Page 7 - Performance and Power Consumption
For our tests, the ASUSTOR AS3202T was connected to our central home network with CAT5e wiring. One Seagate NAS HDD ST4000VN000 4TB was installed in the AS3202T for the purpose of benchmarking. The client computer was configured with the following specifications:
CPU: Intel Core i7-4790K @ 4.6GHz
CPU Cooling: Noctua NH-D15S
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z97X-UD3H-BK
RAM: Patriot Viper 3 Low Profile PC3-17000 4x8GB
Graphics: Gigabyte G1 Gaming GeForce GTX 960 4GB
Chassis: Fractal Design Define R5
Storage: OCZ Vector 180 240GB; Crucial MX200 500GB
Power: PC Power & Cooling Silencer Mk III 1200W
Sound: Auzentech X-Fi Bravura
Optical Drive: LiteOn iHAS224-06 24X DVD Writer
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 10 Pro
Compared Hardware:
- ASUSTOR AS3202T
- ASUSTOR AS1002T
- ASUSTOR AS3102T
- ASUSTOR AS7004T
- QNAP HS-210
- QNAP TS-453A
- QNAP TS-470
- QNAP TVS-463
- Thecus N2310
Equipped with the Seagate NAS HDD ST4000VN000 4TB, our ASUSTOR AS3202T was ready to roll. From our experience in benchmarking, Intel Gigabit LAN adapters -- at least on the client side -- typically perform better than their Realtek and Marvell counterparts. Therefore, to prevent any bottlenecks on the client side, our Gigabyte GA-Z97X-UD3H-BK motherboard was connected to the network via its integrated Intel Gigabit LAN adapter. We also conducted the tests on our OCZ Vector 180 240GB solid state drive on the client side to ensure there is nothing limiting the performance of our ASUSTOR AS3202T than the NAS itself. In turn, the results were downright impressive, especially for a low power NAS. As you can see in our graphs above, the ASUSTOR AS3202T was capable of doing 110.59MB/s for write and 111.61MB/s for read using the Seagate NAS HDD. At least for this test, it even came out slightly ahead of the high end ASUSTOR AS7004T, which is probably the best performing network attached storage systems here at APH Networks. Of course, this is not representative of heavy multi-user workloads, which the Intel Core i3 based AS7004T will definitely pull ahead in resource intensive applications. Otherwise at this point, the bandwidth of Gigabit LAN starts to become a limitation.
ATTO disk benchmark provides valuable insight into evaluating disk performance; it is especially valuable since it is not local disk limited like Windows file copy -- but rather the network adapter itself. After first using it in our QNAP TS-559 Pro+ review many years ago, ATTO has been an integral part of our storage benchmarks; used in everything ranging from USB flash drives to solid state disks. Venturing in the area of 119.040MB/s in read and 118.169MB/s write for 32K and up, remember that the theoretical maximum of Gigabit Ethernet is 'only' 125MB/s (1000Mbps / 8) with overhead -- this again was excellent. The read and write ramp up was fairly similar to the AS3102T, as you can see in our charts above. Its consistent performance curve should not come as a surprise, as the only difference between the AS3102T and AS3202T is the CPU. Either way, for the price, you are getting simply awesome throughput, at least in light workloads.
With one Seagate NAS hard drive installed, power consumption for our specific configuration was at an excellent 10W idling and 13W under load. Despite having a quad core CPU, this figure is one watt lower than the ASUSTOR AS3102T, making it the best performing low power system in our tests. This is probably because the AS3202T comes with a more efficient power supply. Power consumption will drop if the hard drives are configured to turn off if they are not used, or when the ASUSTOR AS3202T is sent into standby mode. Considering it is going to be running 24/7, every watt will definitely add up.
Page Index
1. Introduction, Packaging, Specifications
2. A Closer Look - Hardware (External)
3. A Closer Look - Hardware (Internal)
4. Configuration and User Interface, Part I
5. Configuration and User Interface, Part II
6. Configuration and User Interface, Part III
7. Performance and Power Consumption
8. Conclusion
