2012 Mac Mini vs Synology DS220+

#1

I have been using a Mac Mini for channels for years...I have had HD Home Runs and TVE but i have always had issues with needing to restart it while somebody is watching TV or using it for something else. I thought my solution was to move to a Synology NAS (DS220+) and that brought on a new set of challenges (which seem to have been worked out for the most part) but it seems if I am transferring files to and from the NAS it affected watching TV. I just need a solution where I can set it and forget it but it will WORK! So now that I don't need the Mac Mini as much and I am storing all of my media on the NAS I thought I would revisit using the Mac Mini as my Channels DVR.

Mac Mini - 2.5 GHZ Dual i5 with 16GB RAM
Uses: Apple Photos App, Itunes (to play movies on Apple TV), Unifi Network Controller
Optional Uses that I have been using it for: Crypto Wallet, Email

Synology DS 220+ - 2.0 Ghz Dual core with max ram
Uses: Media Files, Download Files,
Potential Optional Uses: Backups, IP Cameras, Unifi Network Controller

Any Insight would be greatly appreciated so I can get this system up and working.
Thanks in advance!

#2

From your previous posts, it’s not your devices it’s your weird, band aid of a network.

Post your exact network topology. Don’t you have mesh satellites? And other weird things going on?

#3

I'm just debating which is the best hardware now...but my network has several hard wired access points...everything is good with the network. I think the xfinity modem and the firewall software might have been causing problems too

#4

What kind of file transfers are you doing to the NAS? Many of us are using almost identical hardware to the NAS you are using and have zero issues, no matter what we throw at it…

#5

Just a couple of thoughts that come to mind. Have you done a speed test to the synology to see if you are getting gig speeds? My other thought too..... With file transfers. What hard drives are in that machine. I wonder if you are exceeding the write speed to where it just can't keep up. I am just thinking out lout. I have ran into issues at times where switches do not communicate the port speed correctly and instead of getting 1000 you are getting 100.

I am glad it seems things are working better.

#6

it shouldn't hard to decide between the 2. The Mac Mini is deff going to run better. And if that was the solution that work for you and you freed up the previous tasks causing the issue, seems like a solid solution.

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#7

that's what I thought...I have been moving files back and forth to a computer but nothing major...maybe I have the NAS set up wrong? anybody have tips on how to set it up? I know my bond and aggregation wasnt set up right and that was causing issues. I think cause I didnt have it set up on the switch also.

#8

it has some WD drives in it right now...the red kind...I just got some iron wolf that I plan to put into it...i havent tested what speeds its getting though...how can I test that?

#9

I just seen a lot of people using the NAS and I liked the idea of having a one stop shop hands off solution.

#10

You want to try and avoid wifi connectivity if you can. Hardwire everything except laptops, ipads, phones, etc.
After you do that, get a large drive for your Mac mini and call it a day.

I have and intel nuc with 2 drives attached. (one 10tb and one 5tb) Everything is hard wired in my house (all appletv's as well as the nuc.)

I have absolutely ZERO issues whatsoever. You start adding wifi bridges, Nas storage, etc and you start adding variables that are gonna screw you... Stick with local storage and hardwired networking. You won't go wrong.

My opinion....

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#11

My philosophy is also “wifi only where absolutely necessary”. Which basically means mobile devices only. And I have very few issues. Not everything is caused by wifi, but lots of things are.

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#12

Does your resource monitor show anything crazy while you’re transferring files? Are you using approved RAM for Synology NAS? I bought my DS718+ secondhand and some off-brand RAM the previous owner installed was causing major issues. I ended up going down to just the Synology-included RAM (4 GB) but it is perfectly sufficient for running Channels and Docker.

#13

and hardwire laptops if you can. :slight_smile:

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#14

90% of things are hardwired...a few ATVs are wifi due to location...I have a 1TB SSD in the mac mini now...

#15

no it doesn't...I am using approved RAM...the issues I have had I had even before I upgraded the RAM...I thought the ram was gonna help

#16

There you go man. Use that 1tb drive and honestly if it were me I would dedicate that device to a dvr only and not have a bunch of other services on it. Do that and I bet your problems will disappear...

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#17

You can run the network test from any Channels DVR app as long as you have 1 gig speed. Anything probably in the 940 range is fine.

DSM 7 required to run this.
For Synology you can do a speed test on your hard drive. Go to Storage Manager. Pick Drive one. You will see an Action button appear. You can hit the drop down and click on Benchmark.

I run 4 4tb Seagate Ironwolf drives in mine. (DS920+)

Read
IOPS Throughput Latency
142 174 MB/s 17.1 ms

Write
IOPS Throughput Latency
337 170 MB/s 3.0 ms

Two security cameras rolling.
Took about 15 minutes or so to run. Was wondering if it was going to finish.

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#18

Just as a datapoint for you…

I have a 2010 mac mini and ive been using this as a media server for both Plex and channels dvr.

Instead of a NAS I have a bunch of external spinning drives set up directly to the mini using a cheap usb hub. one is dedicated drive for channels, one for plex , one for local backups from my laptop wich is always on my wifi network. Each of these spinning drives have their own separate backup drive associated with them. For channels, i back up every night at 12:00am. I also backup the channels databases to icloud every night (not the media files) The other plex media drives I only back up once a week as these dont change for me that often.

I found for great channels performance the bottleneck was never from these slow usb drives, or from CPU load, but from my wireless network. So very early on i hardwired my mac mini to directly to 100 ethernet.

I also hardwired my apple tv directly to ethernet. For me this was key. My other clients iphones ans ipads have all been very happy on wifi with channels.

If you really want to test actual network bandwidth you could consider using a network utility called iperf. You can set up iperf running as a server on your mac mini, and then run a test from your different clients to see what real bottlenecks you have on your network. I found this really enlightening. I bet you this utility or a similar one can run on a NAS as well if you go that way.

I have considered going the synology route, and someday i may do this, but i had a bunch of spare external spinning drives so it was cheaper for me to go this direction and i already had the mac mini.

The two apps that seem to be hogging cpu have been comskip and plex when it transcodes.

The channels server CPU overhead has been fantastically low on the mac mini and i assume on a NAS as well.

For me the key was getting my server hardwired, and my apple tv needed to be hardwired as well.

Hope my ramblings help you and others..

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#19

thats good to know thank you...how do you have your volumes set up?

#20

Thank you...I have the mac mini and the NAS now...I just want to have the best performance as possible. if I go Mac Mini I NEVER wanna touch it again lol