Thecus N7710-G File Transfer Performance Report

Thecus N7710-G is using ThecusOS 5.0 x64 and support ECC memory which is designed to prevent internal data corruption. The build-in 10-Gigabit Ethernet is also very impressive. It’s a pity that my Lenovo ThinkCentre Edge 72z is not expandable or I may see its full potential.

Below is the unix name and version info on Thecus N7710-G:

N7710-G:~# uname -a
Linux N7710-G 3.4.73 #1 SMP Tue Jan 7 12:29:11 CST 2014 x86_64 GNU/Linux
N7710-G:~# uname -m
x86_64

Anyway, let’s see if it how fast it could be on file transferring!

Processor, RAM, and Linux Difference

N7710-G is using an Intel Pentium G850 at 2.9GHz. N2800 and TS-269L both has an Atom D2701 at 2.13GHz; TS-251 is a Celeron J1800 at 2.41GHz burst to 2.58GHz; N2560 is a CE5335 SoC at 1.6GHz; N2310 has a single core APM86491 running at the lowest 800MH.

N7710-G has 3MB Smart Cache and support up to 32GB RAM. D2700 is based on Cedar Trail with 1MB and 36-bit Physical Address Extension aka PAE. CE5335 SoC is on Berryville with 512KB L2 Cache and 32-bit PAE. Both of them have 2 cores with hyper-threading technology. J1800 is based on Bay Trail with 1MB and 36-bit PAE. It has 2 cores and may serve only 2 threads concurrently. The 1MB cache size is still the same to D2700 but officially support for 8GB RAM which is double to D2700. APM86491 is based on Power465 with FPU and has 64KB L1 cache with 256KB L2 Cache.

N7710-G comes with 4GB ECC memory and cannot mixed with non-ECC and ECC memory together. N2800 and N2560 come with 2GB while TS-251 and TS-269L are 1GB. Both N2800 and TS-251 is expandable to 8GB while TS-269L is 3GB. The 64-bit ThecusOS and QTS could manage RAM beyond 4GB. N2310 is fixed to 512MB.

N7710-G and N2800 are running 64-bit ThecusOS 5 but N2310 and N2560 are 32-bit ThecusOS 6. TS-269L is running 32-bit QTS while TS-251 is 64-bit.

Test Method

I connect NAS to computer directly, use the same test sample in File Transmission with Different Sharing Solution on NAS, and use Linux command mount for better performance. Because my Edge 72z only has a Gigabit Ethernet, the 10-Gigabit Ethernet cannot run with its full speed.

Background process Network Service→Auto-Thumbnail is turned off before testing.

Two protocols are used in this test: Samba and NFS. You may learn more about how to setup the test with NFS and Samba to do your own test.

N7710-G is configured with HGST Ultrastar 7K4000 4TB * 4 as RAID 1, RAID 5, RAID 6, and RAID 10. Others are listed in comparison table.

According to my MTU test, I keep it to use default 1500.

I also add test result from following as reference:

1. QNAP TS-269L File Transfer Performance Report
2. Thecus N2310 with Firmware 743 File Transfer Performance Report
3. Thecus N2560 File Transfer Performance Report
4. QNAP TS-251 with Firmware 0612 and 8GB RAM File Transfer Performance Report
5. Thecus N2800 File Transfer Performance Report

Performance

File transfer performance on Thecus N7710-G via Samba with mount command.

File transfer performance on Thecus N7710-G via NFS with mount command.

Analyze

For N7710-G, RAID 10 is almost win all tests except for RAID 6 on NFS reading. RAID 5 is faster than RAID 6 on almost win all tests except for NFS reading.

When comparing N7710-G RAID 1 to others, it is very closed to TS-251 with 1GB RAM and faster than N2310 and TS-269L. It beats N2800 except for NFS writing within 5%. I choose to ignore.

Final Thoughts

N7710-G is build with metal and feel solid. Power adapter is build-in, It also has a VGA port which you may use to check the output message or use USB keyboard to control directly. The LED and buttons provides simple navigation through some functions and display messages.

ThecusOS 5 x64 feels very responsive. Almost apply immediately when I am configuring network service. Even it is not as modern as ThecusOS 6, I can still find commands quickly.

But one thing is annoying on ThecusOS 5, IP is set to 192.168.1.100 by default rather than DHCP. If you cannot find your NAS, try to check your network configuration if it is set to the same segment. When you may login to Web Administration, manually set System Network→Networking→WAN/LAN1 Tab→IPV4→Mode→DHCP.

Just as what I have write in Why NAS is Getting More and More Popular, its fast Pentium Processor G850 make it a real server appliance for workgroup!

Reference

1. AppliedMicro APM86491
2. Asustor
3. Connect NAS to your Computer Directly
4. HGST: Ultrastar 7K4000
5. Intel: Celeron Processor J1800 (1M Cache, up to 2.58 GHz)
6. Intel Newsroom: Intel Launches System-on-Chip Storage Solution Designed for Simple Video Transcoding and Streaming
7. Intel: New Storage Solutions Based on the Intel® Atom™ Processor CE5300 Series Simplifies HD Content Sharing and Delivery Between Mobile Devices and Smart TV
8. Intel: Products (Formerly Bay Trail)
9. Intel: Atom Processor
10. Intel: Atom Processor D2700
11. Intel: Pentium Processor G850
12. Lenovo: ThinkCentre Edge 72z
13. Maximum MTU doesn’t mean Best Performance
14. Performance Comparison on Backup Linux Files to QNAP TS-212P
15. QNAP
16. QNAP: QTS
17. QNAP: TS-251
18. QNAP TS-251 with Firmware 0612 and 8GB RAM File Transfer Performance Report
19. QNAP: TS-269L
20. QNAP TS-269L File Transfer Performance Report
21. Thecus
22. Thecus Forum: Third party modules
23. Thecus: Memory Compatibility List for Thecus NAS
24. Thecus: N2310
25. Thecus N2310 with Firmware 743 File Transfer Performance Report
26. Thecus: N2560
27. Thecus N2560 File Transfer Performance Report
28. Thecus: N2800
29. Thecus N2800 File Transfer Performance Report
30. Thecus: N7710-G
31. TurnkeyLinux
32. Use BFNP Framework to Optimize your NAS File Transfer Performance
33. Using Microsoft Networking via Samba with QNAP TS-112 and LevelOne GNS-1001
34. Using Network File System (NFS) Service with QNAP TS-112
35. Why NAS is Getting More and More Popular
36. Wiki: 10-gigabit Ethernet
37. Wiki: ECC memory
38. Wiki: Gigabit Ethernet
39. Wiki: Hyper-threading
40. Wiki: Instruction set
41. Wiki: LAMP (software bundle)
42. Wiki: List of Intel Atom microprocessors: CE SoCs: Dual-Core CE SoCs
43. Wiki: Network File System
44. Wiki: Physical Address Extension
45. Wiki: Samba (software)
46. Wiki: Secure Shell
47. Wiki: Server appliance
48. Wiki: Standard RAID levels: RAID 1
49. Wiki: Standard RAID levels: RAID 5
50. Wiki: Standard RAID levels: RAID 6
51. Wiki: Nested RAID levels: RAID 1+0
52. Wiki: Standard RAID levels: RAID 1
53. Wiki: Thread (Computer)
54. Wiki: top (software)
55. Wiki: uname
56. Wiki: Virtual machine
57. Wiki: Virtualization
58. Wiki: x86 virtualization: Intel virtualization (VT-x)
59. ZurmoCRM