cpu maxes out with file transfer

[Jarrod B]

ok current setup is

intel 3.0GHz 800MHz fsb single core p4 HT
1gb dd1 pc 2700
200gb os hdd ide
2 1tb raid 1 local storage sata
1tb wd my book elite usb
2k3 ent
800MHz fsb mboard


computer use to be a xp and was built as a consumer/mild gamer computer with hardware as well. turned it into a svr for many apps.

issue is copyin large data volume maxes out the cpu. watched the task manager for almost a min and range is 25-97% usage.

and when the file transfer happens, the computer slows down and programs are very slow to open or move. no real network speed interference yet. or internet throughput change. did at one point almost a month ago but wasnt going through the network for file transfer.


so the question is, being a consumer mboard and not a server board, is it possible that it doesnt have the capabilities to handle the processes i throw at it or something in my setup is off? or having the raid as a software controlled is hindering performance.

the wd was turned off since it acually halted the program from responding till i canceled the transfer on the other computer to get it to come back to life to close. then restarted the transfer.

[JSchuricht]

RAID 1 isn't that CPU intensive. What are you using for the RAID, onboard software controller or windows software mirroring? I would try updating all relevant drivers; chipset, SATA and NIC with the actual manufacturers drivers. Stick with WHQL drivers if available even if their slightly older.

For comparison, I threw a few random transfers at my primary server which uses the onboard Intel software RAID controller for a boot mirror and a hardware RAID card for RAID 6.

[Jarrod B]

just software wise from disk management. windows software monitoring.


ill start with that. it mostly was in the higher mid range for cpu. i am using the drivers from the cd from the board mfg at build date. however, the vid driver is new from intel tho. this board does not have any raid chips. just 2 ide and 2 satas. $70 board back in 2006 as a replacement from the first one.

are you on the 1gb lan with scsi drives? thats a good transfer rate on those hdds.

[JSchuricht]

2 LACP groups of two 1Gb Intel NIC's across two VLAN's. 2x 150GB 10k SATA mirrored for boot and 24x 2TB 7.2k SATA RAID 6 for storage. The RAID6 array will sustain 7-800 MB/s read if I had a place to dump stuff that fast.

[Evil Eye]

Windows based RAID is ALWAYS much slower than using a hardware based RAID since it uses the main CPU for the RAID operations.

Having it split between a mirror set using the host OS and RAID 6 using hardware is hardly an apples to apples comparison.

[JSchuricht]

Originally Posted by Evil Eye

Windows based RAID is ALWAYS much slower than using a hardware based RAID since it uses the main CPU for the RAID operations.

Having it split between a mirror set using the host OS and RAID 6 using hardware is hardly an apples to apples comparison.

Vary true, but RAID 1 dosn't have to calculate parity data like 2-6 would. I suspect there is something else going on that is killing performance.