Page 4 - Performance and Power Consumption
For our tests, the SilverStone DC01 is placed in our networking room in the basement. Our test station is located on the same local area network as the NAS to simulate real world performance in a centralized operating environment. The DC01 is connected to a NETGEAR GS-108 Gigabit switch with a CAT5e cable.
A single Western Digital Scorpio Black 500GB is installed in our SilverStone DC01 network attached storage system. The Scorpio Black is a performance oriented 2.5" hard drive, and while we can use an SSD in our DC01, it does not reflect real life performance, so we chose to avoid that. The client computer is configured with the following specifications:
CPU: Intel Core i7-930 @ 4.01GHz (Overclocked, Turbo Boost disabled)
CPU Cooling: Noctua NH-C14
Motherboard: Gigabyte G1.Sniper
RAM: Patriot Extreme Performance Viper II Sector 7 Series PC3-12800 6x2GB @ 8-9-8-24
Graphics: HIS Radeon HD 6870 1GB
Chassis: BitFenix Shinobi Window
Power: Cooler Master Silent Pro Gold 1000W
Sound: Integrated Creative X-Fi
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 1.5TB
Optical Drive: Asus DRW-24B1ST 24x DVD-RW
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate x64 SP1
Equipped with the Western Digital Scorpio Black 500GB drive (7200rpm, 16MB cache), our SilverStone DC01 is ready to roll. Given the capabilities of a Scorpio Black, the configuration that it is in, and transfer rates over Gigabit LAN, the Windows File Copy tests from the NAS to my computer delivered a surprisingly decent maximum of 21.5MB/s write and 32.6MB/s read. While the SilverStone DC01 certainly isn't the fastest NAS in the market today, it is actually quite a bit faster than full blown systems like the QNAP TS-409 my colleague Jonathan reviewed back in 2008 -- and with only one drive installed, I think the DC01's numbers are pretty respectable for the price it commands.
ATTO Disk Benchmark provides important insight into evaluating NAS performance. It is especially valuable since it is not local hard disk or protocol limited like Windows File Copy -- but rather the network adapter itself. After first using it in our QNAP TS-559 Pro+ review last year, ATTO has been an integral part of our storage benchmarks; used in everything ranging from USB flash drives to solid state disks. From 32K and above, everything was above 25MB/s in the write benchmark. Read performance is pretty similar in terms of the shape of the curve, except it is above 50MB/s from 32K and above.
With one Western Digital Scorpio Black 500GB hard drive installed, the SilverStone DC01's power consumption is extremely low -- consuming only 6W idling and 9W under load. Although it may not make a huge difference, it is important to note this hard drive is a more performance oriented 7200rpm disk, rather than power saving units that is becoming ever more popular lately. Considering that it is on 24/7, if you are concerned about your power bill, every last watt does add up in the end.
Page Index
1. Introduction and Specifications
2. A Closer Look - Hardware
3. Configuration and User Interface
4. Performance and Power Consumption
5. Final Thoughts and Conclusion
