reliable N-router with fast USB-NAS

[crispie]

Wasn't able to get a rating of wireless-N-Routers by their USB NAS speed. Any recommendations? It seems the Netgear wndr 3700 NAS as well as the new Asus RT-N56U NAS are pretty fast, but I haven't had the time to read all possible reviews. Thanks.

 

[teknojnky]

I doubt any router with a usb disk will ever be considered 'fast'. Just less slow.

I would never consider router/usb/nas anything but a toy.

I have a wndr3700 and I thought the usb disk performance was pretty laughable, but I guess it all depends on your expectations.

If you want fast, you need to consider a device dedicated to the task.

 

[crispie]

Thanks for the feedback. What are the real life speeds you are seeing with the 3700 read/write? Would be interesting to know.

As far as your opinion is concerned, you're absolutely right, a dedicated NAS would be way faster. However, I'm not looking into maxing out the SATA interface, but more like maxing out the USB 2.0 ports most of these routers have. I anyway don't expect any higher Wireless transfer speed. And there I think only the CPU can be the limiting factor. Looking at my new cell phone with a dual core 1ghz processor I wonder why there shouldn't be such a device (wireless-N router with at least 20MB/s R/W USB NAS) on the market. Another advantage would be reduced power consumption, if the two devices are combined into one. (Does the 3700 spin down the disk if idle?)


Cheers!

 

[stevech]

A consumer WiFi router with a built-in NAS capability is fine for casual backups, but won't support streaming audio/video. Nor transfer of large files in reasonable time durations. Don't expect more than 1-2 megaBytes/sec with such. That's less than USB2 by far.

 

[thiggins]

Router USB file sharing will give you best case 10 MB or so, depending on drive format used. Reading will generally be better than writing.

 

[bmn1]

Are there plans to add charts for this? I would find this info highly useful. Also 1-2MB/sec, not to talk about 5-10MB, is very useful. Centralized storage for documents, common installations, core backups, target for downloads.

 

[thiggins]

No plans for performance charts right now. The Router Finder has filters for both storage and printer sharing.

 

[stevech]

Are there plans to add charts for this? I would find this info highly useful. Also 1-2MB/sec, not to talk about 5-10MB, is very useful. Centralized storage for documents, common installations, core backups, target for downloads.

USB disk connected to WiFi router: S-L-O-W.

 

[bmn1]

Okay, thanks!

USB disk connected to WiFi router: S-L-O-W.

But useful.