Synology NAS vs Home Server

[King Hackintosh]

Dear Internet,

Which option is better: a Synology DS1815+ w/ 6x 8TB drives or the following custom server http:// w/ Intel Celeron and FreeNAS software. It will be used for storing RAW images and 4K video. My current NAS (DS1513+) achieves only about ~100Mbps up and down when connected via ethernet, so I assume my home internet speed is bottlenecking the rig. Therefore, would is there any advantage to the more powerful custom server?

Thank you!

 

[Spectre694]

Kinda depends. The FreeNAS rig will be significantly more powerful, flexible, (jails, plugins, etc) and likely cheaper though it will take a little bit more work to setup. The synology unit will be easier to setup and admin (though not by much).

That all said 100MB/s is more or less the limits of gigabit Ethernet if you want faster than that you're going to need to upgrade to 10Gb

 

[ComputerSecurityGuy]

If you only have gigabit ethernet, that is easily the bottleneck. Gigabit ethernet can only push about 60-70MB/s under good conditions. That's about what two modern hard drives will give you, and those 8TB ones will saturate with even one drive. So I'd go with your own server, and run 10gbit SFP+ cable, because even though that might be a slight bottleneck, it will still be significantly faster than the Synology, since it only has gigabit ethernet ports. A 10GB SFP+ card is under $100 these days.

 

[King Hackintosh]

Thank you both very much for the solutions!

One more question: I have somewhat slow home internet (100 Mbps down, 30 Mbps up)—will this be a bottleneck when connecting to the NAS from my laptop or desktop?

 

[Spectre694]

Thank you both very much for the solutions!

One more question: I have somewhat slow home internet (100 Mbps down, 30 Mbps up)—will this be a bottleneck when connecting to the NAS from my laptop or desktop?

Only if they are at a different location. If your desktop and laptop are on the same LAN (connected via ethernet or WiFi) then your bottleneck will be the local connection most likely gigabit ethernet (1000 mbps or roughly 100MB/s) or WiFI which is slower probably around 30MB/s on a good day. Those are the speeds I can get on my setup.

mbps = megabits per second
MB/s = megabytes per second

 

[King Hackintosh]

Thank you both very much for the solutions!

One more question: I have somewhat slow home internet (100 Mbps down, 30 Mbps up)—will this be a bottleneck when connecting to the NAS from my laptop or desktop?

Only if they are at a different location. If your desktop and laptop are on the same LAN (connected via ethernet or WiFi) then your bottleneck will be the local connection most likely gigabit ethernet (1000 mbps or roughly 100MB/s) or WiFI which is slower probably around 30MB/s on a good day. Those are the speeds I can get on my setup.

mbps = megabits per second
MB/s = megabytes per second

Thank you for the clarification. If I put a 10GB ethernet card in the server will I also need a 10GB card in my desktop to take advantage of the 10GB speeds?

 

[JaredDM]

Synology 100%. I used to run a FreeNAS box with decent specs. Somehow my Synology is still much faster, and has a ton of features I now can't live without. You won't regret it.

 

[Spectre694]

Thank you both very much for the solutions!

One more question: I have somewhat slow home internet (100 Mbps down, 30 Mbps up)—will this be a bottleneck when connecting to the NAS from my laptop or desktop?

Only if they are at a different location. If your desktop and laptop are on the same LAN (connected via ethernet or WiFi) then your bottleneck will be the local connection most likely gigabit ethernet (1000 mbps or roughly 100MB/s) or WiFI which is slower probably around 30MB/s on a good day. Those are the speeds I can get on my setup.

mbps = megabits per second
MB/s = megabytes per second

Thank you for the clarification. If I put a 10GB ethernet card in the server will I also need a 10GB card in my desktop to take advantage of the 10GB speeds?

Yes you will need a 10Gb card in both and a 10Gb router as well unless you just run a direct link over 10Gb between the desktop and server and then a 1Gb link from the server to the rest of the network.

Another massive advantage to the FreeNAS server that hasn't been mentioned though is ZFS

 

[King Hackintosh]

Ok thanks everyone for your help! I'll look into a 10G setup.