HP NC340T PCI-X Quad Port - NIC Utilization Limit?

[X-Savior]

Hi There,

I will give you all my details and my problem and I hope someone here can help me because I have been going crazy trying to figure this one out.

I have a small Server based on an Asus P5K Workstation Board with a Socket 775 Xeon processor. I am running a 3ware 9650 12 Channel Card and recently purchased a Proliant NC340T Quad Port PCI-X NIC card. It is installed in my only PCI-X slot as well.

I am running WIndows Server 2008 R2 X64 and the primary role is as a file server. I got the latest drivers and the HP Network utility up and running. All 4 NIC's show up and I am able to also team the NIC's just fine (This is my intent).

This is all connected to a Cisco 24 Port Unmanaged Gigabit Switch with several Windows 7 X64 Client PC's who access the server. The Main purpose for the server is the storage of large files and we get frequent data copies of the large files to and from the server.

My problem is that either individually or also teamed I get the same result... there seems to be some sort of bandwidth cap on NIC utilization. Currently I am able to sustain file transfers at approx 75 MB/s between clients and the server (Both Directions). In the HP Network utility it showes it ALWAYS reaches 63% Utilization and caps there.... I am unable to get any more throughput on the file transfer. If I team the NIC's into a single 4Gbps connection and start a file transfer from a Client it will again use a single NIC and cap out at 63% Utilization (Approx 75 MB/s).

Interestingly enough I did a test with the Onboard Marvell Yukon 88E8056 NIC and I make the exact same file server from same client and I am able to reach 95% - 97% Utilization and ramping up to 115 - 120 MB/s. This is what I am trying to achieve on the HP Card.

So is there something I am missing about this NIC not allowing max bandwidth or some kind of cap or bottleneck?

With my NIC's teamed This 63% Limit continues for all Transmit Load Balance options except Round Robin. When I select this option then all 4 NIC's will kick-in for a single file transfer but then each NIC will Cap at 5% Utilization giving a total File Transfer rate of approx 20MB/s.If a second client starts a transfer at the same time the Utilization with climb to 8% but speeds remain very poor around 11 - 15MB/s on both clients

With the teaming configured as Destination IP Address Load Balancing then if I get 2 Clients making large file transfers at the same time then each Client will utilize one NIC for the file transfer but the Network Utilization will drop to approx 51% on each NIC providing each Client with approx 65 MB/s.

Here is my current teamed settings:

Teaming Controls:

Team Type Selection: Transmit Load Balancing with Fault Tolerance (TLB)

Transmit Load Balancing Method: Destination IP Address

Settings:

Enable Transmit Path Validation /w 3 Seconds Timer

Enable Recive Path Validation /w 3 Seconds Timer

Jumbo Packet: 1514 (If I select anything higher I get a massive drop in file fransfer speeds in one direction only)

IPv4/TCP/UDB Checksum Offload is Enabled for Rx/Tx

Large Send Offload Version 1 (IPv4): Enabled

Flow Control: Disabled (WIth it enabled in any Rx/Tx settings it made no difference to speeds)

I hope someone can PLEASE help me or shed some light on my situation.

Thank you very much!