Rt-n66u: USB/Samba speed test

[piotrpiano]

Hi there,
As I didn't find to much information searching the web as to what kind of speeds I should expect from my rt-n66u running USB samba share, and some reports I managed to find were quite diverse and often lacking important information about connection method, used filesystem etc., I thought it might be a good idea to start one thread here and deal with this subject once and for all...

My test conditions:

-TomatoUSB Shibby 095 AIO firmware on Asus RT-N66U
-Tested on wired and 5Ghz connection (40 Mhz, Auto channel, WPA2-AES, N-only )
-Intel WiFi Link 5100 AGN and Realtek PCIe FE Family controller (100 Mbits)
WD 250GB 5200 rpm USB2 hd (usb powered) with ntfs, fat32, ext2 and ext3 partitions
-Wifi performace tested from a distance of 1 meter, clear sight
-Tested with Lan Speed Test (free version) and direct copying of a file measured with Networx Speed Meter
-All tests were repeted 3 times and the result were averaged
-All results given in MB - MegaBytes per sec.

Now to the numbers:

Wifi 5Ghz connection, 118 MB file:

NTFS : write - 1.8 MB read - 4.7 MB
FAT32: write - 3.5 MB read - 6.5 MB
EXT2: write - 3.6 MB read - 6.5 MB
EXT3: write - 3.5 MB read - 6.5 MB

Wifi 5Ghz connection, 20 MB file:

NTFS: write - 1.9 MB read - 6.0 MB
FAT32: write - 3.2 MB read - 6.2 MB
EXT2: write - 3.6 MB read - 6.1 MB
EXT3: write - 3.5 MB read - 6.1 MB


Wired connection, 118 MB file:

NTFS: write - 2.1 MB read - 5.0 MB
FAT32: write - 5.2 MB read - 7.7 MB
EXT2: write - 6.2 MB read - 7.4 MB
EXT3: write - 5.7 MB read - 7.7 MB

Wired connection, 20 MB file:

NTFS: write - 2.4 MB read - 7.7 MB
FAT32: write - 5.2 MB read - 7.7 MB
EXT2: write - 6.3 MB read - 7.6 MB
EXT3: write - 5.9 MB read - 7.6 MB


I actually started this test on an externally powered WD 320GB 7200rpm usb2 hdd but as it is slowly dying, I was just getting stuck on bad sectors. I was however able to get a reliable result on ext3 partition which was 4.7 MB - write and 7.3 - read with 118 MB file over 5 Ghz connection.
I am going to try this test with Asus firmware once I have a moment to flash my router with it.

Please share your results and, when you will, please be specific as to which firmware version you are running, your hdd type (ext.powered/usb powered) and speed, HDD filesystem, connection type.

Cheers,
Piotr

[EDIT]

FWIW, I tested samba share with latest Asus/Merlin build 3.0.0.3.157.12 Beta.

Wifi 5 Ghz, 118 MB file:

NTFS: write - 4.1 MB read - 6.6 MB
FAT32: write - 4.1 MB read - 6.6 MB
EXT3: write - 3.9 MB read - 6.9 MB
EXT2: write - 4.0 MB read - 6.9 MB

Wifi 5Ghz, 20 MB file:

NTFS: write - 4.2 MB read - 6.7 MB
FAT32: write - 4.1 MB read - 6.5 MB
EXT3: write - 3.8 MB read - 6.7 MB
EXT2: write - 4.0 MB read - 6.8 MB

Wired, 118 MB file:

NTFS: write - 6.0 MB read - 6.0 MB
FAT32: write - 5.6 MB read - 6.0 MB
EXT3: write - 5.3 MB read - 6.7 MB
EXT2: write - 5.9 MB read - 6.3 MB

Weired, 20 MB file:

NTFS: write - 5.7 MB read - 6.0 MB
FAT32: write - 5.3 MB read - 5.7 MB
EXT3: write - 5.4 MB read - 6.4 MB
EXT2: write - 5.7 MB read - 6.5 MB


Two things to note:
- on OFW the performance of ntfs is on par with other filesystems - no reason to choose ext over it (performance-wise)
- for some strange reason the performance over wired connection (reading) seems to be worse than over wifi 5Ghz... (?)

 

[thiggins]

http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/wire...n900-gigabit-router-reviewed?showall=&start=2

Scroll down to bottom of page

 

[piotrpiano]

http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/wire...n900-gigabit-router-reviewed?showall=&start=2

Scroll down to bottom of page

Thanks for the link! Very good and thorough review.
Actually I read it a while back but at that time, for some reason, I thought you had been testing it with a LAN network drive...
It's a huge difference in speed you got there, compared to what I saw. I am wondering where is it coming from? I understand that raid setup is faster but should it really matter in such scenario? I mean, I easily get ~30MB/s transfer when I connect my drive to a PC. Differences in firmware maybe? But even using Asus stock fw I don't remember ever reaching more than 7 MB on samba transfer.
Any thoughts anyone?

 

[thiggins]

What's the config of the computer you are testing the wired transfer rate with and does it have a Gigabit NIC?

 

[piotrpiano]

What's the config of the computer you are testing the wired transfer rate with and does it have a Gigabit NIC?

Not sure what config you particularly have in mind... It's a Toshiba laptop 2Ghz Intel Dual-core running Windows 7 64bit Home Premium with pretty standard configuration.
No unfortunately I don't have a Gigabit NIC on this machine but I don't think that would be the limiting factor in this case... Through ftp connection I was getting 9MB download transfer in the same test (vs max 7.7 with samba).

BTW... Would it be possible to activate the Tapatalk app support for this forum?

 

[thiggins]

You are right. At > 12 MB/s, 100 Mbps Ethernet should be fine. Just note that I do my testing with a Gigabit connected machine. Same machine used for the NAS tests.

Tapatalk... someday when I get some free time maybe.

 

[piotrpiano]

[Test updated]

 

[RMerlin]

NTFS write performance will always be much better with Asus's firmware (which uses Paragon's NTFS proprietary driver) versus Tomato or DD-WRT (which use the much slower but open-sourced NTFS-3G driver).

Tomato/DD-WRT users should always go with ext2/ext3 whenever possible.

I would still recommend people used ext2/ext3 whenever possible with Asus's firmware - it's more reliable (and required if you want to use optware).

 

[SebZab]

I have made some tests and the samba performance is similar to outputs like @piotrpiano. Reading ~ ca. 7.5MB/s (WiFi) and 7.5MB/s (Lan).
My configuration is Lenovo G580 W7HP 64bit Intel N-6200 5Ghz USB HDD Ext3 Lan100.

I couldn't accept that WiFi speed = LAN speed. I expected that LAN speed will be ~12MB/s, so I made similar test with my 2nd laptop Dell i7 W7Prof 64bit DW1510 (Broadcom bcm94322) 5Ghz Lan 1Gb/s. And suprise... Wifi ~11MB/s, LAN ~15MB/s.

Next test was mixing WiFi cards and another suprise... Lenovo with Broadcom still running with speed 7.5MB/s, Dell with Intel 6200 still running 11MB/s.

It seems that my poor WiFi/Lan speed on cheap Lenovo is not connected with wifi card but with overall performance of whole system. Maybe the issue is a difference beetwen W7 home premium vs. Proffesional ?

Any ideas to comment that ?

 

[solo]

I have actually started another topic with a similar question here:

http://forums.smallnetbuilder.com/showthread.php?t=11929

Currently running 3.0.0.4.372.31 on the N66U
32 GB Patriot Xporter XT Rage USB flash drive
Gigabit LAN from N66U to PC
Win 7 x64

Speeds are anywhere between 5-6.5 MB/s regardless of the filesystem.

I have a setup where uTorrent is downloading files to my PC and once the download is completed, the file is moved to the USB drive attached to the router. During the PC>N66U USB transfer, the router is unresponsive, cannot reach the admin page, and browsing the drive through the network is nothing short of impossible. I also have a WDTV hardwired to the router, which normally I use to play videos files from the USB storage on the router. During the PC>N66U USB transfer, it is impossible to play anything...

 

[SebZab]

I have installed Win7 64-bit pro.
Now I have got speed USB: 12MB/s on 5Ghz and 11MB/s on LAN100