Test Methodology



Since we are sampling the 4-port version of this board, the only way to come anywhere close to the theoretical bandwidth limits of an IOP348 is to use 4 of the same drive.  Fast ones. 
Unfortunately we do not have 4 X25-E series drives, so we will have to
make due with M series units and cope with their 80 MB/sec write speed
limitation.

SSD Goodness!  Sleds are part of a hot swap enclosure to be covered in a future review.

As we had no other 4-drive RAID figures available, we needed something for this new HPT board to compete against.  The closest spare board we had on tap was an Areca 1231ML, spotted to us by the folks at Solidata.  While this board has a previous generation IOP processor, Areca has been in the RAID business for considerably longer, and has had many years to refine their firmware and drivers. 
Bear in mind Areca is considered among the best in the field, and a contender from the older line may very well still give the RocketRaid a run for its money.

Test System Setup

I swapped in a different SSD for OS duties, as my personal X25-M was needed for array bashing duties.