Data transfer speeds

[Sybull27]

I have a 1Tb Lacie Cinema Classic HD attached to a d-link DIR-615 router via an enthernet cable. Transfering a 700mb file from my PC (again wired to the router) to the Media server takes 1 minute 15secs which acording to my software is 10mb/Sec. Is this the fastest I can exspect ? Both the router and Server are stated as having 10/100 NICs on them . Not sure what my PC's is (it is built ito the Mobo), but I am assuming it is the same.

Should I be getting better speeds when transfering data ?

Streaming stuff is fine, no gltches and can watch stuff on the TV and other stuff over the network on the PC at the same time (even the same file!) without and stuttering at all, but if I go the HD route I will be using much larger files (8-15gb) and that will take time transfering.

Any info would be appreciated.

[hardy]

When transfering data, using something like TeraCopy. I usually get 20+mb/sec. And you can test the copy once it has finished.

[Nelson37]

You have to be careful with your units.

Your file, which is measured in MegaBYTES, moved across the network at what simple math gives you as 10 MegaBYTES per second, on a 10/100 connection, that 10/100 being measured in MegaBITS. 10 MegaBYTES per second gives 80 MegaBITS per second, which, allowing for overhead, is about as fast as you will get on a 10/100 network. No software is going to improve on that. A Gigabit router and Gigabit cards is the only real upgrade route.

You could get a less expensive Gigabit switch and just connect that to the same router, same performance internally and far less money.

[lordsmurf]

When transfering data, using something like TeraCopy. I usually get 20+mb/sec. And you can test the copy once it has finished.

That still won't help.

The bottleneck here is the hardware.

In reality, network transfer speeds are much lower than specs suggest "on the box", and is limited by the NIC (network card), the chipsets/drivers, and then the speed of the hard drives.

Best speed you can get on a LAN is about ~12 MB/sec. (100 mbits, i.e., the "100" in the LAN)
There's no way Ally is getting 20MB/sec on 100 LAN, he/she is mistaken.
More common you'd get ~10MB/sec.

On gigabit LAN, 1Gbps, you're looking at max of ~125 MB/sec.
Actual speed is closer to ~20-40MB/sec (about 2x-4x the 100MbE, not 10x)
Quality and length of cables is VERY important, as well as quality of the router/switch.
~20 is to/from slower/lesser drives/hardware
~40 is to/from faster/better drives/hardware

IDE/PATA hard drives are ~40MB/sec, to compare against (sustained avg speeds).
USB speeds are closer to ~20-25MB/sec - Anything shared from USB drives will be slowest, as USB runs through the CPU.
Firewire 400 ~30-35
SATA are about ~60-70MB/sec

[aedipuss]

to add to ls's list, i've switched to all samsung sata f3 1tb drives because their sustained internal drive to drive transfer rate average is ~ 120MB/sec about 20MB/sec faster than the w.d. black drives i had been using.

[hardy]

USB speeds are closer to ~20-25MB/sec - Anything shared from USB drives will be slowest, as USB runs through the CPU.

That's what I was referring to, my transfer speeds from HDD to HDD via USB is usually around 20 to 25mb/sec. Guess I should have stated that

[Sybull27]

Thanks for all the info. Most helpful. I did wonder if I was get my bytes and bits mixed up. As long as I know I am not being cheated.

[redwudz]

This thread would be better in our Computer Forum. Moving.

[Sybull27]

Sorry about that Redwudz. Slowly getting to know my way around here. Thanks for moving it.

[EddyH]

As an aside, unless you are watching a TON of HD movies with little warning for each, can't easily move the diskdrive, or have an easy upgrade path to gigabit, might it be just as easy to take the disk to the PC and hook it up with a USB cable? 15Gb over USB2.0 isn't so slow. Still probably 10 minutes, but you're partly hitting the disk's transfer cap at that point, and it's about as fast as Lordsmurf's estimates for gigabit speed.

However at 100mbit, that movie won't take more than ~30 minutes to transfer, so you could set it to copy ahead of time and let it run whilst friends arrive, you make food, or just catch up on a TV episode or something. And it should be perfectly capable of streaming with a reasonable buffer.

[creamyhorror]

Streaming stuff is fine, no gltches and can watch stuff on the TV and other stuff over the network on the PC at the same time (even the same file!) without and stuttering at all, but if I go the HD route I will be using much larger files (8-15gb) and that will take time transfering.

Still won't be anywhere big enough to matter. Your LAN connection is ~80mbps, while average bitrates of 1080p encoded material shouldn't be more than 15mbps. Even material remuxed from Blu-ray shouldn't be close to 80mbps.