Thecus Support Thread ! Thecus Users Come In..

[weap0nx]

Hello all,

Is there anyway I can test or benchmark my 3 x WD Caviar Greens in my N4100pro after it has been set up and running?

Also, is there any way that I can run the WDTLER and WDIDLE3 utilities on the 3 Caviar Greens without connecting them to my computer?

Thanks.

You can't benchmark the drive's performance accurately anymore, there are linux tools which could benchmark the RAID from within the system itself. IOzone is cross platform so it will work.

You can benchmark the Network Attached Storage as a whole. This factors the disk, the NAS hardware, NAS software & the networking equipment.

As for WDTLER and WDIDLE3 i would recommend running them from your computer as they were designed to run from a separate boot disk to DOS. While you have volumes mounted i strongly advice against trying to run WDTLER or WDIDLE3.

Quick questions, on Thecus N0503 are you getting temps of 50 degrees and more?

 

[weap0nx]

Ok new IOzone scans on 256kB stripe size. I did a 2GB test now, it shows leveling of the rates after 1GB so there is no need to test any further.

64k record size, 256kB stripe size (NEW)

64k record size, 1024kB stripe size (OLD)

128k record size, 256kB stripe size (NEW)

128k record size, 1024kB stripe size (OLD)

Intel NASPT managed

256kB stripe size (NEW)
File copy to NAS 28.7 MB/s
File copy from NAS 41.4 MB/s
Dir copy to NAS 10.3 MB/s
Dir copy from NAS 16.1 MB/s

1024kB stripe size (OLD)
File copy to NAS 26.1 MB/s
File copy from NAS 37.3 MB/s
Dir copy to NAS 8.8 MB/s
Dir copy from NAS 14.8 MB/s

These values are averaged over 3 tests each so there are adjusted slightly for any natural flactuations.

Windows files transfers are also faster
I wrote a 4GB ISO file write to the NAS and it was doing 28-30MB/sec now compared to the 25-28MB/sec previously

Still there is a significant improved in BOTH read and writes as I moved to the smaller 256kB stripe size. Based on my readings on smallnetbuilder, both 64kB and 256kB should yield roughly similar results so I doubt I will move down to 64kB. But hell for completeness I may do it.

 

[supremebull]

You can't benchmark the drive's performance accurately anymore, there are linux tools which could benchmark the RAID from within the system itself. IOzone is cross platform so it will work.

You can benchmark the Network Attached Storage as a whole. This factors the disk, the NAS hardware, NAS software & the networking equipment.

As for WDTLER and WDIDLE3 i would recommend running them from your computer as they were designed to run from a separate boot disk to DOS. While you have volumes mounted i strongly advice against trying to run WDTLER or WDIDLE3.

Thanks for your helpful reply.

How about checking the load cycle counts of the Caviar Greens? Because I installed them into my N4100PRO without doing the WDTLER and WDIDLE, and I'm afraid that my WD10EADS may be suffering from excessive wear and tear (i.e. due to the Intellipark and the not spinning down problems). Hence, I need a way to know whether my Caviar Greens are close to breakdown in the 4 months that they've been running so that I can do something about it.

 

[weap0nx]

As for logging into ACL protected shares I believe SkimMilk is right about Windows assuming the domain to be your computer's hostname?

I've tried logging in as N0503\username but it didn't work too. It works in Windows 7, Windows 7 understands the N0503\username syntax but XP didn't do it correctly.
So if your on Windows 7 (probably Vista as well), username should be N0503\username if you didn't change the host name for your NAS, you can find out from the WAN section of the configuration.

For me I don't access them through the network place manually each time, I mount them onto an unused Drive letter and they work, try this:

net use Z: \\192.168.1.100\Picture /user:john password

Z: is the drive letter
192.168.2.100 is the IP address of the NAS
Picture is the share folder’s name
john is the user name
password is john’s password

Taken from http://www.thecus.com/download/other/N5200_FAQ_2006-11-22.pdf

ALSO NOTE, you cannot log into two different users from the same Windows PC, you'll have to unmount one of them to log into a different user but Windows will tell you about this problem when you try to mount.

 

[weap0nx]

Thanks for your helpful reply.

How about checking the load cycle counts of the Caviar Greens? Because I installed them into my N4100PRO without doing the WDTLER and WDIDLE, and I'm afraid that my WD10EADS may be suffering from excessive wear and tear (i.e. due to the Intellipark and the not spinning down problems). Hence, I need a way to know whether my Caviar Greens are close to breakdown in the 4 months that they've been running so that I can do something about it.

Yea when i got the N0503 i thought it could fetch S.M.A.R.T queries but apparently it does not show you anything, apparently it just scans and tells you if the drives pass.

Perhaps one of the software modules will be able to do this but it really depends on if the hardware of the NAS is SMART capable.

I'll go look it up and ask on other forums.

 

[weap0nx]

ENOUGH with software, time to open up and see what's under the hood

Took out the disks, removed the plastic back cover.

Close up off the back w/o cover. These is something ABNORMAL here, read below

Picture of the cover. I will cut the grill away when this device looks all set and problem free.

The design of the mounting is great, the motherboard slides in and out!
This picture saved me when I forgot which way the header cables were to go back

More close up of the motherboard and components

Possible ram upgrade I have not looked into this yet

 

[weap0nx]

South bridge!

Took out the SATA connector riser so I could change the fan

Put in a more powerful fan

Took a long time removing the stupid thermal adhesive, no one should ever use these things. Replaced with Arctic Cooling MX-3

Close-up of the abnormality! There is an extra USB port that is covered by the plastic back cover. Not supposed to use? I won't be needing them anyway

New fan! Faster but hell of a loud I will have to find another one to replace.

Gonna load it to see how the temps fair now.

 

[jupiter12]

you are the man....Totally impressed by you....

If not you, I won't know how it looks inside

No wonder, I can't find the extra USB port all the while...It is hiding there
If we want to turn the esata port into a USB port, we need to use a esata to USB converter right?

Do you guys think that if I use a USB 4 port Hub attached to the NAS USB port, will the 4 ports works? hehe

 

[supremebull]

Oh yes just wanted to ask the gurus here something...

If the HDD access light blinks green (without BT running etc but folders are mounted as network drives) every 7 to 8 seconds, does that mean that my HDDs (3 x Caviar Greens) are suffering from the Intellipark issue?

 

[weap0nx]

Left out a most important picture just now, the slim, the beautiful, Atom processor

I was confused just now over which was the processor because the Northbridge has a bigger heatsink sitting on it which led me to assume straight away that was the processor

 

[weap0nx]

to jupter:

i think USB hub should work with no problems, this is afterall a complete PC.

to supremebull:

I am really not sure I spent the whole day pondering as well why my HDD lights keep blinking, i've disconnected WAN so there is no device communicating with it, it is purely happening inside the system. Disk are also moderately warm to touch. If you have any luck with finding out what is the cause let me know !
No i don't think it's the intellipark issue.

 

[SkimMilk]

Hi.. My Laptop is the one sending to the NAS via wifi , and my desktop internet stall.. i try on my laptop, also facing the same problem.

doesn't matter which side is sending. The router is busy with your sending and writing request to the nas, all other services freeze.

lousy router problem bah (2wire correct?)

 

[SkimMilk]

and i also realised my problem with the 3 times password input: my user ID had a capital but i did not cap it when i connected the drive. but somehow, win7 was smart enough to force it thru (?) and i can connect to the folders after 3 tries.

weap0nx: do let us know if a ram upgrade works (or improves performance). Very tempted. haha... I saw the internals on another site previously (google n0503), although they didnt tear out the heatsinks to reveal the cpu / bridges. but good job!

My NAS operates ard 48 degrees celsius in a non air-con room. I place it above my Lexa S.
If i turn on air-conditioning, it drops a few degrees but that's about it.

 

[weap0nx]

Ya sure although it probably wouldn't yield much gains, 1GB is already quite a lot and faster rams don't think will help also

Mine's always at 54 degrees even when idling, it doesn't really flactuate much even when read/writing. Even when idling the drives are hot to touch and I noticed no HDD activity too. Are your drives hot to touch when the device is idling?

 

[momo38]

to jupter:

i think USB hub should work with no problems, this is afterall a complete PC.

to supremebull:

I am really not sure I spent the whole day pondering as well why my HDD lights keep blinking, i've disconnected WAN so there is no device communicating with it, it is purely happening inside the system. Disk are also moderately warm to touch. If you have any luck with finding out what is the cause let me know !
No i don't think it's the intellipark issue.

Hey. Same thing I am observing. The 3 HDD lights are going on like christmas trees even though the wan is unplugged. Perhaps someone could kindly explain.

 

[weap0nx]

Hey. Same thing I am observing. The 3 HDD lights are going on like christmas trees even though the wan is unplugged. Perhaps someone could kindly explain.

What's your temperature like?

do you have any custom modules running? or built-in services? try to stop all of them then turn on one by one to find out which one.

I think for me could be Azureus even though there are no torrents at all, downloading, seeding and completed

 

[SkimMilk]

i didnt touch my hdds wor. its tucked into the corner of the table, i seldom reach down to it. haha.. christmas lights maybe cos the nas is checking the hdds or keeping them awake?

 

[jupiter12]

Hi weap0nx

mine is around 48-55 degrees celsius for temperature... Is it the "normal" temp to have?

Does anyone of you already use some NAS module for premium download site such as RS? anyone can recommend one?

Also anyone already set up their NAS access from outside home to the NAS? I am reseaching on it at the moment and thinking whether to set up one and like to know the access speed and others etc

 

[supremebull]

Also anyone already set up their NAS access from outside home to the NAS? I am reseaching on it at the moment and thinking whether to set up one and like to know the access speed and others etc

I did, via FTP and DynDns.

Access speeds are decent. Usually I only need to grab or upload schoolwork and documents i.e. PDFs Word Docs and PPTs etc, so the download/upload speed is usually such that each file usually takes less than 5 secs.

But for larger files I find that I'm getting speeds of like 70KB/s to 100KB/s

 

[weap0nx]

I did, via FTP and DynDns.

Access speeds are decent. Usually I only need to grab or upload schoolwork and documents i.e. PDFs Word Docs and PPTs etc, so the download/upload speed is usually such that each file usually takes less than 5 secs.

But for larger files I find that I'm getting speeds of like 70KB/s to 100KB/s

yeap FTP's a good idea since you can set secure FTP.

Do you guys have any gains from Jumbo frames? my speeds are nearly the same.