Thermaltake Muse R-Duo: External RAID
by Dave Robinet on December 14, 2007 2:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Storage
Test Setup
We are using an Intel E6600 dual-core CPU to ensure that we are not limited by computing power in our testing. We've used a 2GB memory configuration for these tests, but will soon be updating our test beds to a consistent 4GB platform due to current DDR2-800 pricing and upcoming game and application requirements. Our choice of budget level OCZ Reaper HPC PC2-6400 memory offers a very wide range of memory settings with timings of 4-4-3-10 used for our storage benchmark results.
The testbed uses an MSI 8800GTX video card and we run our tests at a resolution of 1280x1024. We run all of our tests with an enclosed case (in this instance, with the drives installed in the Muse R-Duo chassis) with a dual optical/hard drive setup to reflect a moderately loaded system platform. We fully update the OS and load a clean drive image for each platform in order to keep driver conflicts to a minimum.
We format the test drive before each test run and complete five tests on each drive to ensure consistency in the benchmark results. We drop the high and low scores and report the remaining (median) score. The Windows XP swap file is set to a static size of 2048MB and we clean the prefetch folder after each benchmark.
Our hard drive platform for this test is Seagate's Barracuda ES.2 1TB. This is the enterprise version of the 7200.11 drive that we already tested. Given the virtually identical performance characteristics of the two drives, we are confident in including the 7200.11 as a single-drive comparison platform.
Software Test Suite
With the variety of disk drive benchmarks available, we need a means of comparing the true performance of the hard drives in real world applications. Given that this is a review of a RAID product, rather than a pure hard drive review, we'll forego the gaming benchmarks in favor of some relevant RAID handling benchmarks. Our suite for this test will include:
- HD Tach
- HD Tune
- Acoustics and Thermals
- PCMark05
- XP Startup
- Application Loading
- Hard Drive Usage
- Virus Scanning
- File Write
- WinRAR
- Windows Vista Startup/Shutdown
- PCMark Vantage
- RAID Rebuild Operations and Error Handling
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Zak - Friday, December 14, 2007 - link
I've gone through 4 dual drive enclosures and concluded that anything with fan smaller than 80mm is too loud. They were usually louder than my computer so I don't expect this one to be any better. I've settled for SansDigital 4-drive USB eclosure in JBOD mode. Their 4-drive SATA is also a great value but I couldn't get the included SATA card to work properly neither under OSX nor Windows XP so it went back. But I'd like to see some reviews of SansDigital hardware, they have some nice offerings.Zak
MrPickins - Friday, December 14, 2007 - link
I'm sure I missed it when reading the article, but what type of connection were you using for the benchmarks?I'd assume eSATA, but I'd also like to see how the enclosure performs using the USB interface.
Dave Robinet - Friday, December 14, 2007 - link
Yep - eSATA was used. It's tough to imagine a lot of USB use for this sort of device, to be honest, so that wasn't tested.Thanks a lot for reading!
Magendanz - Friday, December 14, 2007 - link
I believe this unit uses the Silicon Image SiI5744 Storage Processor, which has frequent firmware updates and a decent utility called SteelVine Manager for configuring and monitoring the chipset. I purchased a similar unit called the ONNTO DataWhale from CoolDrives and have been very happy with it. (The DataWhale has removeable drive trays, which I like.)It's interesting to note that the SteelVine products have support for SAFE33 and SAFE50 modes (which split the drives into RAID 1 and BIG partitions) as well as an advanced GUI configuration mode that allows you to configure combined modes manually. On the DataWhale, this was enabled with an internal jumper and I'd expect the Muse also has this. Just pull the jumper and set the DIP switches to SAFE mode, then you can configure to your heart's content using SteelVine Manager.
Note: The latest version of SteelVine Manager requires the latest firmware update, but since SteelVine Manager is required to update the firmware this results in a bit of a Catch 22. Just install an older version of SteelVine Manager, install the firmware update, and then update to the latest version.
Yawgm0th - Friday, December 14, 2007 - link
The definition of RAID 1 listed in the article is not correct. In a standard RAID 1, the drives are mirrored and presented as a single volume to the operating system. However, they will both be accessed simultaneously during all read and write actions. This is why RAID 1 generally results in a substantial increase in read speeds but a slight decrease in write speeds.This is true if you are doing a software RAID, in which case the operating system or RAID software knows to do this, and with a hardware RAID, in which case the controller automatically reads and writes to both drives simultaneously. Anything else is not RAID 1.
The definition listed for RAID 1 in this article describes a behind-the-scenes backup, which is not RAID 1. If this is the case, it ought to be given more mention in the article. One of the biggest benefits to using RAID 1 is not just the high reliability, but the greatly increased read speeds. If the described method is what's in use, then it's a serious flaw in the device.
Dave Robinet - Friday, December 14, 2007 - link
The device does provide true RAID 1 in its normal sense. My choice of words was meant to illustrate the way the end-user sees the device, and it's substantially easier to say "show one device, then use the other".The reality of RAID 1 is that the OS reads from only one drive, so the basic definition is essentially true, though. I'll see about cleaning up the wording to satisfy both clarity and to make it more accurate. Good catch!
yyrkoon - Friday, December 14, 2007 - link
$143 usd is not a terribly large sum of money, but if you look into alternatives, you can get the addonics 2port port Multiplier, and do the same thing for cheaper. Then again, you'd have to either build your own enclosure, or buy one. I wouldnt be surprised if this device in fact uses the addonics port multiplier . . .All the above said, I would have to agree in wondering if RAID really has a place on the desktop(or most workstations and servers for that matter), as there are so many 'better' ways to store data safely without even using RAID in the first place. Database servers storing mission critical data MAY need RAID for an added form of reliability, but probably do not need RAID for performance, as any self respecting database admin is probably using a static ram HDD device, or possibly a large RAM disk(assuming balls out performance is even needed).
I cannot really help but wonder if a software RAID array, on a multiple core system would outperform this device or not. That and the fact with tools such as rsync, and just storing important files on multiple drives wouldn't be as safe, without the hassles/complications that RAID can bring into the big picture. The cost definately would be less . . .
cserwin - Friday, December 14, 2007 - link
I've had to explain to too many family members that their digital photos are gone-baby-gone because they haven't backed them up.I think RAID 1 is critical for digital photos.
ESATA give the advantage of allowing direct management of the photos on the redundant array without any appreciable loss of performance, and it is very portable for upgrades. It is way more functional than USB 'backup' solutions - especially for me, who gets the phone call when my uncle/mom/sister/aunt is having a problem.
yyrkoon - Saturday, December 15, 2007 - link
Sorry, but RAID 1 is not going to magically fix all of everyones problems. What happens if bobby-sue's kid deletes (a la shift delete) all their families image files, or disk corruption creeps onto a single somehow, while mirroring to the second ? Try explaining to a family that their Photos and other data files are bye-bye-gone after you recommended that they spend twice as much in HDDs plus controller(if needed).DeltaCopy:
http://www.aboutmyip.com/AboutMyXApp/DeltaCopy.jsp">http://www.aboutmyip.com/AboutMyXApp/DeltaCopy.jsp
Smart partitioning + DeltaCopy + offsite optical media storage may not be perfect, but is a good bit smarter than just adding another point of failure to a storage syst
Magendanz - Sunday, December 16, 2007 - link
Fortunately, Vista and Windows Server shadow copies prevents data loss in these scenarios.