-
1. Re: RAID controller or External Thunderbolt Drives
cc_merchant Mar 22, 2014 2:18 PM (in response to Chase Chick)See Tweakers Page - External Drives
From this article:
Thunderbolt, which is typically used on Mac's, is a 'new' connection. Well, 'new' is rather doubtful. since it is based on a PCIe-2.0 4x connection with a 10b/8b encoding protocol, that carries a huge overhead (almost 20%) over PCIe-3.0 that uses the 130b/128b scrambling protocol. Thunderbolt is great for laptops. There is no connection faster than that for laptops. It delivers around twice the transfer rate of eSATA, with 10 Gb/s per channel. Effectively it will deliver up to around maximum 950 MB/s transfer rates with 2 or more modern and very fast SSD's in a (r)aid0 configuration. But that is also the downside of Thunderbolt. Adding more SSD's to the (r)aid0 will not improve performance. It is choked. It is almost the same speed an internal (r)aid0 with only 2 SSD's will deliver as a software raid. Nothing more. Thunderbolt 2 delivers around 1350 MB/s maximum transfer rate. Still significantly slower than a dedicated raid controller can achieve.
On your Haswell platform, you can't add a dedicated raid controller or Thunderbolt-2 card without down-throttling your video card from PCIe-16x to PCIe-8x, resulting in a 10-15% performance loss. You efffectively have only 16 PCI lanes available, all used by the video card. Adding another card causes the video card to reduce it's lanes to 8.
-
2. Re: RAID controller or External Thunderbolt Drives
Chase Chick Mar 22, 2014 2:32 PM (in response to cc_merchant)I guess I've never been aware of this concept. So no Haswell platforms can have more than 16 PCI lanes? I was under the impression that I could just add either a RAID controller card or a Thunderbolt 2 card to the motherboard and be off to the races.
-
3. Re: RAID controller or External Thunderbolt Drives
Bill Gehrke Mar 22, 2014 6:03 PM (in response to Chase Chick)Haswell CPU's have only four cores so it is "budget" system. There are a few Z87 motherboards that have a PLX PEX 8747 Bridge to add more lanes but they are more expensive that the typical Z87 motherboard (Example, some of the ASROCK Z87 Extreme high-end series)
-
4. Re: RAID controller or External Thunderbolt Drives
Chase Chick Mar 22, 2014 10:21 PM (in response to Bill Gehrke)So assuming I got the high end motherboard, then what about my OP? External Thunderbolt or RAID controller?
-
5. Re: RAID controller or External Thunderbolt Drives
ECBowen Mar 24, 2014 10:16 AM (in response to Chase Chick)If you get the Z87 with Thunderbolt 2 then get TB storage. If you get an X79 system then get the SAS raid Controller if more than 4 drives or redundant raid.
Eric
ADK
-
6. Re: RAID controller or External Thunderbolt Drives
Chase Chick Mar 26, 2014 9:56 AM (in response to ECBowen)So I guess my question is, assuming I am starting from scratch and building a new NLE, or even adding to what I got (which I'm on Z87 right now with Haswell 4770) which one would be the better solution: Thunderbolt2 or Raid Controller?
-
7. Re: RAID controller or External Thunderbolt Drives
cc_merchant Mar 26, 2014 10:26 AM (in response to Chase Chick)Reread post # 1.
-
8. Re: RAID controller or External Thunderbolt Drives
ECBowen Mar 27, 2014 12:37 PM (in response to Chase Chick)Z87 board then the Thunderbolt storage is better. X79 board then the SAS storage is better and the only option right now.
EricADK
-
9. Re: RAID controller or External Thunderbolt Drives
Chase Chick Mar 30, 2014 4:27 PM (in response to ECBowen)I'll definitely be staying on Z87 for now, see no benefit to downgrading. Why are they better depending on the platform?
-
10. Re: RAID controller or External Thunderbolt Drives
cc_merchant Mar 30, 2014 11:58 PM (in response to Chase Chick)I'll definitely be staying on Z87 for now, see no benefit to downgrading.
Z87 is the downgrade. X79 is the upgrade.
-
11. Re: RAID controller or External Thunderbolt Drives
JFPhoton Apr 1, 2014 9:17 AM (in response to Chase Chick)....wait for the new Haswell E CPU to come out later this year.....it will solve your issues. the new MOBOs will have 40 lanes...not 16..... and TEN SATA III ports !!
Plus, the new chip will be available in 6 and 8 core versions !!




