NASLite Network Attached Storage

First post!

So I recently purchased NASlite+ USB for a TB media server in my house. I put 2 Maxtor 250GB 7200.8 and 2 WD 250GB 7200.2 hard drives in it. I am running an ASUS P2B, 500Mhz PIII, and 320MB RAM. I kick from a floppy (one of the great alternate floppies I found in the forum, the one that came with 1.5 wouldn't work, thx whoever made those!) to a 128MB USB drive. All in all I would say this server has cost me >$50 and runs wonderfully.

Now being the geek I am the first thing I did once I had it up and running for a day was bench it. I ran diskwriggler with the "diskwriggler -NTSC -C -t -n 2000 -o Z:\" command and this is what I got:

Write Summary : 2000.00 frames in 172.61 secs
: 0.26(min) 11.59(avg) 16.60(max) FPS
: 0.17(min) 7.73(avg) 11.08(max) MB/s

Read Summary : 2000.00 frames in 210.05 secs
: 0.16(min) 9.52(avg) 16.00(max) FPS
: 0.11(min) 6.35(avg) 10.68(max) MB/s

Does that seem a little low to anyone? The write speeds seem to be ok, having a peak and valley here and there, but the read times feel a little sluggish. I thought maybe this was due to the difference in cache sizes (8MB on the Maxtor vs. 2MB on the WD) but all disks give me roughly this same performance. So after looking over the logs I noticed the hard drives were only running in UDMA(33) which sort of suprised me. I did some checking and discovered that the Asus P2B only supports ATA33.

So after drawing this out and explaining in way too much depth, my question is this: Would I see a decent performance increase if I poured out 20 or so bucks on an Abit BE6-II which supports UDMA100? How about if I upgraded the board and added a gigabit NIC? I wasn't planning on upgrading to gigabit yet (I have 2 high end computers in my house with onboard gigabit, the other 6 or so are loosely put together junk boxes ranging from a P4 2.6Ghz down to a Duron 900Mhz, needless to say none have gigabit) but it isn't out of the question. Basically is it worth the dough? Here is my system tab just in case I wasn't quite thorough enough.

Operating System

Linux 2.4.27.NASLite #5 Wed Oct 12 06:10:14 UTC 2005 i686

Uptime

00:30:01 up 22:53, load average: 0.00, 0.23, 0.21

Processor (CPU)

vendor_id : GenuineIntel
model name : Pentium III (Katmai)
cpu MHz : 501.145
cache size : 512 KB
bogomips : 999.42

Memory

total used free shared buffers
Mem: 354156 349884 4272 0 10400

Disks

Filesystem Size Used Available Use% Device
System 7.7M 3.7M 4.1M 47% RAM Disk
Storage Area 229.2G 96.3G 132.9G 42% NAS Disk-1
Storage Area 230.1G 130.5G 99.6G 57% NAS Disk-2
Storage Area 230.1G 130.0G 100.1G 56% NAS Disk-3
Storage Area 229.2G 115.2G 114.0G 50% NAS Disk-4

Network Interface

RealTek RTL8139 at 0xd6800000, 00:10:b5:8f:92:a0, IRQ 10
Identified 8139 chip type 'RTL-8139B'
link up, 100Mbps, full-duplex, lpa 0x45E1
Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:10:B5:8F:92:A0
inet addr:192.168.2.100 Bcast:192.168.2.255 Mask:255.255.255.0
UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:4676151 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:3042680 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
RX bytes:1910622041 (1.7 GiB) TX bytes:1587000589 (1.4 GiB)
Interrupt:10

And to reply to my own thread, the BX chipset only supports ATA33 and seeing as NASlite+ doesn't support RAID (yet) the BE6-2 V2 will not yield ATA100.

Are there any decent motherboards out there that support ATA100 on a slot-1 cpu?

total,
Can't help you on the motherboard choice but I can say that upgrading your hardware to equipment that supports IDE100 or even 133 (vers 2.0 may support 133) and also maybe a motherboard with SATA connections, (vers 2.0 is definitely going to support SATA) and coupling it all up to a gigabit network will give you a noticeable increase in performance. I run an MSI socket A motherboard that supports UDMA100 and my home network is gigabit, I stream mp3's, ripped dvd's and also I have 20 or so High Def movies that now play smoothly but were so stuttery on my old dma66 m/board they were unwatchable.
Ofcourse my dilema now is my NASbox is powerful enough to comfortably run a regular OS such as XP that could have RAID, media serving etc etc

wilbur, thanks for the response. I don't really have any need for SATA in my box as I don't have any SATA drives in there. The TB should house my data fine for at least the next few years, so the hard drives are kind of stuck. I would like to keep the hardware requirements as low as possible as extra watts = more power = more heat = hardware failures (I'd also like to keep my energy bill low even with the new server up all the time). So I'd like to improve my throughput on the NASlite+ box without jumping to a new platform. Any other suggestions for a slot 1 board supporting ATA100?

With your setup Wilbur I reckon you could run a few OS's on your MEGA PC. and all at the same time

eden

Nobody on this one eh?

I am also running an ATA33 MB and get numbers similar to those posting with diskwriggler (10MB/s write and 6 MB/s read). Anyone have numbers on an ATA100 or 133 board? I would upgrade the MB if it would make a difference.

I just happen to read this message and decided to run the test on my system
Here are the stats.

Writing 2000 x 699840 byte frames into file x:\/framestream.dat
215 frames in 5.00 secs ==> 43.00 FPS (28.70 MB/s)
227 frames in 5.00 secs ==> 45.40 FPS (30.30 MB/s)
224 frames in 5.00 secs ==> 44.80 FPS (29.90 MB/s)
216 frames in 5.00 secs ==> 43.20 FPS (28.83 MB/s)
244 frames in 5.00 secs ==> 48.80 FPS (32.57 MB/s)
214 frames in 5.00 secs ==> 42.80 FPS (28.57 MB/s)
216 frames in 5.00 secs ==> 43.20 FPS (28.83 MB/s)
212 frames in 5.02 secs ==> 42.27 FPS (28.21 MB/s)
202 frames in 5.00 secs ==> 40.40 FPS (26.96 MB/s)
30 frames in 0.67 secs ==> 44.65 FPS (29.80 MB/s)

Write Summary : 2000.00 frames in 45.69 secs
: 40.40(min) 43.78(avg) 48.80(max) FPS
: 26.96(min) 29.22(avg) 32.57(max) MB/s

Reading 2000 x 699840 byte frames from file x:\/framestream.dat
120 frames in 5.00 secs ==> 24.00 FPS (16.02 MB/s)
119 frames in 5.02 secs ==> 23.73 FPS (15.84 MB/s)
128 frames in 5.08 secs ==> 25.21 FPS (16.82 MB/s)
125 frames in 5.05 secs ==> 24.77 FPS (16.53 MB/s)
123 frames in 5.00 secs ==> 24.60 FPS (16.42 MB/s)
135 frames in 5.38 secs ==> 25.12 FPS (16.76 MB/s)
81 frames in 5.05 secs ==> 16.05 FPS (10.71 MB/s)
124 frames in 5.06 secs ==> 24.49 FPS (16.35 MB/s)
124 frames in 5.02 secs ==> 24.72 FPS (16.50 MB/s)
117 frames in 5.02 secs ==> 23.33 FPS (15.57 MB/s)
128 frames in 5.05 secs ==> 25.36 FPS (16.93 MB/s)
85 frames in 5.00 secs ==> 17.00 FPS (11.35 MB/s)
124 frames in 5.00 secs ==> 24.80 FPS (16.55 MB/s)
129 frames in 5.08 secs ==> 25.40 FPS (16.95 MB/s)
133 frames in 5.09 secs ==> 26.11 FPS (17.43 MB/s)
125 frames in 5.02 secs ==> 24.92 FPS (16.63 MB/s)
80 frames in 3.00 secs ==> 26.67 FPS (17.80 MB/s)

Read Summary : 2000.00 frames in 83.89 secs
: 16.05(min) 23.84(avg) 26.67(max) FPS
: 10.71(min) 15.91(avg) 17.80(max) MB/s

System Info

Operating System

Linux 2.4.27.NASLite #5 Wed Oct 12 06:10:14 UTC 2005 i686


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Uptime
21:55:01 up 54 min, load average: 0.00, 0.06, 0.10


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Processor (CPU)
vendor_id : AuthenticAMD
model name : AMD Athlon(tm) XP 1800+
cpu MHz : 1526.826
cache size : 256 KB
bogomips : 3047.42


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Memory
total used free shared buffers
Mem: 483764 479000 4764 0 3088


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Disks
Filesystem Size Used Available Use% Device
System 7.7M 3.7M 4.1M 47% RAM Disk
Storage Area 229.2G 35.1G 194.1G 15% NAS Disk-1
Storage Area 229.2G 1.3G 227.9G 1% NAS Disk-3


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Network Interface
DGE-530T Gigabit Ethernet Adapter
network connection up using port A
Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:05:5D:9F:4D:A7
inet addr:192.168.1.2 Bcast:192.168.1.255 Mask:255.255.255.0
UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:2379878 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:2668187 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
RX bytes:2939075654 (2.7 GiB) TX bytes:2966681019 (2.7 GiB)
Interrupt:11 Memory:eb000000-0


I hope this answers the ata 100/133 scores.

Neil.

Neil:

NICE ! The CPU is obviously listed ... but what MB brand and model is it ?

And, what are your two HDD ? (Brand and Model and/or Buffer Size.)

Thanks,
Georg

Georg:

The motherboard is an Asus A7V8X-MX-SE. Don't let the fancy name fool ya, Its a $45 board when it came out years ago.
Two hard drives are Western Digital 250 GB ATA 100 SE 8 meg cache.
I plan on Adding more drives to the bare bone system.
It has a 550 watt power supply running just the mb and drives (plus the 16 meg usb boot drive). I disabled the onboard lan and installed the Gig nic instead. Mucho faster

Neil.

Neil:
Thanks ... that's good info. Looks like that Gigabit NIC is worth the upgrade.
Georg

Whoa, thought this thread was dead.

Apparently not.

Does anyone have any stats on running a gigabit card on ATA33?

I am considering upgrading my entire network but don't really feel like tearing the Naslite server down again. However if I am bottlenecked at the BX chip I won't bother until I have enough $ to upgrade the Naslite box too.

I guess I am just trying to see where my bottleneck is on this config.

Thanks for the input everyone, it has been enlightening.

Total, just run diskwriggler on my NAS gigabit nic, to my ATA33 drive, compared to my UDMA100 drive, see below (further below ) my bottle neck seems to be with reading, i can write really quickly but reading is slow, which is a pain when I want to read (stream) movies etc

results of test on ATA33

C:\diskWriggler>diskWriggler -NTSC -C -t -n 2000 -o Z:\
Frame Resolution : 720 x 486
Bytes / Pixel : 2.00 (packed) (8 bit, 4:2:2 sampling)
Frame Size : 699,840 bytes
File Type : All frames in one container file (1,399,680,000 bytes).

Writing 2000 x 699840 byte frames into file Z:\/framestream.dat
156 frames in 5.83 secs ==> 26.77 FPS (17.86 MB/s)
189 frames in 5.81 secs ==> 32.52 FPS (21.70 MB/s)
160 frames in 5.00 secs ==> 32.00 FPS (21.36 MB/s)
154 frames in 5.00 secs ==> 30.80 FPS (20.56 MB/s)
159 frames in 5.00 secs ==> 31.80 FPS (21.22 MB/s)
130 frames in 5.00 secs ==> 26.00 FPS (17.35 MB/s)
152 frames in 5.00 secs ==> 30.40 FPS (20.29 MB/s)
145 frames in 5.53 secs ==> 26.21 FPS (17.50 MB/s)
141 frames in 5.20 secs ==> 27.10 FPS (18.09 MB/s)
160 frames in 5.00 secs ==> 32.00 FPS (21.36 MB/s)
138 frames in 5.00 secs ==> 27.60 FPS (18.42 MB/s)
113 frames in 5.00 secs ==> 22.60 FPS (15.08 MB/s)
149 frames in 5.45 secs ==> 27.32 FPS (18.24 MB/s)
54 frames in 2.31 secs ==> 23.35 FPS (15.59 MB/s)

Write Summary : 2000.00 frames in 70.14 secs
: 22.60(min) 28.51(avg) 32.52(max) FPS
: 15.08(min) 19.03(avg) 21.70(max) MB/s

Reading 2000 x 699840 byte frames from file Z:\/framestream.dat
35 frames in 5.19 secs ==> 6.75 FPS (4.50 MB/s)
57 frames in 5.00 secs ==> 11.40 FPS (7.61 MB/s)
60 frames in 5.03 secs ==> 11.93 FPS (7.96 MB/s)
61 frames in 5.17 secs ==> 11.79 FPS (7.87 MB/s)
55 frames in 5.06 secs ==> 10.86 FPS (7.25 MB/s)
68 frames in 5.11 secs ==> 13.31 FPS (8.88 MB/s)
65 frames in 5.02 secs ==> 12.96 FPS (8.65 MB/s)
66 frames in 5.05 secs ==> 13.08 FPS (8.73 MB/s)
68 frames in 5.08 secs ==> 13.39 FPS (8.94 MB/s)
66 frames in 5.09 secs ==> 12.96 FPS (8.65 MB/s)
64 frames in 5.00 secs ==> 12.80 FPS (8.54 MB/s)
68 frames in 5.03 secs ==> 13.52 FPS (9.02 MB/s)
64 frames in 5.08 secs ==> 12.60 FPS (8.41 MB/s)
62 frames in 5.03 secs ==> 12.32 FPS (8.22 MB/s)
71 frames in 5.08 secs ==> 13.98 FPS (9.33 MB/s)
69 frames in 5.03 secs ==> 13.71 FPS (9.15 MB/s)
56 frames in 5.17 secs ==> 10.83 FPS (7.23 MB/s)
57 frames in 5.16 secs ==> 11.05 FPS (7.38 MB/s)
57 frames in 5.03 secs ==> 11.33 FPS (7.56 MB/s)
63 frames in 5.06 secs ==> 12.44 FPS (8.31 MB/s)
78 frames in 5.00 secs ==> 15.60 FPS (10.41 MB/s)
61 frames in 5.02 secs ==> 12.16 FPS (8.12 MB/s)
65 frames in 5.05 secs ==> 12.88 FPS (8.60 MB/s)
88 frames in 5.00 secs ==> 17.60 FPS (11.75 MB/s)
65 frames in 5.00 secs ==> 13.00 FPS (8.68 MB/s)
67 frames in 5.02 secs ==> 13.36 FPS (8.92 MB/s)
66 frames in 5.02 secs ==> 13.16 FPS (8.78 MB/s)
67 frames in 5.00 secs ==> 13.40 FPS (8.94 MB/s)
63 frames in 5.03 secs ==> 12.52 FPS (8.36 MB/s)
70 frames in 5.06 secs ==> 13.83 FPS (9.23 MB/s)
59 frames in 5.02 secs ==> 11.76 FPS (7.85 MB/s)
19 frames in 1.72 secs ==> 11.05 FPS (7.38 MB/s)

Read Summary : 2000.00 frames in 161.70 secs
: 6.75(min) 12.37(avg) 17.60(max) FPS
: 4.50(min) 8.25(avg) 11.75(max) MB/s

results of test to UDMA100

C:\diskW>diskWriggler -NTSC -C -t -n 2000 -o W:\
Frame Resolution : 720 x 486
Bytes / Pixel : 2.00 (packed) (8 bit, 4:2:2 sampling)
Frame Size : 699,840 bytes
File Type : All frames in one container file (1,399,680,000 bytes).

Writing 2000 x 699840 byte frames into file W:\/framestream.dat
283 frames in 5.00 secs ==> 56.60 FPS (37.78 MB/s)
299 frames in 5.06 secs ==> 59.06 FPS (39.42 MB/s)
258 frames in 5.00 secs ==> 51.60 FPS (34.44 MB/s)
301 frames in 5.00 secs ==> 60.20 FPS (40.18 MB/s)
296 frames in 5.00 secs ==> 59.20 FPS (39.51 MB/s)
317 frames in 5.00 secs ==> 63.40 FPS (42.31 MB/s)
246 frames in 3.84 secs ==> 64.00 FPS (42.71 MB/s)

Write Summary : 2000.00 frames in 33.91 secs
: 51.60(min) 58.99(avg) 64.00(max) FPS
: 34.44(min) 39.37(avg) 42.71(max) MB/s

Reading 2000 x 699840 byte frames from file W:\/framestream.dat
37 frames in 5.00 secs ==> 7.40 FPS (4.94 MB/s)
64 frames in 5.03 secs ==> 12.72 FPS (8.49 MB/s)
65 frames in 5.00 secs ==> 13.00 FPS (8.68 MB/s)
83 frames in 5.17 secs ==> 16.05 FPS (10.71 MB/s)
69 frames in 5.00 secs ==> 13.80 FPS (9.21 MB/s)
68 frames in 5.50 secs ==> 12.36 FPS (8.25 MB/s)
85 frames in 5.00 secs ==> 17.00 FPS (11.35 MB/s)
55 frames in 5.48 secs ==> 10.03 FPS (6.69 MB/s)
71 frames in 5.00 secs ==> 14.20 FPS (9.48 MB/s)
80 frames in 5.39 secs ==> 14.84 FPS (9.90 MB/s)
74 frames in 5.02 secs ==> 14.75 FPS (9.85 MB/s)
80 frames in 5.17 secs ==> 15.47 FPS (10.32 MB/s)
79 frames in 5.00 secs ==> 15.80 FPS (10.55 MB/s)
74 frames in 5.00 secs ==> 14.80 FPS (9.88 MB/s)
76 frames in 5.05 secs ==> 15.06 FPS (10.05 MB/s)
55 frames in 5.17 secs ==> 10.63 FPS (7.10 MB/s)
90 frames in 5.03 secs ==> 17.89 FPS (11.94 MB/s)
56 frames in 5.00 secs ==> 11.20 FPS (7.48 MB/s)
73 frames in 5.08 secs ==> 14.38 FPS (9.59 MB/s)
64 frames in 5.13 secs ==> 12.49 FPS (8.33 MB/s)
86 frames in 5.00 secs ==> 17.20 FPS (11.48 MB/s)
75 frames in 5.02 secs ==> 14.95 FPS (9.98 MB/s)
75 frames in 5.00 secs ==> 15.00 FPS (10.01 MB/s)
91 frames in 5.00 secs ==> 18.20 FPS (12.15 MB/s)
63 frames in 5.03 secs ==> 12.52 FPS (8.36 MB/s)
86 frames in 5.02 secs ==> 17.15 FPS (11.44 MB/s)
47 frames in 5.27 secs ==> 8.93 FPS (5.96 MB/s)
61 frames in 5.25 secs ==> 11.62 FPS (7.75 MB/s)
18 frames in 0.91 secs ==> 19.86 FPS (13.26 MB/s)

Read Summary : 2000.00 frames in 143.70 secs
: 7.40(min) 13.92(avg) 19.86(max) FPS
: 4.94(min) 9.29(avg) 13.26(max) MB/s

Hope this helps

Wilbur

Total, just run diskwriggler on my NAS gigabit nic, to my ATA33 drive, compared to my UDMA100 drive, see below (further below ) my bottle neck seems to be with reading, i can write really quickly but reading is slow, which is a pain when I want to read (stream) movies etc

results of test on ATA33

C:\diskWriggler>diskWriggler -NTSC -C -t -n 2000 -o Z:\
Frame Resolution : 720 x 486
Bytes / Pixel : 2.00 (packed) (8 bit, 4:2:2 sampling)
Frame Size : 699,840 bytes
File Type : All frames in one container file (1,399,680,000 bytes).

Writing 2000 x 699840 byte frames into file Z:\/framestream.dat
156 frames in 5.83 secs ==> 26.77 FPS (17.86 MB/s)
189 frames in 5.81 secs ==> 32.52 FPS (21.70 MB/s)
160 frames in 5.00 secs ==> 32.00 FPS (21.36 MB/s)
154 frames in 5.00 secs ==> 30.80 FPS (20.56 MB/s)
159 frames in 5.00 secs ==> 31.80 FPS (21.22 MB/s)
130 frames in 5.00 secs ==> 26.00 FPS (17.35 MB/s)
152 frames in 5.00 secs ==> 30.40 FPS (20.29 MB/s)
145 frames in 5.53 secs ==> 26.21 FPS (17.50 MB/s)
141 frames in 5.20 secs ==> 27.10 FPS (18.09 MB/s)
160 frames in 5.00 secs ==> 32.00 FPS (21.36 MB/s)
138 frames in 5.00 secs ==> 27.60 FPS (18.42 MB/s)
113 frames in 5.00 secs ==> 22.60 FPS (15.08 MB/s)
149 frames in 5.45 secs ==> 27.32 FPS (18.24 MB/s)
54 frames in 2.31 secs ==> 23.35 FPS (15.59 MB/s)

Write Summary : 2000.00 frames in 70.14 secs
: 22.60(min) 28.51(avg) 32.52(max) FPS
: 15.08(min) 19.03(avg) 21.70(max) MB/s

Reading 2000 x 699840 byte frames from file Z:\/framestream.dat
35 frames in 5.19 secs ==> 6.75 FPS (4.50 MB/s)
57 frames in 5.00 secs ==> 11.40 FPS (7.61 MB/s)
60 frames in 5.03 secs ==> 11.93 FPS (7.96 MB/s)
61 frames in 5.17 secs ==> 11.79 FPS (7.87 MB/s)
55 frames in 5.06 secs ==> 10.86 FPS (7.25 MB/s)
68 frames in 5.11 secs ==> 13.31 FPS (8.88 MB/s)
65 frames in 5.02 secs ==> 12.96 FPS (8.65 MB/s)
66 frames in 5.05 secs ==> 13.08 FPS (8.73 MB/s)
68 frames in 5.08 secs ==> 13.39 FPS (8.94 MB/s)
66 frames in 5.09 secs ==> 12.96 FPS (8.65 MB/s)
64 frames in 5.00 secs ==> 12.80 FPS (8.54 MB/s)
68 frames in 5.03 secs ==> 13.52 FPS (9.02 MB/s)
64 frames in 5.08 secs ==> 12.60 FPS (8.41 MB/s)
62 frames in 5.03 secs ==> 12.32 FPS (8.22 MB/s)
71 frames in 5.08 secs ==> 13.98 FPS (9.33 MB/s)
69 frames in 5.03 secs ==> 13.71 FPS (9.15 MB/s)
56 frames in 5.17 secs ==> 10.83 FPS (7.23 MB/s)
57 frames in 5.16 secs ==> 11.05 FPS (7.38 MB/s)
57 frames in 5.03 secs ==> 11.33 FPS (7.56 MB/s)
63 frames in 5.06 secs ==> 12.44 FPS (8.31 MB/s)
78 frames in 5.00 secs ==> 15.60 FPS (10.41 MB/s)
61 frames in 5.02 secs ==> 12.16 FPS (8.12 MB/s)
65 frames in 5.05 secs ==> 12.88 FPS (8.60 MB/s)
88 frames in 5.00 secs ==> 17.60 FPS (11.75 MB/s)
65 frames in 5.00 secs ==> 13.00 FPS (8.68 MB/s)
67 frames in 5.02 secs ==> 13.36 FPS (8.92 MB/s)
66 frames in 5.02 secs ==> 13.16 FPS (8.78 MB/s)
67 frames in 5.00 secs ==> 13.40 FPS (8.94 MB/s)
63 frames in 5.03 secs ==> 12.52 FPS (8.36 MB/s)
70 frames in 5.06 secs ==> 13.83 FPS (9.23 MB/s)
59 frames in 5.02 secs ==> 11.76 FPS (7.85 MB/s)
19 frames in 1.72 secs ==> 11.05 FPS (7.38 MB/s)

Read Summary : 2000.00 frames in 161.70 secs
: 6.75(min) 12.37(avg) 17.60(max) FPS
: 4.50(min) 8.25(avg) 11.75(max) MB/s

results of test to UDMA100

C:\diskW>diskWriggler -NTSC -C -t -n 2000 -o W:\
Frame Resolution : 720 x 486
Bytes / Pixel : 2.00 (packed) (8 bit, 4:2:2 sampling)
Frame Size : 699,840 bytes
File Type : All frames in one container file (1,399,680,000 bytes).

Writing 2000 x 699840 byte frames into file W:\/framestream.dat
283 frames in 5.00 secs ==> 56.60 FPS (37.78 MB/s)
299 frames in 5.06 secs ==> 59.06 FPS (39.42 MB/s)
258 frames in 5.00 secs ==> 51.60 FPS (34.44 MB/s)
301 frames in 5.00 secs ==> 60.20 FPS (40.18 MB/s)
296 frames in 5.00 secs ==> 59.20 FPS (39.51 MB/s)
317 frames in 5.00 secs ==> 63.40 FPS (42.31 MB/s)
246 frames in 3.84 secs ==> 64.00 FPS (42.71 MB/s)

Write Summary : 2000.00 frames in 33.91 secs
: 51.60(min) 58.99(avg) 64.00(max) FPS
: 34.44(min) 39.37(avg) 42.71(max) MB/s

Reading 2000 x 699840 byte frames from file W:\/framestream.dat
37 frames in 5.00 secs ==> 7.40 FPS (4.94 MB/s)
64 frames in 5.03 secs ==> 12.72 FPS (8.49 MB/s)
65 frames in 5.00 secs ==> 13.00 FPS (8.68 MB/s)
83 frames in 5.17 secs ==> 16.05 FPS (10.71 MB/s)
69 frames in 5.00 secs ==> 13.80 FPS (9.21 MB/s)
68 frames in 5.50 secs ==> 12.36 FPS (8.25 MB/s)
85 frames in 5.00 secs ==> 17.00 FPS (11.35 MB/s)
55 frames in 5.48 secs ==> 10.03 FPS (6.69 MB/s)
71 frames in 5.00 secs ==> 14.20 FPS (9.48 MB/s)
80 frames in 5.39 secs ==> 14.84 FPS (9.90 MB/s)
74 frames in 5.02 secs ==> 14.75 FPS (9.85 MB/s)
80 frames in 5.17 secs ==> 15.47 FPS (10.32 MB/s)
79 frames in 5.00 secs ==> 15.80 FPS (10.55 MB/s)
74 frames in 5.00 secs ==> 14.80 FPS (9.88 MB/s)
76 frames in 5.05 secs ==> 15.06 FPS (10.05 MB/s)
55 frames in 5.17 secs ==> 10.63 FPS (7.10 MB/s)
90 frames in 5.03 secs ==> 17.89 FPS (11.94 MB/s)
56 frames in 5.00 secs ==> 11.20 FPS (7.48 MB/s)
73 frames in 5.08 secs ==> 14.38 FPS (9.59 MB/s)
64 frames in 5.13 secs ==> 12.49 FPS (8.33 MB/s)
86 frames in 5.00 secs ==> 17.20 FPS (11.48 MB/s)
75 frames in 5.02 secs ==> 14.95 FPS (9.98 MB/s)
75 frames in 5.00 secs ==> 15.00 FPS (10.01 MB/s)
91 frames in 5.00 secs ==> 18.20 FPS (12.15 MB/s)
63 frames in 5.03 secs ==> 12.52 FPS (8.36 MB/s)
86 frames in 5.02 secs ==> 17.15 FPS (11.44 MB/s)
47 frames in 5.27 secs ==> 8.93 FPS (5.96 MB/s)
61 frames in 5.25 secs ==> 11.62 FPS (7.75 MB/s)
18 frames in 0.91 secs ==> 19.86 FPS (13.26 MB/s)

Read Summary : 2000.00 frames in 143.70 secs
: 7.40(min) 13.92(avg) 19.86(max) FPS
: 4.94(min) 9.29(avg) 13.26(max) MB/s

Hope this helps

Wilbur

Total: if you do a little math you'll see you're bumping up against the 100mbit ceiling, not the ATA33 ceiling. Your max value was 11.08MB/s or 88.64mbit, which when you factor in protocol overhead is about as fast as you can get out of a 100mbit nic.

Best bang for the buck in this scenario is a new gigabit nic, which will move the bottleneck to the disk controller. Still, it's a cheap way to double your throughput.