[A-series] maximum multicast throughput

[MichaelM55]

Hi,

part of one of my customers core consists of HP A5500-EI switches and PIM  is used throughout the core. Looking at the way from one of its source server to the target of the multicast stream (the stream is actually a software cloning solution for fill computers with a new software image), all switches are actually 5500 one. I counted 13 hops form source to target switch.
Well, what throughput should I get when streaming to the target? Of course, it depends on the harddrives (RAID 5 with 8x Seagate Constellation CS 3TB are used within that NAS, hardware RAID controller) series but what can I expect at most?
Talking about that topic, the lines between the switches are used at maximum 30%, server SAN only hosts the images and testing with only one source and ~40 computers behind the target switch, I can see ~12MB/s. With unicast stream I get ~119MB/s at the same time.

Well, needless to say that I expected at least a little more...