A while back I added a Synology Diskstation DS225+ to the NAS fleet for the purpose of providing fast shared storage for the imaging workstations, one Mac, one PC which I wrote about here. On paper the DS225+ appeared a good fit owing to its compact size and muscular performance, particularly the native 2.5GbE networking (two and a half times faster than gigabit networking) which makes it an ideal candidate for image management. I’ve used it daily since it was installed and learned a few things along the way. Let’s have a look at how it’s worked out.
The DS225+ is a twin bay network attached storage device (NAS) with a Celeron processor and native 2.5GbE networking, basically a small file server with a fast network connection for sharing information on my local network between computers and other devices like the TV and music streamers. It has a strong processor so it can handle a lot of files at once. While it comes with 2 GB RAM, I added more to help with managing my large image library.
Synology claim a maximum sequential read/write throughput of 282/217 MB/s and in my case I found this to be a reliable claim. Using Black Magic disk speed test for benchmarking I got 277/275MB/s on the PC, slightly less on the Mac. On the device it replaced the read/write performance was around 60MB/s. On paper the DS225+ is nearly five times faster than the RD815, in practise this translates to a night and day application performance increase.
To achieve the measured performance required some fettling on my network. The network cable installed on the PC had been there since the dawn of time and the one on the Mac was something I originally found in a drawer. Neither was delivering the full measure of throughput from the new NAS via the 2.5GbE switch. I replaced them both with new cat 5E cables and you can see from the image the results are close to what Synology claim for read performance and better write performance than is claimed on the PC (shown). Mac shows slightly less performance. The lesson, use new cables when you update network hardware and test to ensure you are getting the all the performance.
Now I’ve replaced my old workstation cables its working out well as a shared image repository for my two imaging workstations. I use the same application on each platform, productivity is now vastly improved compared to the Rackstation RS815 used previously. Of course one is 10 years newer than the other as well, and while the RS815 is still going strong there is no comparison in performance compared to the DS225+.
How am I using this newfound productivity boost? For day-to-day shooting, time to upload and tag images as well as sorting, editing and exporting is significantly reduced. Finding and retrieving images from years ago is now a quick and painless activity, it’s now very light work searching the nearly 300 thousand images in the library.
Recently I added around a thousand images taken at three events over two days. These were imported to the DS225+ using the Mac which has card slots and then simultaneously tagged, edited and exported on the PC. Substantial time is now saved in editing and exporting, not to mention the imaging application is now super responsive. Add this up over time and the investment in the DS225+ hardware and network upgrade pays for itself very quickly.
The application performance boost has lent itself to another project, the cataloguing of my photography over more than two decades into what may be a lengthy blog post. I’ve been able to effortlessly review all the images on the NAS since 1998, review the exif to identify the camera and lens details, pick the ones that best suit the story and go from there. It’s been interesting to see the changes in shooting style, equipment, subjects and locations over time and reflect on the journey.
While possible with the Rackstation, it would have been a tedious and lengthy activity. With the DS225+ its been a breeze, the technology allowing me to become immersed in the memories in a huge image library rather than an impediment. The performance transformation in my case has been a great revelation and the productivity improvement very welcome.
What about video, doesn’t that need 10GbE networking? If you are running a video production company that’s likely a great idea. For a single user though and admittedly not a very serious video editor, the DS225+ works just fine and means my video can be stored in the same image library as my stills and there’s no separate process for backups. For this test I used an existing project straight off the NAS using Openshot Video editor. I found no performance issues to speak of with scrolling, editing and exporting the project to the NAS.
What about running the video editing on the Mac locally I hear you ask. If I was serious about video and regularly doing large video projects I might contemplate a Mac with a bigger local drive. But for now, performance is perfectly fine from the DS225+, Mac or PC. Running the video project from the NAS, it immediately springs to life on a desktop computer and runs and scrolls instantly. This backs up the Blackmagic disk speed test which validates disk performance for video use. The tool reports its good for H.265 up to 8K, more than enough for me. The disk speed test tool manual states in part:
“If you have ever wondered whether your media is suitable for recording and playback of a particular video format, you can use Disk Speed Test to find out.”
Because I have an existing Synology NAS ecosystem backups were painless to implement. The Rackstation is now a mirror image of the DS225+ and a remote DS220j receives the scheduled backups from the RS815. Synology provide tools for backup and file synchronization, it couldn’t have been easier to implement.
My observation after using it for some time is that the DS225+ is a strong and cost effective high performance network storage option for still imaging applications which also works well for video editing. A network upgrade is essential to take full advantage from its native 2.5GbE networking which is an important part of its throughput capability.
