Performance in WinBench 99
We use WinBench 99 to record the data-transfer graph for each array:
- Single disk (graph)
- RAID0, 2HDD (graph)
- RAID0, 3HDD (graph)
- RAID0, 4HDD (graph)
- RAID1, 2HDD (graph)
- RAID10, 4HDD (graph)
- RAID5, 3HDD (graph)
- RAID4, 4HDD (graph)
We’ll compare the data-transfer rates at the beginning and end of the virtual disks:
Interestingly, these speeds are exactly the same as in the Sequential Read test. They do not agree with what we’ve seen in the read tests from FC-Test.
Conclusion
The 3Ware 9650SE-16ML controller is good overall, yet is not free from certain drawbacks. The biggest problem is the low speed of reading files from arrays that have a high theoretical read speed. It is complete nonsense: the controller manages to write files on RAID0 arrays faster than to read the same files from them! We also have some gripes about the scalability of RAID0 arrays as well as about the performance of RAID5. On the other hand, the controller delivers nearly perfect performance in the sequential read and write test and copes well with distributing the load between the disks of mirrored arrays. Thus, we guess the best application for this controller is mirrored arrays of RAID1 and RAID10 types.
