XFX REVO64 NC3000 Gamer's Edition

Being an analyst for Bjorn3D is an exciting job with its share of surprises! Most often the excitement and surprise are propagated by the packages that the UPS driver brings to my doorstep. Such was the case about 10 days ago when I received a package from XFX. I had been forewarned by Scott, our fearless leader, that a RAID controller was coming for me to review but was uncertain of just what to expect. To my surprise, it was a product that was co-produced by XFX, a company known for making superior quality video cards, and Netcell®, a company also known for quality production of RISC-based storage processing units (RAID).

I had several reviews to do before this product but found myself daily being intrigued by the X-shaped box sitting on the shelf just begging for attention. Today I finally had the opportunity to open that box and dive head first into what turned out to be a very detailed and comprehensive review of the XFX REVO64 SPU, NC3000 Gamer's Edition.

Features

• Highly Integrated Storage Processing Unit
• Embedded RISC CPU that manages internal 64-bit data paths to deliver up to 3Gbps (400Mbytes/s) on-chip data rates
• Patented SyncRAID™ technology provides 100% hardware RAID acceleration
• “On-the-fly” XOR calculation
• Enables completely driverless solutions for plug and play designs
• Three internal SATA ports
• RAID 0, 1, 3 and JBOD configurations
• Integrated SDRAM controller for L2 drive cache configurations up to 256Mbytes external SDRAM
• PCI 2.2 32 bit/ 33 MHz or 32 bit/66 MHz interface

Specifications

• Chipset:  NC3000
• Processor:  NC3000
• Ports:  3
• Drive Interface:  3 SATA
• PCI:  32/66
• Host Interface:  PCI 32-bit/66Mhz
• SDRAM Cache (100MHz):  32-512 MB
• Cache:  64MB
• Drive Burst (MB/sec.):   200 (300 SATA)
• Max Drive Transfer 128M:  300MB/sec
• Drive Sustain (MB/sec.):   100+
• Array Support:   2

Upon opening the X-shaped box and removing the cardboard tray that held the components, I was greeted by the following warning placard that really got my interest peaked about the contents within.

The innards of the package consisted of the SPU card; three neon green, 39.5" SATA cables; a comprehensive instruction manual; and a CD containing manual configuration software.

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