QNAP adds 5-bay SMB NAS

[Spiken]

It's interesting to see that like Thecus, Qnap has chosen a x86 platform (Celeron 1.6GHz) instead of the Synology choice (Freescale 800MHz).
[article link]

[jethro10]

Originally Posted by Spiken

It's interesting to see that like Thecus, Qnap has chosen a x86 platform (Celeron 1.6GHz) instead of the Synology choice (Freescale 800MHz).
[article link]

Sorry, I don't understand why it matters. Can someone expand?
Jeff

[thiggins]

It may or may not matter. There are many factors that affect NAS performance. CPU is just one.

[iwod]

But by looking at all the test it seems CPU IS the main factor for performance.

X86 is much cheaper and software are more widely available.

I am still hoping to see the new SoC from Intel or Intel Atom being used in NAS.

[thiggins]

Originally Posted by iwod

But by looking at all the test it seems CPU IS the main factor for performance.

CPU is one of the factors in performance. I will be exploring what makes a NAS fast in an upcoming article series. CPU will be one factor. OS, memory, Ethernet will be others.

Originally Posted by thiggins

CPU is one of the factors in performance. I will be exploring what makes a NAS fast in an upcoming article series. CPU will be one factor. OS, memory, Ethernet will be others.

I for one would be very interested in that article

I believe that RAM has a big factor in determining performance. Perhaps Small Net Builder can use a larger file to test NAS systems, such as 2GB? I think all of the performance is cached within the RAM, which alters the test results.

[thiggins]

Yes. RAM is a big factor. But once the test platform is changed, products tested with the new platform will not be directly comparable to products tested with the old platform.

At some point we will change to a newer platform. In the meantime, we will be exploring many of the factors that affect NAS performance in an upcoming article series.