OK, so the torrent client is broken and the setup is murky – does the NMC at least perform well in the benchmarks? Let’s compare with some other NAS boxes we've reviewed recently.
File Transfer Results
Data transfer speeds in Megabytes per Second (MB/s)
Longer bars are better
All of these transfer speeds are benchmarked using each device’s Gigabit Ethernet ports on the exact same network, yet the Freecom box underperforms by miles. Only its random read ability comes anywhere close to the Buffalo LinkStation Duo, which in itself, is only moderately paced.
The drive is sluggish to the point that the benefit of Gigabit Ethernet is almost lost as it runs, on average, only 7MB/s faster than 100Mb/s Ethernet allows, thus only utilising 5.6 per cent of the bandwidth afforded by Gigabit Ethernet compared to 21 per cent and 35 per cent for the LinkStation Duo and Iocell NetDisk, respectively.
Set up the device with its own utility
If you're patient enough to wait the nine minutes and twenty-five seconds it took us to transfer an 8GB 1080p video to the Network Media Centre at a sustained data rate of about 14MB/s, then you will be pleasantly surprised to find that it will play back smoothly on any UPNP/DLNA device supported by TwonkyMedia, including devices like the Xbox 360.
COMMENTS
bassey , You dont have 1gig, crazy boy. :)
are you crazy bassey "how many homes do you know have gigabit ethernet " EVERY SINGLE ONE of the many people any respecting tech users build PC for people, thast who, you mean YOU dont, thats just silly when you can get a single 1gig PCi ethernet card for £4 and a 5 port 1 gig hub for £25, and 30 foot/10 meter generic old cat5a cableable of 1gig for many years for a few quid.
id like to see the HD blue ray file details you played on the xbox360, i dont beleave it or it a non standard H.264 encode as the xbox 360 cant play even an mp4 container with avc encoded cotent about 10Mbit/s bitrate....
provide the Full mediainfo data for this 8 gig HD file you claim plays over this devices ethernet without transcoding to a far lower spec AND actually plays smoothly on the xbox360.
Performance
I got a 10 meg hub, will this affect the performance?
I guess if it transfers at 14 megs a second I'll only lose a little performance.
Arp Arp Arp
Performance!
I got a 10 meg hub, will this affect the performance?
I guess if it transfers at 14 megs a second I'll only lose a little performance.
Arp Arp Arp
It's not that hard
Cabled gigabit network? That's me.
Ever since someone decided that ethernet could go over twisted pair instead of co-ax, you've been able to install the stuff and use for anything. I have TV aerial down one length, lots carrying ethernet and a few carrying phone or audio.
Upgrade from 10-baseT to 100-baseT to 1000-baseT just ment buying a new switch. Been able to watch streaming video since long before WiFi n, and still do. No glitches, even though the neighbours can barely download a webpage from the saturated airwaves around here!
Re: gigabit networks
<puts hand up> I have a home gigabit network. And that's a proper network with a 12-port switch, an ADSL router, a Wi-fi router, laptops, netbooks, Windows PC and Ubuntu mail and web servers. Why? Because I could and I had the option to go in and lay cables before they closed up the walls when the house was built. Allows me to stream large video files between the file server and the WDTV in the lounge.
