N299 1000Mbit speed issues & Drive Spindown (#LMY-14042-345)

[racerx]

Hi All,

After doing some reading on home NAS devices I decided to purchase an N299 to replace my current HP EPC running Freenas. Unfortunately I have had some performance issue with the N299, and am still waiting on a response from Thecus support. Currently it is not operating as described.

If anyone else is thinking of getting one of these and looking for info on the web you will find very little. The previous model seems to have plenty of firmware revs available and reviews but the N299 hardly exists. I assume because its still new.

If anyone wants photos or a more in depth review let me know and I will see what I can put together before I try to get an RMA from the place I bought it from. (auspcmarket.com.au) It seems to be almost the same as the N2100 just without the same processor, no RAM slot and no mini-PCI slot. Though the N299 has webcam and BT download features the N2100 does not.


Anyway there are 2 main issues I have with the N299

1. Theucs sates it has 2 1000mbit network ports. One is a WAN port used for connecting to an existing network either via DHCP or with a static IP, and the other is a LAN port that can be used to segment an network with a different subnet or many other possibilities as the N299 can act as a DHCP server (very cool)

The ports do infact show up as 1000mbit when plugged into a 1gbit switch (or directly to a 1gibt PC), but the transfer rates are now where near. Infact they are slower than my previous 100mbit solution.

I have exhaustively tested the N299 (both ports individually) and cannot get more than an average of 6.2meg a second.

The test setup is:

an MSI 875p-neo FISR2 p4-3.2 2gig ram with intel 1000mbit LAN onboard, an HP nx8220 laptop (1000mbit onboard) and an apple macbook (1000mbit onboard). The switch is a netgear 5port 10/100/1000. All devices are connected via cat5e or cat6.

I tested transfer rates for both a large amount of mp3's and also large single ISO's and video files. The fastest transfer between devices peaked at 32meg a sec and averaged between 18-30meg a sec . This was confirmed with both the switch in place and via a direct LAN cable connection with static IP's.

I then attempted to transfer files to and from the N299. The CPU maxs out at 100% during any transfer. The peak was 8.5meg a second with an average rate of about 6.2meg a second. The whole time the CPU in the webgui sits at 100%.

I attempted to transfer to and from the N299 from all 3 pc's (one at a time) via the switch and then with a direct LAN cable with the same results. Both the LAN and WAN port give the same results in terms of speed. In the end I started to copy 460gig of movies to the NAS and it took over 16 hours to complete!!

Basicily it appears the N299 shows as a 1gibit connection but only can sustain a transfer at sub 100mbit speeds. Even over a 54g wifi connection the CPU maxs out with a speed of 3meg a second. the current 100mbit HP epc im using as a NAS can sustain a tranfer at 9 meg a second and uses about 40% CPU of a 600mhz celeron.


The N299 has the latest firmware from the CD supplied, and has 2 SAMSUNG HD501LJ 500gig drives in JBOD. Both drrives are 2 months old and are SATA2 @ 3gbs. They ARE on the Theus approved drive list.


2. The next issue is regarding drive spindown. There is no menu in the webgui for spindown timeouts, nor anything related to SMART data. The N299 brochure states that is is thermally controlled (fan) and will spin down the drives when not active. Well I have tried leaving it on overnight, once with the LAN cable in (then again with it removed to ensure not device polling on the network was waking it up)

The N299 does not spin the drives down, they stay running 24/7 and get very hot inside. This is a major issue as I will be not accessing the unit for weeks at a time and I dont want it to be using that much power, have that much heat build up (it get VERY hot inside as the fan cannot move much air), or make unnecessary noise.


Unfortunately Theucs are yet to respond to my support ticket from 3 days ago, but I hope some sort of solution can be found.

Can anyone else with an N299 give me some feedback on their's? I would be interested to know if my N299 is faulty in some way or if Thecus have falsely advertised the capabilities of the N299.

I expected that a full transfer speed of 1000mbit (close to 100meg a second) would NOT be possible due to the processing power of the device, but to be slower than 100mbit is shocking! Off the back of the N2100 the N299 seems to be very very poor.

[Jon_D]

Hi there,

I am also having speed issues with the N299!

I have done a speed test by bridging 2 gigabit Marvell Yukon ethernet adapters on my PC. The max through put this achieved was 6.76MB/s which is no where near what I would expect from this device.

Hope there is a fix out there somewhere!

Jon

[Thecus - Yvon]

Dear Sir,

1. Due to N299 CPU performance limitation, thus N299 network performance can’t same with N2100 or other high performance model, if need higher performance model we would recommend for N2100 is a good choose, on theory N299 performance about 40~70% from N2100 and following media review for your reference:
http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/content/view/29720/75/
http://www.hexus.net/content/item.php?item=4342&page=4
http://www.hardware.info/en-UK/produ...YES_Box_N2100/

2. N299 doesn’t support spin down fucntion, only N2100 support this function.

Yvon.

[racerx]

Thankyou for your reply, unfortunately i find it extremely misleading that Thecus would sell a device labeled with dual 1000mbit connections that in the real world performs below 100mibit speeds. I can see no other reason but to trick its customers into purchasing the device!

1. I read these reviews of the N2100 before purchasing the N299. I understood the N299 was a cheaper model, but nowhere in the user manual or any documentation on thecus.com did it state the N299 would perform at sub 100mibt speeds. It only stated it had dual 1gbit connections. It is fair to infer from this description that the device should offer performance speed somewhere in the ballpark of 1000mbit. Would you agree?

This is no different than a company selling say, a 320gig HDD but the electronics in the drive are very cheap and somehow bottleneck the access to only 150gig. The consumer was led to believe that because the drive was advertised as a 320g then it would have 320g of space, which it does (as the N299 does have 1gbit ports) but something else has crippled the access to it. Do you see my point?

2. The spin down feature is one of the main reasons for the purchase of this device. I dont want these drives spinning for weeks at a time consuming power & wearing out when Im only accessing the N299 sporadicly. I thoroughly read the full user manual before committing to the purchase of the N299. The manual is located here:

I also received another copy of the CD supplied with th N299. On page 71\72 the manual lists the full hardware & software specifications of the N299. Page 72 describes the power management features in particular.

• Disk Staggered spin-up
• Disk idle spin-down

are two of the features listed. I based my purchase on the information available on the Thecus.com site, can you please explain to me how this discrepancy has occurred.

Please understand I feel this device has potential, and if it was advertised as 10/100 device then it's performance would be understandable, The main issue I am trying to bring awareness too is that Thecus is misleading people with its 1000mibt claims and inaccurate product descriptions.


I anticipate your response this thread, If you would rather this conversation takes place privately then feel free to continue the initial support ticket (#LMY-14042-345) which is yet to get anything but an automated response!


Regards,
Daniel Smith

[dave852]

I've taken delivery of my N299 yesterday and since hooking it up i have had the same problems. A transfer rate of 400KB per second to upload to it is nowhere near the gigabit speeds it claims. Also the drives do not spin down when not in use which is again the same problem. Is this something that can be fixed with a firmware upgrade? If not i'll be returning mine right away as its just plain rubbish.

[sbelyo]

I think I can clear things up a bit for you guys....

They aren't lying when they say 1000 Mbit connections. The problem is that the processor will max out and not let the network interface do it's job.

You'll never get gigabit performance from these devices, or any NAS in the sub $1000 range.

The best thing you can do is use a netgear NA311 gigabit card with the latest driver.

The next thing to do is get a high quality CAT6 cables. The one that Thecus includes is not the best quality.

Then get a netgear prosafe gigbit hub. Make sure the thecus box and PC's are using the gigbit hub.

After doing this I was able to get 75 Mbps write speed from my 4100+ and 125 Mbps read speed. That turned out to be 10% better than thecus could obtain in their setup.

[racerx]

It is a shame that its takes Thecus so long to provide any comment on these issues.

I have also noticed that the link to the firmware source code is broken on the website:



I am also still yet to receive any comment at all on my logged support ticket. It makes me wonder why they even offer the service if they cant support it. It only makes people frustrated!

Could we please get a response from a Thecus rep relating to the drive spindown, why its not in the current device despite being in the manual, and some sort of comment as to the next revision of firmware and what it will include (and when it will be released)

I would be more than happy to beta test anything that is being developed as I just wantto get the stated functionality out of this device.

[racerx]

I completely understand that I wont be able to get full 1000mbit performance from this device, I just think that sub 100mbit is very poor. I would have expected somewhere in the ballpark of a Dlink DNS-323 or N2100 which both have gigabit connections too.


I am running all cat6 and have a netgear prosafe GS105 5 port switch.


I am running 2 laptops and a desktop which all have gigbit, and all have similar read/write speed to the N299. I cannot use netgear NIC's. Nor should I need to as all my existing setup runs very well together.

The N4100+ also has a more powerful CPU.

I think I can clear things up a bit for you guys....

They aren't lying when they say 1000 Mbit connections. The problem is that the processor will max out and not let the network interface do it's job.

You'll never get gigabit performance from these devices, or any NAS in the sub $1000 range.

The best thing you can do is use a netgear NA311 gigabit card with the latest driver.

The next thing to do is get a high quality CAT6 cables. The one that Thecus includes is not the best quality.

Then get a netgear prosafe gigbit hub. Make sure the thecus box and PC's are using the gigbit hub.

After doing this I was able to get 75 Mbps write speed from my 4100+ and 125 Mbps read speed. That turned out to be 10% better than thecus could obtain in their setup.

[dave852]

I'm completely new to the world of NAS but for £100 GBP I could get a pc that can handle at least 100 megabit speeds. For a dedicated box to only handle sub 10 megabit speeds is a farce considering my net connection is 8 Megabit. I'm sending mine back as its just not fit for purpose and I hope every other purchaser of the N299 does the same. Its daylight robbery by thecus and shouldn't be allowed. The spin down thing is another issuse. Even if it gets fixed in a firmware update down the line its utter stupidity to sell an unfinished product advertising features its doesn't yet (and maybe never will) have.

[racerx]

Dude, you should be getting 6-8 meg a sec transfer rates ... not 400k a sec. I think you have an issue somewhere with your setup.

[bill|z0r]

I'm just here to agree with racerx. We bought 1 at work after selling our Reptec (which was $100 cheaper I might add) and it's performance was at least twice that of the N299 AND it has a spin down option. I'll be applying for RA as this product does not come close to the expectations it portrays.

[Thecus - Yvon]

Dear Racerx,

Dear Sir,

1. If N299 system abnormal or freeze after large numbers copying and need restart N299 back to normal, we would release a new version firmware to fix this issue around next weekend, thanks for your patience in advance.

2. The N299 doesn’t support spin down function, thus we need apologize about this editing issue, and we would correct the User’s Manual ASAP.

Yvon.

[sbelyo]

I completely understand that I wont be able to get full 1000mbit performance from this device, I just think that sub 100mbit is very poor. I would have expected somewhere in the ballpark of a Dlink DNS-323 or N2100 which both have gigabit connections too.


I am running all cat6 and have a netgear prosafe GS105 5 port switch.


I am running 2 laptops and a desktop which all have gigbit, and all have similar read/write speed to the N299. I cannot use netgear NIC's. Nor should I need to as all my existing setup runs very well together.

The N4100+ also has a more powerful CPU.

You should be getting more than 400Kbps /sec for sure.

I would think that it's defective. One way to know for sure is to use a crossover cable and directly connect the nas box to one of the laptops. If the speed doesn't improve I'd return it.

I went through some of this when I thought I would get better write performance for my 4100+ I soon realized no matter who I chose to use, none of them could do any better

[racerx]

Well I have received an RA number from the company I purchased the device from. They ran there own tests over the last week with the same results as mine. They also agree that the N299 manual seems to be for another product (n2100 anyone) with only minor changes made.

Its unfortunate really, Thecus have a very cheap entry level product here that would perform well if advertised correctly. If this device was sold with a NIC the CPU could support, the manual accurately described the device's capabilities and the n299 website links were up to date then it would a real winner.

I will not be buying another Thecus product until it has been thourghly tested and documented by users.

Anyway, Now I need to get 700gig of data off the 2 drives in JBOD mode. I just assumed that because the N299 manual stated it uses a journaled file system EXT2 or EXT3 or XFS or UFS or HFS I assumed, and because JBOD means no RAID at all, that I would be able to transfer the data quickly using linux. THis saves the 19 hour marathon data transfer session at 6-8 meg a sec. Well gparted shows some really intersting things that Thecus do to the disks, even in JBOD mode.


can anyone explain why they have done this to the drive, instead of just a 100meg partition for the firmware, a gig of swap and then data? any why is there raid file systems when I set the disk up in jbod? Both disks are the same btw.

Anyway, it doesnt matter ... Ill just have to have the N299 in my house for another day before I can get rid of it!

Cheers, Daniel

[racerx]

Well it appears that even though I put one drive in the N299 at a time (set one up in JBOD, used it for a few days, then added the second) it seems to have raided them together.

Well Im not 100% sure what is going on but both frives now need to be present in the N299 before it recognizes any data on them. I am at a loss ... what is the point in JBOD "Just a bunch of disks" when they are both needed to maintain any form of data integrity??

What happened if one of them failed? Would I be in the same position as if I had selected RAID 0??

Now Ive put them back in the N299 it wont recognize my data!!, It keeps asking for a firmware upgrade then reboots then asks again before AFP or SMB can be turned on!

I am really starting to loose confidence in this device very quickly . . .

Can anyone offer any advise or explanations on what is happening?

[ciac]

I am in the market for a small cheap NAS too, and the impending release of N299 in the States made me wait.

I agree and find it wholly unacceptable for a dual bay NAS like N299 to NOT support drive spindown. I suspect it should just be a firmware issue? It's the main reason why I stayed away from likes of Buffalo Linkstation Pro and the highly hackable NSLU2 (the SLUG). It just makes no sense for its target segment of home/SOHO users.

If the speed is as described and there's no drive spindown, I don't know why one shouldn't just get the cheap NSLU2 and a cheap USB enclosure. I still don't know how much N299 will be selling for in the US, though. From the way it looks, it needs to be on par with Linksys's NAS200 price range ($129) and less than DNS-323 ($180) to be attractive at all.

I learned that the CPU in the N299 is about half the speed of it was in the N2100. I know theoretical speed should never be near the gigabit limit, but N2100 was at least very competitive (ref smallnetbuilder's NAS performance chart). Maybe there's a point of diminishing return where the low cost no longer justify the serious degradation of performance.

Thanks for the expose. Maybe i'll stop waiting and get something like DNS-323; maybe not as feature packed but at least got the basics nailed.

Ciac

2. The spin down feature is one of the main reasons for the purchase of this device. I dont want these drives spinning for weeks at a time consuming power & wearing out when Im only accessing the N299 sporadicly. I thoroughly read the full user manual before committing to the purchase of the N299. The manual is located here:

I also received another copy of the CD supplied with th N299. On page 71\72 the manual lists the full hardware & software specifications of the N299. Page 72 describes the power management features in particular.

• Disk Staggered spin-up
• Disk idle spin-down

are two of the features listed. I based my purchase on the information available on the Thecus.com site, can you please explain to me how this discrepancy has occurred.