Areca 1880x vs ATTO 680

[Mark Valentino]

You might want to try and change your max transfer size and prefetch on the ATTO card. I have come to realize that the default setting is not the fastest and I agree that the support team at ATTO is great. They will work with you to set the card to get the fastest performance. ATTO is very strong in the M&E market specializing in Video editing, VOD and other media applications. READS are more important and done a lot more often than writes and it is my experience that the ATTO card is faster at these.

[Bob Zelin]

Christopher’s observation is correct. Mark, when you say –

“ATTO is very strong in the M&E market specializing in Video editing, VOD and other media applications. READS are more important and done a lot more often than writes and it is my experience that the ATTO card is faster at these.”

are you basing this on your experience with the new ATTO R680, or are you basing this on your experience with ATTO cards in general, like with the R380? I use more ATTO cards than anyone on this list, and no one is more loyal to ATTO than I am, but there are current issues with the R680 that are still getting worked out. Every chassis is different, they all have different backplanes – you just can’t plug in a box, and expect it to magically work. Your observation about prefetch is correct – for the ATTO R680 change it to 3. Your chunk size should be 512k. But don’t look for me for answers, and I too am seeing identical results to what Christopher is seeing. With most chassis right now, the Areca 1880 is outperforming the R680. Everyone is always hot to release a product without knowing everything about it, and what will, and what will not work. I used to only use Areca 1680, and then switched to ATTO R380 because of lower latency, and better performance. ATTO was slow to start with the R380, and it appears the same thing is happening with the R680.

As you pop in the Areca 1880 into different manufacturers chassis, you will also get different performance specs. If you need to make a decision now, yes, the Areca wins. But this does not mean that things won’t get worked out in the coming months, and your performance will ultimately be identical or better with the ATTO R680.

This is what happens to everyone who becomes an early adaptor – you suffer thru the development cycle.

Bob Zelin

[Bob Zelin]

Hi Chris –
let me give you more complete information for your R680 card –
change prefetch to 3
use a 512k interleave
make sure SpeedRead is set to Enabled, not auto

you can contact me directly if you are still having issues with the R680. There will be no billing charge.

maxavid@cfl.rr.com

Bob Zelin

[Christopher Delaine]

Thanks Bob

I really appreciate your help. I know I am on the bleeding edge with this setup and that’s why I went Atto. My experience with their tech support trumped other manufactures I was considering, (Highpoint, Areca,) Although Areca’s support has improved there is a young lady on the phone from Atto tech right now as I type this preparing detailed instructions on how to expand the span depth of the R680 so I can create a 24 drive Raid 5 set. There is something to be said for no wait customer service. I will take your advice and Set up my raid according to your specs.

Sincerely
Christopher Delaine

[Bob Zelin]

Hey,
don’t take my advice. That young lady is Quintessence from ATTO.
Share what she tells you on this forum. Tell us what settings you are going to set your R680 to.

Bob Zelin

[Jonas Bendsen]

Getting ready to buy a new RAID enclosure, drives, and card. Was hoping when I got to the end of this thread Christopher was going to share the information he received from ATTO tech support regarding that 680.

I came across this thread looking for information as I am considering this Norco enclosure (for cost and number of drives it will accommodate -a whopping 24) and the Areca 1880X RAID controller card to “drive” it.

I have an 8GB G-Technology esPRO set up in RAID5 that I use for whatever project(s) is active, so this new set up is more for a general storage system. In other words, the new system doesn’t necessarily need to be fast enough to edit 2k, but I don’t really want to skimp too much on speed (definitely would like to be able to support a 1080p workflow from the RAID, which seems feasible over SAS).

I realize I might be derailing the thread a bit, but it does involve the Areca 1880x (which is in the thread title). Perhaps I should consider the ATTO 680 for my setup instead? It’s been nearly two years since this was posted, so perhaps the “kinks” Bob mentions with the ATTO have been worked out?

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This is my life, I edit and edit and edit and edit…

[Jonas Bendsen]

Forgot to add… the system I am considering should come in at just over $4.5k for around 44TB of RAID5 or RAID6 storage.

24 2TB drives @ $99/each = $2,400
Noreco enclosure @ < $1,400
Areca 1880X RAID @ < $800

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This is my life, I edit and edit and edit and edit…

[John Davidson]

Hey Christopher, what settings ended up being best for you?

John Davidson | President / Creative Director | Magic Feather Inc.