NAS for macs

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amrogers3

Gawd
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Nov 7, 2010
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Hi all,

Trying to figure out a *new* backup solution for my macbook. I bought a synology 211J but have noticed very low transfer speeds (approx 6 to 8 MB/s) even with wired CAT5e gigabit switch/connections.

I did some research and it looks like a problem with AFP. Synology devices have some great features but can't work with the low transfer speeds.

Can anyone recommend a mac compatible NAS, RAID 1, swappable device?
 
amrogers3 said:
Hi all,

Trying to figure out a *new* backup solution for my macbook. I bought a synology 211J but have noticed very low transfer speeds (approx 6 to 8 MB/s) even with wired CAT5e gigabit switch/connections.

I did some research and it looks like a problem with AFP. Synology devices have some great features but can't work with the low transfer speeds.

Can anyone recommend a mac compatible NAS, RAID 1, swappable device?
Click to expand...


Do you get similarly poor performance with SMB shares from the same nas?
 
jemm said:
Do you get similarly poor performance with SMB shares from the same nas?
Click to expand...

Yeah, I would try SMB. I get the same speeds to OSX using SMB that I get from Windows and I get the speeds that Synology claims in their benchmarks.

You should be able to get about 75MB/s down 35MB/s up via SMB on a 211j.

Also maybe try the latest firmware that came out 5 days ago.
http://www.synology.com/releaseNote_enu/DS211j.php

Enhanced the stability with AFP file sharing protocol.
 
SirMaster said:
Yeah, I would try SMB. I get the same speeds to OSX using SMB that I get from Windows and I get the speeds that Synology claims in their benchmarks.

You should be able to get about 75MB/s down 35MB/s up via SMB on a 211j.

Also maybe try the latest firmware that came out 5 days ago.
http://www.synology.com/releaseNote_enu/DS211j.php

Enhanced the stability with AFP file sharing protocol.
Click to expand...

What speed are you getting using AFP? I read SMB throws alot of metedata away when apple files are transfered using the SMB protocol.
 
Zardoz said:
http://www.readynas.com/?cat=3 readynas duo.

only thing is that most all of these solutions are on the slow side for transfer.
Click to expand...

I have a DUO with 2xWD Green drives and the only slowness is the initial spin-up and start then it speeds up. I upgraded to gigabit on all my devices to get full-performance from my DUO. Couldn't be happier but I am going to a home-built NAS now for more storage, and options.

The DUO was on sale for around 175 a week ago on amazon.
 
Boss_S said:
Drobo FS?
Click to expand...

This is what I did.
Transfer speeds are only 30mb/s on gigabit, though. Not a dealbreaker for me, just takes forever to fill up since I migrated about 6TB of video to it from a different desktop.
 
If you have "green" hard drives that might be the problem. Green drives aren't really for NAS as far as I know and there are some incompatible green drives for the synology NAS boxes. I have a DS209 with two WD Green drives and my transfers are 12MB/s :(
(I use both pc's and macs)

I want to test it with regular 7200rpm wd black drives but I don't have any spares...
If you look at the testing that smallnetwork builder did with the DS209 they did not use green drives and the transfer speeds are much faster then what I get.

Anyways maybe you should look into that before getting another NAS.
 
Short version: Update the firmware on the NAS because it should work now!

Wow...
So as an update to this I just ordered a 2TB drive that is in the compatibility list on the synology website. A hitachi 7200rpm drive.

I've tested the DS209 on my DIR-655 router via ethernet and it's given me 10-12MB/s and that's where it's been connected most of the time. Until recently that I put it in the living room attached to an old linksys 100MB/s router.
I tested it like two days ago and it still gave me 10-12MB/s but today I realized that it's connected to a 100 speed port not gigabit...Dur
The reason it matters now is because they recently had a firmware upgrade.
I connected it to the DIR-655 again and now it's blazing fast!!!
Here are some screen shots:





So yeah now I have a 2TB drive on the way...maybe I should return it (I have a wd black 640gb as my primary at the moment on the PC).

Edit: These are cat5 wired connections
 
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eizen said:
If you have "green" hard drives that might be the problem. Green drives aren't really for NAS as far as I know and there are some incompatible green drives for the synology NAS boxes. I have a DS209 with two WD Green drives and my transfers are 12MB/s :(
(I use both pc's and macs)

I want to test it with regular 7200rpm wd black drives but I don't have any spares...
If you look at the testing that smallnetwork builder did with the DS209 they did not use green drives and the transfer speeds are much faster then what I get.

Anyways maybe you should look into that before getting another NAS.
Click to expand...

I do have green drives, Seagate. Have you had a chance to test it with the Hitachi's yet? I wonder how much of a speed difference you will see.

Anyone have any input or have tested 'green' vs. 'regular' drives in a Synology NAS? Specifically the 211J?
 
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The greens are def noticeably slower than my WD black, and I won't ever buy a green again.

I got it to save power and a small bit of cash but now I wish I didn't do that :D especially with longer warranty on the blacks too.

I was transfering 600mb of pics from my SSD on my MBP to my NAS and it made my MAC unusable.

The mouse cursor was jittery and it wasn't moving properly... I`m wondering if this is a MAC problem :confused:
 
I have a Drobo full of green drives for storage. Had it for a few years now and never had any issues with it.
 
Finkus said:
I have a Drobo full of green drives for storage. Had it for a few years now and never had any issues with it.
Click to expand...

Yeah cool hardware, I just can't afford the $700 price tag + Hard Drives.
 
The major performance loss with large-capacity (say, 1.5 to 2 TB) Green (5400/5900RPM drives) isn't transfer rates - it's the I/O Per Second capacity.

If the transactions on disk are mostly small files (say, web/db server) then the performance will suck. But if you're kicking around HD video files, then that's all sequential reads and having green drives shouldn't be the performance bottleneck.
 
cymon said:
The major performance loss with large-capacity (say, 1.5 to 2 TB) Green (5400/5900RPM drives) isn't transfer rates - it's the I/O Per Second capacity.

If the transactions on disk are mostly small files (say, web/db server) then the performance will suck. But if you're kicking around HD video files, then that's all sequential reads and having green drives shouldn't be the performance bottleneck.
Click to expand...

Yep its mostly small files. In that case what drive would you recommend?
 
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