Adaptec’s previous generation stuff was not very good. Its the ‘5IE5’ (I = internal port count, E = external) series that is much improved, and very much like the Areca 16xxx series. Maybe not as good — I haven’t seen a head to head on those two but they are built very similarly.
When we purchased our Perc 5/e with MD1000 filled with 15 15k rpm sas
disks, my colleague actually spend some time benchmarking the PERC and a
ICP Vortex (basically a overclocked Adaptec) on those drives.
Unfortunately he doesn't have too many comparable results, but it
basically boiled down to quite good scores for the PERC and a bit less
for the ICP Vortex.
I have no idea if the Vortex referred to correlates with this newer generation card or the old generation. But if it was in relation to a Perc 5, which is also an older (PCI-X, not PCIe) generation, then I’m not sure how much this relates to the Perc 6 and new Adaptecs or Areca 16xxx series which are all PCIe.
One manufacturer may be good in one generation and stink in another. For those long established providers, every generation tends to yield new winners and losers. Some are more often on the top or the bottom, but it wouldn’t be a total shocker a recent low performer like LSI’s or 3Ware had a next generation product that ended up on or near the top, or if the next PERC is one of the better ones. What is more consistent between generations is the management software and recovery process.
