Mover Speeds and Transfer speeds w & w/o cache ssd drive

[theWhitewizard]

I am new to Unraid and have just built a unraid server with the following specs.

 

Specs:

AMD Ryzen 3600
Asus B550 strix gaming F motherboard
3x Seagate EXOS 12 tb hard drive (1x Parity)
WD Blue Sata SSD 1TB

RAM: 64gb DDR4 3200

1 gbps LAN connection

 

I am getting the following speeds and don't know whether these speeds are normal or require further tweaks.
 

Mover speed Image Attached. It fluctuates though.

Transfer to SSD Cache: 113 MBps write speed
Transfer to direct array: Starts with 90-113 MBps but get down to 20-40MBps write speed 

Turbo write is turned on. I was expecting write speeds directly to the array with turbo write should have no issues and the bottleneck would be the lan connection rather than the array. Dont understand why the fluctuation and it then keeps at 20-30 mbps after a few minutes if direct transfer to array. Note: i was transferring plex files to the array.

 

As i am new to the unraid dont know whether this is normal as it seems a bit slow when writing direct and when mover is invoked. Please let me know what you guys think and whether i need to tweak anything.

 

I had also done the disk speed test with the docker. Image Attached

 

[JorgeB]

Looks like you're using the most free allocation method, don't use that for best performance as writes to parity will overlap and be much slower.

[JorgeB]

It also auto disables turbo write once i/o to multiple disk is detected.

[theWhitewizard]

Thanks Jorge. You are correct I am using the most free method. But i thought that was one of the things i need to do for more speed. i remember seeing it in some youtube video. Which allocation method should i change it to.

[theWhitewizard]

Also Would the read speeds be slower if i move to another allocation method or it wont impact the read speed whilst improving the write speeds.

 

Once I have transferred all the files would it be better for daily use to keep it on most free rather than lets say high water as i have a 1 tb SSD as cache or shall i keep the allocation method as high water.

 

Any issues in changing from high water to most free after transferring the files if that is what you would recommend. Thanks for the help...

Edited December 15, 2020 by theWhitewizard

[JorgeB]

26 minutes ago, theWhitewizard said:

But i thought that was one of the things i need to do for more speed

No, it's the worst setting for write speed.

 

27 minutes ago, theWhitewizard said:

Which allocation method should i change it to.

Whichever you prefer from the other ones, high water is the usually the best compromise.

 

16 minutes ago, theWhitewizard said:

Also Would the read speeds be slower if i move to another allocation method or it wont impact the read speed whilst improving the write speeds.

Read speeds won't be affected, unless you plan on reading multiple files at the same time, in that case if they were dispersed speed could be better, but you'd need a way of only reading multiple files from different disks.

 

18 minutes ago, theWhitewizard said:

Any issues in changing from high water to most free after transferring the files if that is what you would recommend.

No, but it won't make any difference for reads.

[theWhitewizard]

Thanks. It did give me much higher speeds. Increased to 240mbps after few minutes.

 

 

I did check the video it was by Linustechs. For what reason would he have recommended most freee when performance wise your recommendation of high water is much better. 

[theWhitewizard]

I also think one of my drives is making more sound than the others. Is there anyway I can check by powering each drive separate to see which one is making maybe higher sound or is it just me being paranoid.

Edited December 15, 2020 by theWhitewizard

[JorgeB]

42 minutes ago, theWhitewizard said:

For what reason would he have recommended most freee when performance wise your recommendation of high water is much better. 

No idea.

 

37 minutes ago, theWhitewizard said:

I also think one of my drives is making more sound than the others. Is there anyway I can check by powering each drive separate to see which one is making maybe higher sound or is it just me being paranoid.

Probably nothing to worry about.