Just taking flight with Roon and getting my library built up.
Time to get an NAS, and I think I’ve decided on QNAP. Roon seems to play well with QNAP, and I do like the idea of an NAS because my Oppo UDP-203 would be able to receive video files directly from my home network rather than having me transfer files all the time to a USB memory stick and bringing them to the Oppo in my home theatre.
MY REQUIREMENTS:
Storage for Roon AND 4K Remux Movie Files.
Compatibility with Mac (I have an all Mac household).
Specific Questions:
Given my requirements, do I get an i3 TVS-671 or i5 TVS-671? Former comes with 4GB memory and the latter comes with 8GB memory.
Are people getting 6, 8, or 10GB HDD’s in their QNAP’s? Any difference in reliability?
As far as the SSD that is recommended, do you use up one of the 6 slots for it or is it just the same to get an external SSD connected through USB?
If it’s any help, I’m running a TVS-671 with an i3 chip 4GB of memory and 6 x 3TB WD Reds. It was originally purchased for my business but when that was sold, the 671 came home. It’s now one year old and at the time I bought it the sweet spot price wise for discs was 3TB and so that’s what I got. Just over 13 TB of available storage actually turns out to be quite a lot. I’m using a WD 120GB SDD for the Roon database connected with USB 3.0. My library has 24,000 tracks comprising mostly flac in 16/44.1, half a dozen of DSD and also a reasonable number of flac in 24/96/192. Connections are all Cat 6 Ethernet to an Auralic Aries. I used the SSD because I was reluctant to give up storage potential and as Roon had said it would work, I decided to give it a try.
The NAS is also used to stream video and for general file storage. Even so I’ve only managed to fill 2.7 TB
The 671 has no trouble at all running Roon and rarely seems to get above 1% processor allocation no matter what file format is being processed. The same for Tidal albums. I’m not doing full convolution but am running volume levelling and then adding 5dB at the end to compensate for a quiet pre-amp. I had been using an Asus Vivo as the dedicated Roon server and the increase in sound quality when I moved to the 671 was quite marked.
If you are experienced in performing hardware upgrades, you could start with the i3. In case you need a faster cpu you could swap the i3 in favour of an i7.
(Downsides are: It will void your warranty, and you need to loosen a lot of screws.)
Why not choose TVS-682 or 882? It has SSD cache and newer PCIe slots. I just install a JCAT usb card on the TVS-882 and it can be detected. I think that would improve the sound quality when connecting to usb dac via JCAT usb card instead of directly connecting to TVS-882’s usb ports.
I bought a TVS-471 with an i3 and have aways wished I bought the 671 with an i5. Christopher is correct that you can swap out the CPU but they are getting harder to find and if you watch his video you might decide it’s way too much of a hassle.
Thanks for all your responses! Good thoughts. It’s still hard to predict what processor speed will be the most beneficial to my Roon applications and my video applications (not sure that there is any video processing going on if I’m sending my files directly by Cat 6 to my Oppo GDP-203). I’ll probably play it safe and get the i5. Cheers.
One more thing… 5400rpm or 7200rpm drives? This has probably been asked a million times out there, but I’m not sure I remember or know the answer for my application and with the QNAP TVS-671.
Hi Martin,
There are two considerations whn making your choice:
Do plan on DSPing your audio streams?
Would you like to transcode video in real-time?
If the answer is yes to either of these, i’d recommend an i5/i7. Otherwise the i3 will do just fine, even caring for most situations where you would like to DSP/transcode.
Regarding hard drive speed i would definently go for 5400rpm drives. I changed drives in october in my TS-470 Pro, putting in Seagate 7200rpm Enterprise disks… Load of crap imo, first case of hard drive failure was in december…
After two failed disks i changed the 3 * 3Tb Seagates a few weeks back for 3 * 6Tb WD Red 5400… Running just fine, lowering temps about 10° C for each drive and even the CPU/chassi… No noticeable change in performance, bulk copying is done at approximately 100-130MB/sec in either case, other factors limits this…
Mighty pleased with my 470 as both a video server and Roon server! (Changed CPU from i3 3220 to i5 3470T, 16Gb RAM, Roon database on SSD in bay 4)
I have been running the Western Digital Red Pro in my QNAP for 18 months and have not had a single drive failure yet. For listening to music the 5400s are probably just fine.
I am using HGST DeskStar NAS drives here. But I guess, as long as they are certified for NAS usage, it should not really matter. It is also good to check the QNAP compatibility list and verify the disks are fully compatible. (Even though most drives are…)