Test setup / Programs used / Test method
Wed, 10/17/2007 - 08:45 — Tomas Hlatky
Test setup:
Testing methods:
The ASUS P5B DELUXE motherboard, which was used in the test includes Intel® P965 Express Chipset, however for today's review south bridge Intel® 82801HR ICH8 RAID (ICH8R) is more interesting. The ICH8 has integrated SATA host controllers that supports independent DMA operation on up to six ports and supports data transfer rates of up to 3.0 Gb/s (300 MB/s). The SATA controller contains two modes of operation – a legacy mode using I/O space, and an AHCI mode using memory space. The ICH8 supports the Serial ATA Specification in revision 2.5 from October 2005; the latest specification is revision 2.6 from February 2007. The ICH8 supports Advanced Host Controller Interface (AHCI) and new program interface for SATA controller disks. The AHCI features following functions:
The ICH8 provides support for Intel Matrix Storage Technology, providing both AHCI and integrated RAID functionality. The industry-leading RAID capability provides high-performance RAID 0, 1, 5, and 10 functionality on up to 6 SATA ports of ICH8. Matrix RAID support is provided to allow multiple RAID levels to be combined on a single set of hard drives, such as RAID 0 and RAID 1 on two disks. Other RAID features include hot spare support, SMART alerting, and RAID 0 auto replace.
First, I set up SATA Configuration to Enhanced in motherboard BIOS, in the Main menu, section IDE Configuration. In Configure SATA As I chose IDE (there are three possibilities: IDE, AHCI, RAID). In this case, HDD works in legacy mode, in which Barracuda 7200.11 was tested first. Than I changed Configure SATA As for AHCI mode, and made similar series of tests with Barracuda 7200.11 and ES.2, so I was able to compare the results. Other Barracuda ES.2 testing was performed with setup Configure SATA As RAID with configured RAID 0, 1 or 5; with Volume Write-Back Cache in mode on/off. In one case, I've measured also an influence of processor on Burst speed.
AHCI / RAID installation after the Windows installation
In case, that you've already installed Windows with Configure SATA As IDE setup, but you would like to change it for AHCI mode or RAID mode, there is one elegant way out. The thing is, that if you will simply change IDE for AHCI/RAID, your Windows is not going to be booted, as you don't have AHCI controllers installed. On the other hand, if you'll try to install AHCI controllers first, the Intel(r) Matrix Storage Manager will announce error, informing you that the system didn't find supported hardware. In this case, try to do this:
- ASUS P5B Deluxe (BIOS 1216)
- Intel Core 2 Duo E6400 2166MHz / 3200MHz (8x400)
- Scythe NINJA PLUS Rev.B
- 2 x A-Data DDR2 1GB 800MHz
- ASUS EAX1950PRO/HTDP/256M
- Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 SATA 3.0Gb/s 320-GB 16MB Cache (ST3320620AS) - system disk
- Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 SATA 3Gb/s NCQ 500GB 32MB Cache (ST3500320AS) - tested disk
- 3 x Seagate Barracuda ES.2 SATA 3.0-Gb/s 500-GB 32MB Cache (ST3500320NS) - tested disks
- Samsung SH-S183A (FW SB03)
- Tagan EASYCON TG530-U15
- Chieftec LBX01BBB + AC Fan 12
- Samsung 215TW
- Microsoft Windows XP Professional x64 Edition SP2
- Intel® Matrix Storage Manager 7.6.0.1011
- H2benchw 3.6 (h2benchw.exe -english 0 -! -s -c 0 -p -d 20480 -w "result")
- HD Tach RW 3.0.1.0 (Long bench, Enable Wtrite Test)
- HD Tune 2.54
- PCMark05 1.2.0
Testing methods:
The ASUS P5B DELUXE motherboard, which was used in the test includes Intel® P965 Express Chipset, however for today's review south bridge Intel® 82801HR ICH8 RAID (ICH8R) is more interesting. The ICH8 has integrated SATA host controllers that supports independent DMA operation on up to six ports and supports data transfer rates of up to 3.0 Gb/s (300 MB/s). The SATA controller contains two modes of operation – a legacy mode using I/O space, and an AHCI mode using memory space. The ICH8 supports the Serial ATA Specification in revision 2.5 from October 2005; the latest specification is revision 2.6 from February 2007. The ICH8 supports Advanced Host Controller Interface (AHCI) and new program interface for SATA controller disks. The AHCI features following functions:
- Support for 32 ports
- 64-bit addressing
- Elimination of Master / Slave handling
- Large LBA support
- Hot Plug
- Power management
- HW assisted NCQ
- Staggered Spin-up
- Cold device presence detect
- Serial ATA superset registers
- Activity LED generation
- Port multiplier
The ICH8 provides support for Intel Matrix Storage Technology, providing both AHCI and integrated RAID functionality. The industry-leading RAID capability provides high-performance RAID 0, 1, 5, and 10 functionality on up to 6 SATA ports of ICH8. Matrix RAID support is provided to allow multiple RAID levels to be combined on a single set of hard drives, such as RAID 0 and RAID 1 on two disks. Other RAID features include hot spare support, SMART alerting, and RAID 0 auto replace.
First, I set up SATA Configuration to Enhanced in motherboard BIOS, in the Main menu, section IDE Configuration. In Configure SATA As I chose IDE (there are three possibilities: IDE, AHCI, RAID). In this case, HDD works in legacy mode, in which Barracuda 7200.11 was tested first. Than I changed Configure SATA As for AHCI mode, and made similar series of tests with Barracuda 7200.11 and ES.2, so I was able to compare the results. Other Barracuda ES.2 testing was performed with setup Configure SATA As RAID with configured RAID 0, 1 or 5; with Volume Write-Back Cache in mode on/off. In one case, I've measured also an influence of processor on Burst speed.
AHCI / RAID installation after the Windows installation
In case, that you've already installed Windows with Configure SATA As IDE setup, but you would like to change it for AHCI mode or RAID mode, there is one elegant way out. The thing is, that if you will simply change IDE for AHCI/RAID, your Windows is not going to be booted, as you don't have AHCI controllers installed. On the other hand, if you'll try to install AHCI controllers first, the Intel(r) Matrix Storage Manager will announce error, informing you that the system didn't find supported hardware. In this case, try to do this:
- In motherboard BIOS change Configure SATA As for AHCI/RAID
- Turn on additional controller, in my case it was JMicron(r) JMB363 - in Advanced Menu change in OnBoard Devices Configuration - JMicron SATA/PATA Controller for Enabled, and JMicron Controller Mode for IDE
- Save your settings, turn off your PC and connect the system HDD to an additional controller's port (JMicron)
- Start the PC, boot Windows and Windows is going to find new disk controller for (AHCI / RAID), on which you have to install - Intel® Matrix Storage Manager
- Restart your PC, turn off additional controller (in BIOS), save your settings, turn off your PC and reconnect HDD to an original port
