Will an SSD Cache improve performance? (Synology NAS as a core)

Roon Software Discussion QNAP/Synology NAS
1

Hi,

I purchased myself a Synology DS918+ to run Roon core and this will be installed onto a Samsung 840 SSD, however my NAS also contains 2x M.2 NVMe SSD’s slots. Will buying a dedicated SSD Cache drive help improve overall performance and experience?

This is my first post, so apologies if i missed anything out.

Thanks All.

2

Giuseppe it looks like I’m getting in trouble here. I will save it for when I see you next or I’m going to get banned haha.

I’ve removed my comment.

3

Hi Giuseppe

I think you will be fine with the NAS and the Samsung 840 SSD, you don’t mention how big your music library is, I think it is just as important ensuring your network is correctly setup and that your Roon devices are all wired via Ethernet, if after setting up you perceive any issues then start a thread here and people can try to help.

4

A friend of mine has a similar NAS with internal SSD cache drives. He (even with or despite my help) couldn’t find a way to use that cache as a drive share to host roonserver.

Others may have succeeded.

8

I assume you intend to put the Roon Database on the Samsung SSD?
You were considering possible performance improvements from caching music files from the spinning storage then i assume.
I like the thinking but i suppose that Synology must make that configuration possible by letting you dedicate the NVM m.2 slots to caching memory for storage, right? I dont know Synology OS but i’d like it if Roon Core cached playing files into RAM at least.

9

I’m not sure if you refer to “performance” as sound playback quality or not. If you’re referring to sound quality, then my experience might do a little help.

I’m now using a QNAP TVS-882, which has 2 SSD slots on the front. And I install RoonServer on one of it, while the other has a SSD functioning as cache. And I must say when SSD cache is enabled, the sound quality is much better. And the cache can help to improve the sound either from your local library or from Tidal. And guess what even QNAP staff was astonished when they heard the difference with or without the SSD cache.