This video is okay for showing you how to fit the M.2 SSD although it’s obviously a different model to yours. The explanation of Cache and the benefits are also useful but not needed for Roon in your case. Keep it simple especially if you’re not familiar with the QNAP and its operating system. RoonServer will work well when installed on the M.2 SSD and plenty fast enough. It will take some time to set all of this up from scratch, QNAP, Roon etc.
This guy’s QNAP videos would be quite useful for you to watch, he has a whole series of them: -
QNAP NAS Guide Part 1 - Setup, RAID, Volumes IP and Shared Folders . You’ll need to do a search for this as I was unable to post the link on the forum for some reason, it didn’t seem to like one of the words contained in the link.
Thanks for providing the link @Scotav.
That video is the only one I could find despite extensive searches. There were quite a few videos for installing ssd in one of the bays, but obviously that can’t be done with the Crucial SSD I have bought. It’s strange that there weren’t more videos, given that there seems to be endless amounts of videos for literally everything computer related these days
I think you’ll be quite surprised how easy they are to fit Kevin that’s probably why there are no videos out there. I must admit I thought there were plenty of videos but as you say there doesn’t seem to be. You need to fit them into the slot at a slight angle then push down slightly and fit the securing screw. The slots in the 473 are located on the mainboard near the memory slots I didn’t bother fitting the supplied heat sink as it doesn’t get hot. It would be wise to fit them if they are doing a lot of work.
Would I be correct in saying that alternatively I could use an SSD drive in one of the bays? I think I might be more confident of doing that if it were possible, rather than taking the chassis off and having to fit the drive that way.
I saw this, presume it would be compatible with one of the bays?
Hi Kevin, it is very easy to take the cover off and fit the drive, you would also have to do this to fit additional memory. I understand that you obviously don’t have that much experience from the comments you have made. If I thought it was a problem for you, I wouldn’t suggest you doing it.
Any 2.5” SSD would do if you prefer to fit in one of the bays and it doesn’t need to be larger than 120 Gb, larger if you want but no need. You could also fit this in a small external USB 3 enclosure and plug it into the rear of the QNAP, it will still work using this method and leave all your bays available.
Enclosure
Things will be snappier using the M.2 or installing the SSD internally in one of the bays but this gives you some options. If you are happy to use one of the bays you can go for a larger SSD, create a Storage Pool and a 120 Gb volume named “RoonServer” and use the rest of the SSD as storage for other files. Hope this helps you out.
I would not use the configuration the OP is using.
Rather than a RAID 1 mirror and a backup spare in the bay, I use use a 3 disk RAID 5, and an external backup drive for reasons of performace, data security and ease of use. Ejecting a raw drive from a NAS for a backup is not something you would do regularly.
Although I have the Crucial M.2 drive on order, I’ve went belt and braces and ordered up the Crucial BX500 Internal SSD that you suggested as well, although went for 250GB. Reason being that I’m sure I read somebody posting on a thread on here that 128GB was a bit tight - anyway better to have more than not enough. Between the two of them I’m sure I’ll manage to fit at least one of them lol. The other one can get returned to Amazon
I’m not to worried about using one of the bays for SSD if that’s what ends up happening, I doubt very much if I’ll even use 2 of the remaining 3 bays as I’ve only got about 1TB of music and most of my listening is on Qobuz or Tidal anyway.
Sorry meant to post last night, but just a post to say all good with the new NAS . My Roon experience was good using a PC as Core, but now even better on NAS.
Went with SSD in bay option. Thanks to @Scotav with all his help and tips.
Running a TVS-1282 with 4 x Seagate IronWolf 110 SSD’s. One dedicated to Roon Server installation, one to the Roon database and backups, one (4TB) to Roon music files.
The IronWolf is one of the few SSD’s designed for NAS (24/7) use. Was a Western Digital devotee but have moved away after the “certified for NAS” WD Red scandal.
