Using a NAS for Video Editing // Synology vs QNAP

[@benjhaisch]

This level of nerddom is fantastic.

[@OBCBTTB]

Benj Haisch Exactly. Most of what he said went over my head. Was still pleasing to watch, guy knows his stuff.

[@ShinyTechThings]

I recently made a video on modding my Synology DS918+ to 5GbE and it works great using a QNAP 5GbE USB adapter for $79 but when I eventually outgrow my current NAS I'll probably go with a higher end QNAP, but for now 5GbE is fast enough for me video editing and storage needs.

[@shadowr2d2]

I don’t even have a computer 😢. But it’s still great 👍 to watch. So when I’m ready to buy. I will know what to buy 😊. Education in Tech is always great 👍.

[@mattmillstein]

As an agency owner and video editor… I love what you’re talking about and wish I knew what you are saying 😂

[@TheOriginalGregToo]

Gerald, your reviews are incredible. Thank you for putting this together. As always your thoroughness is astounding. Hands down, the best channel on KZbin.

[@marcosv8426]

Thanks for putting another review with clear description of use case, acceptance criteria, expertise limits, etc. I personally was not considering all SSDs in my next RAID box; but, you got me wondering about TRIM support and accurate SSD status. SSDs rarely die; but, when they do, it can get really ugly. Storage is where I tend to setup and forget. Then a lot of years go by and suddenly realize I got end of life issues on my oldest components. I think I would put a sticker on my all SSD RAID box saying "Replace drives around 7/15/2024 (+4 years from use)" as a reminder.

[@machinethinking]

As a Synology owner, let me suggest a slightly different workflow that might work better for some people. Synology (don't know about Qnap) has a program called "Drive". This lets you sync directories from your local computer to the Synology box as quickly as you write them. This way you edit on your local machine on super fast NVME disks and your project is instantly synced the moment you write anything to disk. You then backup that NAS dir to the cloud or whereever. You can sync between other computers too. On windows, it gets better because there is a feature called On Demand sync which will, as the disk gets fuller, unload files that haven't been used in a long time (you can pin directories to never be unloaded) so you see their filenames, but they don't take up space on the disk. If you need them, they are transparently copied from the NAS back to your drive. This means on a small local super fast NVME disk you can have access to as much larger amount of content on your NAS without you having to manage everything. This means in the vast majority of cases a 1 gig link and cheap platter drives are just fine and you get all the benefits of local NVME editing.

[@JustinDoesTriathlon]

Appreciate this comment, as it might be exactly what I'm looking for. I've got nVME internal, and I'm considering a 6-bay, with two, 3-drive volumes (one as mass storage with SHR1, the other as a backup for my actual computer and the other volume, also SHR1) Would that be a workable use case? Or is there a better way altogether?

[@machinethinking]

@@JustinDoesTriathlon I have a 6 drive Synology (1618+) and made one 6 drive RAID6 Storage Pool. On top of that, I made two logical volumes. This accomplishes the same thing as what you want to do, but imho is much more flexible and gives 2 drive redundancy to all data. You also don't need to allocate all data into the volumes and can grow each independently based on your needs. If you eventually swap in new, bigger drives you can also add space as you see fit and grow each volume as needed. The only downside I can think of is each time you swap in a new drive you have to rebuild the entire storage pool, but that's a small penalty for the flexibility and RAID6 redundancy.

[@JustinDoesTriathlon]

@@machinethinking Wow, that's really fantastic, thanks for your help. I feel decently knowledgeable about building computers, but nas/server volumes are very new to me. Appreciate the input (and your videos, coincidentally! Have watched them all in the past) I'll give that a strong look over, seems like it could be great.

[@GeorgiVasilevBimbo]

Hi. Thank you for sharing. This sounds really interesting and like something that can save me some bucks as I have a team of 5 and each PC has fast nvme drives to work off and then archive on slower HDDs. Can you please point me to a resource where I can find out how to set this up and how it works in more depth? Thank you!

[@TheBurzhui]

Solid tip

[@MaksimYuryev]

Qnap crew 👏👌👍 . Thanks for making this vid! Always wanted to but never did so glad you made it instead and it’s fantastic!

[@peterlemke3468]

A nerd bromance good to see.

[@Sapientiaa]

Max would you recommend a thunderbay 4 with thunderbolt 3 for fast read and write speeds over synology? I don’t want to spend OVER $800; this is without any hard drives.

[@MaksimYuryev]

@@Sapientiaa If you don't need it to be connected to the web or multiple computers then yes.

[@Ali_ReBORN]

Qnap all the way bros! 💪🏼

[@WiredInside]

How do you compare to Synology's new 1618xs+? It seems like they had an answer to these issues and it's the same price with upgraded CPU, RAM and built in 10GB / NVME cache. I only ask because I need to upgrade my Synology solution and I'm used to their amazing UI.

[@joshuaboucher8258]

I've been waiting for this exact video and I'm so glad that YOU made it.

[@chesed]

This was incredibly dense and concise. I watched it the whole way through and all information was pertinent but clearly explained. Excellent video. Thank you for this.

[@JulieWhelanPhotographer]

"Give me about 15 minutes..." SO excited to hear that line again!😃😍

[@timbeaton5045]

Wonder who was able to cut his hair as well as go hang gliding, within that 15 minute window? Aircuts 'R' us?

[@Highcastle_of_Tone]

I like your philosophy of only keeping the finished videos. Archival storage is such a beast and it's only getting worse with higher resolutions and multiple cameras. I have to convince myself to jettison the old footage once the final result is achieved.

[@amirhatef7658]

Right time,through video,nice segmented video titles.Was thinking to purchase a NAS system,watched a bunch of distracted videos,but you nailed it Gerald. Salute from London,ON.

[@zollotech]

Good timing. I was just looking for this.

[@AndrewSBaker]

Awesome review. Very professional and well delivered. And entertaining, too. You've given everyone enough info to know whether or not this tech will work for them and their use case.

[@vladimirzavyalov]

Right in time when I'm thinking to finally throw in a NAS! 👍 As usual, huuuge thumbs up for the job done!

[@komikazenobbie]

Looking into getting myself a NAS. This is very helpful. Actually the most helpful I've watched! Why have I not stumbled upon your channel before? No idea. But I've already subscribed! Thanks for this 👌

[@888marin888]

Thank you ! Very good infos and reviews about NAS are so rare to find

[@pebmets]

Thank you for the video. I am definitely interested in a custom solution. Now that I have completed my storage cleanup, I am interested in upgrading my current setup and would be interested in seeing how a custom setup compares to the Synology and QNAP. Great job once again.

[@MrDixa987]

thank you for this video, def the topic I've been searching for in a long time :)

[@bhgemini]

Would love to see you make a custom solution, especially after getting burned by NAS's custom power supplies that tend to fail.

[@DentargPL]

Check yt for zfs raids. Tutorials allows total nobs to make it.

[@joejamesphoto]

I built my own custom server for a few reasons. Redundancy on EVERYTHING, infinitely expandable, and its faster and cheaper than most off the shelf options. Its a complicated experience, for those without a networking background, but still possible.

[@hunterboen6410]

@@joejamesphoto Any walkthroughs/tutorials you'd recommend on how to do this?

[@Cary_mac]

I personally build a UnRaid setup and it has been awesome. Even using old tech the system is faster and easier to add things like 10gbe, ssd caching etc. Of course it'll cost more if you're looking to save space but since I was putting this into my storage room in my basement I didn't mind. I love the Qnap but $1500 for just an enclosure is wild.

[@limitedhangoutlive]

I have a Synology setup on my UniFi equipped network. I simply cannot give up that Synology UI. It’s just so good.

[@supahmariostyle]

You voice and breakdown made me subscribe. Your in-depth knowledge for a beginner made me hit the bell.

[@RogerAVHansen]

Even though I don't understand 3/4 of the technical details you talk about sometimes, you still make it interesting 😊👍🏻

[@jessejames8223]

Oh boy almost 150,000 subscribers congratulations well deserved now... let's get undone!!!

[@SidsDrakon]

How I enjoy, "give me about 15 min" great info Gerald.

[@matthewandramona8103]

wow what a great reviewer this guy is. so thorough. Great Job Gerald.

[@JamezTran]

I've been using an old Qnap for 5 yrs now and still receiving constant updates on them, definitely sticking with Qnap!

[@Omar.Alamoudi]

The quality of this content is unparalleled in this field, well done!

[@tech-supplement]

Thank you so much for this video. Because of these videos, I was able to buy a Synology NAS (my first ever NAS) 920+. I am in the initial phase of my YouTubing career and 920+ has been incredible, especially DSM 7. With Synology Photos, I could organize with photos like Google Photos. I am using my NAS with MBP M1 Pro 2021 and the experience has been mind-blowing. with 7GBPS speeds in the new Mac, it has been a hell of an experince.

[@CorneliusCreations]

Awesome video, Gerald! I would love to see a video of a regular day of filming and editing workflow, as well as the time it takes you. Thank you for the knowledge here my friend!

[@e_sarrazin]

Hey Gerald, I exhanged the stock fans in my Synology to Noctua fans. Very easy mod to do, and it runs much quieter (and probably cooler, although unconfirmed) now.

[@forevervideouk]

Great video Gerald. I’ve been a QNAP user for 10+ years now. They have got better and better for multipurpose video editing. Tech support is also fantastic. Now I have 6 of the buggers. Haha. Keep up the good work. Pete.

[@mattcero1]

Freakin' freekishly fast and efficient breakdown of these devices. Nice job guy.

[@chrssondergaard]

18:13 Yes please! That sounds interesting!

[@uniqs]

yes pls

[@steveschnetzler5471]

Love it, I have pulled fans before, I have even rewired two fans from parallel to serial so they run slower and quieter. Great review, thanks.

[@DA_Fuller]

Love your reviews Gerald! Thank you

[@princetarun]

Crystal Clear Explanation Build one at End Of The Year . Awesome

[@RichShumaker]

Loved this review!!! QNAP also makes add in cards to add both 10gbe and M.2 cache drives on the same card. So you could probably swap out the dual thunderbolt for a dual M.2. Also on a side note these cards can be used in a PC as an Add in card. So 10gbe & an M.2 on the same card.

[@JonneytheKidd]

VERY VERY WELL DONE. IT HAS HELPED A LOT!

[@TheSmeagol630]

Something I read on the internet: SSD RAID makes more sense if you're using similar spec drives of different models from different manufacturers. If you buy a bunch of drives from the same manufacturer and retailer, they're quite likely to die around the same time, unlike a HDD, which has a much more random lifespan.

[@Dancing_Alone_wRentals]

Wow...I made it to the four minute mark before getting a bit glassy eyed. That is not bad for a landlord. Great video! tHanks for all the info. I have a super Triple Drive backup system - but this is next level stuff!

[@TraceDominguez]

Well done, sir! I've been looking at the QNAPs with envy, but I think I'll stick with my Synology for now.

[@StarshipGhost]

"What's up everybody, I'm Gerald Undone and converting your camera to full spectrum is how you bust ghosts."

[@StreetsOfVancouverChannel]

hhahahahahahaha!!!!

[@StarshipGhost]

@@StreetsOfVancouverChannel What is funny, man? I was being serious. Full Spectrum allows you to see two extra wavelengths that the human eye cannot see... infrared and UV. Cameras block these frequencies by default with the hot mirror filter.

[@CreeseWorks]

Sold on the QNAP 672XT. The level of thoroughness on this has my interest peaked as something to add as part of a setup for backing up.

[@waxwingsphoto]

As an infrequent amateur my needs aren't intense, but I have definitely found my Synology 918+ to be sufficiently fast for light timeline work in Resolve. Also, I just discovered Backblaze B2 and am over the moon! Great video. It was good to have my own experience confirmed

[@cyberlando]

This video was straight fireee my dude!

[@makatron]

Synology DS1618+ is by far the best solution I've used. My suggestion is that if you edit heavy footage from the NAS max out the NAS RAM and if you can add a NVMe then max that out too in order to have the fastest buffer. Now I'm planning to get a larger NAS to handle Plex from a different box just to keep things separate. Also way more apps within the Synology ecosystem.

[@FaviMarti]

Thank you for the insight. My current solution is to keep the files on my iPad (I edit on it) until finished editing, then upload to an external drive. Hdd may not be optimal for editing, but I just use them for storage 😂 keep up the good work Gerald I enjoy your videos 💚💙💜

[@brianesquinas]

Gerald: I don't keep files forever... Here I am staring at my 7TB HDDs full of unedited files

[@AubidaProductions]

I feel you. 8TB NAS and another 14TB in archive drives.

[@R0XyM0h]

i think i have +2000 old movie rips that come in a 700mb taking a big chunk of my server and i just can't let'em go

[@positronicbrains]

Great review - always wondered if anyone else had edited over a network. I only use the NAS for backups these days, and edit a working copy off of local drives. I've found a few network hiccups that led to corrupted premiere pro project files and a tonne of re-work. There was no advantage to editing via network. (exporting to network has some advantages) Thanks for putting the time into this.

[@victormultanen1981]

Very useful and educational video, thanks for sharing!

[@SpaceAgeConsulting]

I've been using the Synology Diskstation for 5 years now and have accumulated 5 of them across 3 sites for redundancy and sheer lunacy. In fact I've had the 1618+ for year plus now and am really happy with it. I picked up a QNAP TS-251+ today and was pleasantly surprised to see your video comparing the two companies offerings. My reason for buying the TS-251+ is to offload some operations off my 1618+ so that I can get back to editing off of it. I may make a video explaining all of that but it will probably be 3 hours long and not as entertaining as I hope. Will probably be some high level nerd stuff. Thanks for your video.

[@elias38]

How cone after so many years on YT Just now I found the best reviewer!? 🤷‍♂️ Last week I picked up a new DS920+ and I love it despite still having 1gb port.

[@castministries]

Thanks Gerald that was very helpful☘️👍

[@SamuelOrf]

Thanks for the video! Helped a lot.

[@TechWithAdil]

Perfect timing, I was searching on a storage solution for 4k videos and plex server.

[@juantasstic]

THIS IS THE VIDEO I WAS WAITING FOR

[@SilverHouseHD]

loved that "back to the future" style intro. Time dilation really makes a video pop. hahahaha

[@PaulKentSkates]

I would like to see how a custom build that achieves your goals and compares to these NAS boxes. I have recently been considering building a NAS so I'm glad to see these videos. Thanks Gerald.

[@robertmoniot]

GU, how are you this effortlessly smart? Seriously, how? My brain simultaneously hurts and feels better listening to your wisdom.

[@usernamehandle]

I’m Gerald Undone: and 2019 tried to warn us, but we didn’t listen

[@StarshipGhost]

2020 is warning you for what is coming. It will get worse and worse up until probably 2033... then we either evolve or become complete slaves.

[@StarshipGhost]

@@jamesj4998 You wouldn't say that if you knew what was planned... although, we aren't evolving at the moment we are de-volving due to the majority of the population not having a positive mind-pattern.

[@MindfulGrinds]

"Micromachines, just like the real thing, only smaller."🤣 Great review. Wow. not sure how I missed this one. I am still no better off in deciding. LOL

[@chrisklugh]

Good job on the review. Network anything is hard to review and talk about so its hard to find good information about differences and uses. I ended up with going with Synology DS918+ with 2 10T Drives at the start for budget reasons. Synology allows you to add drives in over time and I have since added another drive with no problems.

[@dja72]

Brilliant as always.

[@tregdemedia]

I want to figure out how to say "dirty danglers" more often.

[@iComplainer]

Just drop trau towards any full length mirror

[@johnmadsen37]

Say that instead of your name.

[@Highcastle_of_Tone]

I would substitute all third parties with "dirty danglers." Friends, family, children, postal workers, best buy employees, babysitters, let your imagination soar...

[@superhoser2816]

Watch a couple seasons of Letterkenny and you'll be top sniping Sallys with your dirty danglers in no time.

[@MarkHoltze]

Gerald great review mate, i'm in the RAID zone right now so timing couldn't have been better.

[@DavesGarage]

Thanks for doing your videos in my own bespoke order. I literally bought a Synology RS2418 and a QNAP TS-1635 in the last 2 days! The QNAP is replacing the LOUD Synology (which is a rack unit, granted). Would be easier if you made the videos right *before* instead of right after my purchases though :-) The good news is I can play back a clip in Final Cut with four 4K camera angles and the angle viewer AND the main clip visible and it just rocks along at 10G.

[@DeanaandPhil]

Hey. Amazing video! This is kind of exactly what I was planning to build for editing from 2 or 3 PCs. Awesome to see a great video about it. What about using regular HDs in the NAS, though? Too slow? Does anybody know if regular HDs and 1GBit network would be enough to edit from (mainly 1080p footage/video though)?

[@e11world]

This was super helpful. I'm pretty much same as you except I edit less but still have lots of data to store and have an older NAS (NV+ 4000 from Netgear) which I hardly use but for a 10+ year old NAS it's a good archive/backup solution. I have been looking into doing pretty much what you did here so thanks for saving me the time to test all of this. I'd like to see a follow up video creating a custom one as I'm sure it will be cheaper and much more to the point in terms of features.

[@MarekBartovic]

I've been using (rather deploying) QNAPs in various studios. Ranging from small 5-bay models up to a few 16-bay models. I can say I am really satisfied with them! One of the nice things - you can put double the amount of 2.5" drives into them! This means if you have a 6-bay model you can put 12 drives into them. QNAP provides a special "craddle" for the 3.5" bay that has some form of raid. This means you can make your QNAP a RAID0 because the craddle is basically a RAID1.

[@levraichris3321]

Hey ! if you are still alive 3years later, can you point me out that accessory ? I can't find them ! Thanks !

[@MarekBartovic]

@@levraichris3321 Haha, somehow I still am! One of them is QNAP QDA-A2AR, maybe they have other models as well, but this one I know of that definitely works :)

[@denver_video]

"I'm not really interested in storing all that nerd talk perpetually" haha. As always, even a few years later, excellent content from Gerald Undone. Thanks for all that you do. TJ

[@Wesmosis]

Great video! greets from Edmonton AB!

[@DrSivaMahalingam]

great review. Thank you!

[@tokyologist7975]

Great video! I would love to see the actual work flow of your team video editing process using the NAS solution.

[@isaacryan4034]

This is what I needed man! Currently in a floating portable drive hell LOL

[@generalistmao9304]

I was literally contemplating this topic YESTERDAY! How did you know!

[@MarkWebbPhotography]

I started with Synology diskstations but this year I upgraded to a RS1619xs+ with four 4TB Samsung Evos in RAID F1 and then a RS2818RP+ with over 100tb for bulk storage. You definitely would have to keep these in a server closet with sound dampening and ventilation but this setup is rock solid if you prefer performance and reliability over noise levels (about 60 dba eek). NVME caching on the 1619xs+ actually had a performance penalty but it’s plenty fast enough without it. For the Synology disk stations you can swap the 40mm fans for quieter noctua fans.

[@MikeFox1]

Excellent video, thanks!

[@RockyColaFizz]

The definitive guide on NAS is here!

[@dadstalktech]

Gerald - I wonder if the thing to do would be to go back to the 672, swap the dual Thunderbolt for the 10 Gb/s Ethernet. Then an interesting experiment would be to add (2) NVMe drives in a RAID 1 as the front-end cache to the storage. That might allow you to saturate the network since the NVMe's would be faster than SATA SSD's and the RAID 1 algorithm is even simpler than the RAID 10. Just some thoughts. Thanks for the video!

[@JusticeFreedomDestin]

Now this is good. Been looking for a good redundancy solution

[@turbo2ltr]

I set this up at the beginning of the year. DS1618, three 6TB spinners (for now), maxed out the ram, put in an SFP+ PCIe card (Mellanox connect-x2 in the NAS and the 2 computers) , and ran fiber to the PCs. Edit 6k video off it without issue in Davinci Resolve. Using a ramdisk on the DS1618, got 1.08GB/sec file transfer. I didn't go with the QNAP because I read about the security / malware issues they've had scared me away.

[@shadowr2d2]

I don’t even have a computer 😢. But it’s still great 👍 to watch. So when I’m ready to buy. I will know what to buy 😊. Education in Tech is always great 👍.

[@Karthig1987]

Good review. Looking forward to the custom solution video if you do decide to do it.

[@JF..]

Who needs online course lol. just watch this man’s videos and you’re good to go! Your reviews are 🔥. Gerald, how do you make these videos without audio jump cuts? I rarely find any in your videos. You gotta be an ALIEN to pull stuff like that off 😂🤣

[@leitedigital]

I was looking for cloud services and decided on B2 as well since I am on linux. I like the pay what you use and the pricing is very fair.

[@joenicklo]

I'm Gerald Undone and I've finally finished this video! ;)

[@peteozols22]

Yes on the custom solution vid 👍🏻

[@Clickumentary]

I've been using the Synology DS418play, and I couldn't be happier (disks not SSD), but throughput has been great.

[@FerranoM]

Wow, the timing of this video is great!! I'm actually working on a project right now where this information is gold! One question... you say you're only keeping the final exports (wich I understand completly), but in what quality? A mastering codec like ProRes or just a delivery codec like h.264? One sub more btw, love your channel! 😁

[@EdStarkey]

I have a QNAP TS-932X with 10 GB SPF+ connection. I have 4 4 TB Iron Wolf drives set-up in a RAID-5 array, and 2 256 MB SSD drives set up as a read cache. I edit 5.9K directly off of the NAS.

[@DaPoets]

Solid video. This is why I just keep 50TB in my system rather than using a NAS. I get all the speed I need, it's accessible to other computers, and I can still have external & cloud backups for a fraction of the total cost.

[@SamLucas26]

Did he just use “dirty danglers” and “orifice” in the same sentence 😂

[@peterlemke3468]

I'm guessing he stores other videos on those boxes.

[@ZachDalin]

QNAP has a feature that makes them the winner. Hybrid drives. QNAP can be a Thunderbolt 3 direct connected drive and a network drive at the same time.

[@ClintNicholas]

First time I’m actually hearing your breaths between sentences. Also the first time listening thru headphones

[@robertktw]

I went with a QNAP unit. With any of those pre-fab storage solutions (QNAP or Synology), I would recommend ONLY using the drives that are fully compatible with the specific storage unit. I believe this is a more expensive route, but less headache in terms of troubleshooting & maintaining.

[@parthunadkat9694]

Didn't understand a thing but had fun watching the entire thing!

[@MarshallCant]

Great information and, as usual, beautifully produced. Question: Would there be any advantage to going with a "smaller" unit but using higher capacity SSD's?

[@markusr3259]

Missing out on a lot of good stuff on both those boxes by just using them as file storage, for that a custom setup will come in significantly cheaper and with significantly higher spec. I personally use the Synology kit and once you bump the RAM and start adding a few virtual machines, automated remote encrypted backups, surveillance station etc it really shines.

[@Double_Vision]

Get yourself a tiny little Noctua fan to replace the one on the 10Gb NIC. They even come with a low-noise adapter which will lower the maximum RPM of the fan and keep the noise down. The NF-A4x10 FLX is a tiny fan that should fit. If you don't want to cut and solder the 3 pin DC fan plug to that 2 pin VGA fan plug, get something like a Kolink fan adapter on Amazon and it's all plug and play! I would feel MUCH more comfortable knowing that there was active cooling on a component that was intended to have it!

[@anwalat]

Gerald’s videos are the only one in youtube that i have to slow down to watch