abirdman2026

Thanks for the incredibly prompt reply chaps - genuinely appreciate the thoughtful replies and you are a credit to the community!

Hi everyone! I’ve been a Mac and PC user for over 20 years, but I am brand new to the NAS world. I’m planning my move to a centralized home/studio storage setup and wanted to get some community feedback on my proposed layout, app choices, and beginner tips before setting everything up. My Hardware SpecsNAS Hardware: Aoostar WTR Max RAM: 16GB DDR5 RAM HDDs: 5x 12TB HDDs SSDs: 4x 1TB NVMe M.2 SSDs Use Cases & WorkloadsActive Editing (Mac & PC): Photo editing (Photoshop) and 4K video editing (Final Cut Pro). Direct library editing across network shares. Media Server: Running Plex for about 5 active family/client users. Backups: Centralized backup target for 5 machines total (3 Windows PCs and 2 Macs using Time Machine). Proposed Storage ConfigurationMain Hard Drive Array: 5x 12TB HDDs with 1 Parity Disk (48TB usable space) for bulk storage and media archiving. NVMe SSDs #1 & #2: Configured as a Write/Read Cache Pool for array ingest and system files (appdata, Docker containers). NVMe SSDs #3 & #4: Configured as a separate fast NVMe Storage Pool (e.g., Mirrored) dedicated specifically for active Final Cut Pro and Photoshop scratch/project files. Questions for the CommunityStorage Layout: Does this split between Array, Cache Pool, and dedicated NVMe pool make sense for my workflow, or is there a better way to structure 4x 1TB NVMe drives on UnRAID? Final Cut Pro over SMB: Are there specific SMB settings or plugins (e.g., Apple SMB fruit extensions) I need to enable for Final Cut Pro libraries to work reliably over the network without file locking issues? Apps & Plugins: Which Docker containers or plugins would you consider "must-haves" for a setup like this (e.g., for Time Machine management, Plex, PC backup tools)? Hardware & RAM: Is 16GB DDR5 memory sufficient to start with for Plex + Cache + video editing, or should upgrading to 32GB/64GB be my immediate priority? Tips & Pitfalls: Any beginner tips or pitfalls to keep in mind for a first-time UnRAID user? Excited to join the community and hear your thoughts! Thanks in advance!