Case Study: Building the Emberhouse NAS
A High-Speed Storage Backbone for Post-Production
Overview
At Emberhouse, we work with massive RAW footage, 10-bit color grading, and high-throughput timelines across states. We needed more than a backup box — we needed a real-time collaboration engine. So we built one.
This custom NAS stores, serves, and syncs all of our projects — handling terabytes of media, dozens of timelines, and remote editing sessions daily.
The Brains Behind It
OS: TrueNAS SCALE
CPU: AMD Ryzen 9 3950X (16 cores)
RAM: 64GB DDR4 ECC
We chose the Ryzen 3950X for two big reasons:
1. PCIe Lanes: It offers enough bandwidth to drive four NVMe drives, a 10GbE NIC, and a GPU — without bottlenecks. Most CPUs can’t handle that kind of load.
2. Cost Efficiency: We already owned the chip. Using it saved hundreds, allowing us to reinvest into faster drives and better networking.
ELI5: PCIe lanes are like roads that connect everything inside your computer. The 3950X gave us a freeway — and we already had the engine.
The Storage Layout
3× 12TB Seagate Exos
3× 12TB Seagate IronWolf
Configured in RAIDZ2 (ZFS)
RAIDZ2 gives us two-drive redundancy. We’ve tested failure recovery already — zero downtime.
ELI5: It’s like having six buckets of water. If two spring a leak, the others refill them automatically.
Cache Layers for Speed
We added three tiers of NVMe drives to supercharge ZFS:
Metadata vdev: 2× 1TB Solidigm P41 (mirrored)
SLOG (write buffer): 118GB Intel P1600X
L2ARC (read cache): 1TB Samsung 990 Pro
ELI5: Caching is like keeping your tools on your desk instead of the garage. Everything you touch often is instantly accessible.
PCIe Optimization
Our setup needed careful slot balancing:
Slot 1: 4x NVMe adapter (bifurcated)
Slot 2: 10GbE NIC
Slot 3: GT610 GPU (low-power)
Bifurcation allowed us to split one PCIe slot into four separate NVMe lanes — but only after a BIOS update and trial/error testing.
ELI5: One wide road. Four tiny cars. BIOS had to be told that was okay.
Network Performance
Marvell AQC107 10GbE NIC
TP-Link Archer BE11000 router
10-port unmanaged 10G switch
All Cat6/Cat6a cabling
In iperf3 testing, we hit near full 10GbE saturation — meaning the NAS was never the bottleneck.
ELI5: Most systems trickle files like a faucet. This setup turned on the firehose.
Remote Collaboration
Our Louisiana-based co-founder connects via WireGuard VPN with split tunneling. He can browse normally while editing directly off the NAS.
ELI5: One lane to the NAS. One lane to the internet. No speed loss.
Cost Breakdown
DIY Build Cost: ~$2,350
Equivalent Prebuilt NAS: $7,000–$9,000+
Custom Integrator Estimate: $10,000–$14,000+
What we built doesn’t exist off-the-shelf.
You’d need a specialist to source the parts, configure BIOS, tune ZFS, and install remote access — and even then, you’re not guaranteed creative performance.
ELI5: Buying a Synology is like getting a minivan. This is a tuned track car — and we built it ourselves.
What Didn’t Work (At First)
PCIe lanes kept maxing out
The GTX 1070 used too much bandwidth (replaced with GT610)
Some GPU/NIC/adapter combos wouldn’t boot
TrueNAS refused to boot headless (fixed with BIOS update)
Only 2 of 4 NVMe drives showed up until we fixed bifurcation + slot mapping
ELI5: It was like solving a puzzle where the box art didn’t match the pieces. But we got it working.
Final Thoughts
This NAS is the creative engine behind Emberhouse.
It stores everything. It serves remote editors. It makes high-res timelines feel fast.
And it’s tuned — drive by drive, lane by lane — to support premium storytelling.
We didn’t build it to save money.
We built it because nothing else could do what we needed.
Want to see benchmarks, parts list, or our Resolve sync workflow? Reach out — we’re happy to share.
