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LOSTCIRCUITS		SHORTCUTS: The Challenge Fujitsus and Promises Assembling the RAID Building the System Test configuration HDTach vs. WB99 ATTO vs. Sandra Back to HDTach, WB99 Network File Copy Conclusions Fujitsu Drives Comments?
Internal 4-Way SATA RAID For The XPC     A Concept Study
(Review by MS, April 20, 2003)

For building the SATA RAID concept case, we decided to go with the Shuttle SB52G2 for the simple reason that we wanted a storage solution matching the Gigabit LAN capabilities of that setup. Two GigaBytes of PC2700 DDR a 2.53 GHz P4 and here goes the perfect web or file server. The Promise FastTrack TX4000/S150 and the four Fujitsu drives (model number MHS2040AT) were already mentioned.

       

Left: After peeling off the protective antistatic bag, here is finally a picture of the drive's top. Center: the "rear end" featuring the staggered data and power connectors. Right: the two other pictures still don't really show the actual dimensions of the 2.5" drives, so for comparison sake we put one on top of a standard 3.5" drive and a CDROM, both of which look like behemoths compared to the 2.5" drive.

We mentioned the Promise FastTrack TX4000/S150 TX, here is what this card looks like. What we got was a production sample with an eraly BIOS version and beta drivers that originally gave us a few headaches, however, after flashing the card to the 1.00.0.30 production BIOS and updating the drivers to the first production drivers (1.0.0.25) all problems we originally had went away.

Last not least, once again, here is the system we are going to use or abuse for our purposes: Shuttle SP52G2.

   

Left: The Promise S150 TX4 4-Port SATA RAID card using the Marvell SATA RAID controller. Right: the Shuttle SB52G2 was predestined to become the innocent victim of our curiosity.

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