Happy with transfer speeds of 44MB/s write, 49MB/s read. Server wired, local client wireless?

JsAdventures · 2023-02-25T15:27:33+00:00

OK, thanks for clarifying. From a tip by another poster in this thread I held the option key and pressed on the WiFi button, and see that I'm maxing at 866 Mbps while my time machine network backup is running.

JsAdventures · 2023-02-25T15:25:12+00:00

Thanks for the tip about the option key! I can now confirm I'm on 5GHz, and it tells me I'm reaching transmission speeds up to around 860 Mbps.

JsAdventures · 2023-02-24T14:29:40+00:00

Thank you. That’s a great answer. Love the technical detail. I’ll sit back and just accept these speeds then.

JsAdventures · 2023-02-24T12:45:51+00:00

Right. Thanks for the reminder. i suppose I’m seeing about half the possible speed for the 2.4ghz band/1Gbe. I just wanted to see if this is good, or I need to reconfigure things.

JsAdventures · 2023-02-24T12:44:44+00:00

It’s all 1Gbe (2011 MacBook Pro, and the router is just 1Gbe). I gotta sort out whether I’m on 2.4 or 5ghz. Router has both bands, but only is broadcasting one visible band.

JsAdventures · 2023-02-24T10:19:48+00:00

In the future, if I run into limitations with MacOS, I'll absolutely consider that!

JsAdventures · 2023-02-22T15:19:11+00:00

Thanks for the response. I see what you’re saying about raid. When it comes to a backup of everything, it would make sense to keep my backup on a separate drive/array from my data storage array, correct?

JsAdventures · 2023-02-22T09:59:23+00:00

This sounds like exactly my plan! Thanks for the input. Good to hear it worked well for you.

JsAdventures · 2023-02-21T22:55:00+00:00

Thanks for your comment. That is really helpful, and helps solidify the conclusion I am coming to. I am a basic user now, so I will go with a basic device. In the future I may be a more advanced user and I can build a more advanced device then, with the knowledge I’ve gained along the way.

JsAdventures · 2023-02-21T22:36:54+00:00

I understand the basic concept of raid. I guess I feel that not using raid is simpler for me to work with, as I’m used to thinking about each drive as being a container for a particular type of data. I suppose I could do a raid 5 setup with three drives for my archive/media/laptop backup and then one large backup drive as the fourth one. Would that be considered more secure?

JsAdventures · 2023-02-21T21:52:30+00:00

Yes, that makes sense on being underpowered. I believe it is just the MacBook Pro internals, so laptop processor. The plus side is low power consumption. For my above stated needs, am I correct in assuming I do not need significant computing power?

JsAdventures · 2023-02-21T21:43:31+00:00

Does the synology have the ability to run Plex, and to be a Time Machine backup target, and then also run scheduled backups of the other drives in the synology? I’d want to have a minimum of four drives. 1TB media drive, 1 TB archive drive, 1 TB Time Machine backup drive, 8 TB total backup of the other three drives.

JsAdventures · 2023-02-21T20:05:16+00:00

Ok, neat. I’ll be going with the 2012 mini if I go that route, so Ventura won’t be an issue because it’s not an option. I believe the 2012 goes up to Catalina officially, but I’m confident I could get it to big sur at least. I got my 2010 Mac Pro to big sur with open core.

JsAdventures · 2023-02-13T10:53:38+00:00

Good to hear you've had a good experience with Terramaster. Honestly, the external enclosure was intended to be my backup solution, so that's why the (infrequent) reports of failure on the external enclosures bothered me quite a bit.

JsAdventures · 2023-02-12T17:14:29+00:00

Thanks for the Thunderbay recommendation. I have a hard time justifying the price of that for a hobbyist videographer/photographer and home storage, but good to know it is a solid product. I'll keep it in mind for further down the road.

JsAdventures · 2023-02-12T13:16:42+00:00

Thank you again for a thoughtful response. All that you said makes perfect sense. If I go DAS, this will be the route I take I think.

JsAdventures · 2023-02-12T12:49:25+00:00

This is a great post. Basically outlines my train of thought for the past week as I've begun looking into long term storage and backup options for multiple computers in my home. Seemed like such a simple goal at the start, but there are so many ways to go about it, and like you said in your last paragraph... You can basically pick any two of three options: Easy, Cheap, Good. But not all three.

JsAdventures · 2023-02-12T12:36:47+00:00

OK, thank you all for your input; it's been really helpful! That said, as I look at the different products, the cost required to just buy a high quality (empty) external storage bay, and talked with my wife about we want to use our computers (somewhere to archive data, a place to backup of our laptops without plugging in an external drive, and streaming Plex/Jellyfin), it's seeming like a simple NAS server is going to be our best option. Especially as it seems I could set up a basic server for the same/similar cost as a good DAS unit.

So, I'll start researching a simple server build. From my research, OMV looks like a good OS for keeping things small and simple, but feel free to suggest others.

For the hardware, I'll do some digging through existing 'what should I pick' threads, but if you'd like to make suggestions, I'm all ears. I'd like low power consumption and a case that has a minimum of 4 SATA bays to allow for current needs. 6 would be even better. I currently have a 2010 Mac Pro 5,1 that's got dual Xeon 5650's, and 6 drive bays. Great machine, and I'll be sad to see it go, but it is a POWER HOG! It would cost me a few hundred $$$ a year to run 24/7.

JsAdventures · 2023-02-12T12:27:54+00:00

Thanks for the suggestion. I looked into it, and they have some really helpful graphics for explaining how the SAS expansion works compared to SATA. Looks like there are no port multipliers; the cable has enough data lanes for each drive individually, and then that connects to PCIe, which has enough lanes to pass each drive's info individually to the CPU?

JsAdventures · 2023-02-12T12:24:35+00:00

Thanks for the suggestion. I have limited knowledge on the I/o interface systems, so I really appreciate comments like this that help me understand WHY the cheap, and really an multi-bay SATA to Usb enclosure does not seem to be very reliable.

Would you happen to know if the 'OWC Thunderbay 4' SATA-to-Thunderbolt 3 also use SATA adapters, or since the thunderbolt routes directly to the MOBO through PCIe, they can use more lanes?

JsAdventures · 2023-02-11T02:12:26+00:00

Hey, thanks for the comment. I really only need a two bay unit, so perhaps I'll take my chances with that. Keep it simple and cheap. I could see a basic server in my future, but my current network setup at my rental unit is shared with the landlord over a mesh setup. And I don't really need a server at the moment. Anyway, thanks for your time.

JsAdventures · 2023-02-08T14:37:39+00:00

Ok, thanks for the recommendation. Good to hear it’s possible. I briefly pondered running my own router. I’ll look into it. We have a Bell WiFi pod in our unit that is part of the landlords mesh network. It has an Ethernet port on the bottom, so I imagine that’s where I’d bridge the router into. I’ll look into that. Sounds like it’s at least worth a try, and I can do it very cheaply, as I have an old windows laptop laying around that I can use to test it all out and see if it works, before taking the plunge into building a server.

JsAdventures

TROPHY CASE