Performance

I tested the TS-1079 Pro with 3.5.2 Build 1126T firmware, using our NAS test process and four-drive RAID 0, 5 and 10 volumes. The Benchmark summary below shows RAID 0, 5 and 10 results, along with iSCSI write /read and attached and networked (rsync) backup.

TS-1079 Pro Benchmark summary

Windows File Copy in all tested RAID modes measured 105 MB/s or slightly higher for both read and write. I suspect that this is at or near the limit of our testbed with a Gigabit Ethernet connection.

Intel NASPT File Copy results came in consistently higher with RAID 0, 5 and 10 results all over 130 MB/s. NASPT file copy from the NAS, however, was significantly slower, all measuring around 88 MB/s. As is typical, the NASPT Directory copy test, which copies many smaller files ran much lower, in the 18 - 20 MB/s range.

iSCSI performance using a 10 GB target on a RAID 5 volume was pretty good at 106 MB/s write and 94 MB/s read.

Attached backup to our standard Iomega UltraMax Pro drive in RAID 0 ran at 97 MB/s when FAT and NTFS formats were used. Best speed with the same drive connected via USB 2.0 was 29 MB/s with FAT format.

I tried to mount a WD MyBook 3.0 drive to test USB 3.0 backup speed, but could not get the drive to mount after multiple attempts. I flagged QNAP about this, but received no explanation. Network backup to a DeltaCopy target on our NAS Testbed system clocked in at 41 MB/s.

A competitive view is shown in the RAID 10 File Copy charts below. I used RAID 10 vs. RAID 5 because it imposes the toughest computational load on the NAS. Since there are no other 10 bay NASes, I did not filter the charts for drive count.

The 1070 Pro is the only Intel i3-based NAS in the chart. But all the competitors near the top of the chart are Intel based. The older Thecus N7700Pro runs on an Intel Core 2 Duo, while the newer N5200XXX uses a D525 Atom.

TS-1079 Pro File copy - Raid 10 - write

In the Read chart, the Synology DS2411+ also uses a D525 Atom, while the older DS411+ uses an Atom D510.

TS-1079 Pro File copy - Raid 10 - read

It's interesting that the Atom-based NASes, which are much cheaper and less power-hungry than the i3-based 1070 Pro are pretty close in performance. Use the NAS Charts to further explore and compare the TS1079 Pro's performance

10 GbE Test

When I tested the Synology DS2411+, I ran some tests with its dual Gigabit Ethernet ports in 802.3ad link aggregation mode. The details are here, but the short story is that I got around 156 MB/s write and a best case read of 178 MB/s. This was with a RAID 5 volume.

This time, QNAP asked me if I'd like to try a test using a 10 GbE connection, so I thought I'd give it a shot. I installed the loaner Intel X520-DA2 dual-port adapter in the NAS testbed machine in the ASUS P7H57D-V EVO motherboard's PCIe 2.0 x1 5GT/s slot. I downloaded the latest driver (2.9.71.0 Win 7 64 bit), set static IP addresses on the testbed and NAS 10 GbE ports, connected the cable and disconnected the Gigabit Ethernet cable to ensure that the 10 GbE interface was used. I then ran my standard benchmark suite, which runs the Windows file copy and Intel NASPT tests three times. The NAS was configured in RAID 5 for the test.

The NASPT test results shown below are the average of three test runs. The NASPT file copy results of 290 MB/s write and 324 MB/s read can be compared to 133 MB/s write and 87 MB/s read running the same tests with a 1 GbE connection. I have no explanation for the much lower read results with the 1 GbE connection vs. the 10 GbE. If QNAP comes back with an explanation, I'll update it here.

TS-1079 Pro 10 Gbe test - NASPT

The Windows filecopy and iSCSI tests are shown in the table below. The large numbers are the direct Bytes/sec output from the robocopy runs, which are averaged and converted to MB/s for the bolded results. As with the 1 GbE connection tests, the Windows filecopy tests run lower than the NASPT results. But they still are significantly higher than the 107 MB/s write and 106 MB/s read results with the Gigabit Ethernet connection.

TS-1079 Pro 10 Gbe test - Windows file copy, iSCSI

I was quite suprised that iSCSI performance improved as much as it did, especially for read, which measured only 94 MB/s with a 1 GbE connection.

Closing Thoughts

At around $2,500 without drives, QNAP's TS-1079 Pro is not going to find its way to many consumers' homes. But small businesses looking for a less expensive (and less expandable) alternative to Synology's DS3611xs may want to warm up their checkbooks.