Computing performance is one of the most important
parameter of NAS, but it should not be overemphasized. A modern NAS is a
multi-functional device and very hard to modify a practical using situation in
the laboratory. The 4-disk NAS from Synology that we tended to measure the
standards are high-performance products, so we would carry out traditional
tests beside the one-user working mode.
We started with Intel NASPT, because its
template was outdated already. The video HD situation was improved by
increasing the experimental file size to 8 GB (the sum of each small test).
File Copy to/from NAS templates were eliminated completely.
We used Western Digital Red WD20EFRX drives
for this test. The NAS were connected directly to an Intel adapter, installed
in an Intel Z77 based on the PC with an Intel Core i7-3770K and Windows 7
64-bit. We created a RAID (4disks in a JBOD, RAID0, RAID5 or RAID6) and a
sharing folder on NAS and activating Jumbo Frames (9K). All additional services
are off.
Working with JBOD and RAID0 arrays without
requesting any additional computing, DS413j provided a peek speed of 80 and 100
MB/s for reading and writing, respectively. The speed of multithreaded reading
did not much decrease with RAID5, while the speed of writing was under 70 MB/s
due to checksum calculations. This impact was even stronger than for RAID6. It
is the basis hardware that is the weakest in this review and it targets home
users for the top position. And home users do not usually run using NAS with
RAID5 or RAID6.
The
dual-core DS413 can read and write with the speed up to 120 MB/s
The dual-core DS413 can read and write at
the speed of 120 MB/s, unless there is possibility that an array suffers from
faults. As previous templates, RAID5 is quite slower when reading and less than
40% slower for writing. RAID6 is surprisingly faster than RAID5 in terms of
writing.
The
graph allows you to compare the performance
We expected that x86 platform would be the
best among three, but whether its performance is consistent. It is unusual that
the tripped array is not the fastest. It is possibly because of the disk
controller and its drivers (two other NAS have the same SATA chip). RAID5 and
RAID6 are good because they are not much slower and provide up to 100-120 MB/s
of reading and writing.
The graph also allows you to compare the
performance of each type in NAS.
Although the hardware configurations are
different, NAS are not much different in terms of performances. All of them can
use a Gigabit Ethernet connection. However, a fast CPU is the expectation of
RAID5 and RAID6. Let’s find other application where a fast CPU is required.
One of them is for processing and loading
video to NAS, Photo Station and Video Station can index a media file for a
catalogue and also create an optimal version as it is easier for checking and
reading. For example, NAS can make five reviews for photos with a frame of 120,
320, 640, 800 and 1280 pixels.
There is an integrated transcoder to
convert videos into FLV and MP4 format (320 and 640 pixels, respectively) in
order to view on mobile device browsers, although these tasks will be conducted
more efficiently on PC. They are operated in DSAssistant utility which is used
to load images and video to NAS. We also check this, but you should note that
there are others targeted formats on PC and we chose the two most familiar
ones. This test is carried out by 500 images with the resolution of 8
megapixels, captured by a mobile phone and a AVI video (720x400, MPEG4, 22
minute long).
We do not need many comments here. If you
plan to use NAS for editing images and videos, the ARM platform is not a good
choice. On the other hand, if you load these new images in small batches
without having a quick look on them, even a junior NAS can handle it well
enough. For the videos which you tend to watch on the mobile phone, you’d
better load the compatible file or transcode them on PC.
This is another test that can be
interesting for MySQL users. The integrated MySQL server has a Perl-based
regulation in the standard module. First of all, we used phpMyAdmin module to
produce a database and a user. Then we released a run-all-test.pl script from
NAS controller. The numbers indicate the time that NAS needed to execute the
script.
MySQL
The DS413 is two times faster than the ARM
based model but just half of the speed of that on Intel Atom platform. Consider
the former as the lowest-position owner in CPU desktop rank; it is easy to
realize the relative position of other platforms.
Although NAS usually consumes less power
than other desktop PC, three products from Synology is clearly different in
their required power. Unfortunately, our device is not very precise at the low
level of the power consumption, but we can see the difference in the NASes.
Each of them supports two sleep modes: standard and deep. The Work situation is
modified by running the IOMeter with a 64KB template (writes 100%, 10%
random-address operations) on a block-access iSCSI volume making a 4-disk
RAID5.
NAS
usually consumes less power than other PCs
DS413 is the most economical in the deep
sleep mode while sleep and idle modes create resulting area for each NAS.
Interestingly, working mode requires Intel Atom more power. CPU Atom has a
diverse selection about its power status. That is why its power consumption
increases when loading. It takes 15 W in the idle mode and 20 W when loading. That
number is not much if considering that we installed 4 HDD. WD Red series seems
to be optimal for NAS.
