Ok, so once i had my new unraid server up and running and started copying files to it, i realized it was time to get a gigabit switch. I was at around 11-12MB/sec which would be right for a 10/100 network. Once i added the Gbit switch and verified that both my unRAID and windows 7 machine were showing the connection as so, i tried some more copies. It starts at about 25-30MB/sec and goes steadily down until its back around 11MB like the 10/100. I am using 3x2TB EARS drives with one as a parity drive. Im not expecting 100MB or anything but i read on these forums that 25MB or so is about normal. Any ideas for what i could try to get it up to a constant 25?

is everything gigabit? router? switch? and nic on motherboards on server and source machine? are your ethernet cables cat5e or cat6?...what type of hdd on your source device because i believe that will impact speeds as well

I think i got it, the drives weren't set to 4k-aligned. I used a post on these forums to clear the disks and reset array config so that i could format again using 4k. Now, even while the initial parity sync is running, im getting over 30MB/sec. Much better than my 12MB before.

Ok, so i reformatted the drives using 4k-aligned. It started the initial parity sync. One of the two data drives shows Read I/O that is 3 times higher than the other. Any reason this would happen? The only thing i can think of is that the disk getting the higher read speed, is the one that had almost all of the 1TB of data i had copied over before reformatting. But if i reformatted, they should be empty correct? I have copied over a little during parity sync to see if my speeds were better. I was getting between 22-30MB/sec. Will this go up when i copy while not performing a parity sync or should i expect this range from here on out. I know i ask alot of questions, but i just want to make sure this is all correct before i get everything copied over.

The speed your getting is good with or without parity build.

Ok, anyone know about the difference in read speeds? When i did the initial parity sync the first time, it took like 8 hours. This one says it will take over 12. Not sure if the 4k-aligned setting makes it take longer?