High Speed NAS for Media Editing
Original Question : Hi Akash, I run a sports video business and have many gigs of video files I want to archive. I bought 4 of these drives WD Re Pro 16TB NAS Hard Drive, Cache Size: 512 MB. What hardware should I buy that I can load these into and access the data on my local network? thanks
Hello,
Since you are into Video editing, you would need high-speed access to your storage. here are a few ideas.
But first - I am assuming that you don't have any existing data on these drives, because with both QNAP and Synology ( and other NAS solutions too) your hard drives will be formatted when you put them in NAS.
Network Speed: Go with 10G
If your network infrastructure is equipped with a 10G switch, then you can consider a NAS with a 10G port. These ports come in two types: 10GSFP+ and 10GBaseT (RJ45 ) . You will have to check the specific port type on the switch itself weather it is SFP+ or RJ45.
here is a picture showing the SFP+ Port and the normal BaseT ports. BaseT ports use the usual network cables with RJ45 connectors that you have always seen. SFP+ Ports connect with either Transceiver+Cable or with DAC cable which have transciver built in
Media Speed : Caching can help
Since you have hard drives, the performance of the storage media is limited. Cachine with a high-speed SSD media can significantly boost performance. Look for a NAS that supports caching and maximize the SSD caching capacity. While working with tasks like video editing, if the size of the video you're editing exceeds the cache size, the benefits may not be fully realized, but it's still worth exploring.
What happens with caching is that a copy of your frequently accessed files are stored in the high speed SSD so you are served the copy from SSD quickly.
Additionally, for media editing and similar applications, there's an excellent option from QNAP - a Thunderbolt and network-capable device. So your editor can connect to your QNAP using a high speed 40G Thunderbolt 3 port, while others can connect via a slower network.
Since you asked for Network specifically I won't suggest a Thunerbolt only solution like the OWC, LaCie or G-Tech.
Below, you'll find a selection of models from both Synology and QNAP that you can consider for these requirements.
- Synology DS923+ with E10G22-T1-Mini Card - 4 bay with 10GBASET (RJ45)
- QNAP TS431X3 - 4 Bay with 10G SFP+
- QNAP TVS-h874T-i9-64G 8 Bay with Thunderbolt4 Connection and multiple 2.5G network Ports
- QNAP TVS-h874T-i7-32G - 8 bay with thunderbolt4 connection and multiple 2.5G network Ports
- QNAP TVS-h674T-i5-32G - 6 bay with tunderbolt4 connection and multiple 2.5G network Ports
I hope this answers your question if you require additional information, please do not hesitate to reach out to us.