Storage system uncertainties

[stevemoorevale]

Hi. 
Im a hobbyist photographer and I have been shooting for over 20 years. 
I have a lot of files and currently I have everything stored on a windows storage spaces volume across 8 drives in a raid 1 configuration set at 8tb.  I wouldn't dare use parity as I have read that it’s awful on storage spaces. the drives are varied capacities. 
I do have an old synology nas but it only has a max capacity of 8tb (1x8 or 2x4). The nas would need to be able to support two 8tb drives for me to use it the way I want but it does not support that. 

The software I use to manage my photos does not store previews like some programs do but instead renders thumbnails and previews on the fly as needed. The speed of this is very dependant on drive speed. Mine is currently struggling with this with the storage space hitting 100% whilst rendering these files but I tested it using files on an m.2 Nvme ssd and it was way better.  I know storage spaces does have some speed problems but I read that from article done years ago. Not sure if they’ve improved it. 
 

So moving forward I’d like to try to speed things up but also simplify things. Should I get rid of the storage space and all the drives in it (which will leave me with a lot of perfectly good surplus drives) and replace with a new two bay nas thats capable of two 8tb or greater drives in it (I do have offsite backup). Or should I continue using storage spaces but maybe use SSDs instead of spinning drives? I could just not pool anything and have single drives that back up to my offsite drive but I find that messy. My software would keep track of the files and locations across the drives but I don’t think this is the best answer.
Or do I just leave things the way they are now and just be patient. After all the files do load after a few seconds of waiting. 
 

I did a quick video. 

 

[PDifolco]

14 minutes ago, stevemoorevale said:

Hi. 
Im a hobbyist photographer and I have been shooting for over 20 years. 
I have a lot of files and currently I have everything stored on a windows storage spaces volume across 8 drives in a raid 1 configuration set at 8tb.  I wouldn't dare use parity as I have read that it’s awful on storage spaces. the drives are varied capacities. 
I do have an old synology nas but it only has a max capacity of 8tb (1x8 or 2x4). The nas would need to be able to support two 8tb drives for me to use it the way I want but it does not support that. 

The software I use to manage my photos does not store previews like some programs do but instead renders thumbnails and previews on the fly as needed. The speed of this is very dependant on drive speed. Mine is currently struggling with this with the storage space hitting 100% whilst rendering these files but I tested it using files on an m.2 Nvme ssd and it was way better.  I know storage spaces does have some speed problems but I read that from article done years ago. Not sure if they’ve improved it. 
 

So moving forward I’d like to try to speed things up but also simplify things. Should I get rid of the storage space and all the drives in it (which will leave me with a lot of perfectly good surplus drives) and replace with a new two bay nas thats capable of two 8tb or greater drives in it (I do have offsite backup). Or should I continue using storage spaces but maybe use SSDs instead of spinning drives? I could just not pool anything and have single drives that back up to my offsite drive but I find that messy. My software would keep track of the files and locations across the drives but I don’t think this is the best answer.
Or do I just leave things the way they are now and just be patient. After all the files do load after a few seconds of waiting. 
 

I did a quick video. 

 

If budget allows, I'd get a pair of 2x8TB SSD in RAID1, a NAS isn't even needed unless you need to have the data accessible on several machines

Cost $1200 approx (870QVO 8TB is $600)

 

[johnt]

I recommend flash storage for current projects and a nas or cloud for storing your previous works.

[stevemoorevale]

3 minutes ago, johnt said:

I recommend flash storage for current projects and a nas or cloud for storing your previous works.

all my current projects are on a Samsung m.2 nvme ssd with 3500mbs read speed so all good there. Unfortunately cloud for previous projects wouldn’t be suitable as my asset management software would need to be able to catalog the files for future searches etc. 

[stevemoorevale]

1 hour ago, PDifolco said:

If budget allows, I'd get a pair of 2x8TB SSD in RAID1, a NAS isn't even needed unless you need to have the data accessible on several machines

Cost $1200 approx (870QVO 8TB is $600)

 

That sounds awesome but unfortunately that would be a little out of my price range. Bet they’re awesome though. 

[PDifolco]

52 minutes ago, stevemoorevale said:

That sounds awesome but unfortunately that would be a little out of my price range. Bet they’re awesome though. 

Ok, then a cheap NAS and 2x8TB+ HDD, but it'll be mostly as slow as what you get now ..

[stevemoorevale]

1 hour ago, PDifolco said:

Ok, then a cheap NAS and 2x8TB+ HDD, but it'll be mostly as slow as what you get now ..

Yeah that’s what I thought. I guess for ultimate speed the SSDs are the way forward. Just for fun I’ll see how the speed of my current nas compares to the storage space with the same file copy.