Question File xfer speeds internal and to a NAS

mikeford

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Jan 27, 2001
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System is a Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd. B450M DS3H-CF, Ryzen 5 1600 3.2ghz, 16GB of cheap ram (7GB free), and a mix of drives
Hitachi HUS724040ALE641 (4000.79 GB, WDC WD20 EFRX-68AX9N0 (2000.40 GB), WDC WD30EFRX-68EUZN0 (3000.59 GB), WDC WD30EFRX-68EUZN0 (3000.59 GB) running Win10/64. NAS units are the old Lenovo mentioned in the deals thread, IX2-DL with 2x 3TB WD same as main system, and PX4-400d with 3x 4TB Hit same as main system, both are JBOD, not raid.

Last week I've been sorting media files, music and movies, and during the last two days shifted 2.4TB from the main system to each of the NAS units, same data on both, but manually, not a mirror. Data transfer speeds have not been exactly what I have expected.
Smaller sized files between 100k/s and 1Mb/s, seems limited by files per sec doing directory stuff or something.
Big movie sized files from one internal drive to another internal drive, 70Mb/s to about 110Mb/s.
Big movie sized files from internal drive to the IX2 a fairly constant 40 to 45Mb/s.
Big movie sized files from internal drive to the PX4 a fairly constant 70 to 80Mb/s.

CPU during this shows about 6% used, disc about 10 to 40% with mostly at 10 only spiking a few times per second. Gbe wired ethernet is also spiky and reflects the data rate above for each of the NAS units and apparently the limiting factor, but compared to internal speed, not by that much. I recall the speed with a USB 3.0 to Sata adapter as about the same as the other internal rates.
 

VirtualLarry

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Aug 25, 2001
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Big movie sized files from one internal drive to another internal drive, 70Mb/s to about 110Mb/s.
Big movie sized files from internal drive to the IX2 a fairly constant 40 to 45Mb/s.
Big movie sized files from internal drive to the PX4 a fairly constant 70 to 80Mb/s.
I assume that you meant to write MB/sec (MegaByte/sec), rather than Mb/sec (Megabit/sec). Because if you didn't, something is wrong with your setup. (Win10 Copy Dialog shows MB/sec.)

Edit: But yeah, those IX2-DL units don't transfer at the maximum speed of a 1Gbit/sec ethernet/LAN connection. They're just not quite powerful enough.

I posted actual screenshots of the Win10 copy dialog, to/from the IX2-DL, with 5400RPM Hitachi CoolSpin 2TB HDDs, with a PC using a RAID-0 of 1TB Intel 660p NVMe SSDs (1800MB/sec per drive, so nearly twice that, is my local drive bandwidth).

I get similar numbers (in MB/sec) to your results.
 

mikeford

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Jan 27, 2001
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Makes me somewhat discount the notion that 10Gbe is essential, doubtful it would do anything without more cpu power in the NAS and even then it would be incremental, not amazing.

BTW not grousing, other than bulk moves like what I am doing right now, and later on mirror backups of the NAS units, the speed is actually not a factor. It "might" be close playing back a UHD 4k from the Ix2, but my long term plan is that IX2 will just mirror the PX4 which will serve the home clients.
 

aigomorla

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Makes me somewhat discount the notion that 10Gbe is essential,

im sorry 10gbe for large file transfers is ESSENTIAL.
This is my Theoretical CAP on my 10GBe transfer from 1 pc to another pc both using a RAM DISK.
10gbe.jpg
and yes thats BYTES and not BITS

This is what it normally does when transferring a blueray RIP to my FreeNAS. (8 x 12TB HGST He drives in Raid-Z2)
Transfer.jpg


You could not pull me off 10Gbe, as it has what i feel is an acceptable price ratio to its switches.
My 8 port 10gbe switch costed 244 dollars and does not SCREAM because its passive.

Also 10Gbe SFP+ nic cards are fairly cheap if you get them refurbished on EBAY.


I am a heavy supporter of 10GBe.
I know Larry is a supporter of 2.5Gbe, and well i sort of support that as well, if your distance is large, and you can not run a CAT6+ cable.
But otherwise i tell people don't even bother with anything lower then 10gbe if your going for a network upgrade.
It just does not make sense.
 

VirtualLarry

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Aug 25, 2001
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I am a heavy supporter of 10GBe.
I know Larry is a supporter of 2.5Gbe, and well i sort of support that as well, if your distance is large, and you can not run a CAT6+ cable.
But otherwise i tell people don't even bother with anything lower then 10gbe if your going for a network upgrade.
It just does not make sense.
Actually, I agree with you, and I will be going 10GBase-T at my earliest opportunity, on my client PCs. The problem that I have, is that my NAS units top out at 2.5GbE-T.
 

mikeford

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Jan 27, 2001
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My SSD internal to another internal drive rarely exceeds 100 MB/s (except a burst for the first 400 or so MB), why would this materially improve going to a network location?

^^^^^^ The actual main point of this thread. ^^^^^^
 

aigomorla

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My SSD internal to another internal drive rarely exceeds 100 MB/s (except a burst for the first 400 or so MB),

this does not sound right.
what board chipset are you running?

i have seen sustained 200mb/s from internal to usb3.1 even.
I am assuming were still transfering large movie files and not many small byte files.
 

mikeford

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Jan 27, 2001
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System is a Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd. B450M DS3H-CF, Ryzen 5 1600 3.2ghz, 16GB of cheap ram (7GB free), and a mix of drives
Hitachi HUS724040ALE641 (4000.79 GB, WDC WD20 EFRX-68AX9N0 (2000.40 GB), WDC WD30EFRX-68EUZN0 (3000.59 GB), WDC WD30EFRX-68EUZN0 (3000.59 GB) running Win10/64. NAS units are the old Lenovo mentioned in the deals thread, IX2-DL with 2x 3TB WD same as main system, and PX4-400d with 3x 4TB Hit same as main system, both are JBOD, not raid.

Cleaning sorting old drives, yes many large movie files as well as TB chunks of mixed files, which drop to much lower speeds with small files. Part of the time I was moving files from an old 2TB WD red via USB3/sata cable.
 

KentState

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Oct 19, 2001
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Actually, I agree with you, and I will be going 10GBase-T at my earliest opportunity, on my client PCs. The problem that I have, is that my NAS units top out at 2.5GbE-T.

Just make sure you get a multi-gig switch so that the 2.5/5/10 devices can work together. I started with 10Gbase-T and didn't consider the other variations at the time. My htpc came with a built in 2.5GB adapter and also got a USB-C for my laptop and realized they would fall back to 1Gbe. So now I'm the proud owner of a 10Gbe and a multi-gigabit switch that are trunked together.
 

mikeford

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Moving a lot more files today, mostly movies GB or larger, difference in the two NAS units is stark, the IX2 never exceeds 45MB/s long term, and the PX4 is routinely around 85MB/s.

OTOH other than doing what I am right now, sorting a few hundred big media files and putting them on both of the NAS units from the internal drive, it won't be an issue. It does slightly bump up my thinking about getting a second or even third PX4.
 

Ranulf

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Jul 18, 2001
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Crazy notions. Older NAS boxes with drives in jbod are slow, often slower than usb 3.0 external hd. I picked up a Qnap 2 drive unit for around $100 back in 2014/15 era and it barely broke 60 MB/s on transfers in jbod.
 

aigomorla

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Crazy notions. Older NAS boxes with drives in jbod are slow, often slower than usb 3.0 external hd. I picked up a Qnap 2 drive unit for around $100 back in 2014/15 era and it barely broke 60 MB/s on transfers in jbod.

i think this had to do with cpu being limited.
I know the same case can be said on 10gbe networks.
You can have the card, but if your cpu power isn't up to par, you won't get anywhere near theoretical.

As for mike, im sort of lost because he said it was from his main system going drive to drive.
He should still average somewhere near 100 mb/s on large files rom SSD->HDD, but he's not getting anywhere near that outside main burst.
Im gonna take a guess here and think it might be his SSD running though its buffer, and then slowing down a lot, like some low cache or no cache SSD's do.

But even then ive easily gotten ~100mb/s sustained on a usb 3.1 HDD.
 

mikeford

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Jan 27, 2001
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Sorry if I "B" "b" confusing, or have them mixed up. In all my references to speed, when talking directly about ethernet, like 1 GBe, I mean bits, with drives I mean bytes. Moving a 4GB file around right now to get some speeds.

68MB/s IX4 to SSD C, brief ramp up at start from about 20MB/s, less than a second.
113MB/s PX4 to PC internal C drive, a 2.3 SSD thing.
50MB/s SSD C to IX4
85MB/s SSD C to PX4, VERY bumpy with big dips down to 50MB/s, choppy around 85MB/s, some longer 100MB/s.
135MB/s SSD C to HGST 7200 rpm internal, about a second long burst at start of 400MB/s
149MB/s SSD C to WD 5400 rpm external via USB 3.0 / Sata, flat line almost on rate start to finish.
83MB/s SSD C to WD 5400 rpm internal, about a second long burst at start of 500MB/s.

Specifics on drives and system in first post, many of these "movie" files are one big MKV, others have dozens of smaller files which kill xfer rates. File used about was a single 3.99GB AVI.