New home file server

[TType85]

I am in the process of setting up a new fileserver for home use.

Right now the current hardware is:

Q6600
4GB ram
300GB OS drive (IDE)
4 2TB Samsung F4 drives.

I put OpenIndiana/Napp-it on it and it seems to run decent. I have a few questions though.

I seem to be getting slower speeds over the gigabit network as I have been playing around with it. I was getting 80-90MB/s when I first set it up; now it is more like 55-65MB/s.

Could that be the 4K drive alignment?

Running raidz do I need to leave that 10% reserve enabled?

Would it be more optimal to step up to 5 drives instead?

I probably will go with a i3 sandybridge setup if I need to go to 5 drives. It should be a bit lower power consumption which never hurts.

 

[TType85]

Been doing more research.

I will go to 5 drives.

Even with the 4 drives shouldn't I be able to saturate a gigabit connection?

 

[NobleX13]

Do you have an Intel NIC? If not, there's your problem.

 

[TType85]

Do you have an Intel NIC? If not, there's your problem.

I was thinking that, so I picked up one at lunch (PCIe)

 

[e2g]

I was thinking that, so I picked up one at lunch (PCIe)

What card did you purchase?

 

[TType85]

What card did you purchase?

This card
http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_results.phtml?product_id=0360498

I just make a 3 disk raidz and am getting 90-95MB/s tranfer to it and 100-1005MB/s from it with a 30gb mkv. I didn't put the card in yet.

EDIT: Going off one drive in my desktop I get 90-95MB/s, the others I get 50-60.... odd...