I have a Synology 1520+ NAS running a Roon Core 2.0. All drives in the NAS are spinning disks (the main use of the unit is backup).
For now I have music files and database on these spinning disks, but Roon recommends for its database a SSD and needs only 64GB for that.
I’ve read I can install a SSD cache (“M.2 2280 NVMe SSD”) into my Synology. Could I use this for the Roon DB? I would like to avoid using one of the bays for a (smallish SSD)…
If you install a install one or two NVMe SSD 's and configure a cache on the volume where the Roon database live, Roon will profit from it (assuming that Roon Core is also installed on the DS1520+). The Roon database will we automatically cached.
If you use one NVMe SSD than the cache will be a readonly one. With two NVMe SSD’s you can configure a read/write cache.
When configuring a read/write cache (two NVMe SSD’s) it is nessecary to install a UPS. Without a UPS there is a great risk that at a power outage the Roon database will get corrupted (because the NAS has no time to write the cache to the spinning disks).
I tried both in my DS920+ (an dedicated SSD in a drive bay and two NVMe SSD’s), both as read/write cache). It did not make any difference in performance. Both gives about the same performance boost.
A readonly cache will also give a performance boost for using Roon. The data can than much quicker read from the database and reading the database is what Roon Core is mostly doing.
The built-in cache won’t do you any favors, given that the DB is in-memory in large part. If you’re going to spend on hardware and time tinkering, get a ROCK/NUC. This is based on my experience. The cache hardly got hit when I was running searches, and it certainly doesn’t help DSP etc.
And library storage needs to be local, but a spinning disk has no downsides other than reliability. Library speed is meaningless besides db and processor speed.
FWIW, once I realized how much time I was spending, I just broke down and got an old 7i5 NUC, a cheap external ssd enclosure and SSD off Amazon, installed ROCK and now use my Synology for backup purposes. My life is much easier.
I guess, for the moment while starting out with Roon I stick with the Syno with spinning disks. And when I really commit yo Roon I think of a seperate Roon core machine.