newoski Posted January 6, 2012 Posted January 6, 2012 Hi Guys, I'm looking into purchase a Greenleaf NAS, but I'm a newbie, so I was hoping for some answers to the following questions from the community. (I've also sent these to Greenleaf). I've read the manual, am diving into the unofficial manual, and have done some serious Google searching before posting: 1. If I purchase Greenleaf HDDs/NAS in the same order, what additional steps will be required on my end to be fully operational with the NAS? - from plugging in ethernet to any configurations... 2. I run Sickbeard/CouchPotato/SABnzbd behind a VPN/Windows Firewall on a local HTPC. Using Unraid functionality (shares?), can I configure the final destinatino for downloaded content to be the NAS? IE, SickBeard -> SABnzbd -> SickBeard -> Shares -> Auto Update XBMC 3. Using a gigabit ethernet connection, what file transfer speeds can I expect to the server? 4. If I use a cache drive, how much can I expect the speed to increase? 5. If I am downloading on my home network (FIOS 5MB/s), will that affect NAS read/write speeds? 6. What is the different between a 3GB/6GB Green HDD and what do you recommend for a HTPC specific NAS? 7. If I purchase the added silent options (fan etc), will the unit be quiet enough to sit in close proximity to my TV in the living room (BOSE 2.1)? Thanks all for any help! Owen
dgaschk Posted January 6, 2012 Posted January 6, 2012 3. Using a gigabit ethernet connection, what file transfer speeds can I expect to the server? Up to 38MB/s writes and up to 60MB/s reads. (Greenleaf may have better estimates for their systems.) 4. If I use a cache drive, how much can I expect the speed to increase? Writes will be on parity with reads. 5. If I am downloading on my home network (FIOS 5MB/s), will that affect NAS read/write speeds? If downloading over FIOS to the NAS the speed will be limited to 5MB/s. The FIOS speed is the bottleneck. If transferring from a local machine via your LAN the FIOS will not be a factor. 6. What is the different between a 3GB/6GB Green HDD and what do you recommend for a HTPC specific NAS? I think your referring to SATA 3GB/s versus SATA 6GB/s. SATA version is not important. HDDs speeds vary between 60MB/s and 125MB/s depending on which cylinder is being accessed. Most green drives top out at 110MB/s. HDD speeds are below the speed of SATA 1.5GB/s. So using SATA 1.5GB/s, SATA 3GB/s, SATA 6GB/s will not effect performance. The HDD is the bottleneck not the SATA port. The faster SATA ports benefit when using SATA port expanders to connect multiple drives to a single SATA port.
Rajahal Posted January 6, 2012 Posted January 6, 2012 Hi Owen, Thank you for your interest in our servers! We're giddy at the prospect of building your dream server! In response to your questions: 1. If I purchase Greenleaf HDDs/NAS in the same order, what additional steps will be required on my end to be fully operational with the NAS? - from plugging in ethernet to any configurations... Any hard drives purchased with a Greenleaf server will be burned in (tested for trustworthiness) and configured as parity, data, and/or cache disks to your specifications. We aim to make our servers as 'plug-n-play' as possible. Typically, all that is required is to plug the server into a power source (UPS highly recommended) and an Ethernet connection (Cat5e or better) in your home network. We can configure the server to use DHCP (meaning that your router will automatically assign an IP address to the server) or to use a static IP (meaning that we will set the IP address manually). You will be able to access the server by the host name (default: Tower) or the IP address from any Windows, Mac, or Linux computer on your network. 2. I run Sickbeard/CouchPotato/SABnzbd behind a VPN/Windows Firewall on a local HTPC. Using Unraid functionality (shares?), can I configure the final destination for downloaded content to be the NAS? IE, SickBeard -> SABnzbd -> SickBeard -> Shares -> Update XBMC/MySQL Yes, this is possible. Our servers use SMB/CIFS network shares, which is the typical Windows-style network share. Any HTPC running Windows, MacOS, or Linux (i.e. XBMC or Plex) as well as most proprietary HTPCs (i.e. WDTV, Roku, & AppleTV) will be able to read and write to the server's network shares with little to no configuration. 3. Using a gigabit ethernet connection, what file transfer speeds can I expect to the server? Write speeds to the parity protected array are typically in the range of 25 - 35 Mb/s. 4. If I use a cache drive, how much can I expect the speed to increase? Write speeds to the cache drive (or to any cache-enabled user share) are typically in the range of 50 - 65 Mb/s for a traditional hard drive, or 70 - 90 Mb/s for a solid state drive. 5. If I am downloading on my home network, will that affect NAS read/write speeds? Yes, heavy network activity can affect the server's read/write speeds. However, many people use their server on a busy network and don't see any reduction in transfer speed. Downloading files directly to the server will affect transfer speeds more than downloading files to a separate computer/HTPC. 6. What are the physical dimensions of the 12 Drive tower? The standard 12 Drive Tower is built in the Azza Helios 910 chassis, which measures 19.7" x 8.1" x 18.1" (DxWxH). The 12 Drive Silent Server is built in the Nexus Prominent 9 chassis, which measures 20" x 8.2" x 18.9" (DxWxH). The 9 Drive and 15 Drive Towers are the same. 7. Are your units compatible with 3TB Green HDDs? All of the hardware we use is fully compatible with 3 TB hard drives. However, the unRAID software packaged with our hardware currently does not support 3 TB drives in it's latest stable version (unRAID 4.7). The latest unRAID betas do support 3 TB drives. However, due to some known bugs with the beta versions, we recommend that you use unRAID 4.7 and 2 TB or smaller hard drives for a more reliable system. If educate yourself about the current issues with unRAID beta and know how to work around the bugs, then it is safe to use unRAID beta and 3 TB hard drives. Once a stable versions of unRAID 5.0 is released, you will be able to upgrade (free of charge) and start using 3 TB drives in your server. 8. What is the differene between a 3GB/6GB Green HDD and what do you recommend for a HTPC specific NAS? 3 Gbit/s and 6 Gbit/s (a.k.a. SATA II and SATA III) refer to the speed of the SATA connection (the connection between the hard drive and the rest of the server). In the case of solid state drives, the faster 6 Gbit/s connection can make a big difference. However, in the case of traditional hard drives, this faster connection has little affect on the drive's speed as the drive's internal components aren't nearly fast enough to make use of this extra bandwidth. When choosing hard drives for your Greenleaf server, either 3 Gbit/s or 6 Gbit/s drives will work equally well. It is unlikely that you will notice any difference in transfer speed between the two types. 9. If I purchase the added silent options, will your units be quiet enough to sit in close proximity to my TV in the living room? Yes, absolutely. Our silent servers are so quiet that it can be difficult to know when they are powered on! For this reason, we generally connect a power LED to indicate the server's power status (however, this and all other LEDs can be disabled by request). One word of caution - don't place your server next to a subwoofer or other large speaker, as the vibration can damage the hard drives.
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