would be a bit of a hassle to drive to their main warehouse.

Yea I'm betting they've had a lot of people abusing returns causing them to change their policy.

I started noticing it when I was looking at HDDs I think. There are a ton of items now that have the Limited Non-refundable 30-day return policy.

Here's a page of 64GB SSDs. None of them can be returned. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...0848&name=64GB

Here is the policy:

Quote:

Limited Non-Refundable 30-Day Return Policy

Return for refund within: non-refundable
Return for replacement within: 30 days

This is our Detailed Limited Non-Refundable 30-Day Return Policy. Products that state "This item is covered by Newegg.com's Non-Refundable 30-Day Return Policy", or items labeled as “Non-refundable” (or similar labeling) must be returned to Newegg.com within 30 days of the invoice date for this policy to apply. Products covered by this return policy may only be returned for a replacement of the same item.

http://www.newegg.com/HelpInfo/ReturnPolicy.aspx#3

**saturnotaku** · 03-19-09, 06:08 AM

After having a night to sleep on it, I'm probably just going to get another WD 640 GB drive and RAID it with the one I already have. Use that as my primary OS/game drive with my 1 TB Hitachi as backup. The performance will be pretty close to an SSD overall, with still very low noise, a heck of a lot more room to work with, all while costing a fraction of the SSD.

**bacon12** · 03-19-09, 10:07 AM

Smart move IMO. If I had $1000 of disposable income I still would not have spent it on SSD's right now.

In a couple of years it may make sense but right now the numbers just don't.

Bman212121 · 03-19-09, 11:16 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by slaWter

But it still can't match SSDs when it comes to access time and latency. IMO that's what's important for a boot disk.

Yup, that's the main thing that I'm interested in. If you're streaming lots of sequential data then you can do that as fast if not faster with a normal drive, but random reads is where a flash based drive will really shine.

03-17-09, 08:39 PM	#1
sillyeagle sillyego Join Date: Sep 2005 Location: USA Posts: 5,385	Benefits of SATA card with onboard DDR2 when using a single drive? (3ware 9650SE) I don't know that I could possibly find justification for one of these $300 controllers if not using RAID, but I'm wondering how the use of a card like this could benefit performance? Specifically it would be used for my FSX RaptorX drive which streams large amounts of photoreal terrain textures. I also have two other drive, an OS drive and a storage drive. I'm not sure how the 256MB of DDR2 is utilized on the board, if its a cache or what, but if the use of a controller like this would free up some CPU cycles I might consider it. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16816116042 __________________ Intel Core i7 920 Nehalem Quad @ 4.0GHz EVGA GTX 660 SLI @ 1046MHz OCZ Platinum CL7 6GB EVGA Intel X58 _____________ A man's dreams are an index to his greatness.

03-17-09, 08:54 PM	#2
Bman212121 Registered User Join Date: Jan 2006 Posts: 6,726	Re: Benefits of SATA card with onboard DDR2 when using a single drive? (3ware 9650SE) The DDR2 is for caching. It might help it might not. I can't imagine that you're maxing out the read speed of the drive itself, but rather you're causing a lot of I/O requests with small reads. Personally I think if you were going to test anything that the 80GB Intel SSD would be the best option. There is very little latency versus your raptor, so trying to load textures on the fly I'd really think it would be the fastest solution. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...Tpk=80GB%20SSD As for getting the controller I really don't see you gaining any advantages with it. There isn't that much CPU power needed for 1 drive so you won't really notice that, and the DDR2 cache might help here or there but anytime another texture needs to come from the raptor it's going to be slow.

03-18-09, 10:34 AM	#5
bacon12 Registered User Join Date: Jul 2007 Posts: 3,536	Re: Benefits of SATA card with onboard DDR2 when using a single drive? (3ware 9650SE) I refuse to pay that much for the amount of storage. I just did a hd upgrade for my main system, and I looked at a lot of options. I ended up getting a very economical solution of 2 WD 6401aals and used the ICH10R raid. It only cost me $140 and the performance is impressive. I really wanted a nice raid card, but I couldn't justify the $300-$400 or more a good one would have cost. Attached Thumbnails

03-18-09, 11:04 AM	#6
saturnotaku Apple user. Deal with it. Join Date: Jul 2001 Location: The 'burbs, IL USA Posts: 12,502	Re: Benefits of SATA card with onboard DDR2 when using a single drive? (3ware 9650SE) Corsair's SSD has been getting some pretty good reviews. Its performance is pretty comparable to the X25-M, but has higher capacity (128 GB) and a lower cost. It's basically a re-branded Samsung so it shouldn't suffer from any of the stuttering issues that plague SSDs that use the far more common JMicron controller. I'm seriously considering this, as the noise from the two 74 GB Raptors I currently use is really getting on my nerves.

03-19-09, 06:08 AM	#10
saturnotaku Apple user. Deal with it. Join Date: Jul 2001 Location: The 'burbs, IL USA Posts: 12,502	Re: Benefits of SATA card with onboard DDR2 when using a single drive? (3ware 9650SE) After having a night to sleep on it, I'm probably just going to get another WD 640 GB drive and RAID it with the one I already have. Use that as my primary OS/game drive with my 1 TB Hitachi as backup. The performance will be pretty close to an SSD overall, with still very low noise, a heck of a lot more room to work with, all while costing a fraction of the SSD.

03-17-09, 11:01 PM	#3
sillyeagle sillyego Join Date: Sep 2005 Location: USA Posts: 5,385	Re: Benefits of SATA card with onboard DDR2 when using a single drive? (3ware 9650SE) Yeah for nearly the same price the SATA board looks like a waste. Good tip, thanks! __________________ Intel Core i7 920 Nehalem Quad @ 4.0GHz EVGA GTX 660 SLI @ 1046MHz OCZ Platinum CL7 6GB EVGA Intel X58 _____________ A man's dreams are an index to his greatness.

03-19-09, 10:07 AM	#11
bacon12 Registered User Join Date: Jul 2007 Posts: 3,536	Re: Benefits of SATA card with onboard DDR2 when using a single drive? (3ware 9650SE) Smart move IMO. If I had $1000 of disposable income I still would not have spent it on SSD's right now. In a couple of years it may make sense but right now the numbers just don't.