ASK NC

Hello.

I am into photography and do a lot of editing in lightroom/photoshop. I ran out of HD space on my Macbook so started using an external HDD. I find I don't enjoy having to be plugged in to access the raw files and also ran into some other issues so I am looking at NAS as a solution. Would this be a viable solution? Would there be any drawbacks, such as speed/latency issues? What kind of setup would be sufficient to enable this to work as seamlessly as possible and what are the considerations I should take into account?

I have watched quite a few of your youtube videos and believe Synology + series would be a good way to go but I am worried I may fork out a lot of money on something that may have it's own drawbacks that I am currently unaware of. Any advice would be great!

Thanks,
James

Yes, a NAS can be a great solution for your photography storage needs. By using a NAS, you can store your files centrally and access them from any device on your network, without the need to be physically connected to an external hard drive.

In terms of speed and latency, it is important to choose a NAS that has a fast enough processor and enough memory to handle your editing software. The Synology + series would be a good choice for this purpose, as they have powerful processors and can handle multiple users accessing the NAS at the same time.

To ensure the best performance, it's important to connect your NAS to your computer with a wired Ethernet connection. This will provide the best possible speed and reduce latency.

When setting up your NAS, you should consider the amount of storage space you need, and whether you want to use a RAID configuration for data redundancy. It's also a good idea to set up regular backups of your files to an external drive or cloud storage service, to protect against data loss.

Overall, a NAS can be a great solution for your photography storage needs, as long as you choose the right model and take the necessary steps to optimize performance.