Re: OT: 3Ware vs. Promise
David Priban said:
> What exactly is the issue you are talking about?
> I was just about to build a system using 6410 raid 5 :(
>
> Also couple of weeks ago 3ware announced it is going to
> discontinue Escalade line of products. This makes me wonder
> if this issue will ever get fixed.
> Just checking 3ware website and the announcement is not there
> any more. Just a broken link. I really hope they changed
> their minds...
well i don't know how to describe it. for a long time they had
me confused wether it was IBM 75GXP drives causing problems or
3ware(turned out it was both). the western regional sales guy
called me(and my boss) a couple months ago(at the request of
my vendor) and told me the situation. not much details other then
there is a known problem in the raid5 implimentation on all of
their cards. they thought they had it fixed in the 7000 series
which i recieved one, only to be later told do NOT use it as it
apparently had a worse problem. one of my systems completely crapped
out, and we dropped it off at the vendor, 3ware cameon site and looked at it(don't know what they did), they said
they will have a fix soon(this was back in september), last
i heard the fix was due mid november 2001. that to me doesn't
mean it will work though. i have since switched from 4x80GB
maxtors in RAID5 (was originally 4x75GB IBMs) to 6x80GB
maxtors in raid 10. i asked my vendor to let me know in 6 months
if the raid5 stuff on 3ware works and i will switch back
then if it does.
the people at 3ware will probably admit to you if you contact
them of the problem in raid5 i don't believe they are trying
to keep it secret. their raid10 and raid0 systems apparently
have been in running/production for about 18 months longer
then raid5 and have no known problems.
i don't know the details of the problem in raid5 and can't
really describe the symtoms as what i was suffering from was
crappy disks(75GXP, had 5 fail in 30 days), and the raid
card itself.
3ware claims they are not going out of business, i got info
saying they got new funding and a new CEO. the 6000 series
is still set to be end of lifed next month, the 7000 series
looks to replace it. i don't know if they are still planning
on stopping the retail editions but it doesn't look like
they are anymore. 7800, 7810 and 7850 will replace the 6000
series.
despite all of the above i still intend on buying a 4port
6000 or 7000 series card for raid10 at home. driver compadibility
is just much better then that of adaptec or promise. even
though the hardware has its flaws(or firmware..).
nate
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