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Akitio Thunderbolt-10GigE
Just got an Akitio Thunderbolt-10GigE adapter for eval, and was putting it through its paces.
Out of the box, the Akitio adapter showed under 100 MB/sec read and write when copying files to and from a 13″ MBP int. SSD (capable of over 1200 MB/sec reads) to a Dell NAS (capable of over 300 MB/sec writes). I tested copying large files, as well as file sequences of small files.
Same NAS, via same cable, currently connected to an older MacPro which has a PCIe Intel 10GigE card, shows 300+ MB/sec write and 600+ MB/sec read off the Dell NAS. So, the 10GigE cable to the Dell NAS, and all the systems in between, seem to be fine.
Did some reading and found that there is a ‘packet signing’ setting in a .conf file that needs to be set to ‘no’. Did that, and now the speed jumps to 240 MB/sec read and write.
Took the adapter to a new Touchbar 15″ MacBook Pro and connected it via a TB3-TB2 converter. That machine shows 480 MB/sec read and 270 MB/sec write off the same NAS now.
Did measurements using Blackmagic Speed test, as well as with file copying and watching the speed report by Activity manager. Speeds are way better when copying large .mov or ,mxf or .r3d files, but when copying Arriraw .ari or other .tif or .dpx file sequences, speeds drop considerably.So the question is this.
Is anyone connected via some Thunderbolt-10GigE adapter to a fast NAS, getting similar or better speeds, or is this 260 read/480 write as good as it gets? Like would it make difference if one were to use a 10GigE PCIe card sitting inside a Thunderbolt-PCIe expander?
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Neil Sadwelkar
neilsadwelkar.blogspot.com
twitter: fcpguru
FCP Editor, Edit systems consultant
Mumbai India -
3 Replies
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I did some testing with the bus powered, Thunderbolt 2 model that Akitio has and 260 Read/480 Write is pretty much spot on to what I found testing with ProMAX Platform Online with a 2 year old 15″ MacBook Pro. I swapped to a Sanlink 2 with the same signal chain and performance went up to about 800/800.
Interestingly the same Akitio unit on the same workstation booted to Windows 8 got about 600MB/s each. So, I very much suspect the OS X drivers for that NIC are just not the best.
That said, I’ve still recommended it a few times just because it’s inexpensive, small, bus powered and still 3 times faster than a 1GbE connection. In the right situation it can be great.
Best,
Nathaniel Cooper
ProMAX Systems -
Hi –
I agree with Nate. I have personally had poor experiences with the Akitio bus powered thunderbolt to 10G adaptor. My real problem with this product, is that it overheats after 12 hours of continuous use. Most clients just leave their computers on forever, and if you do this, I have observed that the Akitio overheats and then fails.With that said, I assume you are either testing with AFP, or if you are using SMB, you have turned of SMB signing in
the nsmb.conf file, or your will get very poor SMB performance. This is not an Akitio issue – its an Apple issue.Personally, I have found that both the Sonnet Twin 10G series (either in the round box or the SEL square box), AND the Promise SanLink2, and SanLink3 (the SanLink3 is buss powered) are both excellent, and give wonderful performance. I connected a SanLink3 from Promise to a Razor Win 10 PC, hooked up to a QNAP TS-1685, and got
550 MB/sec write, and 1000 MB/sec READ (using AJA System Test). The ATTO Thunderlink boxes are also good, but they are twice the price of the Promise or Sonnet.Bob Zelin
Bob Zelin
Rescue 1, Inc.
bobzelin@icloud.com -
just wanted to update my comments here, as this happened today.
Went to an angry client, who I recently put in a large QNAP system for. “Nothing is connecting”.
I had the client purchase one Sonnet Twin 10G, but on their own, they purchased a bunch of Akitio thunderbolt 2 to 10G adaptors. They leave the computers on all the time, and of course, the Akitio’s were on all the time as well, as they are buss powered. Every computer with the Akitio had the issues. I simply moved the Cat6 cable into the native ports of the iMac’s and everything started to work. The Sonnet is of course, still working.
Try to save $100 per unit – well, you now see what happens.Bob Zelin
Bob Zelin
Rescue 1, Inc.
bobzelin@icloud.com
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