Thanks for all the suggestions. /proc/sys/dev/raid/speed_limit_max had the value "10000", changing it to 200000 didn't make a difference. hdparm looks OK to me: /dev/hdm1: Timing buffer-cache reads: 128 MB in 1.19 seconds =107.56 MB/sec Timing buffered disk reads: 64 MB in 3.13 seconds = 20.45 MB/sec /dev/hdo1: Timing buffer-cache reads: 128 MB in 1.17 seconds =109.40 MB/sec Timing buffered disk reads: 64 MB in 3.85 seconds = 16.62 MB/sec rsync:/root# hdparm -Tt /dev/hda4 /dev/hda4: Timing buffer-cache reads: 128 MB in 1.15 seconds =111.30 MB/sec Timing buffered disk reads: 64 MB in 4.31 seconds = 14.85 MB/sec /dev/hdc4: Timing buffer-cache reads: 128 MB in 1.16 seconds =110.34 MB/sec Timing buffered disk reads: 64 MB in 4.79 seconds = 13.36 MB/sec /dev/hdi3: Timing buffer-cache reads: 128 MB in 1.16 seconds =110.34 MB/sec Timing buffered disk reads: 64 MB in 2.73 seconds = 23.44 MB/sec /dev/hdk1: Timing buffer-cache reads: 128 MB in 1.16 seconds =110.34 MB/sec Timing buffered disk reads: 64 MB in 2.72 seconds = 23.53 MB/sec DMA is enabled for all six disks. If it helps, here is my raidtab. I wonder a little about the 64K chunk size on the stripe but a 128K size on the RAID5. Is this good or bad? raiddev /dev/md0 raid-level 1 nr-raid-disks 2 chunk-size 64k persistent-superblock 1 nr-spare-disks 0 device /dev/hda2 raid-disk 0 device /dev/hdc2 raid-disk 1 raiddev /dev/md2 raid-level 0 nr-raid-disks 2 chunk-size 64k persistent-superblock 1 nr-spare-disks 0 device /dev/hdm1 raid-disk 0 device /dev/hdo1 raid-disk 1 raiddev /dev/md3 raid-level 5 nr-raid-disks 5 chunk-size 128k parity-algorithm left-symmetric persistent-superblock 1 nr-spare-disks 0 device /dev/hda4 raid-disk 0 device /dev/hdc4 raid-disk 1 device /dev/hdi3 raid-disk 2 device /dev/hdk1 raid-disk 3 device /dev/md2 raid-disk 4 Comments gratefully received. John - To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-raid" in the body of a message to majordomo@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html