AirPort Extreme

[Samgao]

I would like to know please if AirPort Extreme will allow me to connect three to four machines (Mac pros, iMac, MacBook pros) to a common hard drive? It will be for video editing, so files of 4k nature will be needed to transfer. Thanks so much for time. Yours
Sameer

 

[Weaselboy]

Yes it will, but for large files like you are talking about it will be slow and painful. You would be better of getting a dedicated NAS device for this.

 

[Samgao]

Thanks so much for your reply. But please what does NAS stand for? I'm unaware really. Pls yours
Sameer

 

[scapegoat81]

Thanks so much for your reply. But please what does NAS stand for? I'm unaware really. Pls yours
Sameer

Network Attatched Storage. I'm currently in the market for one as well. I'm looking into a Mac Mini to achieve this but waiting for a possible refresh this fall.

 

[cynics]

Thanks so much for your reply. But please what does NAS stand for? I'm unaware really. Pls yours

Sameer

Like mentioned, Network Attached Storage. Basically hard drive(s) connected via network connection.

Google search NAS and newegg NAS. Newegg generally has description videos.

 

[Samgao]

Airport Extreme

I will be working with a MacPro 8 core and was wondering will an ethernet NAS work on it, or will i have to make an ethernet to thunderbolt 2 connection somehow? Thanks all for your responses, i really appreciate them. yours always
Sameer

 

[Weaselboy]

I will be working with a MacPro 8 core and was wondering will an ethernet NAS work on it, or will i have to make an ethernet to thunderbolt 2 connection somehow? Thanks all for your responses, i really appreciate them. yours always
Sameer

Typically one would connect the NAS over ethernet to your router or ethernet hub/switch then everybody can see the NAS over the network.

 

[Samgao]

How so I connect the NAS to the new Mac Pro which has only thunderbolt 2 ports? I connect the NAS to the Ethernet hub like AirPort Extreme then the hub will be connected to the computers how? By wifi? Won't it be slow? If I could connect the AirPort Extreme Ethernet to the new Mac Pro?

 

[Weaselboy]

How so I connect the NAS to the new Mac Pro which has only thunderbolt 2 ports? I connect the NAS to the Ethernet hub like AirPort Extreme then the hub will be connected to the computers how? By wifi? Won't it be slow? If I could connect the AirPort Extreme Ethernet to the new Mac Pro?

You would not use Thunderbolt at all. You would run an ethernet cable from the NAS to the Airport Extreme LAN port. Then another ethernet cable from the Mac Pro to a second LAN port on the Airport Extreme. Then connect the other devices to the Airport Extreme either with an ethernet cable (fastest) or wifi.

Depending on how old the Extreme and other wifi devices are, they my be quite a bit slower accessing the NAS over wifi like this. If you have a newer Extreme and newer Macs that support the new 802.11AC wireless protocol they will be fairly fast.

 

[eduardrw]

IF you want to do 4K video editing your best bet would be to connect external Hardisk(s) to your 8-core MacPro. Use either USB3 or Thunderbolt and forget about NAS via ethernet - > that is way to slow for what you are trying to do!!

To speed up things you might even consider a USB3/Thunderbolt raid disk!

 

[ColdCase]

IF you want to do 4K video editing your best bet would be to connect external Hardisk(s) to your 8-core MacPro. Use either USB3 or Thunderbolt and forget about NAS via ethernet - > that is way to slow for what you are trying to do!!

To speed up things you might even consider a USB3/Thunderbolt raid disk!

Then configure the MacPro to share the external drive. The other devices will be able to see and edit files, slow but doable. Editing on the MacPro will be fast. If you connect all the computers by ethernet cable to your router it will provide better and more reliable performance.

You will have to keep the MacPro powered on when other machines need to see the hard drive.

 

[mmomega]

The max speed you will get over Gigabit Ethernet is 120MB/s.

You'd need a 10Gb/s router or switch, a 10Gb NIC and a NAS with 10Gb ethernet before you could reliably work on 4k files on a NAS.

Probably better off getting a pegasus2 raid drive and connecting via TB2, this would still be quicker than a 10Gb NAS and probably less expensive overall.