urbanfreestyle wrote in post #18871374
Currently about 1.4tb of photos and around 2.5tb of ‘other’
Cool, that is not an unmanageable amount, but with those drives you're still going to have to make some compromises.
I would forget about doing RAID in your computer, it will use the CPU and RAM to manage it which takes up resources. If you want to do 3D work, make heavy use of LR, or run a VM then you need all the performance your CPU has.
You also won't get any advantage out of doing RAID 0 with the SSD's. Your CPU given it's age will be the bottle neck in the system, not the speed of a single SSD.
Don't assume every hard drive you have is good, or will be usable in the NAS. If it's a collection of discs you've gathered over time, and many of them have been used, then they may have errors.
You need to check each disc with a program like Crystal Disc Info, it's a SMART reader and will give you a general health report for each disc. Ideally you need to check them in the NAS, I've had discs pass Crystal Disc yet not be considered healthy enough for my Synology NAS as it's rejected them for errors.
I read some reviews on the NAS you have, it doesn't rate well, especially for usability in terms of set up and management of discs, but assuming you've set it up before, or are tech savy enough to make it work, then it makes good sense to make that the center of your storage system, with the SSD's used for OS, programs, scratch/cache and the VM and any remaining discs being used for back up.
I suggest the following:
In the computer:
M.2 SSD for operating system and programs
SATA SSD for Scratch disc and cache for LR, PS, Vegas etc
SATA SSD for VM installation
M.2 SSD in a PCI adapter card (these are $10-20) for LR catalog and previews as well as extra storage, iTunes etc.
This separates different kinds of data and programs, and as long as your LR catalog is backed up, also means if any drive fails you don't lose data. OS and programs are easy to reinstall, and loosing a cache or scratch, or VM isn't really a big deal (but the VM can be backed up anyway).
The data separation also helps with performance.
In the NAS:
4 x 2TB drives in RAID 5
RAID 5 does only allow for a single disc failure, but it gives you 6TB of total storage which is an extra 50% more than your current needs.
If you run it as RAID 6 you'll get protection from 2 discs failing, but only have 4TB of storage.
Note, if you got a 4th 3TB drive then in RAID 5 you would have 9TB of storage or 6TB in RAID 6
You'd need to make sure the LR catalog get's back up to the NAS
With the NAS connected over a 1GB LAN connection you'll have better performance for file access than a single spinning disc in the box, and if you get a managed switch and a PCI Intel LAN card with 2 inputs for the computer you could run a teamed 2gb/s connection from the NAS to the computer for even better performance.
Back Up:
2 x 3TB drives to put into external enclosures to use as off site back ups.
If you also back up the NAS with a service like Crashplan for Backblaze then have a pretty solid and reliable storage system with onsite redundancy and 2 forms of off site back up.
This would mean your CPU and RAM are free to do work load tasks, not manage a RAID.
It means all your fast storage is in the computer and tasks are separated across them, and it means the NAS which is designed to run and manage a RAID is doing just that.
It also gives you a physical back up on the 3TB discs to keep off site.
You do of course have enough discs to try different variations:
Put all 3 3TB discs in the NAS with a 2TB to make up the RAID. Then when you need more space replace the 2TB with a 3TB.
That would still let you use the 2TB discs for external back ups.
Or if you find doing video is taking up more space than you thought, but the 2TB discs in the NAS for photography, and use the extra 3TB discs in the computer for video storage only. Then you still have enough discs for a remote back up, but it's spread over more 2TB discs as well.
But, I suspect, based on my own experience not all of those discs will be actually be healthy enough to trust with your data.
And, a quick tip for getting some more performance from the CPU, since you have a really good motherboard and cooler you can sync all the cores to run at the same boost clock.
It makes a noticeable difference with out getting into overclocking and with out compromising stability.
This videos shows how from about the 2min mark: https://youtu.be/w-oAf2tVDcg?t=120
