Video Collection -> NAS

[MagikMark]

Hi Philip!

I have a video collection stored in the internal drives of my PC. Space is starting to be scarce. I'm now planning to get a NAS (Synology DS220+) for better storage. My question now:

Which is the fastest way to move files from my PC -> NAS? If I go through the router it might take too long. Will the USB 3 port of NAS connected directly to my PC feasible?

I'll be doing a lot of movement of video from PC -> NAS as I do a lot of encoding and transcoding in my PC. What do you think is the best way of doing this in the long run?

[Philip]

USB 3 is the simplest method that allows for a fast connection, just make sure you use an USB3 port on the PC. Alternatively, you'd need to have a Gigabit Ethernet set, with both your PC having a Gigabit Network adapter, and going through a gigabit switch to the NAS, with Cat-6 cables. The Gigabit LAN setup would allow multiple PCs to connect/use the NAS at the higher speeds, typically around 80 Megabytes/sec. Not sure what your router LAN-side switch speed is, and how your PC is connected to it.

[MagikMark]

I'm using Asus RT-AC5300 router. I have a MAC and a PC connected to it. I'm working on very large files around 20GB each.

Is it going to be faster if I'm going to use the USB port? Will Windows 10 be able to read and write my Synology NAS. My concern is that they may have different file system. Can you recommend which file system to use in my NAS

[Philip]

I think Synology uses ext4 filesystem, which is perfectly fine for large files. Most NAS devices use some type of Linux/BSD-based OS that uses ext3 or ext4 filesystem, many wouldn't even give you a choice to change it. If you do have a choice, I think ext3 is a bit less CPU-intensive than ext4. Synology's Btrfs is a bit slower than ext4.

As far as transfer speeds, you can expect up to ~100 MBytes/sec with either the USB3 or Gigabit Ethernet interface. Theoretically, USB3 can go much faster (up to ~500 MBytes/sec), but I am yet to see a residential NAS that can push that kind of bandwidth. Transfers are limited by all hardware involved at higher speeds, not just the interface, i.e. HDDs vs SSDs, RAM, CPU, adapters, software processing, filesystem, etc. If you are using regular hard drives and a NAS, you should be happy to get over 80 Mbytes/second with either interface in my experience. Typical HDD write speeds are between 70 and 150 Mbytes/s anyway. I would try both USB3 and GigE and see which seems to perform better with less CPU load, I'd be interested to learn too.

My NAS is a simple Linux OS with Gigabit Ethernet ports, and two pairs of HDDs. A nightly cron job rsyncs one HDD to the other (I used Raid 1 mirrors before, but I actually like the delay in copying data and less wear on the second pair of HDDs). HDDs are set to sleep most of the day, they power down an hour or two after being used. I get about 80 Mbytes/s transfers.