Silicon Image 3512 (Raid 0) suffers the write speed

[Deep23]

My config:

Motherboard: Asrock K7NF2-RAID (nforce2 ultra 400)
Processor: AMD Athlon 3000 + (13x166Mhz)
Memory: 1 DDR 2x1GB in dual (@166MHz 2.5/3/3/7)
1 hard disk controller: NVraid SATA I Raid 0 (2 Western Digital WD3200KS (320GB SATA II 16MB))
2 hard disk controller (PCI): Silicon Image 3512 SATA I Raid 0 (2 Western Digital WD3200KS (320GB SATA II 16MB))

Here is my problem, the write speed on the Silicon controller is abnormally low. Yet I have the latest bios (4.3.84) and latest drivers Raid (1.0.60). At the beginning I wondered if it was not a problem of write cache but not in the device manager it is enabled (and you can not disable this). Incidentally or not I usually advanced performance does not change the problem. I check the device utility installed along with the driver. I also installed the Silicon raidtools that allows you to enable/disable write caching. If I disable write caching, its even worse! Someone already had this problem? Has an idea of the problem?

[Howitzer]

You would not be limited by the speed of your PCI slot? (133 Mb/s theoretical, but if there are other things connected, I assume that the bandwidth is divided by the number of devices connected)

Although even limited by your PCI slot, the flows are very low.

[Deep23]

I do not because:

1. why would I be limited in writing and not reading?
2. why my other raid controller is not limited?

Also if I copy a file (4.37 GB):
NvidiaRaid to SiliconRaid: 2min20s = 32MB/s
SiliconRaid to NvidiaRaid: 42s = 106 MB/s

[SANDESH49]

nVidia controller directly into the northbridge
silicon external controller must pass by a bus

but why such a difference between writing and reading?

[Deep23]

Well this is an incompatibility between the silicon card (or bios/driver) and my motherboard.

- I removed all other PCI on PC ---> Same result
- I turned off all possible devices in the BIOS of the motherboard (Ethernet/floppy/Sound/IDE/SATA/USB) ---> Same result
- I tried all PCI slots on the motherboard -> Same result
- I have tested in the bios setting "PCI IDE busmaster" to enable & disable ---> Same result
- I tried 2 other hard drives (Maxtor 16MB SATA I DiamondMax10) ---> Same result
- I tried another silicon card ---> Same result

- Then I tested the card on another silicon PC (PIII450 in 1998/2 with Maxtor) -> And everything is normal

I will try the other bios and drivers but I smell the scorched!