I just set up an OpenMediaVault-based NAS system that has a 10GbE network card installed that connects to an SFP+ port on an Aruba switch. I have a couple of desktop computers (Windows 10 and Pop!_OS) that also connect to the switch, although they are limited to 2.5GbE speeds. I expect to upgrade the desktops to 5GbE within the next six months, but because of PCIe slot limitations, I can’t take them to 10GbE. Each desktop has 32GB of DDR4 memory and an Intel i7-9700 processor.
As part of my testing of this new network setup, I have been copying files back and forth between each desktop and the NAS using SAMBA (SMB). The source and destination for the files are SSDs, not hard disks, and I am seeing speeds ranging from about 175MB/second to 290MB/second.
Do these speeds seem reasonable to centralize my raw files (Fujifilm RAFs) for editing over the network with various platforms/programs such as Capture One or Silkypix Pro on Windows 10 as well as darktable on Linux? I would like to keep all my raw files on a single SSD (2GB to start) on the NAS, which will be incrementally backed up to a hard disk every night.
Other Windows-based programs I will be using include Affinity Photo and Topaz DeNoise AI. And on Linux I will occasionally be using GIMP. I might eventually settle on a single platform for photo-related work, but I expect to be using both platforms for the next year or two.
I would appreciate your feedback on this NAS-based solution, especially if you think I will run into problems related to speed, latency, etc. I will not be using both desktops for editing at the same time, so file locking should not be a problem.