I've just bought a Mac Mini 2012 model with a 1TB SATA-600 5400 RPM disk and 16GB RAM. I already run a NAS with 3 x 2TB SATA-300 5400 RPM disks in RAIDZ and Gigabit Ethernet.
A prime function of my machine will be image editing of RAW files which are 25 - 50 MB in size. I'll also do some video editing.
I am thinking to buy an SSD to install OS X on and then run Zevo on the 1TB disk.
I have some questions regarding local disk performance vs. what I can get from the NAS and regarding L2ARC caches:
1. From the mechanical disks I'll get about 125 MB/s out of them, so just about hitting the GigE barrier. How much better performance will I get by storing my entire image library on the 1TB disk which is connected via SATA-600 or USB 3 compared to storing it on the NAS? I can see that I'm dealing with the following transfer rates: SATA-600: 600 MB/s, USB 3: 500 MB/s, Gigabit Ethernet 125 MB/s. It seems to me that GigE won't be a barrier but when I've tried to attach one of the 2TB disks from the array to the local computer, it just seems snappier.
2. Would it be wise to buy two SSDs instead of one (one for OS X and one for a L2ARC cache)? I'd then attach the 1TB disk via USB 3. The other option would be to manually copy over working projects of images from the 1TB drive/NAS to the SSD, edit them, then move them back. The Mini will be on for months at a time (but in standby at night). Will the L2ARC help in my typical workload?
Thanks for any help!
