The Perc 6/i Raid 5 "budget" project.

[jason]

Following on from my previous posts on sorting out some sort of storage solution for my expanding data, I came to the conclusion that I need not build or purchase another PC / NAS box to solve my problems.

The aim of this project is to add a fast RAID 5 disk array which is expandable to 8 disks & will reside within my existing rig

I intend to use my current gaming PC with no additional hardware purchases (all be it with a motherboard upgrade) with a disk holder & Dell Perc6/i raid card.

The costs so far (Inc VAT & Delivery)

• Raid controller - £55.00
• Cooler - £8.00
• BBU - £18.50
• Cables - £25.00
• Drive Caddy  - £28.00

Total £134

Drobo wth network £380 +/-


Case: Lian-Li PC-V1000 (mk1)



This currently allows for 6 Disks in the lower compartment cooled by a 120mm fan.

I will buy a Lian-Li EX-34NB which will convert 3 of the 5 1/4 drive spaces to hold 4 3 1/2 disks  - with filtered cooling.

Lian-Li EX-34NB @ yoyotech




The Perc6/i card @ Dell.com


Perc5/i vs Perc6/i @  Dell.com


To mount a Perc5 or 6 into a conventional PC, there are a couple of things to bear in mind:

• Cooling - The existing heatsync is designed to be in a forced airflow case & will be inadaquate for use within a PC.
• Compatability - Some motherboards (mainly intel chipsets) require two pins to be blanked off (by tape or nail varnish)
• Battery - Running the card without battery backup unit (BBU), WITH write back cache enabled will result in data corruption IF there is a power failure / reboot.
• Cabling- A new Prec6/i comes with the cables you need. Otherwise the can be sourced. The Adaptec 2247600-R's will work.
• Mounting - You will need to remove the backplane and replace it with a PCI mount place.

Let's have a look at the card:



The card is currently mounted on a backplane - this can be removed by undoing the two screws down the right hand side.

You can see the small heatsync on it.  Additional cooling is needed unless air is going to be forced across it.  Unfortunately, the heatsync is attached by two "loop" mounting points - rather than holes - this means finding a compatible heatsync is going to prove difficult.

This is the card with the HS & Backplane removed:




And the rear of the card:



The Processor

The processor on this card is LSI's SAS1078  (LSISAS1078). It is currently used in thier MegaRAID 8704ELP (4 port) & the 8888ELP (8 port).  Let's have a look at the chip

[jason]

Heatsync: Zalman ZM-NBF47 Northbridge cooler

The cooler arrived this morning




Let's say that up until now, I've really loved Zalman products. This particular one is a complete sod to set up.  First off you have to assemble your mounting point of choice (the hook one in this case) Then you have to attach it to the cooler for mounting.

It took about 20 minutes to assemble the nut & bolts as they are so small and the thread doesn't align properly. Anyway, that effort turned out to be a complete waste of time as the nuts were too big to fit into their locators on the cooler, & the orientation that it is needed to be would cause problems fitting the card.

Plan B then.  I've got some thermal compact adhesive which I'll use to secure the cooler to the processor.

Pics:

Base of the Zalman vs the Dell



Looking at the two side by side, I was concerned that the CPU surface area might be too big for the Zalman. Fortunately, this was not the case.  They are pretty much an exact match. It won't leave much room for error when gluing them together though.



And some side by side comparisons:





You can clearly see that the zalman has a much greater surface area compared to the stock dell cooler.  This will easily compensate for the lack of forced airflow.


Next - Waiting for new mobo & cables.

[jason]

Been having some fun over the last couple of days.

Aside from having one of my 1tb disks fail (didn't contain anything too drastic), I've got the card up and running.

First off I'd cemented the zalman cooler to the chip on the Perc using some Arctic Silver Thermal Adhesive which I'd had kicking around for a couple of years.  It takes about 10 minutes to "go off" once mixed, so I'd recommend taping or using an elastic band to hold the cooler in place (with some light pressure).

Here's a couple of images with the cooler attached.





The observant amongst you may have noticed some tape across pins 5 & 6 on the PCB (on the side of the heatsync). This is due to a compatibility problem with Intel's P35 & P45 chipsets.

Without the pins covered, the PC refuses to boot & issues a "graphics card failed" message (in my case a single tone looping two second beep).  With the pins covered - it POSTS and you can see the DELL config screen.

In this case I have used electricians insulating tape. Others have used nail varnish.  If you use tape, remember to extend a portion above the pins to let you retrieve it should it come adrift.

Some close ups of the pins:

[jason]

Sorry for the lack of updates, but I've been tied up what with Christmas, work, lack of funds & new system build.

Anyhow. .

Following my upgrade to the new motherboard  GA-EX58-UD5, I've had some issues with clearance.

If I put the RAID card in slot two - there is insufficient air flow to my GFX card and it overheats quickly.

If I put the raid card into slot 3 - I don't have enough clearance for the cooler.

Hence the cooler got its top cut off:









I can't see that it'll make that much of a difference, but at least now it fits.

As soon as my main OS drive is back from an RMA - I only need to purchase one more disk and I can install!

I'm also moving to Vista 64bit as it easily supports partitions of 2TB + and will allow them to be dynamically expanded.

More after next pay-day!

[jason]

Just waiting for my disk to be returned so I can install Vista 64.

I've located the vista 64 drivers & software on dell's site (without having to alter anything).

The Perc 6/i is a standard bit of kit on a Precision T5400 workstation (which supports Vista 64 & XP)

Quick-link


Both the driver, firmware & Management utils can be found there.

[jason]

Picked up a couple of samsung 1tb disks for £60 ea.

Just waiting on my RMA'd raptor before I can start the fun

[jason]

Ok, here are my benches.

I ran both the 64k test (default) and the 8mb test (which I feel represents a more accurate real usage - given that all files on the RAID are over 600mb).

So, 64k results first:

Raptor


Perc 6/i



And the 8mb results:

Raptor


Perc 6/i



I was quite disappointed by the PERC's 64k results, but thinking about it, it is not designed to throw about small files, and a larger file test does show it's intended usage results.

Quite happy with that 

J

[Critters]

How many drives is that?

[jason]

It's 4 in raid5