USB Drive or DS109

[BostonDan]

Does anyone know how much (if any) of a performance difference there is when connecting external USB drives to a NAS? I'm trying to figure out whether it makes sense to purchase a DS109 or just use an external USB drive connected to an existing DS209. The two setups I'm considering are:
Option 1) DS209 (two internal drives) and one external USB Drive, or
Option 2) DS209 (two internal drives) and DS109
Appreciate any thoughts.
Thanks - BD

 

[thiggins]

The best an external USB drive has done in my attached backup testing is ~25 MB/s using FAT or EXT3. QNAP NASes can also deliver the same performance with NTFS because they use Paragon's drivers.

I haven't tested, however, the performance to/from an external drive as a network share. Probably something I should do at some point.

A DS109 measured 40 MB/s write, 60 MB/s read with Windows file copy.

 

[BostonDan]

Thank Tim - Appreciate your knowledge and help. Sound like I should spend the money for the DS109. Thanks again- BD