Page 7 - Performance and Power Consumption
For our tests, the Thecus N2310 is connected to our central home network with CAT5e wiring. Our test station is located two stories away from the NAS to simulate real world performance in a centralized networking environment. One Seagate NAS HDD ST4000VN000 4TB was installed in the N2310 for the purpose of benchmarking. The client computer is configured with the following specifications:
CPU: Intel Core i7-4790K @ 4.70GHz
CPU Cooling: Noctua NH-D15 (Single fan)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z97X-UD3H-BK
RAM: Patriot Viper 3 Low Profile PC3-17000 4x8GB
Graphics: Gigabyte GeForce GTX 760 2GB
Chassis: SilverStone Raven RV05
Storage: OCZ RevoDrive 350 480GB; SanDisk Extreme PRO 480GB; OCZ Vector 150 240GB
Power: Seasonic Platinum 1000W
Sound: Auzentech X-Fi HomeTheater HD
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8.1 Professional x64
Compared Hardware:
- Thecus N2310
- QNAP TS-470
- QNAP HS-210
Equipped with the Seagate NAS HDD ST4000VN000 4TB, our Thecus N2310 is ready to roll. From our experience in benchmarking, Intel Gigabit LAN adapters -- at least on the client side -- perform much better than their Realtek and Marvell counterparts. Therefore, to prevent any bottlenecks on the client side, our Gigabyte GA-Z97X-UD3H-BK motherboard is connected to the network via its integrated Intel Gigabit LAN adapter. We also conducted the above test on our OCZ Vector 150 240GB solid state drive on the client side to ensure there is nothing limiting the performance of our Thecus N2310 than the NAS itself. In turn, the results were pretty decent for a system of this caliber, especially for a slim and compact home system. Obviously, we did not expect QNAP TS-470 levels of performance, which is significantly more expensive. As you can see in our graphs above, the Thecus N2310 is capable of doing 67.24MB/s for write and 110.11MB/s for read. The write speed is not the best, but it is about what I would expect for something of this caliber. As for as the read speed is concerned, it was tested to be a little faster than the TS-470 -- impressive.
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 four 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 116.965MB/s in read and 97.612MB/s write for pretty much everything 128K and up, remember that the theoretical maximum of Gigabit Ethernet is 'only' 125MB/s (1000Mbps / 8) with overhead -- this is again pretty good. It is considerably faster than the QNAP HS-210; slotting just below the TS-470 throughout the curve.
With one Seagate NAS hard drive installed, power consumption for our specific configuration is at an excellent 10W idling and 12W under load. Power consumption will drop even further if the hard drives are configured to turn off if they are not used; unfortunately, the N2310 has no such feature. That said, the Thecus N2310 is very a power efficient network attached storage. 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
