Gigabit direct connection Intel 82566 DC 2 & Vista

The cables that were shipped with all of my NAS units (3) were Cat5. This was not a real problem with my NV+ (first unit) but they would not support full speed with the higher speeds of my NVX units. Unfortunately, the cables that come with the NAS units are usually folded and creased, and that is not good for the cable either.

The file transfer speeds I have generally seen on my NV+ with gigabit switch and gigabit NICs in my PCs, is around 25-30MB/s. When I first set it up, I was getting 10 to 12, but I was going through a 100Mb/s switch and the ports on my router are also 100Mb/s not 1000Mb/s (gigabit) so my transfer speed was 10-12MB/s.

Using a good Cat5 cable may affect speed, but I would not think it would cause the errors you are seeing. When I upgraded to an ReadyNAS NVX (discontinued in favor of the Ultra line) I chose to upgrade the switch and cables as well and went with Cat6 cables. For full Gigabit speed you will need Cat5e or Cat6 cables. It should be printed on the cover over the wires.

Are you sure the NIC in your PC is gigabit? I know some entry level PCs with AMD processors were still being sold with 100Mb/s NICs as late as two years ago. You may want to check the specs of your PC. Of course if you are getting above 12MB/s file transfer speed, you have a gigabit connection all the way since that is the theoretical max on 100Mb/s connection. But again, that would not cause your errors.