Editor's Review


Jun. 03 , 2019 SPAN.COM

Video Interview in Computex 2019

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Dec. 16 , 2018 Tweaktown

ARC-8050U3 USB-C RAID DAS Review

The ARC-8050 is a fantastic lineup of desktop RAID solutions that we have had the opportunity to test in the past. Today, Areca adds the U3 to the lineup to go alongside the T2 and T3 Thunderbolt units...... more

Mar. 4 , 2018 Tom's Hardware

ARC-8050T3 Thunderbolt 3 DAS Review

Thunderbolt 3 provides the fattest data pipe for direct-attached storage devices. The 40Gb/s connection is just as economical as it is fast, but adoption in commodity PCs has been slow...... more

Sep. 22 , 2017 Tweaktown

Areca ARC-8050T3 12-Bay Thunderbolt 3 RAID DAS Review

Areca's super fast ARC-8050T3 12-bay Thunderbolt 3 RAID DAS gets fully examined today and we see about breaking some speed limits...... more

Oct. 30 , 2015 TweakTown

ARC-1883i Eight-Port 12Gb/s SAS RAID Adapter Review

With the launch of third-generation SAS products, Areca is now offering a full lineup of 12G SAS adapters including the 1883ix-12/16/24 along with the 1883LP, 1883x and the solution we are testing today the ARC 1883i...... more

Oct. 5, 2015 StorageReview

ARC-1883i and ARC-1883x Review

The Areca ARC-1883i and ARC-1883x are 12GB/s RAID controllers optimized for internal and external use, respectively. They feature the same transfer rate and PCLe 3.0 host interface as the previously reviewed LSI MegaRAID SAS3 9361-9i, but are geared more towards a workstation user rather than a server environment...... more

Apr. 23, 2015 barefeats.com

Areca 6-bay RAID-the-box Thunderbolt 2.0 + USB 3.0

Some Macs have Thunderbolt 1.0. Some have Thunderbolt 2.0. Some have USB 2.0. Some have USB 3.0. Wouldn't it be nice if you had a RAID enclosure that can handle them all?...... more

Dec. 21, 2014 ProVideoCoalition

ARC-8050 Thunderbolt RAID Review

After much research, I invested in a Areca Thunderbolt RAID and a reliable backup solution. Here are my adventures in building this complete system...... more

July 30, 2014 TweakTown

ARC-8050T2 Thunderbolt 2 8-Bay RAID Tower DAS Review

The 8050T2 as we will call it from here on out, is a complete 6Gb/s SAS capable RAID storage solution, with compatibility on both Mac and Windows platforms...... more

Mar. 28, 2014 ProVideoCoalition

ARC-8050T2 8-drive RAID with Thunderbolt 2

Areca’s new ARC-8050T2 is a industrial-strength 8 bay RAID that has a few unique things going for it...... more

Sep. 28, 2013 LarryJordan

Areca 8050 Thunderbolt RAID

This is a fast, capable Thunderbolt drive that is unnecessarily difficult to set up. As long as you allow time for setup – or have someone else set it up for you – the storage and performance will be worth the effort...... more

June 6, 2013 PixelReeder

ARC-8050 8-Bay Thunderbolt to 6Gb/s SAS RAID Storage Review

In my last post I reviewed external thunderbolt storage devices for our Imac capture station, none of which worked correctly. I came across this Areca 8 bay box on the OWC website...... more

June 4, 2013 TweakTown

TweakTown Blue Prodigy PC breaks PCMark Storage World Record at Computex 2013

Areca ARC-1882IX-16 won the price in the PCMark World Record holder system performance test at Computex Taipei 2013...... more

May 16, 2013 barefeats.com

ARC-1882i & Mac Pro Muscle: TransIntl Double Decker Fast Internal Storage Solution

The Double Decker sleds replace the factory sleds in the Mac Pro's drive bays. By facing the drive ports outward, each SSD can have its own data cable going to a fast 6Gbps internal host adapter like the Areca ARC-1882i or the ATTO ExpressSAS R608...... more

Mar. 1, 2013 barefeats.com

ARC-8050 8-bay Thunderbolt RAID storage

The Areca ARC-8050 8 bay Thunderbolt RAID storage is a welcome addition to the Thunderbolt "family". It provides speed and versatility...... more

Aug. 17, 2012 TweakTown

ARC-1882i PCIe 3.0 RAID Controller Review

PCI Express 3.0 delivers big performance when you can take advantage of it and right now that means sequential reads and writes...... more

Apr. 20, 2012 TweakTown

ARC-1882i RAID Controller Review

Areca was the first to market with the first 8-port card and it seemed like every storage enthusiast had one of those cards with a massive full tower case that rivals the largest cases on the market today...... more

Dec. 15, 2011 Tweaktown

Crucial C300 vs. m4 (4 x in RAID 0) - Time for an Upgrade?

The ARC-1882i did a fantastic job with our Corsair Force GT 7 Drive setup. We should continue to see strong performance...... more

Nov. 9, 2011 thessdreview

ARC-1882x 2nd Gen 6Gb/s SAS/SATA RAID Card Review – 4.7GB/s Transfer Performance!

Areca RAID controllers are known for their highly customizable settings. This is enhanced by firmware and options in Areca’s controllers...... more

Sep. 8, 2011 Tweaktown

ARC-1882i and Corsair Force GT 7 Drive SATA III RAID 0 Setup

This is the next generation Dual Core card from Areca and sports a Dual Core RAID-on-Chip 800MHz I/O Processor, has two SAS connectors, supports SATA III and SATA II drives...... more

July 21, 2011 thessdreview

ARC-4036 6Gb/s SAS/SATA JBOD Enclosure Review – Areca, LSI, Sandisk and Patriot Perform!

The ARC-4036, a JBOD/Expander Box that allows for maximum performance in a nice compact unit...... more

Mar. 8, 2011 thessdreview

Areca 1880ix-12 PCIe 6G SAS RAID Controller Review SSD IN RAID 0 – Lightning Strikes at 3.6GB/s!

With many solutions struggling to handle the sheer speed and power of SSD’s, more and more computer enthusiasts are using raid cards and Areca has taken the reigns here...... more

Apr. 22, 2010 Tweaktown

ARC-1680X PCIe Eight-Channel External SATA/SAS RAID Controller

When it comes to the server tests the ARC-1680 really excels and even outperforms the LSI 9280-8E under identical conditions. We only...... more

Aug. 6, 2009 TweakTown

ARC-1680I and Four Kingston SSDNow E (Intel X25-E) SSDs in RAID 0 - Win 7

As for the cost of the Areca ARC-1680-I controller, it is actually cheaper than we expected. Since this particular model supports only eight drives (included are two SFF-8087 SAS connectors, which support four drives per cable)...... more

Aug. 15, 2008 AMUG

16 Channel, RAID 6, Bootable, SAS Controller

The Areca ARC-1680ix-12 provides amazing RAID 6 performance and first class SAS expander support. The ability to connect a SAS expander to the external mini-SAS port and instantly configure an 11TB RAID 6 volume with a hot spare...... more

June 26, 2008 Tweaktown

ARC-1231ML SATA RAID 6 Controller

we see that both controllers in RAID 0 (performance mode) perform identically. In RAID 1 mode (security) we see that the ARC-1231ML just manages to sneak ahead with a better sustained transfer rate...... more

Apr. 8 , 2008 Tom's Hardware

ARC-1680 Streaming (Sequential) Write Performance

Only Areca's ARC-1680ML can beat Adaptec when high I/O performance is required with no pending commands in the queue...... more

July 20, 2007 AMUG

12 Bay Infiniband Multilane SATA Enclosure

The performance results above indicate that the Norco DS-1240 12-bay enclosure can provide amazing RAID 5 and 6 performance when an ARC-1231ML controller is used with it inside an Apple Mac Pro...... more

July 6, 2007 AMUG

Eight Port RAID 6 PCI-Express Host Adapter

ARC-1221x features a PCIe eight lane interface, an 800MHz Intel IOP341 I/O processor, 256MB of on-board DDR333 533 MHz SDRAM with ECC protection and an optimized RAID engine to support extreme RAID 6 performance...... more

Nov. 2, 2006 CRN

These Servers get your blood flowing

For the blood-flow project, Reason develpoed a cluster of 54 computer nodes, directly to the super node, Daninger said. They controlled by a high-performance Areca RAID controller from Brea, Calif. based Tekram Systems. One feature of Areca that Daninger likes is its error lights that indicate which drive has failed...... more

Oct. 30, 2006 Yahoo

ARC-1280 PCIe to SATA ll RAID Adapter with 2Gb on-board

The fully configurable workstations provide the highest RAID 6 feature to meet the most demanding requirements of both instant data availability and security directly derives from Online RAID Capacity Expansion, Array Roaming...... more

Oct. 4, 2006 Intel Corporation

New Areca* RAID HBAs Power Through to High-Performance Storage Systems

The Areca ARC-1280 RAID HBA is based on the Intel® IOP341 I/O processor with a single Intel® XScale® core, supporting the card’s dual-bus configuration with both PCI-X and PCI Express...... more

Aug. 29, 2006 tweakers.net

ARC-1280 preview and mini SATA raid comparison

ARC-1280 communicates to the outside world by means of PCI Express x8-interface, which full offer band width of 2GB/s to duplex...... more

May 12, 2006 Admin's Favorite

ARC-1220: "As one of the first manufactors, Areca is offering an SATA ll RAID Controller for the PCIe bus."

Areca has a PCI Express controller which satisfies with good features and high performance...... more

May 5, 2006 c't magazine

For professional Linux-users the ARC-Models will be the right choice

Areca RAID Controllers are famous, because of real Hardware-RAID, optional BBU, the management-software and drivers...... more

Jan. 2, 2006 Tom's Hardware

Safer 6 for RAID Controllers

Areca clearly offers the best RAID 6 performance numbers in all benchmarks, it is also the best when it comes to sustained high performance levels with one or even two faulty drives in a RAID 6 array setup...... more

Nov. 8, 2005 Tom's Hardware

ARC1220 is the only controller card that comes with a x8 PCI Express interface

Taiwan-based storage specialist Areca has become quite popular for its SATA RAID controller cards with RAID 6 support...... more

Oct. 21, 2005 Trusted Reviews

Areca Controller Performance

With three drives in a RAID 5 array the Areca gets better and better. Speeds are very similar to a straightforward mirrored array and comparisons with integrated controllers become meaningless. Read speeds are very similar to the nForce4 controller...... more

Oct. 18, 2005 Intel Corporation

Who is Areca Corporation

Areca develops its own software and firmware using advanced virtualization technology for disk management applications...... more

Sep. 30, 2005 GamePC

Areca is the winner

In a simple four-disk RAID-0 configuration, the 3Ware 9550SX puts up respectable numbers, although not incredible in comparison to Areca's ARC-1x10 line of cards...... more

Sep. 9, 2005 HARDFEED

The RAID 6 Areca ARC-1120 One-ups RAID 5 Controllers

Areca addresses this by offering the option of setting up a RAID 6 array. RAID 6 is like RAID 5 but uses two drives for parity data, which means two drives can fail without data loss...... more

July 22, 2005 GamePC

PCIe SATA-II/300 RAID-5 from Areca and WD

The card we looked at, the ARC-1100, showed impressive RAID-5 performance thanks to a speedy Marvell controller chip, a beefy Intel hardware RAID processor onboard...... more

June 21, 2005 Intel Corporation

Intelligent RAID 6

Data protection is a growing concern for businesses of all sizes. Current solutions for data protection utilize Redundant Array of Independent Disks (RAID) technology in a variety of implementations and form factors...... more

June 21, 2005 tweakers.net

Comparison of nine Serial ATA RAID 5 adapters

Areca has specialized in designing external RAID controllers, which are used mainly by third parties in storage rackmount systems...... more

Dec. 27, 2004 Tom's Hardware

8 Channel RAID 6 At The Starting Gate: Areca ARC-1120

Areca doubles redundancy with RAID 6 and joins the hunt for customers in the growing SATA RAID market. We received their ARC- 1120 PCI- X controller and pitted it against eight drives on 3Ware's 9500...... more info or another website

NOTE: In the I/O-sensitive benchmarks, Areca new firmware version 1.35 or later can compare directly with 3Ware or more efficiently in major I/O-sensitive benchmarks.