How to Upgrade? - All new drives - ReadyNAS Pro Business Edition [X-RAID2]

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bethjim wrote:

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Huh? - the new drives going in are SATA III 600 MB/sec (as were all the drives I saw while drive shopping) so wouldn't there be a performance increase if they were installed on a SATA III channel?  Or is the SATA III standard not achievable in the real world - only on paper - due to other bottlenecks (I/O channel, etc)?

 

 

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SATA III is great for SSDs, but there is no performance benefit on a mechanical drive. For instance, if you look at this review (comparing sequential write speeds for several current enterprise class disks), you will see that none of them are faster than about 250 MB/sec http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/seagate-10tb-hgst-ultrastar-he10-wd-gold-8tb-hdd-round-up,4684-7.html

Note there is some gain if you are using a SATA multiplexer (which lets you connect multiple hard drives on a single SATA interface).  With SATA multiplexing, the bus can become a bottleneck.   But your Pro doesn't use SATA multiplexing.  

The biggest bottleneck in your Pro is actually the gigabit network connection.  

Upgrading the CPU and/or memory can improve performance with small file transfers, and is good if you are running add-ons on the NAS that are CPU-hungry. If you are going to install OS6 on the NAS, then upgrading memory makes sense (as the new x86 platforms all have at least 4 GB of memory).

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StephenB wrote:

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bethjim wrote:

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Huh? - the new drives going in are SATA III 600 MB/sec (as were all the drives I saw while drive shopping) so wouldn't there be a performance increase if they were installed on a SATA III channel?  Or is the SATA III standard not achievable in the real world - only on paper - due to other bottlenecks (I/O channel, etc)?

 

 

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SATA III is great for SSDs, but there is no performance benefit on a mechanical drive. For instance, if you look at this review (comparing sequential write speeds for several current enterprise class disks), you will see that none of them are faster than about 250 MB/sec http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/seagate-10tb-hgst-ultrastar-he10-wd-gold-8tb-hdd-round-up,4684-7.html

 

Note there is some gain if you are using a SATA multiplexer (which lets you connect multiple hard drives on a single SATA interface).  With SATA multiplexing, the bus can become a bottleneck.   But your Pro doesn't use SATA multiplexing.  

 

The biggest bottleneck in your Pro is actually the gigabit network connection.  

 

Upgrading the CPU and/or memory can improve performance with small file transfers, and is good if you are running add-ons on the NAS that are CPU-hungry. If you are going to install OS6 on the NAS, then upgrading memory makes sense (as the new x86 platforms all have at least 4 GB of memory).

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Thanks for the explanation and encouragement on the OS 6 install.  I've got it installed with the new drives.  Gonna try things with the same CPU and 3 GB of memory.   Also found somemore info on installing/running LMS on OS 6 that seems easier than I thought so I'll be trying that also.

Just in case things go poorly I've noted your recommendation on the CPU upgrade - any recommend for the correct memory upgrade?

Thanks again

Jim

I've used GSkill, OCZ, and Corsair PC2-6400 CL4 memory wih no problems, and I've seen where others have used Crucial.  The max the motherboard can use is 8GB, and the 4GB modules command a premium price, so I've gone with 2x2GB.  As with the processor, they've gotten pretty cheap on eBay.  Be careful not to get some with too tall a heat spreader.