Page 7 - Performance and Power Consumption
For our tests, the QNAP TVS-473 was connected to our central home network with CAT5e wiring. One Seagate NAS HDD ST4000VN000 4TB was installed in the TVS-473 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:
- QNAP TVS-473
- ASUSTOR AS1002T
- ASUSTOR AS3102T
- ASUSTOR AS3202T
- 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 QNAP TVS-473 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 QNAP TVS-473 than the NAS itself. In turn, the results were quite impressive. As you can see in our graphs above, the QNAP TVS-473 was capable of doing 112.61MB/s for write and 114.36MB/s for read using the Seagate NAS HDD. In fact, it was even faster than the QNAP TS-453A, formerly the fastest NAS in this test. At this point, the bandwidth of Gigabit LAN is the 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 countless 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 into the area of 118.776MB/s in read and 117.993MB/s write for pretty much everything 64K and up, remember the theoretical maximum of Gigabit Ethernet is 'only' 125MB/s (1000Mbps / 8) with overhead -- this is about as fast as it gets. Under the curve, it met or exceeded the ASUSTOR AS7004T in write; formerly the fastest of the pack. Similarly, the TVS-473 was the fastest under the curve in the read test. At peak, the TVS-473 is limited only by the network interface, and not the performance of the NAS itself. At the end of the day, this is a seriously fast system.
With one Seagate NAS hard drive installed, power consumption for our specific configuration was 32W idling, which is the highest of any system on our charts. Moving on to the load power, it came out to a whopping 58W -- 21W more than the one in second place. Power consumption will drop if the hard drives are configured to turn off if they are not used, or when the QNAP TVS-473 is sent into standby mode. This NAS' powerful hardware under the hood made it quite a power-hungry system compared to other boxes we have tested in the past. 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
