LED Notification Light - The most underated feature on your smartphone?

I can't explain to you how much i LOVE the notification LED on my Samsung Galaxy Nexus.  So much so, I can't imagine buying a smartphone in the future that doesn't have this feature.

It started when I first jumped from Apple and my iPhone 3G to my first Android phone, the HTC Desire.  I'd never seen a notification LED before, but it didn't take long for me to realise how invaluable that little light is.

For the unitiated (iPhone users mainly), bascially you can set any notification to create a flashing alert on the little LED on the body of the phone.  Its a silent assassin compared to audio/vibrate alerts for email, SMS, DMs, mentions, comments, anything really.

The colour can also be controlled by RGB sliders to create allsorts of colourful effects and there are a few apps out there to really take control of the these notifications (Light Flow & Trackball Alert to name but two)

A couple of practical uses:

• You're in a meeting, phone is on slient/no vibrate but you want alerting...... LED light pops on. :)
• Sat at home on the sofa, don't wanna keep switching phone on to see if mails have come (and annoy wife constantly fiddling with phone for no reason)...... LED light pops on when mail arrives. :)

When Apple introduced iOS5 and their notification centre I thought this was an ideal opportunitiy to bring the notification LED to the iPhone.  But the iPhone 4S came and went and no LED.  Okay, maybe as the 4S was just a revamped iPhone 4 it would come later.  So I waited with anticipation of the redesigned iPhone 5 and iOS6.  But nope, still no notification LED.  Pity really, I would seriously consider an iPhone 5 if it had that little light. .....  Because I REALLY love the whole iOS/Apple delivery mechanism.  It is really that good to consider jumping. (but thats a whole other blog) :)

Some people can't understand why I get so excited about that little LED.  I don't know why, I just do, I love it.  After all, Blackberry have been doing it for years and thankfully the majority of good Android phones have it.

Also, the only thing that ever stopped me upgrading from the HTC Desire to a Samsung Galaxy S2 was the lack of a notification LED.  Crazy Eh?

Finally, I think Google have missed a trick by not including one on the Nexus 7 tablet too.  That would have been a nice touch.

Anyway, I love the little fella.  Long live notification LEDs.

Have we seen the last great Smartphone release?

Will we ever see another “WOW” flagship announcement?
How can the mobile phone hardware get any better than what’s already been released?

After last week’s particularly underwhelming iPhone 5 announcement, it got me thinking that I doubt we’ll ever see another flagship smartphone release that makes us (me) go WOW again.

I think it all started in the October 2011 when Apple released the iPhone 4S, that in itself was just a bump fix release of the iPhone 4 from the previous summer.

A month later, Samsung (along with Google) then released their latest ‘pure’ Android flagship, the Galaxy Nexus, which brought a larger 720p screen to the masses with its 4.65” display.

Then during 2012, HTC (One X), Samsung again (Galaxy S3), Nokia (Lumia 920) and Apple (iPhone 5) have all brought new ‘Flagships’ to market (or are about to).

But when you look at the hardware specs of all of these phones, there is nothing much between them all.

Hence my question, is that it?  

What more can anyone bring to the table other than evolutionary, rather than revolutionary flagship smartphones?

Lets look at the primary components in a little more detail.

CPU/GPU/RAM

I’ve bundled these together as I don’t think there's much point of pouring over the details.  Dual/Quad core, 1 to 2 gb of RAM and a decent GPU chip.  All of which will just keeping ticking over and numbers will bump with every new release.  Agreed?  I suppose the only people that what more and more from this combo are gamers, but that isn’t me.


SCREEN

Phone	Released	Screen Size	Screen Res	Screen DPI
iPhone 4	June 2010	3.5”	960 x 640	326 ppi
iPhone 4S	Oct 2011	3.5”	960 x 640	326 ppi
Galaxy Nexus	Nov 2011	4.65”	1280 x 720	316 ppi
HTC One X	April 2012	4.7”	1280 x 720	312 ppi
Samsung Galaxy S3	June 2012	4.8”	1280 x 720	306 ppi
Nokia Lumia 920	Q4 2012	4.5”	1280 x 768	332 ppi
iPhone 5	Sept 2012	4.0”	1136 x 640	326 ppi

It goes without saying that numbers and specs don’t always tell the true story.  For example, many argue that the HTC One X screen is ‘the’ best mobile phone display, others would say the iPhone.  And its more than just numbers when you consider how the screen is created; Pentile Matrix etc.

But when you see the list as above, what more can come from the manufacturers?

For example, what would you need 1080p for in 4.5”?

I think its a given that any screen in a future flagship phone will be pretty good. All of the above are testament to that.


CAMERA

Phone	Released	Camera Mega-Pixel
iPhone 4	June 2010	5MP
iPhone 4S	Oct 2011	8MP
Galaxy Nexus	Nov 2011	5MP
HTC One X	April 2012	8MP
Samsung Galaxy S3	June 2012	8MP
Nokia Lumia 920	Q4 2012	8.7MP
iPhone 5	Sept 2012	8MP

So in the space of a year, since the release of the highly regarded 8mp camera in the iPhone 4S, nothing much has changed.  The Galaxy S3 uses the same unit as does the new iPhone 5 (albeit a thinner version).  

There could be some mileage in the Nokia “PureView” technology: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nokia_808_PureView

But I think most manufacturers (and consumers) have agreed that a high quality 8MP is more than enough for their flagships.

And from experience, I can confirm that the 5MP camera in the Galaxy Nexus is on the poor side compared to say the iPhone 4S.


BATTERIES & THINNESS

This is my major bug-bear with smartphone manufacturers.  They seem to think that we all want the thinest of devices.  But all this comes at the expense of battery size.

For example, Apple shaved off a couple of mm between the iPhone 4S and 5, but left the battery the same.

Samsung are obssesed with it too, all at the expense of battery capacity.

Personally, i’d be quite happy to have a device half a centimetre thicker to get a much better battery.

Granted, you’d hope as technology advances, CPUs, Screens and the other components may well start to use less juice and give us more than 12 hours of use without having to leap for the charger.

Phone	Thickness	Battery Size
iPhone 4	9.3mm	1420 mAh
iPhone 4S	9.3mm	1430 mAh
Galaxy Nexus	8.95mm	1750 mAh (GSM)
HTC One X	8.9mm	1800 mAh
Samsung Galaxy S3	8.6mm	2100 mAh
Nokia Lumia 920	10.7mm	2000 mAh
iPhone 5	7.6mm	1400 mAh
Motorola RAZR	7.1mm	1780 mAh
Motorola RAZR Maxx	8.99mm	3300 mAh

I have purposely added the Motorola RAZR Android phone to show what can be done with just 2mm extra of thickness above the 'standard' model, virtually double the battery capacity.

I really don’t know why more manufacturers don’t consider this option.


The FUTURE

So if previous release schedules are followed, Google may release their latest ‘Nexus’ smartphone in the coming months.  It will no doubt showcase the latest version of Android (rumoured to be named Key Lime Pie), but what will the hardware comprise of?  

How could it top anything that has already been?

What would I want in it to replace my Galaxy Nexus (GN)?

8MP Camera (I’d be happy with the Galaxy S3 / iPhone 5 camera/sensor)
Notification LED Light (I can’t believe Apple still haven’t put this into the iPhone, its crucial to me)
Screen Size (i’d be happy with 4.5” ish, sometimes the 4.65” is a little on the larger size)
Screen Res (Would have to be 720p though)
Screen Quality (Well at least as good as the HTC One X and iPhone 5..... obviously)
CPU/GPU/RAM (Whatever the latest is, as I said above, i’m not a gamer, so not that bothered)
Battery (3000 mAh please)
Soft Buttons (not keen on physical buttons anymore being a GN owner)
Capacity I've had enough of having to micro-manage the space on my GN. 16gb is NOT enough. Next phone must have 16gb + SD Slot or 32gb. 500 mp3, 1 x Clockwork Mod backup, 1 x Titanium Backup set and you're virtually out of space. Not good enough. :(

* Notification LED has its own blog, its that important: 

http://zarch1972.blogspot.com/2012/09/led-notification-light-most-underated.html

As you can see, its hardly anything that hasn't already been released. Which is the whole point of this blog. But for me, it needs to be all in the right combination, picky eh?

Do you agree with the above? Have I missed anything?

Have we seen everything we are going to see hardware wise?

What technology is coming round the corner to WOW us all?

In the last few months, I come to realise that hardware is becoming more and more irrelevant when it comes to phones and tablets as they can just about already do everything we want them to do. Now, its all about content and the delivery thereof.

"Content is King"....... maybe that will be the title of my next Blog? :-)

Sun Dream Team Fantasy Football Stats by ZARCH

For the last "15 seasons" I have been collating stats based on the 
Sun Newspapers 
"Dream Team" 
Fantasy Football game.


That's every season from 1998/99 upto and including the end of 2012/13

The fruits of my extensive labour are contained within this free Google Spreadsheet.

https://spreadsheets.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AhwkCNYeRMgxcmt1MjUydTJqX0YtcndmNld1YkVfdmc&hl=en_US&pli=1#gid=26

Need a helping hand to win your works mini-league?
Fed up of finishing 2nd in your Pub's league?
Want to make inroads in the real £500k Sun game?
Or just want to "geek out" on the 3,362 pts that Frank Lampard has scored in Dream Team ?

Hopefully you can use these stats to achieve those goals.

Here's a quick view of what you can find within the on-line spreadsheet:

If you "like" this, please click +1 below

HTC Desire Battery Saving Tips

It is common knowledge that the number one problem with the HTC Desire is that the battery life is pretty poor out of the box.  That 1ghz CPU, heavy feature set and giant screen certainly kills the battery if left to its own devices.  But as with any smart-phone, if you take better care with which functions and services you keep switched off when not required you can get more life out of a single charge of the battery.


I’ve owned my Desire for around 3 months now, so I'm hoping I'm a reasonable position to pass on some advice about saving battery life.  


A lot of these tip and tricks have been trial and error and have been gleaned from a variety of sources as well some playing about by myself.


I’m not saying that this list is exhaustive, but its as far as I've got so to-date.  Please feel free to let me know about any other little tips.


1. Disable Always-On Mobile Data.
Settings, Wireless and Networks, Mobile Networks, untick Enable always-on mobile data


2. Turn off Wireless Network Positioning
Settings, Location, un-tick Use Wireless Networks


3. Turn off GPS
Settings, Location, un-tick Use GPS satellites 


4. Turn off Bluetooth 
Settings > Wireless & networks > Blue-tooth.  Both the above (GPS, Blue-tooth) can easily be switched on/off when required by adding the HTC Power Widgets to your home screen. “+” > Widget > Settings > Airplane Mode, Blue-tooth, GPS, Wi-Fi etc
Use a dark or mainly black wallpaper and DO NOT use Live Wallpapers.  The AMOLED screen burns battery when displaying bright/white colours.


5. Install “Brightness Level” widget from the market and set brightness to 25%.  Should be fine for daily indoor use and you can always up the brightness to 100% in sunlight if required.  I’ve found “auto brightness” keeps the setting too high throughout the day, especially indoors when not required.


6. Install “Juice Defender” from the market, but don’t install Juice Plotter (i found this to use more CPU that I liked).  Juice Defender automatically turns off 3G(APN) and Wi-Fi when you turn the screen off, but automatically wakes up every 15 mins in background to sync your mail etc or when you turn your screen back on, but SMS and call signal stays on 100% of the time.  There is much more to the app than that, but that's the instant battery gain, switching off 3G and Wi-Fi automatically when you don’t need it.


7. If you are not using Google calenders, remove then from your sync process. (Settings>Accounts and Sync>Your Google Account> un-tick Calender)


8. Install “Spare Parts” from the market place.  Use “battery history”, “partial wake usage” to  see what processes are taking up CPU time.


9. Install “SystemPanel Lite” from the market place.  After a day of running you’ll be able to see which processes are using more CPU time than others.  This is how I found Juice Plotter above.  I also found that some apps that I'd installed were poorly written and just hang about taking CPU time, which obviously in turn eats away at your battery.  For example, I'd downloaded a Wall Paper app, but it was chugging away in the background eating CPU cycles, you wouldn’t have thought that would you?


10. Use the “BACK” button to exit apps rather than just hitting “HOME”.  Using “BACK” appears to store them as “inactive(cached)” apps, whereas “HOME” just leaves the app as “Background” task which  “appears” to use more CPU.  This is something I've only been playing with for a day or so, but seems to make a difference and is a good habit to get into.


11.  Disable automatic time and date settings ('Settings -> Date & Time -> Uncheck Automatic').


12. Calibration.
1) Turn your device ON and Charge the device until the light goes GREEN
2) Unplug the device and Turn the phone OFF plug it back in and again charge it until it goes GREEN
3) Unplug the device Turn ON and fully boot the device. once its booted turn it off - plug it back in and charge it again until it goes GREEN.
4) reboot and use


13. Root your phone
This is a scary suggestion for those who don't like to tamper with their new toy.  But "rooting" my Desire (in essence allowing you to modify your phone away from stock HTC builds) has worked wonders for my battery.  This has happened because the alternative Froyo build i've put onto my phone has the operating system tweaked to use less juice.


The build I currently run is: http://android.modaco.com/content/htc-desire-desire-modaco-com/317191/20-sep-r9-wip-modaco-custom-rom-for-htc-desire-online-kitchen-2-2-froyo/


Disclaimer: attempting to root your phone is entirely at your own risk. (all details of the risks are on the Modcao site)




My summary is that recommendations 1 to 11 cause a nice uplift from stock settings.
Point 12 then increased things even more, which i didn't think possible.
And finally, the new root build has squeezed even more daily life out the battery.




There is no definitive list to follow regarding battery life as the phone is so configurable that everyone has different apps and usage patterns.  But all of the above have left me in a far better position that I was when i first opened the HTC box 6 months ago.


Some people have said that Juice Defender has worked for them and any others say its the best thing since sliced bread, me included.  Like any of the tips in this list, they are just what i've come to find help me and my usage pattern.  Try them, if they don't work for you, just switch back to how you had it before.


Feel free to leave comments or further suggestions how you save battery.


Below is a nice dark design that I've been using as a wallpaper/background on my Desire.  Click on the picture to see it full size, then either save as to your PC or long press on your Desire and save to the phone.  You can then choose the pic in settings>Personalize>Home Wallpaper

UPDATE: 

I have now ditched "HTC sense" builds and gone for vanilla Android. This Gingerbread build is so minimal that battery life is even better once the minimal build is on and all the above tips are followed. (although I find I no longer need Juice Defender.... but each to their own)

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=829734

For those scared of rooting, the XDA forum gives easy to follow instructions.

Photo Sharing on the Home Network - Why So Difficult?

With Digital Cameras having been popular for many years now, most people will have accumulated a vast collection of photos.

Add to this, the explosion of the "home network" with everything from games consoles to mobile phones able to browse files in the home.
Many people are also now looking towards a central server or a NAS device to hold all their media so that all devices on the home network can access the files at the same time.

mp3's have an easy time of things as there's plenty of programs that manage music collections; iTunes and Media Monkey to name just two, both of which can manage the underlying directory structure, which is very useful when sharing.

So my question is, why is it so difficult to do the same with Photos?

To set the scene, we have the following hardware on our Home Network.

Upstairs
2.0ghz Core2Duo PC with 2gb Ram.
1.83ghz CoreDuo Mac Mini with 2gb Ram.
Synology DS710+ NAS (100MB/sec Read and Write)

Downstairs
2.0ghz Core2Duo MacBook with 2gb Ram.
AC Ryan PlayOn!HD Media Player.

Upstairs devices and the media player are connecting into the network using a GigaBit ethernet cards and switches, while the Macbook is connecting wirelessly over Wireless G.

Our photo collection is totally jpg at the moment, comes in around 11,000 images, totals around 50gb and is currently sat on my RAID1 NAS with off-site backups taken over the internet via IDrive.
They are stored in all sorts of directories; some named and titled, some dated, but none of the pictures have any additional data associated with them.  Basically we are starting with a blank-ish canvas.

In the future I would also potentially like to be able to capture raw and maybe manage our video clips from the Camera too. (720p quicktime from our Panasonic FZ28).

My number one aim though is to be able to organise our collection stored on the NAS using some sort of Photo Manager, with response times as quick as you'd expect from a full gigabit ethernet network and cutting edge 100MB/sec read/write NAS. (i don't care if this is PC or Mac)
I want the MacBook to be able to browse the collection wirelessly and have the ability to upload to facebook simply (for the wife!)
Depending on the Macbook solution, I might want the "Photo Manager" software to organise the underlying directory structure so its easy to find files on the MacBook.  This is also a potential solution for other devices to browse with ease (Media Player etc)


The candidates I've road tested so far.

iPhoto (Mac)
When we first arrived in "MacLand" last year we were very impressed with iPhoto running off the MacBook, the collections, events and especially FACES very much appealed.  But when I tried creating a new iPhoto database on the NAS and imported the photos, the program just wasn't upto it.  Even plugging the MacBook into the network over GigE didn't provide a level of performance I have been happy with.  I've tried the same on the Mac Mini and things are just as bad.  I just think that our 11,000 photos is too big a collection for iPhoto to deal with and having read various internet artciles, this appears to be the case.

Also, the underlying directory structure of iPhoto is unreadable.  It creates database files, starts moving your images around and is nigh on impossible to navigate around the directories if you are looking for a particular picture using another program or operating system type browser.  So this is another negative point for iPhoto.


Aperture (Mac)
Once I found that iPhoto wasn't going to be upto the job, I looked at Apple's premier product and its next rung up the ladder from iPhoto; Aperture.
Instantly I was hit with a problem.  It is not possible to create an iPhoto database on my NAS.  The reason being that the NAS is formatted in the ext3 filesystem to ensure compatibility with all manner of operating systems that may want to browse/access it.  Aperture though, can only access a database that is stored on a HFS volume.   So either local Mac OS volume or one attached via USB or firewire.

Okay, I wasn't going to be put off by this, so I created the Aperture database on my Mac Mini's local hard disk and thought I might be able to make some sort of backup (in an organised manner) back over to the NAS.

Sadly, I never got as far as looking into the backups as my Mac Mini just doesn't seem upto the task of a 11,000 photo database in Aperture, it just seems slow and unresponsive.  And if i'm being perfectly honest, i think it provides far too much functionality than what we need anyway.

Also, how would the MacBook get to the databse if it was sat on the Mac Mini?  I wouldnt want the Mac Mini on 24/7, as that is what I bought the NAS for!

Finally, Aperture appears to create a single giant file on the hard disk as big as your collection, in my case 55gb.  So how would other operating systems browse that?


ACDSee Photo Manager 2009 (PC)
Ideally, I didn't want to have to use the PC for the solution as I was hoping that a Mac Mini, NAS and MacBook solution would provide seemless integration, but needs must I suppose.

Good news is that ACDSee doesn't do anything daft with the filesystem or directory structure.  Yes, it creates a database where you tell it to and this contains all the information about the images.  You can either leave the photo's in the directory structure they are in now or have ACDSee rename them when you import based on what you choose.  So year, month, date (either date imported or date taken etc).

Further good news is that you can create the database on the NAS and then leave the photo's on the NAS too.
And i'll tell you what, the performance is fantastic.  My PC is no better a spec than my MacBook and not much better than my Mac Mini, but the speed at which ACDSee browses directories, displays thumbnails and brings up the photo's from the NAS is fantastic.

The negatives;
Well I imagine i will have to self manage the underlying directory structure?  Especially the 11,000 photos we've already got in god knows how many different directories.
ACDSee for Mac is only in Beta testing, so i'm not sure if the PC database will be compatible with a Mac version's?  And i'm not sure I want to find out to my cost.
Maybe i'll have to create a read only account on the Mac for the wife to access the photo directory on the NAS?  That way she can simply browse the photo's and upload to Facebook manually?
No "Face Recognition".  Wading through 11,000 pictures manually trying to find Uncle Dael would be a right chore.
I honestly don't know how all the tagging works, so that's going to be a learning curve.


Other options?
Picasa (PC)
Having read into Picasa, it appears that the database is kept on the local PC and cannot be placed on the NAS (or any networked drive for that matter).  So not sure whether to pursue this?  Although they have just added Face recognition which may sway me to take a look.

LightRoom (PC or Mac)
Not looked at this yet.  Is it worth pursuing?  Does it work quickkly in a NAS/network environment?

Others??

Conclusion
Why oh why is it so difficult to find a simple solution to storing, organise and share pictures over a local network?


Would be interested to hear your thoughts

Cheers, Zarch

AC Ryan PlayOnHD Mini Media Player

My High Definition media player history is certainly varied.

Around 2 and a half years ago, I started with a custom built HTPC and all the codec issues associated with that.
I sold that and moved onto a Mac Mini running Plex, which was great having all the codecs built into the software, so no messing.
Then I wanted something smaller, so I moved the Mac Mini upstairs and bought an Apple TV (with the Crystal HD card), but after playing with that for a while I decided I wanted something that could be guaranteed to be play all HD types. (The Apple TV solution was still in development)

So after a bit of research, I have a AC Ryan PlayOn!HD Mini media player retailing around the £90 mark.
http://www.playonhd.com/en/




Measuring just 151 x 102 x 42mm, its the tiniest device you're likely to see.
Its so small because there is no hard drive in it, all media is streamed via over the network OR via an attached USB drive.
One problem with it being so small is that the cables you plug into the back move the unit around. Blu-Tak or purchasing some small rubber feet from B&Q is recommended.

There is a larger PlayOn unit that hosts a 3.5" SATA drive internally, but this is an extra £45.

Personally, I'll be streaming everything from my Synology DS710+ NAS. The Ethernet port on the PlayOn is 100mbit, which is plenty fast enough for streaming all HD file types.
There is an optional Wireless adapter available, but I wouldn't recommend this for streaming HD at all.

The latest firmware for the PlayOn allows a connected USB drive to show up on your network, so you can copy files from your PC for example directly to the connected USB drive.
Alternately, you can just plug the USB drive into the source PC and then back into the PlayOn to play the files off there.

The menu system on the PlayOn is certainly a little clunky. Its not a patch on XMBC, Plex or the Apple TV interface.




But I didn't buy the PlayOn to look at the menu system, I bought it to play media files and it certainly does that.

I've so far testing SD divx, 720 & 1080p HD mkv and HD quicktime files off my Panasonic FZ28 camera, all play fine.
As you can see from the specification sheet, the list of playable media is vast:
http://www.playonhd.com/en/#info

The AC Ryan forum is very active and there appears to be plenty of help on there too.
http://www.acryan.com/forums/index.php

The menu system gets some getting used to, and the network/sharing set up isn't straight forward. The manual wasn't all that helpful to be honest, so I ended up on the forum looking to find out how to browse over a samba share.

Video outputs on the back are HDMI and component, with audio supplied via Toslink SPDIF and phono L&R. (SPDIF has raw pass through direct to your amp, which i'm using)
100mbit Ethernet, 2 USB ports and a power socket make up the connectivity.
Power is supplied with a very small PSU on the plug.



Running is silent due to no hard drive or fans, a real bonus when sat under the TV.

The remote control supplied is certainly feature filled. Again, the manual doesn't cover everything, so its a voyage of discovery as you go along.
I am looking to find an on-line manual as there also elements and options within the menu system that don't appear to be covered in the instruction booklet either. And obviously as new features come with firmware upgrades, the manual becomes more and more redundant.

Upgrading the firmware is a simple process. Just put the latest image file into the root directory of a USB stick, plug into the PlayOn and then goto the system update menu option. It takes about a minute to upgrade and restart, very simple indeed.

I've only owned this for a weekend, but opening thoughts are positive. For just £90 you get a fully featured media streamer that plays everything you throw at it.
If you need the model with the local hard disk, then £130 still isn't extortionate.

Things I'm not sure about yet is whether there is automatic refresh rate switching depending on the source material.
I have files from the camera as 30fps, some xvids at 25fps and mkvs at 23.976fps. To ensure smooth playback from each of these files then the player really needs to be outputting the appropriate refresh rate. At the moment I think this is a manual process from the menus, but it would be brilliant if this could be added as an automated function of the player.

I also need to become more familiar with the network browser function and the "my shortcuts" setting. I still seems a little clunky having to go down many levels of directory structure to get to the files you want, especially if you've already set-up a "shortcut".

I may add more to the blog when I get more familiar with these functions and have an update.

Any comments, please let me know

Cheers, Zarch

Synology DS710+ NAS Mini-Review

After owning a Synology CS407 4-bay NAS box for around 2 and a half years, i felt its performance was no longer quick enough for my needs, so i've upgraded to the new 2-bay Synology DS710+ model.

I had 4 x 320gb Samsung Spinpoints in the CS407 in a RAID-5 config giving me 876gb of usable storage. (after synology code and usual formatting losses)

The CS407's read speeds of 25MB/sec and its write speeds of 15MB/Sec just don't lend themselves to the "instant access" nature of the things i've got on there now. (Mac iPhoto database for one).

The CS407 speeds are great for streaming as even full Blu-Ray uses only around 5MB/sec bandwidth and 1080p mkv rips as low as 1.5MB/sec, but its starting to show its age.

Synology quote over 100MB/sec both read and write in a RAID 1 config for DS710+, so i was eager to see how close I could get to these right out of the box.

These speeds increases are due to the 1.67ghz Intel Atom CPU and 1GB ram in the DS710+.

By comparison, the CS407 had just a 500mhz Marvell CPU and 128MB ram.

Complete specs from the CS407 and DS710+ can be found here:

http://download.synology.com/download/CS/CS407/DataSheet/Synology%20CS407%20Data%20Sheet_enu.pdf

http://download.synology.com/download/ds/DS710+/DataSheet/Synology_DS710+_Data_Sheet_enu.pdf

For more information on NAS Basics and Media Streaming Requirements, why not check out my "sticky" over at AVForums: http://www.avforums.com/forums/networking-nas/627725-nas-basics-data-protection-performance-configuration-more.html

For info, my network infrastructure is full gig-ethernet (GigE) comprising of the following:

Upstairs
Custom Built 2.0ghz E4400 Core2Duo, 2gb ram PC with onboard Realtek RLT8168B GigE network card and 500gb Samsung Spinpoint F1 hard disk running Windows 7.
Mac Mini (CoreDuo 1.83ghz), 2gb ram with onboard Marvell Yukon 88E8053 GigE network Card running Snow Leopard
Netgear GS605 unmanaged GigE switch (used as the main connectivity hub)
Linksys WRT54GL router (for internet access and DHCP)
New Synology DS710+ NAS

Downstairs
Apple TV
Netgear GS605 unmanaged GigE switch

All connected using a combination of cat 5e and cat 6 cabling.

Opening the Box
Always a nice feeling when the shiny new kit arrives.

I had to order a 2nd Samsung F3 (xxxxx) as I already had one.

Inside the Box

DS710+
Power Supply
Cat5e Ethernet cable
Pack of screws
Install CD

Pretty sparse really, but the norm these days.

What i really liked about the Power Supply is that it took a normal kettle lead into it, so i didn't have to get on my hands and knees under the desk as I had one spare.


Installing the disks

The drives just sit in the caddy and are screwed in place with the included screws.

The SATA power and data connectors on the drives lineup to the connectors in the DS710.

Round the Back

The drives then slide and clip into place.

Also on the back we have
2 x USB (for connecting printers, external drives, cameras etc)
1 x GigE
1 x Power
1 x eSATA (for connecting external drives)

Set-Up
Once powered up, the set-up was pretty painless using the Synology assistant from the CD. Although I did have problems with Zonealarm Firewall blocking the assistant from finding both old and new Synology units on my network.

Set-up allows you assign manual IP or DHCP settings, name the unit on the network and thats about it for staters. It installs the Synology OS onto the drives and sets itself up from the firmware you choose from the CD and asks you for an administrator password.

Once that stage is complete you can log into the familiair Disk Station Manager (DSM).

From here you can set everything up. I started by creating a Storage Volume using the 2 x 1tb Samsung F3 drives. You get the choice of either or both drives, and then the raid type you want.

I decided to choose RAID-1 (mirroring) using the full amount of space available to me, which was 931GB. Again, always some loss due to the Synology OS and usual formatting reduction.

Off the Synology went to format the drives and create the partition on them.

WARNING: This process then took 3hrs 19mins to complete.

I imagine the creation time depends on the size of the volume being created. Thankfully, this a one-off task for me.

Once this was complete, I created some Shared Folders. (instant creation and usage)

iPhoto

Music

Video

Shared

TimeMachine

On the old NAS i just had one or two shared folders, but i've decided to split things up a bit more this time round.

Whether this turns out to be a good move, only time will tell. But its something I can change later if it doesn't work out.

Performance Tests

NOTE: I did these performance tests over 2 runs. The reasons for that was in the first run I ran everything straight out the box (Blue on the graphs). After posting the original blog, a representative from Synology contacted me offering to help me get the best of my new NAS, so subsequent tests were made after contact with them (Orange on the graphs)

One of the 1st things Synology asked me to do was to confirm that the NAS could read and write to the disks in the DS710+ at a decent rate.

They asked me to run the following to determine raw disk rates.

If you ssh or telnet onto the nas (you'll have to enable either in DSM) you can run the following commands.

This creates a 1gb file - makes sure you change /volume1/public to an area that exists. (and you've got 1gb free)
time dd if=/dev/zero of=/volume1/public/aaa bs=64k count=16384

When complete, divide 1024 by the "real" time figure, this will show you the MB/sec.

The same for the reads:
time dd if=/volume1/public/aaa of=/dev/null

note: just change the directory/file reference to match what you created above.
note2: the above commands can be run on ANY Synology NAS to check raw disk performance.

I'm getting around 100MB/sec reads and 75MB/sec writes from my 2 x Samsung F3's in RAID1.
Synology advised me that because my 1tb volume is around 90% full, 75MB/sec writes are to be expected. They proved this by sending back their figures for the same drives in a DS710+.

So that is one thing to bear in mind. Fuller volumes can perform slower than empty ones. I suppose my scenario is more real life than an empty NAS?

My PC's limitations

My Main PC is a 2.0ghz Dual Core box with 2gb RAM running Windows 7. The hard disk is a 500gb Samsung F1 with an average/read write speed of around 75MB/sec (thanks to Toms Hardware lists for this).

Obviously, any file or FTP copies to or from the Samsung drive would be limited to the speed of this drive. So with that in mind I set up a RAMDisk on the PC to try and gauge max performance.

I used a free version of Datagram RamDisk (free under 4gb) and set up a 1gb ram disk under Windows 7. http://memory.dataram.com/products-and-services/software/ramdisk

FTP (Windows 7 and Mac Mini (Snow Leopard))

Straight from command line on the PC and Mac to the Synology, results from the FTP summary once completed. I also used FileZilla on the PC with the same results.

As you can see, the local hard disk on the PC limited the speed onto the NAS box, although the larger file seemed to fair better. Best performance came from the RAMDisk as we nearly reached 100MB/sec.

I was only able to copy the smaller iso file (656mb) as I only created a 1gb RAMDisk due to lack of memory in my machine.

Initial tests (highlighted in blue), we undertaken with the NAS straight out of the box with everything at default. This meant jumbo frames were disabled on both the PC, Mac and the DS710+.

For secondary tests (highlighted in orange), i set jumbo frames at 7k on all devices. (7k was the highest I could choose on the Realtek network card, so this dictated the maximum across the other two devices)

As you can see, pulling files from the DS710+ to the PC jumped from 62MB/sec to 96MB/sec after switching on Jumbo Frames. (READS)

And coming back the other way jumped from 96MB/sec to 107MB/sec. (WRITES)

Windows Copy (PC to DS710+)

Less scientific this one, stopwatch at the ready and started the copy. Hit stop when it was done.

Windows to DS710+ were unaffected by the Jumbo frames change. The 75MB/sec bottleneck seen is obviously the local drives limite as copying from the RAMDisk smashed 100MB/sec.

Windows Copy (DS710+ to PC)

As you can see here with the blue lines, we had big problems with the READ rates from the DS710+ to the Windows Box with standard 1.5k frames. We only managed to get 47MB/sec until we changed th 7k Jumbo Frames when things sprang into life and we reached 96MB/sec.

Mac File Copy



Again, not very scientific as I got the stop-watch out again.

The copy to the DS710+ was worse on the Mac than the PC reaching only 61MB/sec and 71MB/sec even after Jumbo frames were introdcued.

I'm wondering if the lower spec of the Mac Mini or maybe Apple's implemtation of Samba (SMB) file sharing is to blame? Definitely one to look at there.

481MB ISO Extraction to same device

What I wanted to try here was see how the NAS performed as a "live drive". Normally we keep NAS drives solely for storage and streaming the performance doesn't allow anything else. But surely with 100MB/sec read and write we could now use it as a general drive?

Sadly, i was most disappointed with this test.

7 seconds on the RAMDisk, 22 seconds on the local hard disk, but 65 seconds to extract the ISO from the DS710+ and onto it.

Note: A no point did my CPU go above 70% during this test, so no real bottleneck.

NOTE2: Hope to revist these with Jumbo Frames.

481MB ISO Extraction (different source/destination)

Again though, writes are quicker than reads on the DS710+???

But the with the NAS apparently capable of 100MB/sec both ways, why does the extraction take double the amount of time that it does on the local hard disk?
Note: Hope to revisit these with Jumbo Frames

Conclusion and Questions to be answered?

Can it do 100MB/sec with a regular PC?

Yes, granted you need a good hard disk on the PC, but a Samsung F3 for example should do the trick.

Can it be used as "live drive"?

So far, yes, sort of. My iPhoto database on the Mac is far quicker than it used to be on the CS407.
And if you think about it, the Mac Mini's only have 2.5" drives in, so around 35MB/Sec max read/write, which the DS710+ can easily beat. But i'm yet to be convinced that a NAS drive, no matter how quick, can ever replace local disk for instant access. Theres got to be added network latency etc??? Not sure how to test this though?

Jumbo Frames required?

Certainly. Without them, there is a problem with transfer speeds.

Why does the ISO Extraction take so long when its sat on the DS710+?

Another puzzler. At the time, the CPU, Memory and Network stats on the DS710+ where really low, so no problems there. Is it that the DS710+ can't read/write quickly to the same volume?

Right, that's my little review over with.
If anyone has any questions, please leave a comment and i'll see what I can do.
Do you have any specifc tests that you think might be useful? Especially "real-life" tests.

Caveat: During my testing I have found some slightly inconsistent results as I've gone along. But I'm putting these down to the fact that in between tests I've been copying data over the new NAS, so its been filling up, (not whilst tests are running), but as we've gone along we've gone from a virtually empty NAS to 90% full NAS.

Hope you found this useful.

Cheers, Zarch