Sonnet M.2 4x4 PCIe Card fan noise or OWC Accelsior

[Marsdy]

Originally Posted by lucienpalmer

Technically they say “Aggregate transfer speeds” which I personally think is a little misleading advertising gimmick. All they are saying is that the total possible data moving adds up to 12GB/sec. because they allow each of the 4 chips their own direct PCI connection, that’s probably 3GB per chip and they add it up for advertising. I’ve never heard of JBOD being faster than RAID 0.

I think they were talking about transfer speed of data from individual M.2 cards and not the date transfer capability of the card itself.

This is their exact claim:

When installed in a Windows PC’s PCIe 3.0 slot with four SSDs formatted in a RAID 0 configuration, the card is capable of 8,500 MB/s transfers. Aggregate transfer speeds from four non-RAIDed SSDs of up to 12,000 MB/s are possible!

Interesting that they would claim RAID 0 speeds of 8,500 MB/s on a Windows PC. I wonder if that’s why Mac users are getting less than that or as you say, it’s advertising hyperbole.

Personally I’ve always found a slight performance penalty when using RAID 0. Performance is not quite twice the aggregate speed of two SSDs running separately. In my Blackmagic Multidocks, one drive maxes out at 384MB/s, two drives in RAID 0 - less than 750MB/s, three drives less than 1000MB/s.

[JFreak]

RAID0 is simpy extending one drive capacity with another. No software can write to both drives round-robin, it is the card that does RAID which determines what to use. In worst case scenario it fills first drive first and only begins to fill second drive once first one is full.

[lucienpalmer]

Originally Posted by Marsdy

Personally I’ve always found a slight performance penalty when using RAID 0. Performance is not quite twice the aggregate speed of two SSDs running separately. In my Blackmagic Multidocks, one drive maxes out at 384MB/s, two drives in RAID 0 - less than 750MB/s, three drives less than 1000MB/s.

I see what you are trying to say about a ‘penalty’, because it doesn’t exactly double with two drives in a RAID. But I interpret that completely different. It’s a benefit. A boost. By themselves, your drives could only do 384, and now in a raid, they are boosted to 750. And with three drives, even better speeds.

That’s a good thing! To me, that’s all benefit. You aren’t losing out on anything.

[lucienpalmer]

Originally Posted by JFreak

RAID0 is simpy extending one drive capacity with another. No software can write to both drives round-robin, it is the card that does RAID which determines what to use. In worst case scenario it fills first drive first and only begins to fill second drive once first one is full.

Nope, you are getting RAID 0 confused with JBOD.

Just a Bunch Of Disks simply extends the Drive capacity of all the drives connected. The advantage is that you can mix-and-match different sizes, but there is no other benefit. It fills the first desk then moves on to the next, and then the next, and so on.

RAID 0 is a striped volume. Performance is increased because it alternates as it writes to the disks.

[JFreak]

Originally Posted by lucienpalmer

RAID 0 is a striped volume. Performance is increased because it alternates as it writes to the disks.

Hopefully, that is the key word. Usually something between worst case and best case, but you cannot just throw numbers of best case scenario because real world performance is nowhere near.

[lucienpalmer]

Originally Posted by JFreak

Hopefully, that is the key word. Usually something between worst case and best case, but you cannot just throw numbers of best case scenario because real world performance is nowhere near.

But it is? I find that response really confusing. Are you saying the RAID 0 doesn't boost performance? It does; a lot! Putting two SSD's together in a RAID 0 almost doubles the performance. I do it all the time.

My main project drive in the system I'm working on right now is two Samsung SSD's in a RAID 0. Individually, one of those drives by themselves tests at 449 MB/sec write and 493 MB/sec read. After putting two of them together in a RAID 0, I get 716 MB/sec write and 894 MB/sec read.

The confusing part is when companies start using things like "aggregate speed", Which I think is marketing BS. It's not like you can copy a file at the 'aggregate' speed. That like saying my car is going 100 mph, so all four of my tires have an aggregate speed of 400 mph. It sounds great! But it doesn't mean much in the real world. Although to be fair to Sonnet, they used an example of making one SSD chip your system drive, then putting the other three in a RAID. So what I think they are trying to say with aggregate speed is that there won't be any bottlenecks if the chips are operating separately at the same time.

But you'll never get close to the speeds of a RAID 0 with JBOD. Especially with 4 chips in a RAID 0.

[JFreak]

It does! Between zero and hundred percent with two identical drives. Ads tout double performance but it isnt guaranteed


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[lucienpalmer]

Originally Posted by Michael Carnes

I have exactly that configuration you're asking about--Sonnet card, set up as RAID-0 in a Mac Pro 7,1. I don't quite get 8,500MB/S in the Blackmagic speed test, but I'm up there around 7,600. It sure beats my previous setup of SSDs in an external TBolt enclosure. I got about a tenth that speed.

Thanks for the info Michael. How is the fan noise?

[Michael Carnes]

Originally Posted by Marsdy

Thanks for your insights Michael.

Speaking of fans - can you comment on how loud the fan gets on the Sonnet card?

I don't think the fans are loud but I don't really know. My computer's in a hall closet with just a few cables coming through the wall of my studio.

I’m guessing you’re not a keyswitch guy! I am so less likely to run out of tracks fortunately!

I'm crap on the keyboard. I was (and suppose still am) a guitarist, but I'm typically importing from a score editor anyway.

[Michael Carnes]

Originally Posted by Marsdy

Thanks for your insights Michael.
I’ve been wondering if RAID 0 is the best way to go in this situation. Obviously there’s the convenience of one big volume but other than that - I’m thinking the aggregate speed of multiple drives might be cumulatively faster in JBOD mode. Sonnet are quoting up to 12,000MB/S as an aggregate speed for all four drives running separately.

Perhaps. You can stick brass on one drive, percussion on another, strings on another, etc. I actually tried something similar on my older system. But if you're writing something really heavy on brass, you're trying to get most of the orchestra off one drive. Or you could add an expansion pack that overflows a drive and that forces you to reorder all of your libraries. I figured with a RAID-0, that I'd get consistent performance no matter what.