Areca v QNAP The Fastest storage for Photographers / video editors

Areca v QNAP

Message Body:
Photographer / videographer here.
Looking for the fastest unit available that can solve both large storage + up to 8K editing needs. Looking for an all in one solution really. Speed is my biggest concern. Would prefer something that can be used DAS over TB3.

Want to run whatever unit in Raid 5 or 6.
Filled with 12 or 14TB drives.
CPU – 14 core imac pro / 128 gb ram / vega 64
Currently use 40TB OWC Thunderbay 4’s (TB2) in Raid 5. They are far too slow.

I think I’ve pretty much boiled it down to the Areca ARC-8050T3 12-Bay + QNAP TVS-872xt.
The QNAP 1282xt looks like it has a lot of extra stuff I dont really need.

Im assuming both would work well for my needs although I am leaning towards the Areca.
Found benchmarks on the Areca that showed incredible speeds. <2000MB/s W+R in Raid 5 when filled with 10TB drives:

https://www.areca.us/support/download/5BaySubSystem/ARC-8050T3%20Series_Performance.pdf?fbclid=IwAR1usFTOPjo5XmDDyUdh3DmJOWWcRuTcx79RLCZvIiXjMReSiwQYouurwqw

Unsure of how fast the QNAP would run.
QNAP couldn’t give me w/r numbers for using the unit in Raid 5 over TB3. Im assuming they wouldn’t be as quite as high as the Areca, but still 1200-1500MBs?

Unsure of the reliability of Areca products.
Haven’t heard much about them…
Any word on Areca in general?

I know QNAP is great and it would be nice to eventually retire the unit from DAS to NAS, but NAS / extra features isnt really a priority.

Looking for any sort of input here, my knowledge is pretty limited to simple DAS / Raid solutions. Also, are there any other units available that I should take a look at?

 

You will notice that DAS boxes are always going to be faster then NAS. And there are good reasons for that as well as negatives.
Firstly almost all Direct Attached Storage devices will have hardware RAID. This means either a dedicated RAID card or chip on the board responsible about parity of all disks. NAS would need to use processor to maintain the RAID, but processing power is needed also for other tasks including data transfer itself.
The other thing is Thunderbolt connectivity itself. Thunderbolt will ensure flawless data transfer operation. With a NAS, data need to be converted into Network transmission protocol which again consumes computing power and will effect data transfer speed.
Now to the practical side of things.
If you are the only person editing and do not rely on other people shooting the material and distributing finished projects then DAS is the best solution. But if you plan to collaborate in next few years, than NAS will be the best choice.
Even though Areca is much faster then Qnap NAS, the speed is greater than necessary for even 8K video editing. You will not notice a difference when editing direct of the storage device with 2000 or 1000MB/s bandwidth.
But even NAS can achieve speed like this. All it takes is a decent processor and big enough number of drives. Because all data will be written across all drives. So more you have quicker the data transfer speeds will be.

Qnap TVS-872XT

 

 

Find regulary updated NAS offers here
Of course I would prefer you choose AMAZON UK AMAZON USA to buy your perfect solution, however, if you would rather buy locally, please use the links used above to take you to your local Amazon store and help support this free advice service with ad revenue. More ways of supporting the blog are described HERE  
Home: https://www.backblaze.com/cloud-backup.html#af9rgr Business: https://www.backblaze.com/business-backup.html#af9rgr Comparison with other service providers: https://www.backblaze.com/best-online-backup-service.html#af9rgr