-
Need advice troubleshooting Areca 8050T2
Hi folks
I’m getting fairly low read times with a new Areca 8050T2 thunderbolt drive running on a nMP. Using AJA System Test I’m getting Read/Writes of around 650MBs/1050MBs in Raid 5. From what I’ve been reading I should be up around 1050MBs for both. It’s loaded up with 8x4TB WD RE drives and attached via 10′ thunderbolt cable. I’d appreciate any tips on where to start troubleshooting what the problem might be.
Sean
-
9 Replies
-
Actually, I mixed that up. My read times seem normal but it’s my write times that are low.
-
you should be jumping up and down that you are getting 1050 MB/sec anything with an 8 bay drive array running on Thunderbolt 2 – period. Tbolt 2 maxes out at 1375 MB/sec theoretical – and that’s at RAID 0 – and no one gets “line speed” – so 1050 MB/sec is amazing – I have only got about 900 MB/sec with RAID 5 using HGST Ultrastar enterprise drives.
If your write speed is 650 MB/sec, I am guessing that your Areca configuration is not correct, but you know what – that is plenty fast to do any 4K media, even dpx, so I would be happy with your performance.
Many of the specs that you see published in reviews show ridiculous high numbers – like when the Promise Pegasus R6 came out. No one ever got those numbers. Your numbers sound fine. Your write is a little slow, but adding 300 MB/sec to your write speed is not going to affect you writing 4K media to your RAID array.
Bob Zelin
Bob Zelin
Rescue 1, Inc.
maxavid@cfl.rr.com -
Hi Bob
I appreciate the response and you’ve definitely put my mind at ease. It’s not so much that I’m disappointed with the results, just concerned that the write speeds are much lower than what I’ve seen in third party reviews. I’m actually thinking the issue might be a simple matter of cabling. I swapped out the 10′ OWC cable I was using for the three footer that came with the unit and now I’m getting writes around 900MBs and reads over 1000MBs. Still a little lower than the online reviews I’ve seen but definitely nothing to sneeze at. Thanks again for your response.
Sean
-
the published results are all nonsense, and your tests are all nonsense as well. IF you use a simple product like AJA System Test, you will see that it takes several seconds to get up to 900 – 1000 MB/sec. When it starts at the first few seconds (like when you hit the play button on your editing system), you get MUCH SLOWER RESULTS. It takes a few seconds for the Thunderbolt 2 drive arrays to ramp up to full speed – which for many companies is completely unacceptable, as you have multiple edit rooms, who need a no excuse system that will play, when you hit the play button.
Bob Zelin
Bob Zelin
Rescue 1, Inc.
maxavid@cfl.rr.com -
Saw an Avid take about 3 seconds before it would play only the other day..!
Not one of ours…
S
-
Hi Bob
I’m sure you’re right about published results (and mine too). Running the Aja System Test, the results actually start instantly at around 1100/MBs on writes then settle in around 800. Reads definitely start slower–around 500 MBs then they quickly ramp up to 800-900 and eventually settle in around 1000. Not sure if that sucks or not but I guess the good news is that this is not a shared system. Thanks again for your help.
Sean
-
I share a Pegasus 1 out from an iMac for editing ProResHQ at the moment.
Resolve plays in RT in the other room and so does the edit room even when working in AE on the iMac that has the pegasus on.
Never had any crashes.
Not ideal but works for now till the new kit goes in.
s
-
I considered getting a Pegasus2 but I went with the Areca b/c I heard the P2 doesn’t use enterprise drives. Areca with WD REs ended up being about the same price for a comparable size.
-
When you test, open a terminal and run this:
sudo iosnoop -D
You’ll see each IO going to and from the device and the leftmost column will show you latency on the IO. I’d love to see what it looks like to an areca card these days.
Steve
Steve Modica
CTO, Small Tree Communications
Reply to this Discussion! Login or Sign Up