Several of our customers have asked if the Dell H710P controller would ultimately limit the performance of a large number of SSD’s in a server. While it seems that it would be a bottle neck, we didn’t have any test data that would show to what extent the H710P would limit SSD array performance. Until now...

Here is a quick summary of the results. If you want all of the benchmark data, check out the link below.

We set out to find if the H710P controller would hit a performance limit with SSD drives. We found that for a real life mixed workload, the H710P produced diminishing returns for RAID 10 arrays with more than 6 SSDs. For the unusual case of 100% sequential read, RAID 5 performance hit a wall at 5 drives.

http://blog.xbyte.com/2014/08/14/testing-the-limits-of-the-dell-h710-raid-controller-with-ssd/

It's good to see this thread with more legs over here on Mango than on SW.

Here is the interesting thing going on with the Dell generations now. We see the 11th gen still popular (R510s and R710s) if you only need 6-core CPUs. If you need 8-cores, then we see people skipping the 12th generation and going on to the 13th generation servers like the R730xd. The newer CPUs are so powerful at the low end and therefore so inexpensive, it is hard to justify other the 12th generation. There are some exceptions if you are okay with E5-2600 version 1 CPUs. That market is crashing and you can find some deals.

This is why we encourage people to call us so we can walk through the options in the secondary market. It is very different than buying directly through Dell.

We'll definitely be helping to support the spiceworks community through charitable contributions at various local restaurants and bars.

FYI - For those of you who have already purchased a server from xByte, we can go after the fact and add Dell ProSupport.

@DustinB3403 said:

It was the first drive that I came across on Edge Memories site in the capacity I was looking for.

I didn't know that xByte sells them direct.

Here's an Edge Boost Pro Slim that I assume would work.

We can sell you any Edge drives, but only the ones listed on our website have the custom firmware that we helped to develop with Edge. If Dell makes a firmware update in the future and causes issues with Edge drives, these will also be the only ones we help to correct. Initial testing and maintenance takes a lot of effort from both companies, so we had to limit our selection. As we work more with each other and as we get feedback from customers about other drives they need, that list may expand.

@Dashrender said:

@todd-at-xByte why isn't xByte willing to try consumer drives?

In the interest of reliability and compatibility, we opted to only support enterprise level SSDs. We actually only recently supported non-Dell drives because of those same reasons. We started talking with Edge and found a partner who would co-developer firmware to limit the risk to our customers. If Dell makes a firmware change, we didn't want our customers to experience any issues with their drives.

@scottalanmiller said:

If the R910 is maxing out at, say, 20% CPU, then my guess is that an R720xd will do the trick to take over its load. The R720xd has two, faster procs than the R910. Not only are the individual procs faster, but by moving from quad procs to dual procs you gain a small amount of efficiency just from that one move. So faster procs and more efficient proc usage and then cutting the total number of procs in half.... seems like you will be okay.

You don't even need to go with a R720xd when comparing the R910. You can go with a R620 and get 10x2.5" drives. Cluster a couple of those together and you are far better off than getting an R910 and you will save a fortune on power.

You shouldn't have to click to make search visible.

For those of already using this forum, it is easy to find the search. New people may not see it and then may leave because they don't feel like they can find what they need.

We are reaching out to Edge so they can reply directly to this thread.

You are welcome. We are trying to one blog post every month from our lab. If anyone has any scenarios they want tested, let us know. We can grab just about any Dell server in just about any config necessary and use it in our benchmark tests.

We are reaching out to Edge so they can reply directly to this thread.

FYI - We sell Dell and Edge SSDs. And yes, the Dell ISO is needed.

I will email around and see if I can get one of our engineers in this thread. They are all gone for the day, but they check email all weekend. If you are still having problems on Monday, give us a call. Unfortunately I just saw this and I have no engineers still in the office.

@Dashrender said:

@todd-at-xByte why isn't xByte willing to try consumer drives?

In the interest of reliability and compatibility, we opted to only support enterprise level SSDs. We actually only recently supported non-Dell drives because of those same reasons. We started talking with Edge and found a partner who would co-developer firmware to limit the risk to our customers. If Dell makes a firmware change, we didn't want our customers to experience any issues with their drives.

@DustinB3403 said:

It was the first drive that I came across on Edge Memories site in the capacity I was looking for.

I didn't know that xByte sells them direct.

Here's an Edge Boost Pro Slim that I assume would work.

We can sell you any Edge drives, but only the ones listed on our website have the custom firmware that we helped to develop with Edge. If Dell makes a firmware update in the future and causes issues with Edge drives, these will also be the only ones we help to correct. Initial testing and maintenance takes a lot of effort from both companies, so we had to limit our selection. As we work more with each other and as we get feedback from customers about other drives they need, that list may expand.

@scottalanmiller said:

@ryan-from-xbyte said:

The newer CPUs are so powerful at the low end and therefore so inexpensive, it is hard to justify other the 12th generation.

Except for when you are building storage devices. The R720xd really shines where CPU makes no difference.

If you don't need CPU performance and only need storage, I would recommend the R510. If you need the spindles, then the 24x2.5" R720xd would be a good fit. For raw capacity, the R510 will give you a cheaper option.

@scottalanmiller said:

If the R910 is maxing out at, say, 20% CPU, then my guess is that an R720xd will do the trick to take over its load. The R720xd has two, faster procs than the R910. Not only are the individual procs faster, but by moving from quad procs to dual procs you gain a small amount of efficiency just from that one move. So faster procs and more efficient proc usage and then cutting the total number of procs in half.... seems like you will be okay.

You don't even need to go with a R720xd when comparing the R910. You can go with a R620 and get 10x2.5" drives. Cluster a couple of those together and you are far better off than getting an R910 and you will save a fortune on power.

It's good to see this thread with more legs over here on Mango than on SW.

Here is the interesting thing going on with the Dell generations now. We see the 11th gen still popular (R510s and R710s) if you only need 6-core CPUs. If you need 8-cores, then we see people skipping the 12th generation and going on to the 13th generation servers like the R730xd. The newer CPUs are so powerful at the low end and therefore so inexpensive, it is hard to justify other the 12th generation. There are some exceptions if you are okay with E5-2600 version 1 CPUs. That market is crashing and you can find some deals.

This is why we encourage people to call us so we can walk through the options in the secondary market. It is very different than buying directly through Dell.

FYI - For those of you who have already purchased a server from xByte, we can go after the fact and add Dell ProSupport.

Spiceworks? GFI? CA's Nimsoft? PRTG? Something else?

@ajstringham - That will be changing...