A question about NAS spec and NZB download speed

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HenryNZ

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#249261 2-May-2019 23:38

I have a lowly second hand DS215J. It runs SABNZB ok. The user interface is slow but I am ok with that. However the usenet download speed is really slow. With the NAS connected via direct ethernet cable to the router, it gets 400kb/s max if I am lucky. In comparison, my desktop which is connected to the router via Wifi can get a speed of 1.6-2 MB/s - not great but something I would be ok with.

While I am ok with slow laggy user interface I am disappointed by the download speed of the NAS. I presume the slow speed is due to the low spec of the NAS? I wasn't expecting the lower spec of the NAS would have such impact on download speed, which I thought is what the Gigabit rating is about, no?

How much improvement can I expect if I upgrade the NAS and what is the minimum upgrade to achieve a reasonable result? Or is it just an inherent problem with NAS and I may be better off getting something like a second hand MacMini server to run SABNZB instead?

TheoM

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#2229813 3-May-2019 00:12

NAS devices like the WD MyCloud and the DS215j have pretty weak ARM-based CPUs. iirc the DS has an Armada 375 which is a dual core clocked at 800MHz. Not too bad for SMB (Server Message Block, Samba, or Windows file sharing), okay at AFP (Apple Filing Protocol) and NFS (Network File System), but not all too good at anything else other than basic IO operations.

I run a FreeNAS system at home with 20T of zRAID0 storage (because who doesn't like living on the edge?) with an AMD Phenom II x4 CPU, and 16GB of RAM. If you have only a couple of drives I'd go out and pick up an off lease slimline HP desktop from PBTech and use that with FreeNAS. It's not exactly fun getting the disks installed, and you'll need a third small disk for FreeNAS itself (mine's on a small 80G disk), but BSD being BSD you should see much better performance.

That said, Synology NAS devices that have Intel CPUs on the other hand should perform pretty well, although they will run you a lot more than an off-lease PC will. It really comes down to how much storage you have, your comfort level with things that aren't point-and-click (at least until installed), and how much space you have available to store a NAS/Slimline PC/Tower PC.

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michaelmurfy

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#2229814 3-May-2019 00:15

As a Usenet user myself I can confirm that it is very CPU intensive as it checks everything, extracts etc.

Not going to go into detail of my setup but instead of SABNZB try NZBGet. It is more lightweight, faster and in my experience worked quite a bit better. You could always offload the work to something like an Intel NUC running Linux with a NFS mount back to the NAS but if you've got automation then the automation itself is also quite CPU intensive.

I get around 50MB/sec via Usenet on my server (which is a 8 core Intel Xeon running UnRaid with NVME SSD caching and a bucketload of ram).

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TheoM

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#2229815 3-May-2019 00:16

michaelmurfy:

I get around 50MB/sec via Usenet on my server (which is a 8 core Intel Xeon running UnRaid with NVME SSD caching and a bucketload of ram).

Only a bucketload? I have a waterfallload!

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davidcole

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#2229830 3-May-2019 06:26

On the flip side speed normally isn’t an issue if it’s automated so that it all happens overnight

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HenryNZ

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#2229909 3-May-2019 08:38

I agree that as most downloads happen overnight great speed is not necessary. 400kilobyte per dsc is however a bit too slow. I would be reasonably happy with the speed I get when downloading using my desktop over wifi. I just don’t want to leave my desktop on all the time.
I probably do not have the physical space for a completely separate PC so I will need a NAS solution. It may be that I will need to shell out for one of those more expensive intel NAS

davidcole

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#2229943 3-May-2019 09:14

HenryNZ: I agree that as most downloads happen overnight great speed is not necessary. 400kilobyte per dsc is however a bit too slow. I would be reasonably happy with the speed I get when downloading using my desktop over wifi. I just don’t want to leave my desktop on all the time.
I probably do not have the physical space for a completely separate PC so I will need a NAS solution. It may be that I will need to shell out for one of those more expensive intel NAS

I wouldn't have thought the download time would be taxing the NAS....but unzipping/moving. Downloading should just be network and disk io. How many server connections are you running to your usenet server?

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allan

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#2230010 3-May-2019 10:23

HenryNZ: I agree that as most downloads happen overnight great speed is not necessary. 400kilobyte per dsc is however a bit too slow. I would be reasonably happy with the speed I get when downloading using my desktop over wifi. I just don’t want to leave my desktop on all the time.
I probably do not have the physical space for a completely separate PC so I will need a NAS solution. It may be that I will need to shell out for one of those more expensive intel NAS

PB Tech have had the DS918 specialed a few times recently.

HenryNZ

55 posts

Master Geek

#2230113 3-May-2019 12:54

Is there any opinion on Asustor? They have intel 2 bay version for under $400. Much more economical than a Synology of similar spec.