AllGamer

2 other possible causes of High RAM usage (besides file encryption Enabled), is the RAID activity itself, for example RAID5, RAID6 and similar setups will use more RAM for processing of the strip/hash/disk spread. While RAID10, RAID1, and RAID0 is straight write. Another cause which more or less relates to the above, is a slow overall PC, like older generation CPU, and older generation hardware that are not fast enough to catch up to the network card. Basically the NIC card is pulling in data so fast, it's saturating the PCI channels, which in turn saturates the RAM / buffer, due the slow CPU is still processing previous batches. This last part is very easy to test, if you say copy 1 GB data, and it writes it all to the NAS quickly without dropping speed, then it's good for small batches of data transfer. then repeat the same test with a large batch of data say, copy 5GB of data, and if the NAS can write it quickly without dropping transfer speed then you can repeat the test with a 10GB data transfer until you figure out how much the system can handle per batch. Since you mentioned earlier that 10GB uses a lot of RAM, perhaps the hardware can't keep up with large transfers, but might still work well with smaller amounts. I've observed the Exact same behaviour with legit Synology DS210+ boxes when small amount of data is not using much RAM and transfer fast, but as soon as I copied larger amount of data, then I see high utilization of RAM and CPU. Newer Synology boxes behaves more or less the same except for the beefier systems like the DS1815+

minor correction CAT5E (twisted inside) to get 1Gbps, CAT5 (straight inside) is 100 Mbps or use CAT6 patch cables they are common if you buy new ones from computer stores.

network speed is not just determined by the network card itself. the connection on the other end of the cable also have some influence, make sure your router or switch, RJ45 port is working at 1Gbps instead of 100 Mbps is that an unmanaged switch?, smart switch?, managed switch? if it's a router and loaded with DDWRT you can choose the speed of the port, if you are using something else or stock router firmware, then find if there's and option to check for the port speed.

Did you enable File Encryption by any chance?

yup, that's usually the rough numbers I use, then you only add a Zero for Mbps (bandwidth utilization), and remove a Zero for MByte/s (data size) It's also worth mentioning the Brand of Network Card, SATA 1/2/3 speed, and HDD (5600rpm/7200rpm) speed can make a difference to the overall transfer rate as well.

that is a very compact case, only 2 space for 3.5 HDD, and 1x 5.25 bay for CDROM or one of these http://www.icydock.com/goods.php?id=196 CPU is fine, motherboard is fine, any RAM will work, 4 GB is indeed enough for most tasks, but if you plan to do encoding more RAM is better. on a similar i3 build, i maxed it out to 32GB RAM, for encoding, web hosting and other stuff. most HDD works fine, WD RED is overly hyped, because the real original WD RED is now actually known as WD RED PRO, the WD RED is just like the WD Green but with extra year of warranty. If you want to save on Cost, you can consider Hitachi and Toshiba drives, these are usually cheaper than Seagate / WD yet works just as great.

The current version is the one listed in the sticky viewtopic.php?f=2&t=5026 As for your reason of building your own box vs buying a full fledged Synology is not really our concern, but we can always help with figuring out what Parts are compatible for the build you plan to create. If you have not yet planned which PC parts you are going to pick up I'll suggest browsing through the Compatible Hardware guide viewtopic.php?f=2&t=10973 It also helps if you have some sort of budget in mind, and how many HDDs you plan to use.

The i3-4130 is a 64 bit CPU Source: http://ark.intel.com/products/77480/Int ... e-3_40-GHz I think you are missing the part about the AMD 64 CPU, NOT being an Intel chip ?

The Wake Up on Lan might or might not work. The WOL feature is more in the Laptop's BIOS than in XPEnology. If you currently, you send the Wakeup packets and the Laptop is Off, and it Wakes up after receiving the packets, then it will work as well with XPEnology. Some of my older machines have working WOL, and ironically newer machines that I run XPEnology doesn't have working WOL even when enabled in BIOS. This was testing when the machine was running Windows with all the necessary drivers installed, not that it's driver dependant. As for the 2 disk Mirror RAID1, it should work just fine. If XPEnology can see 1 HDD, it should see also the 2nd HDD on the CD/ROM port

When you deal with Network Transfer is better to use Mbps, as it's less confusing for example Acronis Backup to my Filestation (XPEnology) almost maxes out the full 1Gbps (1000 Mbps)

there is a very similar problem from another guy just a few days ago viewtopic.php?f=2&t=17399 pretty much the same thing you are trying to do, read that, it might give you some ideas. it largely depends on the NIC cards from both machines, and in some cases the switch box in the network might have something to do.

I usually just take the USB out and plug it into another machine to make any changes to the config, or even updating the boot. it's faster and easier I'll only do SSH / putty if it was remote machine, otherwise I'd rather do it quickly

Well part 1 of the mystery is solved, so it was not a RAM issue. That's good. But it was interesting the part you said it was running fine for 2 years, but just started behaving erratically recently. That is usually a sign that either the Power Supply is failing, or one of the HDD drives might be having errors. Check out the SMART report of each HDD, and see which HDD has the most bad sectors

FYI: Seagate has a nice 2.5" 7mm 2 Terabyte HDD that is great for laptops, and I use them for XPEnology as well. Look for model ST2000LM007 http://www.seagate.com/ca/en/products/l ... obile-hdd/ my local price was aprox $120 AS for the conversion htpcdude was talking about, check out http://www.icydock.com/goods.php?id=213 ToughArmor MB411SPO-B 2.5” SATA/SAS HDD/SSD Mobile Rack for Slim ODD or Slim FDD Bay I was exactly in the same thoughts, as I needed something small for my kid going to university to have a Local Backup at the Dorm for the homeworks and stuff in case s*** happens and needs a quick restore. An old obsolete laptop re-purposed with XPEnology is perfect for such task, thanks for the idea. Originally my mind was locked into using a mini-cube or something or maybe even a real Synology Box, I totally forgot about my spare old laptops collecting dust in the basement, they have been so forgotten, that I didn't even remember I had them, until I read this thread

That sounds like a RAM problem, or the Power Saving feature of that Dell PC having problems Run Memtest86 on it (until it finishes like 30min), and see if it shows any error Go into the BIOS disable all the Power Saving features.

no driver required, if you buy ones that are already supported by XPEnology. but HOLD that idea, don't buy an intel NIC just yet. I forgot you mentioned you are using those POWERLINE ETHERNET ... those are utterly garbage IMO, I've tried several generations from 100 Mbps, to 500 Mbps, to the latest 1000+ Gbps and they are all FAKE! from all major brands like Linksys, Cisco, Western Digital, TPlink, Dlink etc... none of them deliver as promised. Why?! because, it's highly affected by the kind of power wires you have in your house, also affected by power line interference (drill, saw, blender, electric lawnmower, etc), also distance from one room of the house to the other room, also how the wires are wired, if they go through the main switch board, is even worse, you'll be lucky to get 10 Mbps in those cases. So, in the end I just went for WiFi, and I ended up with better speed, and stable connection. Get a good WiFi AP / Router that can do 1900+ Mbps, get a good WiFi usb dongle that can receive 1900+ or as high as possible. Solution solved. Ditch the Powerline Ethernet, they are a joke, they need a lot more refinement before it can be actually usable like DSL and Cable modems. Powerline Ethernet uses pretty much the same tech found in DSL modems and Cable modems, but it is too susceptible to interruptions and irregularities, and interference in the power lines. It's specially bad in old houses with old wires. From your original description, sounds like you are running exactly into the same kind of problem I ran into when I was testing out those Power Line Ethernet, I was hoping they would work better than WiFi, before the new generation of WiFi N arrived, because back then WiFi on 2.4 GHz was very unstable, and I needed something more stable for my Home Theatre setup, as the Server was in the Basement, but the Home Theatre was on 2nd floor, and didn't want to drill holes / cut dry wall to run a new CAT6 thought several floors and several rooms to reach the basement. So, I went with the Power Line Ethernet, only to find they are mediocre at best, might be OK for web surfing and email checking, but definitely not good for video streams, not even youtube. Each new generation I was hoping for improved technology, but it ended up being the same, it can't even deliver a true 100 Mbps, Speet Test showed it was more like 2 Mbps to 10 Mbps average, which is waaaaaaaaaaaaaaay slower than WiFi G 54 Mbps / WiFi N gen1 300 Mbps luckily WiFi N gen3 came about 1000+ Mbps, then with passing years improved even more, and the recent generation of WiFi N are solid, and really fast, faster than 1Gbps CAT6 wired connections, and they are less prone to interference in 5 GHz.

agree on the Intel based cards, the generally perform way faster than other brands (Mavell, Realtek) with Intel cards a 1 Gbps (1000 Mbps) can run average steady at actual 952 Mbps (119 MB/s), which is pretty amazing, as the same can rarely be archived using Mavell or Realtek cards, with those I can barely get 500 Mbps average Now if you have several Intel NIC like those Quad ports, then you can Bond them together, and it'll become 4000 Mbps, of course your source machine will also require to have a Quad port to make use of that. having the Quad nic Team Bonded, when the max speed is reached like the above example it will spill over to use the next 1000 Mbps card to run another set of heavy transfer, so, you can have simultaneous 4 sets of 952 Mbps (119 MB/s) transfer happening concurrently. or just receive from 4 separate machines each one doing 952 Mbps (119 MB/s) to the XPEnology server my scheduled daily Acronis Backups runs really fast an efficiently in that.

Theoretically it should work, but unless you can list all the chip-sets involved there's no way to know

i did, tried both button, from Disk Group, and from Volume, both are greyed out.

That is the weird thing, Manage is greyed out, it won't let me click it. my account has Admin rights.

I noticed with XPE DSM it only does the disk validation parity check when you create the drive group. Is there a way to force a validation / parity check like as it can be done with Real RAID controllers?

Thank you! That came in handy. for future reference, if anyone has a SanDisk Cruzer Fit 8GB, this is the vendor id and product id: P: Vendor=0781 ProdID=5571 Rev= 1.00 S: Manufacturer=SanDisk S: Product=Cruzer Fit

XPEnology Boot USB drive keeps showing up as HDD A motherboard and SAS/SATA controller with 12 USB ports, 0 eSATA, and 24 combined SATA ports maxdisks="24" esataportcfg="0x000000000" usbportcfg="0xfff000000" internalportcfg="0x000ffffff" 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 = esataportcfg 0000 0000 1111 1111 1111 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 = usbportcfg 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 1111 1111 1111 1111 1111 1111 = internalportcfg maxdisks="24" esataportcfg="0x000000000" usbportcfg="0x000000000" internalportcfg="0x000ffffff" 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 = esataportcfg 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 = usbportcfg 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 1111 1111 1111 1111 1111 1111 = internalportcfg tried setting USB to Zero, and it still shows up.

Try another SATA port? Did you try restarting the machine? is the new drive connected to a Backplate? some backplates are not compatible is the new drive connected to a different SATA controller? is the SATA controller using a port multiplier? port multipliers are not compatible

Good list! but... from all of them, only https://synocommunity.com/packages is the true winner