Any way to increase NAS transfer speeds?

[TopWargamer]

 

Few things to know about my NAS:

1) It was a hand-me-down from my friend's dad, so I didn't get to choose the hardware, but I'm not complaining

2) It's a Netgear ReadyNAS NV+

3) It's using 4 2TB SeaGate green drives, which run at 5900RPMs

4) The NAS is running in RAID 5

 

I know that the slower drives is a bottleneck, as is running RAID 5 (from what I've read). The NAS is also fairly old. I do (obviously) have it plugged directly into my router using a CAT6 gigabit cable. I'm just wondering if there's anyway to increase the network transfer speed, because peaking at 10MB/s is a little brutal.

[flibberdipper]

I mean, if the board/NIC you're using isn't gigabit, then you're  going to peak at a maximum of ~11.4MB/s.

 

Even when I had mine directly plugged into my PC with a crossover cable, I was hitting gigabit speeds as a wall with a lone 1TB Barracuda.

[TopWargamer]

2 minutes ago, tmcclelland455 said:

I mean, if the board/NIC you're using isn't gigabit, then you're  going to peak at a maximum of ~11.4MB/s.

 

Even when I had mine directly plugged into my PC with a crossover cable, I was hitting gigabit speeds as a wall with a lone 1TB Barracuda.

I'm assuming you mean the NIC found in the NAS? I know it's an older NAS, but I would think it would be 10/100 at least. For the record though, my computer is plugged directly into the router. I'm using the built in ethernet port on my motherboard, which is gigabit capable.

[suchamoneypit]

So the NIC might be hooked up via gigabit to the router, but you need to confirm the NIC has a gigabit port, and that the device you are transfering from to the NIC is hooked up to your router using gigabit speeds as well. If your transfering a movie from your PC that is hooked up to the router via 10/100 mbps link, then your bottlenecking it to that. Same deal if you were moving files from the NIC to that PC.

 

EDIT: for more info, it definetly seems that somewhere there is a 10/100 mbps link thats causing the bottleneck because the speeds are around where it should be for that connection.

[flibberdipper]

Just now, TopWargamer said:

I'm assuming you mean the NIC found in the NAS? I know it's an older NAS, but I would think it would be 10/100 at least. For the record though, my computer is plugged directly into the router. I'm using the built in ethernet port on my motherboard, which is gigabit capable.

Yep. Just FYI, 10/100/1000 = gigabit. So if it's only 100 Base-T, then you are (without a doubt) capping at 11.4-ish MB/s, no if ands or buts. If it was gigabit, you should be seeing transfers somewhere in the 115-120MB/s range.

[TopWargamer]

1 minute ago, tmcclelland455 said:

Yep. Just FYI, 10/100/1000 = gigabit. So if it's only 100 Base-T, then you are (without a doubt) capping at 11.4-ish MB/s, no if ands or buts. If it was gigabit, you should be seeing transfers somewhere in the 115-120MB/s range.

Dang, alright. Well thanks for the info.

[flibberdipper]

2 minutes ago, TopWargamer said:

Dang, alright. Well thanks for the info.

At least it's better than my setup. 1Gbps NAS, my router is a WRT54GS (100Mbps), the main router is a WNR1000 V2 (also 100Mbps), and then my PC gets shit wifi reception because I'm using a laptop antenna as my card's antenna broke, so it gets 5Mbps down and 1 up.

[suchamoneypit]

14 minutes ago, TopWargamer said:

Dang, alright. Well thanks for the info.

It could still be achievable to obtain gigabit speeds, unless the NIC itself its restricted to 10/100 ( I would be surprised if it was) then its likely just a bottleneck somewhere else in your network. I made a little diagram to hopefully help you find it and how it works.

 

Keep in mind there is not only the cable speeds, but the actual speeds of the devices. If your router, switch, or PC are pretty old, they might only have 10/100 mbps ports. A new router or switch with gigabit speeds is rather cheap ($25, 8 port switch - router depends on what you want for wifi power), and if its a PC you can probably just buy a $40 gigabit NIC card.

[samiscool51]

this vid is the best way to transfer things faster from a computer to a NAS

just ignore the hardware recommendations and do the configuration bit