I do file saves all day at 50 gig a time...How do I speed it up?

I'm no computer expert but,... What type of network cards/hub/routers are you using?

A good network card and a good router should support up to 100MB easy.

100MB sec > 1GB 10sec > 60GB 60sec.

I dunno, i'd wonder why it isn't faster on your network.

its all a matter of bottlenecks

what kind/s of harddrives are you moving your files from? what type of RAID are they in?
what type of cable are you using to transfer from point a to b? are other workmates using that same cable to transfer their info at the same time?
and lastly what kind of harddrives are at point b? what type of RAID?

new 500GB harddrives typicaly have a sustained read of about 100MB/s on the outer edge and fall to rughly 60MB/s as you fill the drive up.

according to my calculations if it takes just over an hour to transfer 50GB to your RAID then you appear to be using a 100Megabit (12.5MegaByte/sec) connection, which will be your bottleneck.

one rather important question is where are the RAID harddrives in relation to your main computer?

if yor RAID array is very close to your main computer then a possible upgrade could be upgrade your motherboard to one so that it has two gigabit ethernet ports, get a gigabit ethernet cable (cat 6?) and you might need to upgrade the RAIDed harddrives enclosure to one that can handle gigabit ethernet. so you would have your companys network ethernet connect to your computer in one ethernet port, and through the other have the gigabit ethernet connect directly to your RAID enclosure. this should give you nice 100MB/s speeds to your RAID as Dewm points out.

What would you recommend? What is a good network card and router?

I have a gigabit router (linksys). Broadcom NetXtreme 57xx Gigabit Controller

I have no idea what the HD is. It just states ARRAY in properties.

non-volatile flash





all I know is it is a 1tb RAID. It is a standalone PC.



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That sounds a little over my head/experience. I can install drives etc but mobos scare me when my work PC is involved :-)

I was hoping to speed it up without worrying about a possible reinstall of my windows etc due to mobo drivers

Yeah if your looking for quick fixes, and without upgrading the server/clients PC's... I would look at the network.

The router sounds fine. What I would do is first get/rent hire a fluke cable tester (they run around 4,000.00) so I would just hire a company to do it for you.

The Fluke will test all of your cables and make sure they are up to par, on average you should have at least 15db head room.

if your cables check out, the next step is to look at the network cards on your PC and server. if they are old/stock I would recomend upgrading them.

Those will probably be your easiest solutions.
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I know from experience that alot of times when a contracter is running cat5 in a building things tend to be messy. If its an older building even more so. Years of people cutting corners getting kinks in your cable stuff like that.

Also, how far away are the client PCs? are you running cabling...50ft? 300ft? any idea?

after thinking about it some more ive come up with an even better (hopefully) idea than before, but first one question:
are you the only person that need the faster transfer speeds? (from the wording of your first post it sounds like only you need faster access to the RAIDed harddrives)

also since you said the RAIDed harddrives are in their own stand alone PC then just maybe it should have an extra pci or pcie slot for you to use...

buy 2 of these gigabit ethernet cards, one for your computer and for the RAID PC. (pci or pcie whichever you need)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...
and get a cat5 or 6 cable to connect the two cards/computers. this will give you and only you gigabit transfer speeds to the RAID harddrives.