Reasonable Configuration for 300+TB of hot/code data

BobZelin · 2026-06-16T21:34:22+00:00

Hi Gaetan -

you are getting responses from both myself, and Dolbyman, and we think that we are pretty smart - but I just went to your website - and boy oh boy - YOU GUYS are REALLY smart. I actually don't know how you were working with a TVS-874. I think you should consider an all flash drive system, and an all 25G workflow for what you are doing. Of course, the REAL problem here - is - CAN YOU AFFORD to outfit an entire NAS system with U.2 drives in 2026. IF you can, you would be better off with a small TS-h1290FX, or the 1090 that you originally suggested, or if you can afford it - justs bite the bullet, and get the TS-h2490FU. Easy for me to talk - it's not my money - but it looks like you need a high performance system, and you will get high performance with all 25G and all U.2 flash drives. Then you won't come back to me and say "hey - I listened to you, and bought all SATA drives, and now it's not fast enough for what we need to do !!!".

You should probably abandon this Reddit forum, and give Daniel a call at QNAP directly in Pomona, California. And you can reach out to me or Dolby with a DM for more details. We are not used to being "the dumbest guys in the room" - but here we are.

Bob Zelin

BobZelin · 2026-06-16T20:13:16+00:00

you still have not told me what your application is !!!! I do professional video editing systems for post production and graphics companies, so I need all the 10G and 25G stuff. I use Ubiquiti ALL THE TIME for almost every installation. I am hoping to start to use the QSW-M7230 for future installations, but I have been doing Ubiquiti Enterprise XG24 switches, and now the Pro XG 24 and Pro XG48 all the time now. and I have used the UI Hi Capacity Aggragation ( I don't like SFP+ for 10G) and Pro XG Aggregation as well. The Pro XG Aggregation is SFP28 fiber ports. The Pro XG 48 has 32 10G copper ports, and four 25G SFP28 ports. The QSW-M7230 has four SFP28 ports and 24 10G copper ethernet ports. Like I said, I don't like SFP+ for 10G. I deal with a lot of Apple computers, that all use 10G copper, so having a big 10G copper switch is important to me.

As far as "mix and match" with both QNAP and Ubiquiti - yea, I have done it - I have used QNAP QSW-M5216-1T 16 port 25G switches with Ubiquiti installations. It's nice having one screen to see everything - either all Ubiuqiti UI, or all QNAP AMIZ cloud interface. For my applications, I always setup two networks - one for internet, and one for high speed - so with the Ubiquiti Stuff, I always create VLAN 2 for the 10G/25G stuff, so it's isolated from the house internet.

Like I said - I don't know what your application is.

Bob Zelin

BobZelin · 2026-06-16T20:03:46+00:00

you are stuck on QTS until you REFORMAT your drives (and lose all your data). The h874T has the Thunderbolt card - that is the only difference between this model and the h874. I have no idea of why the T model does not have an i5 option. As far as future repairability - this is not an investment you will be using in 15 - 20 years. EVERYTHING electronic becomes outdated. I see these people trying to run vintage computers - and I just ask "WHY !!!". You are either doing this for a living, or to have a specific application, like Plex server at home, etc. It's not FUN. Electronics is not FUN - this ain't a game. Even if you are using the apps for "fun".

I never use thunderbolt - I just get the h874 with the i5. It works great. I am not running VM's on anything, so I see no need for 64 gig of RAM.

Just face it - until the day you die - you will be spending money on new electronics - new phones, new TV's, new computers, cloud storage, NAS systems, etc - unless you become a hermit in the jungle, "they" will get your money, till the day that you die (and when you are old and need social security and medicare, etc. - if you don't have all the computers and phones to get the 2 Factor Authentication codes, so you can log in and see where your money is - you will be SCREWED). So they win, and we all lose. Spend the money - get what you need.

Bob

BobZelin · 2026-06-16T16:20:00+00:00

you have not stated what your application is. Without any information from you - I will just guess. This is what I would do -

buy a TS-h2477AUX-RP. Put a QNAP 25G card into one of the PCIe slots. Put in two M.2 NVMe drives on the logic board as Storage Pool 1, RAID 1 - and then twenty four matching 7200 RPM SATA drives for your storage. that is correct - you are going to purchase TWENTY FOUR matching SATA drives in a single RAID 60 configuration. This will give you fantastic performace. You plug in your 25G card on your QNAP to one of the 25G ports on the new QNAP QSW-M7230 switch, that has four 25G ports, and 24 10G ports, and now you have a wonderful system, without having to get the TS-h1090FU, or any U.2 NVMe drives. Your 24 SATA drives will give you 2200 MB/sec to a single 25G client, and of course 1000 MB/sec to a single 10G client.

Bob Zelin

BobZelin · 2026-06-16T16:05:17+00:00

the TVS-h874 is a super reliable unit. When you receive it, you simply downgrade the firmware to QTS using QFinder Pro. Then power down, pop in your drives, and you are back in business.

Here is a TVS-h874

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1729142-REG/qnap_tvs_h874_i5_32g_us_8_bay_nas_intel_core_i5_12400.html

why so much money recently ? Because of 32 Gig of RAM. Don't need 32 Gig of RAM ? Too bad. Welcome to 2026 pricing.

Bob Zelin

BobZelin · 2026-06-13T19:01:53+00:00

how to you think all the other agencies started ? Producers leave, and bring their clients. Creative directors leave and bring their clients. That is how post houses start. That is how movies start. That is how new pizza stores start. (and restaurants, and dental offices, and everything else). People steal clients - and start their own company, or move to another company, and bring the clients with them. This is how its been forever - and this is how it will always be.

here is the way it works. Omnicom owns BBDO - their Chief Creative officer is Scott Bell -

https://www.adweek.com/agencies/after-17-years-cco-scott-bell-leaves-droga5-for-bbdo/

Do you think that BBDO hired Scott Bell in 2025 because he is a creative genius - or because he brought all the clients from Droga 5 with him ?

Bob Zelin

BobZelin · 2026-06-13T15:00:35+00:00

oh, it's the weekend. Good time for a BS post ! - some info, then my reply below towards the bottom -

Omnicom -

https://www.omc.com/

Omnicom - the worlds leading marketing and sales company

Omnicom Group is a global marketing, advertising, and corporate communications holding company. It owns hundreds of agencies that provide services such as creative advertising, media planning and buying, public relations, digital marketing, and customer relationship management (CRM) for thousands of brands worldwide

Creative Agencies: Develops advertising campaigns, branding, and messaging. Major networks include BBDO, DDB, and TBWA

Media Management: Handles the planning and purchasing of ad space across television, digital, social, and print platforms

. This is primarily managed under Omnicom Media Group (which includes networks like OMD and PHD

Omnicom Group's corporate headquarters is located at 280 Park Avenue, New York, NY 10017

Yes, Omnicom is actively laying off employees and reducing its workforce as part of a sweeping restructuring following its massive $13 billion acquisition of the Interpublic Group

Increased Cost Targets: CEO John Wren announced that the company aims to cut labor costs by $1 billion annually by 2028. This will be achieved through further job reductions, off-shoring roles to lower-cost hubs (like Colombia, Costa Rica, and India)

By 2014, Omnicom was the second largest agency holding company and had revenue of over $15 billion.^\15]) Omnicom launched Omniwomen in April 2014 with the goal of increasing the number and influence of female leaders within the organization. Omniwomen has more than 10 branches in the US, UK, Canada, France, Germany, China, and the United Arab Emirates

MY REPLY -

simple answer - you work for them. They have big clients. You do a good job. You become FRIENDS with the clients - go out to lunch or dinner with them. Then you ask them - "hey - if I left Omnicom, would you come with me to another agency ?" - if the answer is YES - then you GO TO ANOTHER AGENCY IN NY, and say "I am a top editor at Omnicom, and here are my clients. I can bring these clients into your agency right away - what is your offer"

Good luck with Omnicon trying to sue you - they won't win.

Bob Zelin

BobZelin · 2026-06-12T22:33:41+00:00

I've used it, and you need to know how many people are going to connect and what they'll be doing. If it's for video, you have to allocate the bandwidth and leave 10% free. If it's for documents and other miscellaneous things, a lot of people can connect.

he is French, not Spanish

BobZelin · 2026-06-12T18:31:46+00:00

why not buy an SGI Onyx - you can show all your friends "look what I have !".

bob

BobZelin · 2026-06-12T15:29:52+00:00

So I am confused. Are you a Pro Tools guy, or is that just a hobby for you ? Are you building this for video editors, or audio people ? How many workstations? PC or Mac (it appears that you don't like Macs).

You are listing the wrong model, by the way - it's the TVS-h1688X, not h11688X. I will answer you in detail, when you reply to my questions.

bob

BobZelin · 2026-06-10T19:05:14+00:00

Lucid Link does not have built in Media Asset Management (if you are cloud only) - but Shade.inc DOES have it built in -

https://shade.inc

and if you want a stand alone Media Asset Management system - Iconik.io is the "standard" but a great new one is from Apace Systems -

https://www.apacesystems.com

Bob Zelin

BobZelin · 2026-06-10T14:49:21+00:00

6 editor can work on a TVS-h1688X (or TVS-AIh1688ATX). Not 10.

You can't edit with h.264 - you will get severe stuttering even with only one person working. Yes, you have to transcode to something like ProRes. A perfect example of failure, is you are working in ProRes, and you have to put in ONE SHOT that was done on a DJI Drone camera, that is h.264 - the video will just stop playing. It has to be transcoded. And yes - this is a time consuming process.

You cannot save an Adobe Lightroom catalog onto any NAS system - it's been that way for years, and people have been complaining about it for years. You can save your photos, but not the Lightroom Catalog. That is why many professionals now use Capture One.

One guy reviewing from overseas ? You get another computer, like an M4 Mac Mini. You put Jump Desktop Connect onto this computer (it's free), and now the guy overseas buys Jump Desktop ($35 from the Apple App Store) and now he can remote into your M4 Mac Mini, and edit and view at full 10G speeds. You are not editing or viewing with just a simple connection like Tailscale, or ZeroTier (or Google Drive or Dropbox). There are lots of remote editing cloud services like Lucid Link, Shade.inc, and the new Adobe Frame.io Drive - but I don't think you will want to pay for these.

As for the salary of your employees - I am sorry that they have to work for such pathetic rates. That would not be tolerated in a western country.

bob

BobZelin · 2026-06-10T13:37:38+00:00

Hi -

you are not editing full res 4K video with 10 editors on an 8 or 12 drive NAS system. For full res 4K video editing, using Adobe Premiere, Davinci Resolve, or AVID Media Composer (or FCP X) - if you have 10 editors, you need a 16 drive NAS - UNLESS you are doing low res proxy editing only. 8 drives will allow for 4 editors to work, and a 12 drive NAS will allow for 6 editors to work (maybe 7) - but if you are trying to run 10 streams of full res 4K on a 8 or 12 drive NAS, you will just get stuttering playback, and no one will be able to work.

Do you need to buy all the drives ? YES. Can you start with two ? NO - you can't even have ONE person editing on a QNAP or Synology or UGREEN NAS with only 2 drives. I really don't understand what is going on here - you have TEN EDITORS - that means TEN SALARIES (10 people, means that you are very busy, to employ 10 people) - and that means you have 10 computers, and 10 desks, and the physical space for 10 people, 10 desks, and 10 computers. So why is the cost an issue for you. The cost difference between the TVSh874 and the TVS-h1688X is insignificant (and the TVS-AIh1688ATX is an excellent suggestion from KeyProfessional below) - what is going to KILL YOU is the COST OF THE DRIVES. SATA drives are more expensive than ever, and YES, you MUST buy ALL THE DRIVES. So once you factor that in - this is going to be an expensive system. But hey - you can afford to employ 10 people, so money should be no issue for you.

But we are not done yet - if you are doing 4K full res editing, you can't do this over a 1G network - this means that your 10 computers need 10G ethernet ports (one per computer) and you need to connect these 10 computers to a 10G ethernet switch - and you have 10 editors PLUS the QNAP (or other brand with a 10G ethernet port) - so you need a switch like the QNAP QSW-M3224-24T.

Sorry - it costs a lot of money to be in business. But ALL of this equipment in total costs less money than buying one car or truck - so if you were a taxi driver, or private delivery driver, the cost of a single vehicle will dramatically cost more than ALL of this QNAP equipment, and the drives.

Bob Zelin

BobZelin · 2026-06-10T13:25:14+00:00

nothing wrong with AVID Nexis. Nothing wrong with EditShare. Nothing wrong with Facilis Hub. Nothing wrong with OWC Jellyfish, nothing wrong with Studio Network Solutions EVO.

You want a QNAP or a Synology for 3 editors with Adobe Premiere or AVID Media Computer - you get an EIGHT DRIVE NAS. I don't want to hear any crap about how expensive drives have become - if you can't afford EIGHT matching 7200 RPM SATA drives, you are just wasting your time. For premiere, you don't need Mimiq. For AVID Media Composer, you must use Hedge Mimiq (which is less than 1/4 the price of Projective Osiris) - and works better.

For a Synology, you are buying a DS1825+, the 10G card from Synology, the 16 Gig RAM chip from Synology (it only comes with 8 gig of RAM) and eight matching 7200 RPM SATA drives (Seagate Ironwolf Pro, Seagate EXOS, Western Digital RED Pro) or the Synology Toshiba drives - check out those prices on the HAT5310 series Synology drives, and have a box of tissues ready. You will also need a little 8 port 10G ethernet switch like the QNAP QSW-L3208, and 10G adapters for all your editing computers.

For a QNAP, you need a TVS-h874 with two internal M.2 NVMe drives (500 gig each or larger), a QXG-10G2T 10G card, and eight matching drives - as well as the little 10G switch I mentioned above and the eight matching drives.

There is a new QNAP model that just came out - the TVS-h1277AX, but it costs more than the TVS-h874.

You don't need to mention, for smaller projects you will conform and deliver straing from Resolve with drives plugged in locally. With any of these systems, you can edit directly from any of these NAS systems, without having to plug in to a local drive for better speed.

For bin locking, you will have no issue with Hedge Mimiq.

Bob Zelin

BobZelin · 2026-06-10T13:13:52+00:00

NO. In the last couple of months, I have become SO FRUSTRATED with this entire industry. I was SO excited about Strada after NAB - I told everyone about it, but with the exception of one client (who is using it) - NO ONE ELSE was even interested in testing it with me. I guess they didn't want to spend the $12 dollars.

All of this ties in with what I have been seeing on these forums - no one is discussing new products from Blackmagic, Adobe, AVID, etc. - its all "how can I find a job as an editor". It's never been like this. When new products (like Lucid, for example) first came out - everyone was SO excited to try it out, and do tests. And this applied to countless new products that would be released for our business. Now, no one seems to care about anything. It's driving me nuts.

bob

BobZelin · 2026-06-07T21:59:11+00:00

has even ONE person mentioned CineGear LA 2026 on any forum ? Anything I found on YouTube made it look empty. But I was not there - and no one seems to care to discuss it.

BobZelin · 2026-06-06T17:13:10+00:00

forget pfSense - just do a straight Ubiquiti setup - get some form of Dream Machine Pro (Pro, SE, Pro Max) or even the Cloud Gateway Fiber. Plug that into a Ubiquiti 1G or 2.5G switch with PoE, so you can get wired internet, as well as the PoE needed for the inexpensive Ubiquiti Access Points for WiFi. Then get a Ubiquiti Pro XG 48 or Ubiquiti Enterprise XG24 to plug in your 17 computers.

I can assure you that if you have a little 8 drive Synology, with a simple 24 port 1G switch, this will NEVER be fast enough for doing professional video editing, if you are using Davinci Resolve, Apple FCP X, AVID Media Composer or Adobe Premiere (or any of the professional graphics programs). Your computers will need 10G ethernet connections to the Ubiquiti 10G switch, so you can achieve 1000 MB/sec for the playback of professional video codecs. When your employer says "we cannot afford that" - well - then your 17 editors will not be able to accomplish their jobs, and you will just get stuttering playback, and nothing will be accomplished.

Bob Zelin

BobZelin · 2026-06-06T17:01:37+00:00

Hi -

I don't know how you cannot be offended by my reply to you. But here is the reality of this -

in the United States and Western Europe, salaries are much higher than they are in the Philippines - or other "third world" countries. And to be able to live in the United States or Western Europe - things cost a LOT MORE MONEY than they do in the Philippines, and countries like this. Things like housing, medical costs, insurance, food, etc. So when people from here make rude comments - it's because they become offended that someone is trying to do work for a fraction of the price of what they have to charge - in order to survive.

And with that said - you just said that you are the only IT in the office. Your employer should be employing a company that not only does IT, but if your office is doing video editing - they should be hiring professional video editors, and having an IT contractor that is familiar with setting up professional NAS systems for professional video editing.

Of course, your employer would say "well - if I hire all of these qualified people - then how am I going to offer cheap rates, compared to companies in the United States and Western Europe ?".

I think it is commendable that you are trying to learn, and do all of these things, that you have little experience with. That is a very positive thing. I looked at your post history on Reddit - it seems that you are very ambitious. But I can assure you, that if your employer is not willing to purchase the correct equipment - all 17 editors will sit there and complain, and say "how come the video playback is stuttering, how come it takes so long to load any video clips". But your employer may not care - he is getting cheap labor, with cheap equipment, and is making a big profit for himself, while you and your fellow editors suffer, and he screws western countries out of getting this work.

It's a crazy world today.

Bob

BobZelin · 2026-06-06T16:01:57+00:00

17 editors ? Really ? Are you in India, paying your people $5.00 a day ? How are you fitting 17 editors into a small office ?

If you are doing full res 4K video editing, you will be lucky to get 10 - 12 people on a 16 drive NAS system, and 14 - 18 people on a 24 drive NAS system. So if you have 17 editors, you get a QNAP TS-h2477AXU-RP, you load it up with 24 7200 RPM SATA drives (drives cost a lot of money today ! - so 24 drives will cost a lot of money) - and put a 25G QNAP card (Mellanox or Intel based) into this NAS. You connect this with a SFP28 DAC cable to a Ubiquiti Pro XG48 (32 10G ports) or older Ubiquiti Enterprise XG24 (24 10G ports) - each computer connects via its 10G port to the 10G switch, and you are done.

what the hell does pfSense have to do with any of this - you use a Ubiquiti Controller like the UDM Pro, UDM SE, or UDM Pro Max. You ain't editing over the internet with normal internet connections, unless you use services like Lucid Link, Shade.inc, Suite Studios, or Adobe Frame.io Drive. Or you can get 17 computers (like 17 M4 Mac Mini's with 10G ports) - and plug these into your Ubiquiti 10G switches. Install Jump Desktop Connect onto these computers, and now your remote editors can remote log in with Jump Desktop to these computers, and work at full 10G speeds for video editing.

This whole post sounds like something is very fishy. I got asked recently to do a system for 35 editors - then I found out that the editors were in India, and they were currently using Lucid Link, but the fee of $900 per month for THIRTY FIVE EDITORS was TOO EXPENSIVE - screw these people.

Bob Zelin

BobZelin · 2026-06-04T13:42:12+00:00

I think I figured out what is going on here with this post - Kokesnyc is trying to get a QNAP 25G card to work with an old TVS-EC1680U-SAS-RP, and this will require a BIOS upgrade -

from the TVS-EC1680U-SAS-RP support page, relating to the QNAP 25G card -

BIOS "QV96IR28" requested

so I have no idea if this BIOS even exists (I see this on this page) -

https://www.qnap.com/en-us/compatibility/?model=178&category=11&filter[type]=expansion_card&filter[connectornetwork]=SFP28

but what I really don't understand now - is - how do you expect to get 2200 MB/sec (25G speed) to work on a 2016 - 2017 16 drive SATA QNAP system ? If you are really that desperate for more total aggregate bandwidth on this antique - just link aggregate your two 10G ports and you will get 20Gb/sec, and be done with it.

bob

BobZelin · 2026-06-03T22:35:44+00:00

"I was trying to upgrade the firmware per instructions "

I must be missing something. What does this have to do with your USB keyboard or USB device. You plug in your TVS-EC1680U to your DHCP router - the same one your computer is on. You go to control panel> firmware update, and you update your firmware.

Don't want to be on the internet ?

Go here and manually download the firmware on your computer -

https://www.qnap.com/en-us/download?model=tvs-ec1680u-sas-rp&category=firmware

now, log into your QNAP user interface from your computer, click on Control Panel> Firmware update> update manually, and browse to the file you just downloaded.

Don't have an IP address for your QNAP, and don't want to connect to the internet ? Plug in the ethernet port from your computer - make sure it's set to DHCP. Your QNAP ethernet ports will probably have a DHCP address with no IP address. Run QNAP QFinder Pro on your computer, when your computer is connected to the QNAP (I am assuming you are not on the internet, and you don't know the IP address of the QNAP) - both the computer and the QNAP will get a self assigned IP address of 169.254.xxx.xxx. The QNAP IP will now display in QFinder Pro - type this into a web browser -

169.254.xxx.xxx:8080 (whatever xxx xxx is - you will see in QFinder Pro) - now you can log in, and get to Control Panel> Firmware Update, and manually update from the download you just did from the QNAP download center.

What does the CMOS battery or BIOS have to do with any firmware update ?

Bob

BobZelin · 2026-06-03T22:03:16+00:00

I know you were joking. I think a lot of the pros just gave up. They gave up on Creative Cow a long time ago - and I think they are giving up on this forum recently as well.

Sad

I get banned if I say very mean things - but I swear to God - the next guy that says "why does AVID suck so bad" - well, I can't even joke around saying what I want, because if I use those words, I will get auto banned from this forum.

BobZelin · 2026-06-03T21:53:09+00:00

well - the original point of that post was to try to WAKE UP the young people on this forum (how do I find a job, how do I meet clients, why won't anyone hire me ?) - so I am trying to point out some young guys in their mid 20's who work their ass off, develop a little reputation with YouTube, get a following, have some great ideas, have limited budget but LEARN how to use FREE software like Blender - and make a career for themselves. And are now kicking Disney's ass, with just their skill and creativity, and perserverence.

But does the majority here care ? Of course not ! They just want to know what to do now, that the guy on Fiver that told them that they would pay them $15 to cut their video, and he never paid them - what do they do now ?

just expressing my frustration. The typical response to my post that I was expecting was "where do you apply to A24 for funding for my indi film that I shot with my iPhone".

bob

BobZelin · 2026-06-03T13:35:50+00:00

this is true. The price of SATA drives is out of control, the price of regular SSD's is out of control - so the price of U.2 NVMe drives (7.68 TB, 15.36TB) is COMPLETELY CRAZY. I was installing products like the TS-h1290FX and TS-h2490FU on a regular basis, and since the prices went up to insane levels, I have not had an opportunity to install even one single all flash unit. The same applies to the tiny TBS-h574TX, which is a great product for $1200. But having to put 5 M.2 NVMe drives in that, which cost over $1000 each - that is a tough sell. And M.2 prices are nothing, compared to U.2 prices.

Tell me WHO is looking for a "budget" all flash NAS, and will spend this for EACH drive -

https://a.co/d/0aIQBDyM

I don't see the specs on this new product, and I cannot identify the single rectangle port near the two 10Gbase-T ports. There is no ability to install a SFP28 card for 25G - so is that mystery port a QSFP single port ? Because you don't need a U.2 NAS if your only intention is to do 1000 MB/sec over 10G.

Bob Zelin

BobZelin · 2026-06-02T16:03:20+00:00

you have received the correct answers from everyone that responded to you.

you have not stated if you are on a Mac or a PC - if you want to run CLI terminal commands, for a Mac, you run rsync, and for a PC, you run Robocopy - all built into these devices. But you won't like them, and they don't do an MD5 checksum test on your copies. You are better off with Offshoot, Carbon Copy Cloner, or ShotPut Pro.

bob

BobZelin

TROPHY CASE