azazel1024
Very Senior Member
To distill it down...
Link Aggregation will only increase aggregate bandwidth, it does NOT increase single user bandwidth one iota.
You'll have to rely on Windows 8+/Server 2013 and SMB Multichannel (which is supported on those products) to get higher single user bandwidth. This does NOT require a managed switch.
It also only works with SMB. If you are connecting to the server through a different means, it does not increase bandwidth (the good news is, if you are attempting to load a file from a network share in just about any program, it is connecting through SMB, unless of course you are using an iSCSI or NFS share, which is not a default network share configuration in windows).
The other downside is that most laptops have a single network ports, which means SMB Multichannel won't do a thing for you. However, if you can add on a second port through some means, that might work for you. I haven't tried it and they are RARE, but a dual port USB3 network adapter MAY work with SMB Multichannel. It also may not. SMB Multichannel can be slightly finicky from what I have found (best odds of working, same adapters. I have NOT been able to get it working with a PCIe NIC combined with a USB3 NIC).
That said, with an SSD in the server hosting the files, and a good GbE link between the laptop and the server, it shouldn't load appreciably slower than if it is stored locally in most cases. So long as you don't have any networking issues or really crappy adapters in the laptops, you should be able to get 105-118MB/sec transfer speeds. That is slower than internal storage (unless it is a rather old/slow 2.5" HDD, and it is a LOT slower than an internal SSD in the laptops), but often not a lot slower.
Link Aggregation will only increase aggregate bandwidth, it does NOT increase single user bandwidth one iota.
You'll have to rely on Windows 8+/Server 2013 and SMB Multichannel (which is supported on those products) to get higher single user bandwidth. This does NOT require a managed switch.
It also only works with SMB. If you are connecting to the server through a different means, it does not increase bandwidth (the good news is, if you are attempting to load a file from a network share in just about any program, it is connecting through SMB, unless of course you are using an iSCSI or NFS share, which is not a default network share configuration in windows).
The other downside is that most laptops have a single network ports, which means SMB Multichannel won't do a thing for you. However, if you can add on a second port through some means, that might work for you. I haven't tried it and they are RARE, but a dual port USB3 network adapter MAY work with SMB Multichannel. It also may not. SMB Multichannel can be slightly finicky from what I have found (best odds of working, same adapters. I have NOT been able to get it working with a PCIe NIC combined with a USB3 NIC).
That said, with an SSD in the server hosting the files, and a good GbE link between the laptop and the server, it shouldn't load appreciably slower than if it is stored locally in most cases. So long as you don't have any networking issues or really crappy adapters in the laptops, you should be able to get 105-118MB/sec transfer speeds. That is slower than internal storage (unless it is a rather old/slow 2.5" HDD, and it is a LOT slower than an internal SSD in the laptops), but often not a lot slower.