Gigabit LAN, real world speeds

[Splash]

Just as a comparison



Top is copying to a SoHo NAS (Thecus N5200 Pro, RAID5 array of WD RED 3Tb disks), bottom is copying to one of my Microservers (N36L, Windows Server 2008R2 software raid5, WD RED 3TB disks). Quite the difference

(and yes, running through the same network infrastructure)

[bytejunkie]

copying two fairly large iso's?

[shaithis]

Just as a comparison



Top is copying to a SoHo NAS (Thecus N5200 Pro, RAID5 array of WD RED 3Tb disks), bottom is copying to one of my Microservers (N36L, Windows Server 2008R2 software raid5, WD RED 3TB disks). Quite the difference

(and yes, running through the same network infrastructure)

The Microserver one looks low, is that a partition alignment issue or just a windows server thing?

[watercooled]

Copying two files simultaneously is probably at least part of the reason, especially if the source drive is a mechanical HDD.

[DanceswithUnix]

The Thecus doesn't look that underpowered tbh, perhaps Windows on the microserver is just playing fast & loose with data safety in the name of performance.

N5200 PRO
processor : 0
vendor_id : GenuineIntel
cpu family : 6
model : 13
model name : Intel(R) Celeron(R) M processor 1.50GHz
stepping : 8
cpu MHz : 1497.670
cache size : 1024 KB
fdiv_bug : no
hlt_bug : no
f00f_bug : no
coma_bug : no
fpu : yes
fpu_exception : yes
cpuid level : 2
wp : yes
flags : fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat clflush dts acpi mmx fxsr sse sse2 ss tm pbe nx
bogomips : 2998.63

[Splash]

copying two fairly large iso's?

both around 4Gb, yep. If running a single copy to the Microserver I have seen it top out around 87-88MB/s, slows down when running more than a single thread.

[pp05]

Has anyone thought about building their own NAS from spare PC parts or do you think today's lower end NAS box are easier to deal with - esp 2 bay ones.

[jim]

Not much point with the cheap Microservers really, I'd see them as the real competition with the cheap NAS boxes. I do think the 2-bays are a good idea though, some of them are much smaller than the 4+1 bay microservers and there's no setup time required.

[Agent]

Also keep in mind power consumption. I had a friend who had a "NAS" that he made up from a spare P4 system.

He didn't keep it long after I plugged in a watt-o-meter and showed him the costs of keeping it powered on 24/7 over a year.

[watercooled]

Yeah I was just going to mention that; off-the-shelf ARM-based NAS boxes tend to be very power efficient compared to an old PC, wattage often being in the low single digits with the disks spun down. The HDDs themselves will add something like 5W each when spun up.

I measured power consumption of my HP Microserver, running Debian, with any power saving options in BIOS enabled and cpufrequtils/sysfsutils installed. With a single HD203WI installed (and spun up), it draws 28W idle. Good compared to an old PC which could easily be drawing over double that, but still not brilliant vs a NAS. Out of interest, I tried a PicoPSU and it dropped to 21W idle.

Size is also something to take into consideration - a NAS might be barely bigger than the bare drives, the Microserver has some bulk to it. The Synology DS411Slim looks quite attractive from a size, power consumption and noise perspective, but only if you can justify the price when you factor in the cost of 2.5" drives.

[bytejunkie]

ill try this test tomorrow night with a few isos, got a nice mix of boxes in the house.