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Kickaha
2014-09-20, 18:15
Big news in my life recently, I acquired a family. :)

Two teenagers in high school, one professional photographer/artist girlfriend, all with aging (or just plain aged) Macs. I have a 2008 Mini, similarly sliding into obsolescence. The most up to date machine in the house is my 2012 MacBook Pro.

We need:

Homework machine(s). Their MacBooks are *old*, like 2004-6 era. They can't keep up with their current needs, including 2011 Office, and a Windows virtual machine running software for robotics class. Options seem to be: A couple of MacBook Airs, and an external display to share; an iMac and let them keep their current machines for LoL and such. The former works better for them post-HS, and lets them work simultaneously. The latter is a bit cheaper.

Photography workstation. She currently has a 17" MacBook Pro, she got the large screen for her photography and the CPU for Photoshop, but the retina screens now are MUCH better for it, even if they are smaller. Options: get her a new MacBook Pro / Retina, or get me a new machine, and let her have mine. It's only two years old. Problem? Only 256GB storage. Her 1TB HDD is currently overflowing, and she's constantly out of room, due to photos. She just moved to Aperture 18 months ago specifically to help get things cleaned up and onto external storage, and now *that's* kind of up in the air. Obviously she needs external storage moving forward in any case. Second option is a 27" iMac, let her continue to use her current monster until it dies.

Home file storage. This leads me to this item. I'm slowly getting our DVDs/VHS tapes moved onto the media server, which is currently the 2008 Mini hooked into a single HDTV. Obviously, we need a lot more storage, available over the network. This makes me think either a central machine w/ a disk array, or a NAS. The Mini can be the file server, as far as I'm concerned, and an AppleTV can be the media bridge to the TVs, since she moved in with her own and now we have two.

So, given all of *THAT*...

What are suggestions? As I see it, short of pulling an Oprah and giving everyone a new machine, there are a couple of options:

1) Purchase 27" iMac, slap a mess o' drives on it. It becomes the photo work machine, and the homework machine. Cost, about $2500 for a RAM-heavy beast. Downsides: the boys' laptops are still too damned old and poky to be useful, new laptops would need to be purchased in the next year or two, and in the meantime they'll argue over who gets to use it for homework first.

2) Purchase two MacBook Airs for the boys, move the Mini to my office and connect to the 24" 1080HD monitor that I use for development on my MBPro. Cost, about $2200. Downsides: photo work is going to be poky on the Mini and a substandard screen, fitting a Windows virtual machine on one for the robotics work is going to be tight. Toss in a new machine for my travel (13" MBP/Ret) and give the gf my current one, and the photo work is easier, but it's another $2000. :P

As a side issue, there's the drive array vs. NAS debate. My AirPort unit is from... wow... 2004? Still works, but not exactly up to the task of a sudden household of machines hammering on it. Looking at a new AirPort Extreme unit, *considering* a Time Capsule instead of putting the Time Machine drives on a central machine. Also been looking at the newer Drobos for the photography archive. Redundancy is not a shabby thing, but offsite is better. This is where I have like zero experience, and could use some insights from folks. She's going to need 2TB for current and next-two-years needs, I figure, plus backup of same.

This is helping me get my thoughts gathered a bit, and I can see a better path now, but what would you all recommend that I haven't thought of?

turtle
2014-09-20, 19:40
I would recommend Synology NAS for your central storage personally. It does so much and then some, Including allow you to specify space for Time Machine backups. This is a far better option than a Time Capsule for the volume of data you will be putting through it.

The NAS also has a full disk failure tolerance. iTunes sharing, though not Home Sharing. It also serves DNLA for those devices you might already have that support it. Something like this (https://www.synology.com/en-us/products/DS415play) or this (https://www.synology.com/en-us/products/DS414j). I currently have this DS413j (http://www.amazon.com/Synology-DiskStation-Diskless-Network-Attached/dp/B008U69LC4).

For the machines...I'm not sure of the best options on that front.

Ebby
2014-09-20, 22:18
- I got confused writing my post. Don't think I addressed your question 100% but info is info :) -

I second the Synology NAS. I may be a little biased though because I have one and love it. :D (A DS412+)

I am a Photographer too and I don't edit on laptops. Not that I can't, I much rather have a real computer. I have a 500GB+ Aperture vault and I like to keep it on a faster desktop drive. Cheap RAM, small SSD for booting - large disk for storage, abundant CPU... that is a great setup for me. iMacs are good, but don't go for the cheapest model because that is basically glorified laptop guts. (Last I checked... it has been a while)

I also use Picasa for basic day-to-day snapshot photography. I save the images to my laptop but move anything over then a year over to the RAID. Seems to work well. Everyone in the household has their own account so they get private space as well as shared.

The core duo MacBooks are a little long in the tooth. Mine is showing some significant limitations. However, I wouldn't give up a 17" MBP for a Air. That is a step back in my opinion. I am typing this on my trusty 2008 15" MBP. It may be old, but I have never had a "dang I wish my laptop did that" moment that got me thinking about upgrades. Thunderbolt is nice, but make sure to add up the cost of adapters into your budget. If I had a free upgrade to any new laptop, I wouldn't take it. I upped the RAM to 4GB and installed a SSD and it still keeps up. :)

The real answer:
I would get the 2 Airs, a RAID, and a drive for the RAID.

The Boys will have a significant upgrade. Give the GF the Macbook Pro, and archive her older content to the RAID. Use internal/external drive for active work. This frees up space.

Also, put your content on the RAID and install Plex on both the Mini and RAID. I have a 1.66TB video archive and this works great. We use it nightly. Have to add metadata on custom content though. It also works like a Time Capsule for backups and a lot faster then a Drobo. My time machine ran about 24Mb/s. The Synology NAS gets 60-110MB/s.

SpecMode
2014-09-20, 23:42
I'll second using a network-attached RAID setup for backups over a Time Capsule; of the two TCs I've owned over the last several years, neither had a drive last for more than two years (probably because there's no active cooling – these suckers run pretty hot, and plastic is a pretty lousy heat dissipator).

Also, avoid Drobos and go with a 'real' RAID setup – they're (generally) cheaper, more reliable (assuming you go with RAID 5 or better), you'll get better performance, and you're not relying on Drobo's black-magic proprietary spanning tech.

For drives: WD Red ('Network'/NAS-branded drives) are my personal recommendation for a good balance between performance and reliability.

Chinney
2014-09-21, 19:27
Hey Kickaha,

I did look over your questions, and was going to post a response...until I realized that I had exactly nothing useful to add.

I just wanted to say though: Congrats and best wishes on your new situation in life.

All the best,

Chinney

Kickaha
2014-09-25, 15:03
Thanks for the advice guys, will be looking into the NASs, I think that's what we're going to end up with for storage. Choosing between Synology DS415play and DS415+, if anyone has any recommendations. It looks like the play has software HD transcoding, while the + has SSD read/write cache for future-proofing. I think the latter sounds good, but is unlikely to be needed for several years, so I'm playing it down in my head a bit.

As for the machines, I think we're going to go with moving the Mini off of the media center and onto a desk for now for homework, and see how far we get with that. An AppleTV will bridge the gap.

New AirPort, NAS, and an AppleTV for the time being, major machine purchases to wait until after Xmas. And a probably kitchen remodel. *headdesk* (Oven, dishwasher and fridge all dead or dying at the same time. Prior owners custom built the cabinetry around the funky sized appliances they chose, which means replacing the appliances necessitates probably replacement of the cabinetry, etc, etc, etc.)

Ebby, mind if I pick your brain in public? Aperture Vaults: are they a way of 'setting aside' chunks of your Library so that they're not in the mix, and then accessing them again later? I think she's going to want that for a good chunk of her prior client work. What you describe about current-vs-archived sounds exactly like what she's been saying she is looking for. Her current drive is acting worrisomely, so last night we re-located her entire Aperture library (from within Aperture) to an external drive for safety. (And backups.) She's in a bit of a limbo state at the moment, because her old Windows machine(s) died in quick succession, and she is re-creating her photo library from a plethora of partial backups, drive recovery archives, etc, and there are a ridiculous number of duplicates she has to weed through before declaring it good and ready for the first complete backup, sooooo a bit nervous-making.

cliff
2014-10-17, 03:50
my mother with my dog, blah blah

Ebby
2014-10-17, 16:21
Oops, didn't read your post till now. :)
Thanks for the advice guys, will be looking into the NASs, I think that's what we're going to end up with for storage. Choosing between Synology DS415play and DS415+, if anyone has any recommendations. It looks like the play has software HD transcoding, while the + has SSD read/write cache for future-proofing. I think the latter sounds good, but is unlikely to be needed for several years, so I'm playing it down in my head a bit.
So I have a DS412+ and since it hosts my media database, it does all sorts of video encoding. I have noticed the CPU gets a little high with 2 users, but has never caused the system to lag. It may be a problem with 3 streams, but I'm not there yet. Mine has a dual core 2.13Ghz processor (with a highly recommended 2GB RAM upgrade) and I noticed the DS415play has a dual core 1.6Ghz with hardware acceleration which can be a plus. Prettymuch the most tasking thing the box does is process video. However, there is only one ethernet port, and my systems support link aggregation. I wouldn't give that up for now.

The DS415+ has a quad core 2.4Ghz, the spiffy RAM upgrade, link aggregation gigabit, and eSATA. I'd say the DS415+ wins. :D

Ebby, mind if I pick your brain in public? Aperture Vaults: are they a way of 'setting aside' chunks of your Library so that they're not in the mix, and then accessing them again later? I think she's going to want that for a good chunk of her prior client work. What you describe about current-vs-archived sounds exactly like what she's been saying she is looking for. Her current drive is acting worrisomely, so last night we re-located her entire Aperture library (from within Aperture) to an external drive for safety. (And backups.) She's in a bit of a limbo state at the moment, because her old Windows machine(s) died in quick succession, and she is re-creating her photo library from a plethora of partial backups, drive recovery archives, etc, and there are a ridiculous number of duplicates she has to weed through before declaring it good and ready for the first complete backup, sooooo a bit nervous-making.
Think of an aperture vault as a prototype Time Machine backup without much of a user interface. You treat it more like a disk image with a complete archive of everything in your aperture library.

You can export entire projects to an archive disk and import them back if you need but I don't think they would be included in the vaults.

I also have a bit of a duplicate problem. A dupe finder has been requested as long as Aperture has been around. There are 3rd party plugins out there if you want to check them out.

Kickaha
2014-10-17, 18:38
Oops, didn't read your post till now. :)

So I have a DS412+ and since it hosts my media database, it does all sorts of video encoding. I have noticed the CPU gets a little high with 2 users, but has never caused the system to lag. It may be a problem with 3 streams, but I'm not there yet. Mine has a dual core 2.13Ghz processor (with a highly recommended 2GB RAM upgrade) and I noticed the DS415play has a dual core 1.6Ghz with hardware acceleration which can be a plus. Prettymuch the most tasking thing the box does is process video. However, there is only one ethernet port, and my systems support link aggregation. I wouldn't give that up for now.

The DS415+ has a quad core 2.4Ghz, the spiffy RAM upgrade, link aggregation gigabit, and eSATA. I'd say the DS415+ wins. :D

Rats, I went with the DS415play just a few days ago. LOL

Think of an aperture vault as a prototype Time Machine backup without much of a user interface. You treat it more like a disk image with a complete archive of everything in your aperture library.

You can export entire projects to an archive disk and import them back if you need but I don't think they would be included in the vaults.

I also have a bit of a duplicate problem. A dupe finder has been requested as long as Aperture has been around. There are 3rd party plugins out there if you want to check them out.

I have been using Aperture Duplicate Detector (ADD) and it works *really* well. Tags well and very precisely, but doesn't actually trash anything, which I like.

Ebby
2014-10-17, 19:03
Ah well don't worry about the RAID. They are very similar and I am a little jealous of the hardware encoding. Also, single gigabit ethernet is just fine transferring data at 110MB/s which is faster then standard non-SSD setups. I just like more POWER! *Clarkson*

Truth be told, I never used the eSATA so as nice as it is, it doesn't matter if you don't use it. Having a couple extra USB ports could help for adding spare USB drives and sharing over the network.

Also, you MAY be able to upgrade the RAM (at least in my DS412+) and void warranties (which always feels nice) because the DS412+ uses standard laptop memory. I have a 2GB limit because the actual CPU processor can't handle 4GB sticks and there is one RAM slot. I saw a nice bump in speed because I run a lot of programs.

Point is I have a tendency to push things to the max and I'd be very happy with the DS415play too. :D