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In order to test the sheer bandwidth that this unit can pass along using a single raid controller we are going to the Patriot WildFire 120 GB SSDs. The maximum throughput that this RAID controller we have connected to the ARC-4036 is around 2.7 Gb/s. There will be no cache used.
IOMETER RESULTS
The test is with one worker using Windows Server 2008 R2 we are using a 8Gb test file at 64k with a Queue Depth of 64. Here we are going for maximum sequential throughput, to illustrate the sheer bandwidth possible. The WildFire SF-2281 drives are the best device for this, measuring an impressive 555 Mb/s sequential read speed per device!
We see that the controller is actually passing the threshold of its own limits slightly, coming in with a very impressive 2.8Gb/s.
One must also bear in mind that this is the limit of the RAID controller, NOT the enclosure. It is possible that more bandwidth could be passed through if we used multiple controllers, or future generations of controllers that can handle more. The RAID controller simply cannot give more. We have the enclosure configured with two SAS cables in “performance” mode.
Again we are exploring the difference of single port v the dual port usage of the enclosure. As you remember, the ARC-4036 can use one SAS cable to connect to the controller, or two SAS cables to enable the “Performance” mode of the enclosure, and maximum IOPS/Throughput. Here we can see that with only one SAS cable the enclosure pulls off 1.7 Gb/s in sequential throughput.
NEXT: CONCLUSION
~ INTRODUCTION ~ CONCEPTS AND USAGE ~
~ UNBOXING ~ INTERNALS ~ CONNECTIVITY OPTIONS ~ CONNECTING DRIVES ~
~ ENCLOSURE MANAGEMENT ~ TEST BENCH AND PROTOCOL ~
~ SANDISK LIGHTNING RESULTS ~ PATRIOT WILDFIRE RESULTS ~
~ CONCLUSION ~