Would these support 2.5GBASE-T and 5GBASE-T as well? I'm guessing that it might be a relevant question for SMB / home users, because I've seen some products that don't go all the way to 10Gb, but only support 5GBASE-T, which should already provide most, if not all of the performance from this kind of NAS devices.
It is 10G or 1G, no NBASE-T support. I think it is not a big factor for NAS units because they are probably going to be quite close to the switch. So, the distance concern is not a big deal. Even short Cat 5e cables can be used (probably with some packet loss)
As the SoC itself lists 2.5GbE, is there some sort of limitation to that as to why they can't have 2.5GbE support as well on the 1G ports. Because they're already using the 10GbE?
This is great news as it means 10GBASE-T will come to cheaper entry level NAS's. I have a 4 disk Synology DS414 and it is severly bottlenecked by its 1GbE connection. My NAS is almost full and I'll buy a new one only with 10GBASE-T. I would like to stick to Synology as I'm familiar with it and also it works well. Since Synology uses Marvel processors in several of its NAS's, they may introduce a NAS with this new Marvel processor. And if not, surely Marvel's competitors Annapurna Lab and Realtek can't be much behind with 10GBASE-T integration so it is definitelly will be more affordable soon.
1GbE has a theoretical maximum speed of 125MB/s, the actual speed is lower but it varies.
Modern HDD's can reach 130~150MB, some can have even over 200MB/s...
And this is for a single HDD, if you have RAID0/5/10 things get pretty high.. that's why more and more NAS now comes with dual gigabit ethernet to Link Aggregate the connection.
I guess it depends, since those speed ( and higher ) are only sustainable for large files. With small files in between the average transfer speed will be lower. But given enough buffer, the 1Gbps can still be bottleneck at times. I think 2.5Gbps would be perfect fit, but that is if we actually have those controller on the cheap. Otherwise currently it doesn't make sense to support Nbase-T, they might as well jump directly to 10Gbps.
We really need 2.5Gbit base for all consumer ethernet. 5Gbit would be ideal.
It's pretty laughable that pretty much any hardware is faster than 1Gigabut ethernet, a low end SSD, cheapo SD card, phone storage, even people can get 1Gbit or more for internet access.
The current consumer ethernet is frozen at a time were slow ass 5400rpm ata100 were the main storage people would get with 10-40MB/s on average and internet on the 128-512Kbps.
Right now it seems better to just upload and download over internet from 2 pc's at your own home if you got 1gigabit access or better over fast wifi.
@Lolimaster the problem with 10Gbe is that 10GB Base-T needs too much power and has incompatibility problems. So everyone that has moved big time to 10Gbe did so with fiber and SFP+ ports and now most networking gear focuses on SFP+ ports and not Base-T. And if you insist in staying all copper with 10 Gbe you will very soon regret it unless your network is really small. Then, if 10Gbe requires fiber to be practical, it means a lot of rewiring and this time rewiring is no longer a simple job anyone can do like it is with twisted pair ethernet cables. Therefore, what is holding 10Gbe today is not cost, but the need to change the medium/cabling. Fiber cabling is very common today in server racks, but you will not find many sites where fiber runs to people's desks in an office.
About "fast wifi", not sure what you mean but fast ac wifi is always much slower than 1Gbe.
I have a Dell T320 with 8x8TB WD Red's running FreeNAS using RAIDZ1 (RAID 5) and I can sustain about 700 MB/s both ways between the Intel X540 in it and the Aquantia AQC107 in my desktop. Its not hard to saturate a 1Gbe connection, even with a single high density drive. 2 or more will absolutely be bottlenecked by a 1 Gbe connection.
Even at the worst of times, when a 10 Gbase-T PHY would put out 10 Watts, it would not have been a problem to dissipate that in a device like this. The current generation PHYs at 28 nm are around 3-4 Watts peak (i. e. transmission at full speed over 100 meters). This is clearly too much for a laptop, but quite manageable on any stationary network device, even without fans.
We'll probably see a new generation of PHYs shortly, since the production companies should have some 20 nm generation lines with capacity now that most SoC/CPU/GPU production has moved on to < 20 nm.
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20 Comments
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zepi - Saturday, January 13, 2018 - link
Would these support 2.5GBASE-T and 5GBASE-T as well? I'm guessing that it might be a relevant question for SMB / home users, because I've seen some products that don't go all the way to 10Gb, but only support 5GBASE-T, which should already provide most, if not all of the performance from this kind of NAS devices.ganeshts - Saturday, January 13, 2018 - link
It is 10G or 1G, no NBASE-T support. I think it is not a big factor for NAS units because they are probably going to be quite close to the switch. So, the distance concern is not a big deal. Even short Cat 5e cables can be used (probably with some packet loss)lagittaja - Sunday, January 28, 2018 - link
As the SoC itself lists 2.5GbE, is there some sort of limitation to that as to why they can't have 2.5GbE support as well on the 1G ports. Because they're already using the 10GbE?Hurr Durr - Saturday, January 13, 2018 - link
I always forget: is this company a some sort of ASUS subsidiary or completely independent thing?ganeshts - Saturday, January 13, 2018 - link
Yes, ASUS is the parent company.Xajel - Sunday, January 14, 2018 - link
Damn, I wish QNAP has a 4bays x86 NAS with 10GBe at this price point.Morawka - Sunday, January 14, 2018 - link
I wish QNAP would just sell their software. VM and Container station come in really handyXajel - Monday, January 15, 2018 - link
Yeah that will be great too, at $700+ for NAS I will just create my own server with that amount money.perovics - Sunday, January 14, 2018 - link
This is great news as it means 10GBASE-T will come to cheaper entry level NAS's. I have a 4 disk Synology DS414 and it is severly bottlenecked by its 1GbE connection. My NAS is almost full and I'll buy a new one only with 10GBASE-T. I would like to stick to Synology as I'm familiar with it and also it works well. Since Synology uses Marvel processors in several of its NAS's, they may introduce a NAS with this new Marvel processor. And if not, surely Marvel's competitors Annapurna Lab and Realtek can't be much behind with 10GBASE-T integration so it is definitelly will be more affordable soon.imaheadcase - Sunday, January 14, 2018 - link
Mmm i doubt its bottlenecked. lolrapster - Sunday, January 14, 2018 - link
Why doubt this? This is very common, and my Synology unit is definitely bottlenecked by its 1Gb connection.Xajel - Sunday, January 14, 2018 - link
1GbE has a theoretical maximum speed of 125MB/s, the actual speed is lower but it varies.Modern HDD's can reach 130~150MB, some can have even over 200MB/s...
And this is for a single HDD, if you have RAID0/5/10 things get pretty high.. that's why more and more NAS now comes with dual gigabit ethernet to Link Aggregate the connection.
iwod - Sunday, January 14, 2018 - link
I guess it depends, since those speed ( and higher ) are only sustainable for large files. With small files in between the average transfer speed will be lower. But given enough buffer, the 1Gbps can still be bottleneck at times. I think 2.5Gbps would be perfect fit, but that is if we actually have those controller on the cheap. Otherwise currently it doesn't make sense to support Nbase-T, they might as well jump directly to 10Gbps.iamlilysdad - Sunday, January 14, 2018 - link
With enough Plex usage in the house 1Gbps can easily be a bottleneck.Lolimaster - Sunday, January 14, 2018 - link
We really need 2.5Gbit base for all consumer ethernet. 5Gbit would be ideal.It's pretty laughable that pretty much any hardware is faster than 1Gigabut ethernet, a low end SSD, cheapo SD card, phone storage, even people can get 1Gbit or more for internet access.
The current consumer ethernet is frozen at a time were slow ass 5400rpm ata100 were the main storage people would get with 10-40MB/s on average and internet on the 128-512Kbps.
Right now it seems better to just upload and download over internet from 2 pc's at your own home if you got 1gigabit access or better over fast wifi.
mpbello - Monday, January 15, 2018 - link
@Lolimaster the problem with 10Gbe is that 10GB Base-T needs too much power and has incompatibility problems. So everyone that has moved big time to 10Gbe did so with fiber and SFP+ ports and now most networking gear focuses on SFP+ ports and not Base-T. And if you insist in staying all copper with 10 Gbe you will very soon regret it unless your network is really small.Then, if 10Gbe requires fiber to be practical, it means a lot of rewiring and this time rewiring is no longer a simple job anyone can do like it is with twisted pair ethernet cables.
Therefore, what is holding 10Gbe today is not cost, but the need to change the medium/cabling.
Fiber cabling is very common today in server racks, but you will not find many sites where fiber runs to people's desks in an office.
About "fast wifi", not sure what you mean but fast ac wifi is always much slower than 1Gbe.
oRAirwolf - Monday, January 15, 2018 - link
I have a Dell T320 with 8x8TB WD Red's running FreeNAS using RAIDZ1 (RAID 5) and I can sustain about 700 MB/s both ways between the Intel X540 in it and the Aquantia AQC107 in my desktop. Its not hard to saturate a 1Gbe connection, even with a single high density drive. 2 or more will absolutely be bottlenecked by a 1 Gbe connection.bigboxes - Sunday, January 14, 2018 - link
What is the heat output on this device? I thought that 10GbE runs hot.thomasg - Monday, January 15, 2018 - link
Even at the worst of times, when a 10 Gbase-T PHY would put out 10 Watts, it would not have been a problem to dissipate that in a device like this.The current generation PHYs at 28 nm are around 3-4 Watts peak (i. e. transmission at full speed over 100 meters).
This is clearly too much for a laptop, but quite manageable on any stationary network device, even without fans.
We'll probably see a new generation of PHYs shortly, since the production companies should have some 20 nm generation lines with capacity now that most SoC/CPU/GPU production has moved on to < 20 nm.
Lensin - Tuesday, January 16, 2018 - link
I am going to try this Asustor 10G base-T NAS ($259) + Asus 10G nic card ($99) + Asus 10G switch ($219) for my home when the NAS is available!