Final Cut Pro 7 Setup/workflow

Hello there,
I work at a small company and we are starting to build large amount of raw tape and capture scratch data. I am writing to learn about best practices, procedures, and troubleshooting techniques. We have two editors who both work off Macs on a 1 gig Ethernet network using Final Cut Pro 7. The data lives on a remote storage device, synology volume. They are currently connecting to the device using AFP and creating projects over the network.
Mac Devices:
iMac 27 OSX 10.9.5
16GB RAM
512 SSD
Synology:
4x1 gig E bonded
40 TB usable
Small Project :
     Raw Data: approximately 13GB
     Capture Scratch: approximately 15GB
     Final Cut 7 project file: 170KB
Large Project :
     Raw Data: approximately 135GB
     Capture Scratch: approximately 345GB
     Final Cut 7 project file: 11MB
The two editors are experiencing different level of lags and poor editing experience. The editors work off the remote volumes, they don't move the data (capture scratches) to their local drives when they are working on these projects.
I have a number of questions about to how approach this:
1. What are best practices for setting up -editor machines/volumes/etc?
2. What transfer/mount protocols should they use AFP/SMB/NFS ?
3. What software can I use to get benchmarks for read/write to the remote volumes ?
4. If we went to a 10Gig E network switch, should we upgrade the nic cards on the iMacs? should we use Fiber optic ? copper?
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks
Media@relay

Is this Synology volume rated for the high demands of video playback? Most generic servers companies employ for data isn't up to the rigors and speeds needed for video editing, especially two stations needing to access video at the same time. If you plan on having a server for video, you need to make sure it's fast enough for video work.
Both of those projects really have very little video data. Get 1TB drives for both stations and work off the media on them. FW800 at least...no USB2. USB3 is fine, if the computers have USB 3 connections. Thunderbolt is best, if they have those connections.

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3. I have iMovie HD, iMovie 09, and FCExpress (which I don't know how to use that well).
Then you need someone to provide you with QT files of this footage. None of them work with P2.
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9. I have read elsewhere in these forums, some people touting conversion software from a company in Germany - mfxformac. I am fine with paying for conversion software, but $500?
That software is to get it to work with Final CUt Pro natively. What it doesn't do is convert the footage to QTs. There is also Raylight and Calibrated...but again, they are for FCP.
P2 is a professional format, and to use it you need professional software. iMovie won't work...nor will FCE. If you need to work with it in those formats, you need to have someone import the files and convert them to AIC (Apple Intermediate Codec).
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