[iwanrs]

I am doing file transfer from Synology DS1511+ NAS to Areca ARC5040 Non-NAS Raid System.
Synology connect direct to my Windows 7 64bit HTPC via Router.
Areca connect to my PC via USB 3.0
Both are RAID 5.

At the beginning of files transfer I can get a trasfer speed of 100MB/s, but it drop rapidly to only about 20MB/s in about one minute and stay.

With that low speed I need almost 2 days to finish transfer 2TB files.

Why? Is there anyway I can boost up the speed? THANKS.

 

[Stereodude]

It sounds like you're only getting USB 2.0 speeds. Once you fill the system RAM cache up it slows down to the USB speed.

 

[iwanrs]

It sounds like you're only getting USB 2.0 speeds. Once you fill the system RAM cache up it slows down to the USB speed.

I plug into other USB3.0 port from Asus Mobo, same thing, no improvement.
I am sure both Areca and HTPC is USB3.0 connected.
And the Areca is configured to USB3.0 connection.

 

[Stereodude]

How fast is it if you copy to a local drive from your NAS instead of the Areca? What if you copy a file from a local drive to the Areca?

 

[MrBobb]

"Router" as in WIRELESS router?

 

[Foxbat121]

You probably hit by the file reading speed limit of your NAS. Those tiny processors in a cheap consumer routers are not fast enough to support fast transfer speed.

 

[ajhieb]

You probably hit by the file reading speed limit of your NAS. Those tiny processors in a cheap consumer routers are not fast enough to support fast transfer speed.

Unless he's doing it over WiFi, that NAS or a cheap router should be able to transfer well above 20Mb/s.

Behavior (starting fast and then slowing down) is indicative of a bottleneck while writing, not reading.

 

[Foxbat121]

Unless he's doing it over WiFi, that NAS or a cheap router should be able to transfer well above 20Mb/s.

Behavior (starting fast and then slowing down) is indicative of a bottleneck while writing, not reading.

You might be right. Reading the specs of his Areca ARC5040, it is rated 220MB/s read and 210MB/s write on SATA bus and RAID 0. Counting the overhead of USB bus as well as the RAID 5 (slower writes) OP currently choose to use, 20MB might not be that far off.

 

[iwanrs]

You might be right. Reading the specs of his Areca ARC5040, it is rated 220MB/s read and 210MB/s write on SATA bus and RAID 0. Counting the overhead of USB bus as well as the RAID 5 (slower writes) OP currently choose to use, 20MB might not be that far off.

Synology and HTPC are both wired to Cisco Router not WiFi.
Currently the speed stands at 23.1 MB/s steady. No good at all.

 

[Stereodude]

You probably hit by the file reading speed limit of your NAS. Those tiny processors in a cheap consumer routers are not fast enough to support fast transfer speed.

It shouldn't start at 100MB/sec then unless it's already cached in the RAM of the PC, but then I'd expect higher speeds since USB 3.0 is faster than that.

 

[iwanrs]

I get this new situation:
I create another 2 "Copy and Paste" files transfer.
Now it runs 3 data transfer at the same time, from same source and destination.
The speed are: 23MB/s, 8.85MB/s and 7.66 MB/s. I get roughly 39.51 MB/s total speed.

Why I can only get 23.1 MB/s when I run one file transfer only?

 

[Mrkazador]

Are you transferring lots of small files?

 

[Stereodude]

Instead of making other random tests, how about actually following a logical process of troubleshooting by eliminating variables one at a time. So far you don't know whether you're read speed limited from your NAS or write speed limited to the USB Areca array.

 

[iwanrs]

Are you transferring lots of small files?

Mostly movies file, not too small, in GBs.

 

[iwanrs]

Instead of making other random tests, how about actually following a logical process of troubleshooting by eliminating variables one at a time. So far you don't know whether you're read speed limited from your NAS or write speed limited to the USB Areca array.

How to check or test read speed and write speed capability?

 

[Mrkazador]

You can try copying a movie from the nas to a desktop PC. Windows has an option to view the transfer speed while it copies. Do the opposite with the USB Areca nas by writing a movie to it.

 

[Stereodude]

How to check or test read speed and write speed capability?

You could try what I suggested in post #4 . Does your HTPC have a SSD?

 

[kapone]

- Bad (or sub optimal) Ethernet cables - try different ones
- Bad configuration on the Cisco router - Double check
- Bad USB configuration for the Areca - Disconnect every USB device except for KB/mouse and the Areca. A lot of motherboards have two different USB 3.0 chipsets in them. The native Intel ones and something else, like an AS Media. Make sure the Areca is plugged into the native Intel 3.0 ports.
- Bad (or failing) HDD(s) connected to the Areca?

Edit: You don't need to have an SSD to check something like this. I can max out my gigabit when reading/writing from my network storage on regular spinning disks. You gotta make sure, your network is configured right. Try doing a few iperf tests.

 

[stanger89]

You probably hit by the file reading speed limit of your NAS. Those tiny processors in a cheap consumer routers are not fast enough to support fast transfer speed.

Synology's are pretty good NAS's they're not "cheap consumer [NASs]", they should be capable of much more than 20MB/s. As to the OP, you really need to try some troubleshooting steps, firstly minimizing variables.

The easiest thing to try is to use some HDD testing software to see read/write speeds without source/destination speeds getting in the way, Crystal Disk Mark is really easy. Run it on your Areca and run it on your Synology share. It reads to and writes from ram so there's no "contamination" of the data by something you're not trying to test.

If you determine the Synology to be the bottleneck, you could install iperf on your Synology and use that to test the raw network speed to see if there's a networking issue. iperf (or Jperf if you want a gui on the windows side) tests network performance with ram to ram transfers so as not to be affected by disk/array speeds.

One of these should tell you where the bottleneck is.

 

[iwanrs]

Latest situation update.
After about 24 hours of 3 files transfer, all the speed reduced to only 8-9MB/s (3 x 8 = 24MB/s)

Now, after 2 of files transfer finished, the only one files transfer left remain at the speed of 8.98MB/s.

This is to say now I get only 9MB/s of transfer speed (for 2.2TB of files transfer) !?!
Guess, how long it will finish?