SPCR

I would really appreciate a brief explanation of how file transfer speeds across a Gigabit LAN (with Billion BIPAC 7800N router) to an NAS equipped with 1TB Velociraptors would compare with the speed of accessing files held on an internal Velociraptor. (Although the headline 1GB speed for the network is much greater than the drives' burst and transfer rates, I suspect that factors that are beyond my limited knowledge - such as real-life network speeds and cache speeds - would have a major impact.)

You are misunderstanding a bit. Hard drive speeds are often rated in mega bytes per second. Network speeds are always rated in mega or giga bits per second. To convert bits to bytes you need to divide by 8. A 1 Gb network is 125 mega bytes (MB) per second. Using that number to compare, a modern velociraptor is faster.

Be aware that network speeds are the raw speeds not counting any overhead. You will never get the full 1 Gb / 125 MB while transferring data. With a good setup 900-950 Mb (112-118 MB) is possible on large files.

On top of that, most consumer level NASes cannot get anywhere near the above speeds. Some of the newer ones can, but if max possible speed is your goal then a PC as a NAS is the best option.

Ubtree wrote:Hard drive speeds are often rated in mega bytes per second. Network speeds are always rated in mega or giga bits per second.

Of course!

Thank you very much for the reply - it's just what I needed to know.