Are the USB ports for expansion only or can they be used to attach to my MacBook Pro? I plan on populating the array with the new 4TB WD Blacks, what would my expected performance be other GIG-E and/or USB 3 if striped in a RAID 0 config.
No, the USB ports are only for expansion and not for direct connection.
Speed over ethernet is going to vary depending on what you’re going to copy and how you copy it.
Large file copy (in GB) from a PC to the EX4 can be anywhere between 30-60MB/s. I can usually substain about 35-40MB/s with the EX4 configured as RAID5, but your mileage may vary.
Wouldn’t the WD black drives be a big waste in this device.
GigE is SLOWWWW 100 MB/s upper limit type slow. EX4 noticeable slower…
**bleep** the recommended drives for this are the WD Red NAS drives variable spindle speed max up to 5400 RPM to keep longevity up and energy usage down.
Even when I on-load this NS device from a USB 3.0 RAID 0 stripe it’s gawd awful slow… and it aint the USB stripe running at 230 MB/s .
Black drives most likely want make any real difference since the speed limitation is due to the CPU not the drives themselves.
