Gigabit... or not?

[fre_vs_alpha]

Hi forum,

I purchases the MED450X2 last week (1TB internal HDD). Took some time to figure out one and another, but overall I'm very happy with the product. 

But network speed is below expectations. I hoped to transfer my movie files from my PC's (one is running Fedora, the other one Win 7) to the MED450X2 using my gigabit network. It seemed that samba limits the speed. Is there any way to copy files at gigabit speed from my PC's to the MED450X2? 

Thanks for your help.
Fre

[jer1956]

No devices which use gigabit transfer at that rate. Networks are all about sharing..so gigabit is about adding more lanes to the motorway for better sharing..rather than increasing the maximum speed.

The rate at which data is moved is limited by the ability of the cpu at either end to empty and fill buffers.  So  the improvement the X2 has over the X1 is in proprottion to the increase in CPU power, about 70%.

Gbit's real benefit is for streaming..becuase the loadings as so low there shouldn't be contention issues which create stuttering with 100 mbps.

[fre_vs_alpha]

Thanks for your reply jer1956.

Gbit's real benefit is for streaming..becuase the loadings as so low there shouldn't be contention issues which create stuttering with 100 mbps.

In the case of streaming gigabit is not (yet) really necessary (unless you need to stream more then 30GB an hour).

I know gigabit would not bring me a theoretical 100MB/s, but I hoped it to be somewhat higher than 9MB/s I have now (and that even seems to be high compared to what others experience).

Do I have some other options? The thing is, I have very big mkv files that I want to get on the MED450X2. Pushing them over 9MB/s takes too much time (if I transfer multiple mkv files at once over the LAN, the speed drops seriously, so a nightly batch copy is not really an option).

[jer1956]

When first setting up..just use slave mode. Then use the network to top up with new media.  The network function is only there becuase it streams...and Gbit makes streaming more relaible.  There are no i/o controllers with their own prcessors in an X2. The CPU does everthing..so if 100 mbps lan requires 40% loading to stream HD..then that's 40% of the cpu time tied up handling i/0. With Gbit those loadings are less than 10%..leaving more time for the CPU to unwrap  and process the media.

[fre_vs_alpha]

When first setting up..just use slave mode. Then use the network to top up with new media.  The network function is only there becuase it streams...and Gbit makes streaming more relaible.  There are no i/o controllers with their own prcessors in an X2. The CPU does everthing..so if 100 mbps lan requires 40% loading to stream HD..then that's 40% of the cpu time tied up handling i/0. With Gbit those loadings are less than 10%..leaving more time for the CPU to unwrap  and process the media.

Thanks, that makes things more clear. I'll do some streaming tests later on.