OCZ Core SSD 2.5" solid state disk Raid - Highpoint RocketRaid 3520LF PCI-E x8 Raid controller

Time for a OCZ Core series SSD follow up but this time I'll pair 4x 32GB OCZ Core series SSD 2.5" solid state disks with a hardware raid controller, Highpoint RocketRaid 3520LF PCI-E raid controller which has a 256MB DDR2 on board cache. I've placed the OCZ Core SSDs in Manhattan dual drive L-Type hot swappable mobile racks which allow 2x 2.5" SATA disks to occupy a single 3.5" bay.


OCZ Core series SSD specifications:

• Available in 32(30)GB, 64(60)GB, 128(120)GB capacities
• Read: up to 143 MB/sec
• Write: up to 93 MB/sec
• Seek: <.35ms Slim 2.5" Design
• 100.2 x 70 x 9.3mm
• Lightweight 77g
• Operating Temp: -10C ~ +70C
• Storage Temp: -55C ~ +140C
• Low Power Consumption
• Shock Resistant 1500G
• RAID Support
• MTBF 1.5 million hours
• 2 year warranty

Highpoint RocketRaid 3520LF specifications:

• Intel IOP 81341 (800MHz)
• PCI -Express x8 (x16 slot compatible)
• 256 MB of DDR II memory with ECC protection
• RAID 6 performance with sustained transfer rates over 780MB/s Read and over 685MB/s Write
• 8 SATA II Channels at 3Gb/s per port
• 2 x internal mini-SAS connectors each supporting 4x SATAII drives
• RAID 0/1/5/6/10/50 JBOD support
• Multi -adapter support up to 4 adapters
• BIOS booting support
• BIOS PnP and BBS (BIOS boot specification)support
• Intel RAID 6 Engine for large capacity RAID arrays
• Option Battery Backup Unit (BBU-03)
• Multiple Logical Drive Support
• Online array roaming
• Online capacity expansion (OCE) and Online RAID level migration (ORLM)
• Quick and Background initialization for instant RAID configuration
• Automatic drive insertion / removal detection and rebuild
• 64bit LBA support greater than 2TB per volume
• S.M.A.R.T monitoring hard drive status for reliability
• Staggered Spinup with user selection in BIOS
• (MAID) spin down drives in array is idle
• (VSS) Variable Sector Size for over 2TB support in 32bit LBA OS
• Active/Failed LED
• Command Line Interface (CLI)
• Web browser-base RAID management software
• Disk scrubbing to prevent degraded RAID arrays
• Bad sector repair and remapping to reduce dropped drives
• ATA pass-through mode support
• Microsoft Windows 2003/XP/2000, Redhat Enterprise Linux /CentOS , Fedora Core, SuSE Linux, FreeBSD, Linux kernel 2.6
• Dimensions: 6.45" x 2.59"

Manhattan Dual Drive 2.5" mobile rack specifications:

• Directly insert SATA 150/300 drives into a desktop PC bay — no internal tray required
• Space-saving design fits two 2.5” drives in a single 3.5” bay
• Hot-swappable — ideal for transporting data between multiple locations and PCs
• Unique case maximizes airflow and cooling efficiency
• Lifetime Warranty
• Supports data transfer speeds up to 3 Gbps
• LED power and activity indicators
• 134 x 102 x 24 mm (5.27 x 4 x 0.9 in.); 282.5 g (9.9 oz.)
• System requirements:
• (2) internal SATA data connections and (2) Molex 4-pin connections
• Windows 2000/XP/Vista or MAC OS version 9.3 or above

Highpoint RocketRaid 3520LF
Bios setup screenshots

Highpoint RocketRaid 3520LF supports creation of raid 0, 1, 1/0, 3, 5, 5/0, 6 and JBOD volumes with Block size options of 16K, 32K, 64K, 128K, 256K, 512K and 1024K.

The default controller settings are listed on left and the settings used for the 4x32GB OCZ Core SSD raid tests are listed on right.


Before plugging in the OCZ core SSDs, I flashed the 3520LF controller to latest bios and firmware versions, 1.40.0416 and 1.3.28.16 respectively.

4x 32GB OCZ Core SSD 2.5" Raid 0
16K vs 64K vs 128K vs 128K NTFS 16K cluster vs 256K Block Size comparison
Vista Ultimate SP1 64bit

I decided to compare the raid 0 performance when different 3520LF controller block sizes were used in the creation of raid 0 arrays. The following block sizes were tested:

• 16K Block size with default NTFS 4K cluster
• 64K Block size with default NTFS 4K cluster
• 128K Block size with default NTFS 4K cluster
• 128K Block size with default NTFS 16K cluster
• 256K Block size with default NTFS 4K cluster

Enhanced Performance was enabled on all tests.



System specifications:

• Intel Core 2 Extreme QX9650 L739A640 Retail
• Corsair Nautilus 500
• DFI LP UT X48-T3RS 9/23 beta bios
• NB Cooling: Thermalright HR-05 + 80x25mm Sunon 49cfm fan
• HIS HD4870x2 stock hsf with CAT 8.9 official drivers
• 2x1GB Corsair TW3X2G2133C9DF Dominator 9-9-9-24 at 2.0v rated (Samsung ICs)
• 750GB Samsung HD753LJ - Main OS drive
• 4x 32GB OCZ Core Series SSD 2.5" (placed in Manhattan dual 2.5" bay racks)
• Highpoint RocketRaid 3520LF PCI-E raid controller with 256MB DDR2 cache
• LiteOn DVD-ROM
• 1KWW Corsair HX1000
• Windows Vista Ultimate SP1 64bit fully updated via vLite integration

Benchmark Applications Used:

• ATTO Bench 256MB Length
• HDTach 32M
• HDTune 2.55
• Everest Ultimate 4.60.1536 Beta - Read Suite & Random Write tests
• Iometer 64bit 2008.6.18
• Pcmark05 Full suite & HDD Suite tests (HDD target set to SSD Raid 0 array drive I)
• Pcmark Vantage 64bit Full suite & HDD suite tests (HDD target set to SSD Raid 0 array drive I)

ATTO Bench 256MB

256K Block size saw ATTO pull out well over 500+ MB/s read and 300+ MB/s write. 128K block size with 16K NTFS cluster seem to have boosted the ATTO write bandwidth slightly though.

16K Block size vs 64K Block size


128K Block size vs 256K Block size


128K Block size with NTFS 16K cluster

HDTach 32MB

Again 256K Block size led the way with 482.8MB/s average read speed and 1002MB/s burst speeds



16K Block size vs 64K Block size


128K Block size vs 256K Block size


128K Block size with NTFS 16K cluster

HDTune 2.55

16K Block size vs 64K Block size


128K Block size vs 256K Block size


128K Block size with NTFS 16K cluster

Everest Ultimate 4.60.1536 Beta
Read suite & Random Write

128K block size with 16K NTFS cluster had the highest average random write performance at 194.5MB/s followed by 256K block size with default 4K NTFS cluster size of 191.8MB/s.



128K block size with 16K NTFS cluster size

Iometer 64bit 2008.6.18
4K Random Write 100%

Using Highpoint RocketRaid 3520LF PCI-E raid controller with 256MB DDR2 cache definitely boosted the OCZ Core SSD's performance in this test. Compared with onboard Gigabyte EP45 Extreme's ICH10R controller with single 32GB OCZ Core SSD result and 2x 32GB OCZ Core SSD raid 0 result, there was respectively a 66x and 33x times improvement with Highpoint RocketRaid 3520LF!



Configuration used: 10GB iometer test file



16K Block size vs 64K Block size


128K Block size vs 256K Block size


128K Block size with NTFS 16K cluster

Pcmark05 Suite & HDD Test

Both 128K block 4K and 16K NTFS cluster resulted in highest performance followed closely by 256K block size.



128K block with 16K NTFS cluster