Setup:

If you don’t have a Port Multiplier compatible eSata port already, there is a PCI-E 1X expansion card included with the enclosure with two ports. The supplied CD includes drivers if windows doesn’t detect the card on its own.

Software logo

Creating an array

Parity = Raid5

 I actually had a problem with those drivers though, when I did the first install, I installed the drivers by default. While the raid seemed to setup correctly, I wasn’t able to mount the drive afterwards. During testing to find out what the problem was, I did a fresh install of my OS (Windows 2003 Server, with Service pack 1 slipstreamed) and noticed it detected the PCI-E expansion card without any extra steps. Everything then worked without any issues. To setup a RAID 5 array on 4 320GB drives takes about 5 hours. A small test making a 100GB array only took a few minutes.

Setting options

Advanced stuff

Parity = Raid5

The CFI raid isn’t controlled in the enclosure itself, your PC has to do all of the calculations when it figures out what data gets split up and goes on what drive. What it does is split the eSata signal to the different drives so your system can deal with each of them on the one channel. The only downside to this system is the extra CPU usage during file transfers. On my AMD 64 3500, the average load from heavy traffic is 20-24%.

5 Hour wait

Loosing a drive halfway

Message logs

Now that dual core CPU’s are becoming more common, this extra usage wouldn’t be a problem. And you also have to realize that 99% of consumer level RAID expansion cards work the same way. True hardware RAID systems are VERY rare for under $300, there are some motherboards that have hardware RAID, but only on very new and high end boards (the Nvidia 680i chipset motherboards are probably the first popular board to include it).

Testing:

 To test the speed and access times of the array, I used SiSoftware’s Sandra benchmarking utility .  I also used Roadkil’s Diskspeed test (a very small benchmark utility ).

 Sandra:

Single Drive bench

This first test is a benchmark or how well a single drive performs inside the enclosure. As you can see, a single 320GB Seagate inside the enclosure performs virtually identically (even a little faster) than a 300GB Seagate internal drive. So there is no slowdown going between the system and the eSata controller.

Raid 5 Sandra

This second test is with a Raid 5 array. This test shows that the performance basically stays constant over the whole array. This is still a test on a physical drive however, and not of the full array’s performance.

I used Diskspeed to test the actual drive that Windows sees.

Western Digital Raptor

This first test is for a Western digital 74GB Raptor. I use it as my System drive because of the fast speeds and low access times.

Then I tested the CFI enclosure with a Raid 0 array (The fastest array possible, but no data security, one drive dies, the whole thing dies)

CFI Raid 0 (4x 320GB)

As you can see, it is VERY fast in Raid 0. But the thing that surprises me is the access times. Normally access times can actually increase with Raid setups, as you are waiting for 4 drives to get to the area where the files are, instead of just one.

CFI Raid 5 (4x 320GB)

Then with a Raid 5 array, the maximum speed is much slower than a Raid 0 array, and access speeds are higher. But that is exactly what is expected. And even then the numbers are still quick.

Wrap-up:

While I’m still a little unsure of eSata's future popularity, I am now very sure of it's excellent performance. I can’t really find a fault with CFI’s choices, this is more of a replacement/add-on for internal Raid systems, rather than portable hard-drives (I think I was a bit biased when that is what I was expecting). The unit is sturdy, compact and quick for swapping drives. Their software is easy to install, configure and use to monitor your arrays.

CFI supplying a card with two eSata ports is a big plus, PCI-E 1X meant I didn’t have to remove a standard PCI card to make room (How many PCI-E 1X cards have you got?).

I think everyone who has anything more important than the latest round of email jokes on your system should have some sort of Raid setup, or at the very least external backups. And I see no reason not to check out the CFI B4043 to see if it fits your needs.