NAS Without the Mass: Vantec NexStar LX Review- Page 5/6
July 24, 2006
By
Thomas Soderstrom
Performance
To test the Vantec NexStar LX's performance as both a network and USB drive, we chose to continue using a system based on Foxconn’s WinFast 6150K8MA-8EKRS motherboard, ensuring a fair comparison with previously reviewed external drives. We also used a Maxtor DiamondMax 10 as the test drive in the enclosure, and the Barracuda 7200.9 as a system drive.
A little background: Maximum theoretical USB 2.0 transfer rate is 480 megabits per second (equivalent to 60MB/s), but reviews have shown most enclosures reach approximately 25MB/s in reality. Because the NexStar LX supports 10/100 networking, we were hoping to see similar performance between it and the USB 2.0 interface, though experience suggests that this interface should be around half as fast. Also included are the drives native performance numbers when connected to the motherboard’s ATA133 controller -- for those wondering about what they'd lose by moving to an external enclosure.
SiSoft Sandra 2005’s file system benchmark allows testing of both local and network drives.
Anything over 10 megabits would have been good network drive performance, but the approximate 4 megabit speed is lower than Sandra’s 10/100 comparison drives. USB 2.0 interface performance was average, leaving the earlier-reviewed NexStar GX in its commanding position.
Here, we compare network to USB seek times -- not exactly fair, perhaps, but important in terms of assessing the performance cost of network-attached storage. 54ms is an acceptable network drive access time, given that ping time and actual seek time are added.
Our remaining benchmarks are unable to test network drives, but USB performance is still relevant:
The NexStar GX keeps us loving its USB superiority, while the LX again looks average.
The NAS-equipped NexStar LX actually takes a win in HD Tach’s Access Times, when using the USB 2.0 interface.
H2benchw shows more USB 2.0 superiority for the NexStar GX, and more mediocrity from the NexStar LX’s USB 2.0 interface.
H2benchw’s random access times are similar for both USB and IDE configurations.
In terms of environmental testing, the NexStar LX did a good job of keeping our relatively noisy Maxtor DiamondMax 10 hard drive quiet, and we had to get very close to the unit to hear its fan running in automatic mode. Manual modes, though not needed by most users, are near-silent at low speed and moderately noisy at high speed.
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