Some other suggestions for using sync.

Make sure the slave machines are running less layers. The sync slaving feature has a subtle latency and there is not reason to help make it worse.

Also, very important is to make sure file sharing is turned off. This should be the case anyway but when hooking machines together, it creates extra overhead.

Also try to only use one machine as a master. There are 20 sync IDs but if you keep it simple, you'll save time in the long run.

Keep your slave IDs logical. Typically I always make layer 1 sync ID 1 and so on. Also, since 16 layer of Catalyst can run on one machine, that eats up 16 sync IDs.

A little help from a programming perspective, it was always easier to build my preset palettes when I knew that one machine was always a slave. I just touched one preset every time I grabbed a layer and never had to worry about Inframe, Outframe, play mode, play speed, or anything else. It saved tons of time.