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No, I keep the catalog, itself, on my mac and the backup goes to the NAS (the photos, themselves, are all on the NAS as well, including the sidecars, etc.)
Mac mini vs. Mac Studio
- Thread starter gollum
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No, I keep the catalog, itself, on my mac and the backup goes to the NAS (the photos, themselves, are all on the NAS as well, including the sidecars, etc.)
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When the sheetrock was off our walls, I wired up rooms for that possibility with a MacMini in a closet that handles home automation stuff, and an Oyen 5 bay enclosure. But... from what I've read catalogs must be local on the computer you're editing from (I have a few Macs as does my wife). And thus syncing catalogs would need to be done manually - a bit of a pain. And I'd sure hate to screw that up. Still haven't moved forward on that. But plan to soon.
Eric
Mama's lil stinker
I have read the same thing, my catalog is on an external drive (which was way easy when swapping to a new computer) but I've only ever accessed it from the computer it's attached to. Not a big deal though, the ability to seamlessly edit in LRC from any device would be my only real motivation for moving to NAS over external drives.
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Let me know what you end up doing and how you like it. I'm still not ready to get my plan moving. And am always open to new/different ideas and architectures.
Not sure about using a 5 drive bay external enclosure on a Mini as a poor-man's NAS, rather than a real Synology or QNAP system. But my needs are very modest - just images I can access from anywhere and a sync'd catalog. And time-machining all computers.
I can say the Mini has not skipped a beat doing HA and camera stuff 24/7 going on three years now. Maybe I shouldn't be that impressed, but still...
Nycturne
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As someone who has attempted this, please just go with the Synology or QNAP. Using a Mini as a server is kinda a pain to manage compared to a NAS, so if you just need a file server, buy a file server. Especially if that external enclosure doesn’t have some sort of RAID support, because Apple’s RAID support is meh at best and dangerous at worst, so you’d be looking at SoftRAID or the like which has so far required a kernel extension. When Apple switched to APFS and containers, the ability to nest RAID arrays to create RAID 10 using Apple’s RAID got broken, so you’d need to stick to HFS+ and I’ll be honest, I’m not sure that works. It’s a headache.
I have a NAS and a Mac Mini. I run VMs and Xcode Server on the Mini to get access to a better CPU for the handful of things that need it, and the NAS does all the file server work (including Plex, Channels DVR, etc).
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Thanks for you post - appreciate it. Regarding Synology or QNAP, which do you prefer (and why)? Any downsides? Ease of use is important for me - would be great if I didn't need to dig to deep into yet another system. I understand Synology now requires their own blessed drives?
Would be great if that was something that would sleep or could power down/wake up remotely.
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Synology is arguably easier-to-use. They only require blessed drives for their high end boxes (I think the 12-bay ones are the only ones right now). I don’t think QNAP has a 12 bay box (at least not one that takes 12 3.5” disks), if that’s your thing. I’ve never used QNAP but I hear good things. No matter which you use, be sure to hook it up to a UPS.
Nycturne
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I've owned both, and recently switched to Synology. QNAP's software is functional, but it has become increasingly user hostile as they try to address security gap. Increasingly intrusive notifications and nagging for updates. Anti-malware (that ties into the intrusive notifications) is not a bad addition, but has been shoehorned in.
I also value ease-of-use and management for a home office, so I'd generally recommend Synology for home office. Performance, especially on 1Gbps networks is going to be comparable, and they both support docker containers for things that aren't pre-packaged. I've been able to hook both up to B2 for off-site backups and they run without me even thinking about it. It really boils down to Synology's software has more polish and is more Apple-like to QNAP's Windows/Linux-like approach to the OS.
I don't use this functionality, so I can't say how it works, unfortunately.
EDIT: I will say one thing that I like about Synology on DSM 7 vs QNAP is permissions management. QNAP's permissions are a bit of a black box and I've run into issues with packages/containers creating files that cannot be deleted by an admin user over SMB who has full access to the share. Whoops. Meanwhile, DSM 7 seems to create dedicated accounts (and shares) for packages, which took me a bit to wrap my head around. That said, once I did, it made a lot of sense from a security perspective.
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I found this tutorial on syncing LR photos and catalog over multiple computers using a Synology NAS and Synology Drive.
Still soaking it in. And thinking about if the approach makes sense for me, using multiple computers using smart previews and identical sync'd catalogs, and also going on an occasional roadtrip. It's a little convoluted, but not bad. Wondering if its something I might regret later on due to whatever going haywire. And of course having backups to recover if something does. Or if it just becomes annoying in daily use.
Feel free to share any thoughts.
Still soaking it in. And thinking about if the approach makes sense for me, using multiple computers using smart previews and identical sync'd catalogs, and also going on an occasional roadtrip. It's a little convoluted, but not bad. Wondering if its something I might regret later on due to whatever going haywire. And of course having backups to recover if something does. Or if it just becomes annoying in daily use.
Feel free to share any thoughts.
MEJHarrison
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I finally pulled the trigger. I ordered the base Studio with 1TB of storage. I have a June 10-20 delivery date. So if something tempting does show up at WWDC, I still have some wiggle room to change my mind.
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Nice. I‘m jealous.
I think you'll like it. I just got one at the office recently, and it's great. Certainly a lot better than than old iMac it replaced. It's also quiet, like the Ultra I have at home.
MEJHarrison
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Now I have a May 18th delivery date. The wiggle room is gone if it shows up on time, but I'm ok with that.
Colstan
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According to Ming-Chi Kuo, Apple has halted plans to revamp the Mac mini. The supposed leaks of a new version with a plexiglass top never made much sense. It might have made it easier for Bluetooth/Wifi but stunk for thermals, where aluminum (or aloo-min-ee-um for our British friends) is much more efficient. I'm on my fourth Mac mini, and had two with the plastic tops, and the newer models are much improved. Even though there's now a giant cavity inside the M1 version, along with an over-spec'ed power supply, that allows room for an M2 Pro, if Apple wants to hit a price point between the Mac Studio and the mini. Regardless, if anyone was waiting for a redesign of the Mac mini, then according to Kuo, there's no reason to wait, at least as far as the enclosure is concerned.
I would expect the portion of the generated heat that is dissipated by the case itself to be minimal compared to what the internal heatsink + fan can dissipate. The G4 Cube, for example, was a fully acrylic case.
Nycturne
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At least in the short term, another advantage to keeping the current chassis is it makes it easier for these Mac mini server farms to rotate out machines if there's a "standard" form factor. Although I don't think folks like Mac Stadium would complain for long if they can fit more minis in a rack, TBH.
MEJHarrison
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I'm fine with it either way. I ordered hoping my Studio would show up around WWDC time. So if there was something new announced, I could return it for the better thing. Since it's coming early, it's coming early. I was prepared for that. My thinking was if it comes early, then I end up with the machine I set out to get a couple months back. No time for regrets.
If something does come out that fits more in my sweet spot at WWDC, then I end up "stuck" with a machine that is a little overpowered for my needs. Not the worst problem ever. Better than waiting forever for the perfect Mac.
Yoused
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Except that the Cube has a 2"x 4" oval vent in the top, and its logic board, video card and HD are vertical.
Colstan
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The Mac Studio is an amazing machine, at least from what I have heard. It's the closest thing to the mythical "xMac" that Apple desktop users have wanted for the past two decades. I'm looking forward to hearing your thoughts on it, once you give it a test drive; please keep us updated. Even if Apple releases an M2 Mac mini, it won't be as powerful as the Mac Studio, and the M2 Pro/Max variant for high-end machines is probably some time off. Right now, Apple can't even fill orders for the current Mac Studios and MacBook Pros. The M2 will likely have some gains in single-core performance, as well as overall efficiency, but I suspect it won't be revolutionary over what the M1 offers.If something does come out that fits more in my sweet spot at WWDC, then I end up "stuck" with a machine that is a little overpowered for my needs. Not the worst problem ever. Better than waiting forever for the perfect Mac.
I'm personally waiting until the M3 series are on the market. We are now starting to see software that is specifically designed for Apple Silicon, and won't work with x86 Macs. Sure, right now those titles apply to games, but according to the Steam survey from April, 39% of Mac gamers are already on Apple Silicon. (I'm not using Steam to represent the overall market, just the trend.) This is happening quicker than I had anticipated.
Whenever I do make the jump, I'll either be looking at the base Mac Studio, or an M(X) Pro version of the Mac mini, so I understand the internal debate that you are going through. There's nothing wrong with having a little too much power, and there's still no guarantee that the Mac mini will ever get a Pro chip. My philosophy has always been to purchase the best you can reasonably afford, enjoy it for as long as possible, and only upgrade when absolutely necessary. I'm still using a base model 2018 Intel Mac mini, and wish I had gotten the more advanced model, so right now I'm holding my Mac together with sticks and bubble gum. I had planned to use it for only two years, but now I'm going try to get at least five or more out of it.
So, I'm envious of your Mac Studio purchase and having a computer with a little extra headroom doesn't hurt, and it will almost certainly best the standard M2 in most tasks.
MEJHarrison
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What I was really hoping for is a M1 Pro in a Studio form factor. I like the extra ports on the Studio. If I got a mini, the first thing I'd need is some hub to plug more stuff in. I also like that the Studio starts at 32GB of RAM. So for me an M1 Pro in a mini enclosure isn't as appealing.
But if I'm being completely honest, I do believe the M1 Pro would have been more than enough power for me. Since I'm getting the Max instead, hopefully it will last me even a little bit longer.
