The Notebook Review forums were hosted by TechTarget, who shut down them down on January 31, 2022. This static read-only archive was pulled by NBR forum users between January 20 and January 31, 2022, in an effort to make sure that the valuable technical information that had been posted on the forums is preserved. For current discussions, many NBR forum users moved over to NotebookTalk.net after the shutdown.
Problems? See this thread at archive.org.

    NAS advice

    Discussion in 'Networking and Wireless' started by deathpenalty, Dec 22, 2012.

  1. deathpenalty

    deathpenalty Notebook Consultant

    Reputations:
    14
    Messages:
    222
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    30
    Hello,

    I am looking to buy a NAS as storage is becoming limited on my laptop plus I wish to automate some download tasks during the night time without having to leave my PC on.

    I am looking at getting the Zyxel 310 NAS as it is really cheap at the moment.

    However can anybody advise as to read/write performance both wired/wirelss for my setup.

    I have a netgear DG834G 10/100 router with inbuilt mode and 54Mbps wifi capability that I wil plug the NAS into. Can anybody adivse as to rough read/write performance over both wired and wireless for file transfers based on those figures?

    Would HD video streaming even be possible?

    I may upgrade my router but was thinking how the existing setup would perform rather than shelling out £100 on a gigabit router with built in modem.
    Thanks.
     
    deathpenalty, Dec 22, 2012
    #1
  2. downloads

    downloads No, Dee Dee, no! Super Moderator

    Reputations:
    7,729
    Messages:
    8,722
    Likes Received:
    2,230
    Trophy Points:
    331
    With your current setup the router will be slower than the NAS.

    Wi-Fi working at 54mbps will go up to 2.5MB/s which is very slow indeed.
    100mbps wired connection maxes up at 12MB/s which is far slower than the NAS can do.

    I own the NSA310 so I'm speaking from experience- read/write speeds via 1000mbps wired connection max at 40MB/s (write does, read is slightly slower- that is for big files).
    That's as fast as this NAS can go (100% CPU utilization at this point).

    Wi-Fi transfer speeds depend on a router and conditions where you live (number of wireless networks around, distance, band used etc.) so comparison data from me will not be helpful.

    My opinion: you need to upgrade a router to something decent. Not necessarily £100 one- you can use your current modem and bridge it (so it works only as a modem) and add a decent router i.e. TP-Link TL-WR1043ND that I use costs £38 and TP-Link TL-WDR4300 costs TP-Link £75.

    Streaming HD video over 54mbps Wi-Fi might be possible in theory but it may also be jerky at times or even all the time. It's simply not reliable therefore not recommended.

    EDIT: Zyxel NSA310 is a good device but the fan sometimes speeds up to 3000rpm for no reason, then slows down to 1000rpm and speeds up again. It's not very loud but it is annoying so you shouldn't place it in you bedroom or in a similar place.
     
    downloads, Dec 22, 2012
    #2