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Simple NAS + occasional editing capabilities

#1
Hi

Very impressed by the knowledge and mass of info at your site!
As a NAS noob I however get a bit overwhelmed by all the information, so it would be awesome if you could give me some feedback on my perhaps very basic questionSmile

I currently have about 1,5TB of video files that now lives on external HDDs + a Time Capsule, and I want to improve and simplify my setup.

I work as a cinematographer. But I’m not an editor, so I don’t need a pro editing setup. A few times a year I do however work with my material in DaVinci Resolve or FCPX, to do grading or simple edits for things like tests or showreels.
Projects are typically 0,5 to 10GB, and very rarely 4K. (Although that might change).
I currently work from my maxed out 2012 MBP, and the external drives gives me about 60MB/s in BMSpeedTest. It’s of course far from snappy and I wouldn’t mind better performance. But amazingly enough it works, and might give you an idea of what I'm used to.
(I will however upgrade as soon as the M1X MBPs comes out)

So my initial idea was to move everything to a NAS, and do everything directly from it.
Apart from storage; I only need TimeMachine compatibility and remote access to the files. No streaming, transcoding, surveillance, or any other software.
I do have a physical size restriction and would like to keep the unit as small as possible. 2 bay = great. 3 bay = might work. 4 bay = too big. SSD NAS = too expensive for my needs.
I currently have a 1GBE network, and I value low noise…


Initial options I looked at:
- DS220J with 2 x 4TB HDDs in RAID1
Cheap. But from what I understand; editing from it will not be faster than my current setup and it’s not really upgradable

- DS220+ with 2 x 4TB HDDs in RAID1
Better hardware. But in RAID1 it still might not add enough difference for my needs, to warrant the doubling of price compared to DS220J?

- QNAP TS-328 with 3 x 4TB HDDs in RAID5
Does RAID5 give enough of a speed boost to make it a good unit to edit on?
If so; can I keep the 1GBE or do I need to update it?


Alternative option:
- Buy a cheap NAS. Then use the extra cash to buy an external SSD drive, and transfer the material when I want to edit stuff.
This would be economical, while still having the option of really snappy editing possibilities.
But it’s also a hassle having to transfer projects back and forth. So my lazy side would like a solution where I don’t need to transfer the files for edits.


What would you recommend?

My best
/Simon
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