Areca RAID card – any experiences good or bad ?

[Arnie Schlissel]

AMUG seems to like it:
https://www.amug.org/amug-web/html/amug/reviews/articles/areca/1680x/

Arnie
Now in post: Peristroika, a film by Slava Tsukerman
https://www.arniepix.com/blog

[Tom Brooks]

I don’t own one. I gave it a long look a while back and then got a cheaper Highpoint card (which has been fine so far). I could not find anything negative about the Areca, but it doesn’t appear to be real popular in video circles. I just couldn’t find much buzz about it other than AMUG.

There are indications that support for Areca controllers comes with the new Macs. Perhaps the Apple RAID card is Areca-made?? This could be a good sign.

The one that looks really good to me is the new CalDigit. For one thing, the company really wants your business and will actually support the product. Plus the Cal has 8 external and 4 internal channels and a hardware IOP (like the Areca, Atto, and Highpoint 3000 series). But…it’s new.

If you can work with a reseller that will actually support you with the Areca (or Atto, CalDigit, or Highpoint for that matter), that would be good. The integration of the card with a case, drives, cables, firmware and software is pretty critical, eh? I chose the DIY route and it’s risky–no substitute for a lot of real-world experience and it’s impossible for a DIY-er to get that compared to a seller who installs systems for many clients.

Good luck finding some actual users!

[Uli Plank]

Thank you both for your responses.

The AMUG report was detailed and very helpful.

I have used Highpoint cards in the past. While the performance hit on the CPU might be unimportant on an 8-core, at that time they were very unreliable. Alarm going off without a real disk failure, disks disappearing and re-appearing and the like. Our three cards all went back to the dealer.

Don’t know if they sorted out their problems by now, but with such an experience you don’t really trust a RAID card any more.

Areca seems to make the cards for some highly respected RAID systems from the US too. Can anyone confirm this?

Regards,

Uli

Director of the Institute of Media Research (IMF) at Braunschweig University of Arts

[Jason Mann]

We’re running two 8-drive (RAID 5) evoHD arrays from Maxx Digital, and they both have an Areca card (I think it’s the 1221.)

I’m pretty sure it’s the same card that Dulce uses, but I could be wrong.

Ron at Maxx Digital is very helpful, and the company offer great phone support for the package. (They put me on the phone with Bob Zelin when I was having trouble, which was very helpful/humbling.)

Anyway, so far so good for us.

—
Jason Mann
Compass Light, Inc.

[Tom Brooks]

Arnie,
Yes, I’ve seen many of your comments about your experience with Highpoint. I certainly took that into account when I bought one because I respect your opinion. I’ve only had mine a few months and the RAID hasn’t really gotten a severe workout yet. Basically, I’ve been afraid to rely on it too heavily. But, it’s been fine so far. I don’t see a problem with the CPU hit. But, I’m still in a position to switch to a true hardware IOP card if I need to. I feel like I’m doing a lot of equivocating here. Let me put it this way…I bought the Highpoint in spite of my doubts (and yours) about it. It saved me a few hundred bucks. I’ve never felt good about it since. But…it’s been fine…so far. Thanks for your reports over the last few years.
-Tom

Final Cut Studio 2, FCP 6.0.2, Mac OS-X 10.4.11, Quicktime 7.4, After Effects 6.5 Pro, G5 Quad 2.5, Kona-LHe V5.1, 4.5GB RAM, Nvidia GeForce 7800-GT 256MB, G-RAID 2x1TB FW800, 6TB RAID-5 (Enhance E8-ML, Highpoint 2322), Panasonic HVX-200P P2.

[Nate Stephens]

Tom, So what is your “DIY’ recipe for an exterrnal raid. You mentioned that you built one from scratch, by your self… ????

What were the parts and prices….. did you really save some bucks or just taught yourself a new skill??

[Tom Brooks]

Nate,
Yes, I researched, bought, and built it all myself. I’ll get back to you shortly with the parts list and prices you requested. Did I save or just learn a new skill? I learned a lot while doing it. I didn’t learn enough to be confident about the RAID. I know I didn’t become an expert at it. Maybe the community can help me judge whether I saved money or not. Soon after I made my purchases, various companies came out with cheaper RAID-5 systems and components that took a bite out of my savings margin. More later, OK?
-Tom

Final Cut Studio 2, FCP 6.0.2, Mac OS-X 10.4.11, Quicktime 7.4, After Effects 6.5 Pro, G5 Quad 2.5, Kona-LHe V5.1, 4.5GB RAM, Nvidia GeForce 7800-GT 256MB, G-RAID 2x1TB FW800, 6TB RAID-5 (Enhance E8-ML, Highpoint 2322), Panasonic HVX-200P P2.

[Arnie Schlissel]

[Tom Brooks] “I certainly took that into account when I bought one because I respect your opinion.”

Finally, some respect!!

Arnie
Now in post: Peristroika, a film by Slava Tsukerman
https://www.arniepix.com/blog

[Tom Brooks]

Here’s the parts and price list I promised:
1 – Enhance E8ML-BLK Storage enclosure $441.82
Nowdirect.com
2 – Highpoint EXT-MS-1MSB SAS cable assy.
(SAS SFF-8088 to SATA 4x Infiniband) 60.70
Nowdirect.com
1 – Highpoint RocketRAID 2322 SATA-II
8-channel controller 240.99
eWiz.com
10- Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 ST3750640AS
750GB 7200RPM SATA-II OEM hard drive 1799.90
NewEgg.com
Plus tax and shipping of about $80.00
Total $ 2623.41

The box holds eight drives. Formatted capacity of 4.8TB. Two are spares on the shelf. I ruled out hot spares because I’m always going to be there to install a spare if necessary. Hot spares reduce the number of drives in the RAID and thus the speed of the array. I got two spares so that I’d have the exact same drives available if one or two goes down.

The system runs very quiet. Drives run at about 117F temp most of the time. It measures right around 500MB/S. I don’t have an accurate way to measure CPU drain due to the fact that the Highpoint card leaves the parity calculations to the computer, as opposed to a true hardware RAID card that contains an Intel or other I/O processor on board. It looks like about a 15% hit by way of the Mac perf monitor. Construction was very easy. The box is very high quality and well designed. Everything went together like nothing. The Highpoint manuals and online info are pretty minimal. I felt least confident about configuring and formatting the RAID-5. But it’s working without a hitch.

A couple other things…The Highpoint card is SATA only–not SAS compatible as far as I know. Most newer RAID cards will work with either. The card has SAS 8088 connectors while the box has the older Infiniband (aka multilane) connectors. The box was a steal at $441, so I went with it and got cables to match. In future, I can put SAS drives in the box if I want to reformat and the cables should work with other RAID controllers.

Starting today, I’d probably look at the CalDigit RAID card. It’s got the Intel IOP and more channels available and is not very expensive. With a few more bucks to spend I’d probably find one reliable reseller who is willing to sell me the parts and give advice instead of shopping all over the net for deals (I got some pretty good deals I think.). The Enhance US sales people are good and will help with info. I believe I talked to Mike(?) there.

I dunno, what do you think of the price vs what’s out there preassembled and warranted?

Final Cut Studio 2, FCP 6.0.2, Mac OS-X 10.4.11, Quicktime 7.4, After Effects 6.5 Pro, G5 Quad 2.5, Kona-LHe V5.1, 4.5GB RAM, Nvidia GeForce 7800-GT 256MB, G-RAID 2x1TB FW800, 6TB RAID-5 (Enhance E8-ML, Highpoint 2322), Panasonic HVX-200P P2.

[Nate Stephens]

Tom, Thanks for the shopping list..

That is a great total price. Was there a reason for Seagate over Hitachi, beside price?

Four years ago I paid over $ 6,600 for a new Medea RTRX 1 TB raid… amazing..

Keep us posted if you have any problems with it…. You have made my HD upgrade path more reasonable.