RT-AC87R Slow USB 3.0 Transfer Speeds

[facelikejohnzee]

Hi all,

I've been researching for the last 2 months regarding this issue, even contacted Asus support, but have not really found much information about it.

I get 20MB/s Read and 35MB/s Write speeds for my externally powered USB 3.0 hard drive formatted as NTFS thats attached to the USB 3.0 port on my RT-AC87R via FTP.

I am connected to the router via ethernet cable, so that rules out any Wireless clients (With Wireless, I get same results). I have Disabled "Reduce USB3.0 Interference" to ensure I get best performance. All AiProtection, DNS Filtering, Smart QOS, AiDisk, Built in Trend Micro Anti-Virus, DDOS protection etc.. has been disabled to ensure Routers workload is light. Tried on both 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz frequencies, same result. I've even tried disabling 2.4 Ghz all together to ensure there is no interference. Router is NOT next to a microwave or cordless phone or anything, just in the center of the living room on a table. When I attach this hard drive to my computer, I get 120 Megabytes read speed. So I know this hard drive has the potential to go faster than 20MB/s

I am using Merlin's Firmware 376.48_1 (Thanks Merlin!)

Is there any way I can get a better read speed of 20 Megabytes a sec? Weird thing is, I am getting 35 megabytes write speed, isn't read speed usually faster than write speed? I know plenty of people have said to get a dedicated NAS for this type of need, but I'd be happy if I can get at least 35 megabyte read. I've seen somewhere on this forum where Merlin posted a screenshot of his transfer speeds, and he was getting I think about 60MB/s.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks, and Happy Thanksgiving Eve!

 

[facelikejohnzee]

Update

I'm not sure if this is placebo, or if there is even any relevance, but I just managed to get read speeds to go to a never before seen and consistent 27MB/s! To achieve this;

- In Wireless, General, Set Channel Bandwidth to 40 MHz (Default was 80 MHz)
- In Wireless, Professional, 5GHz, DTIM Interval = 1,
Beacon Interval = 50,
IEEE 802.11h support = Disabled

Again, I'm not sure if changing these settings affects transfer speeds, but I did notice some improvements. This makes me believe I must have some setting incorrect somewhere. If anyone else can steer me in the right direction, please let me know!

 

[RMerlin]

Your bottleneck is your wifi connection, not your USB disk. The 60 MB/s results I get are obviously over gigabit Ethernet, not wireless.

 

[facelikejohnzee]

Thanks for your reply Merlin and, I'm not sure if Canada celebrates it but, Happy Thanksgivig!

I am actually doing my transfer tests also with gigabit Ethernet. I've been doing this to rule out my wifi. Still same results.

I posted up wireless options because no matter if I am hard wired, or wireless, I would still get the same results. Plus, when I'm connected via wifi, my connection speed hovers around 500 megabits. That should be more than enough for atleast 50 megabyte transfer speeds, right? Still, it doesn't make sense to me why my write speeds are 35 MB and read speed is lower than that... At 20-26MB...

 

[facelikejohnzee]

I've included screenshots of 2 seperate tests, executed from two different PC's (1 Desktop, 1 Laptop)

Both tests using gigabit ethernet, and I used different HDD enclosures for each test to rule out maybe the culprit was the Hard drive enclosure.

http://i59.tinypic.com/qn00hc.png
http://i59.tinypic.com/ay3ar9.png

Sometimes, I see a short burst of 42MB/sec, but majority of the time, my read speeds are 35MB/sec. However, my WRITE speeds average 55MB/sec!

Can you please provide anything that might help?

Thank you veryy much!

 

[RMerlin]

I've included screenshots of 2 seperate tests, executed from two different PC's (1 Desktop, 1 Laptop)

Both tests using gigabit ethernet, and I used different HDD enclosures for each test to rule out maybe the culprit was the Hard drive enclosure.

http://i59.tinypic.com/qn00hc.png
http://i59.tinypic.com/ay3ar9.png

Sometimes, I see a short burst of 42MB/sec, but majority of the time, my read speeds are 35MB/sec. However, my WRITE speeds average 55MB/sec!

Can you please provide anything that might help?

Thank you veryy much!

Test with QoS disabled, and make sure you aren't overloading your router by also running Download Master.

Otherwise, no other idea, sorry.