Best NAS Option

MiniNukinfuts

I've been debating for weeks now whether I should buy a NAS (Synology DS212j) or make myself one from scratch.

I'm basically looking for a NAS that I can store my files on, my blurays, and stream them to my devices in full 1080p.

I'm looking for past experiences, have people ever run into trouble with streaming 1080p from a NAS. I'll be running ethernet cables so I won't be going wireless.

Should I buy the NAS I linked, or make my own one?

vibe666

if i was buying a ready built NAS, I'd be going with Synology, they are by far the best choice IMHO, followed by QNAP & Netgear, or Thecus, but only if you want to see how bad a NAS can be.

you could build your own, or buy something like the HP microserver (check out the bargain alerts thread for heaps of info on it and a cashback offer).

OS wise, you have Windows Home Server, many flavours of linux, or a purpose built NAS OS like freeNAS, openfiler, unRAID and more.

Personally I went with freeNAS because it suits my needs best, but you'll need to look into each OS and decide what's best for your requirements.

MiniNukinfuts

Thanks for the reply, I think I might just go with the DS212j so. It seems to tick all my boxes, I'll end up spending the same if not more for my own custom build/ a HP Microserver.

silvine

I had the HP Microserver and I sold it and bough the Synology. It's smaller, quieter and easier to set up than UNRAID. I'd recommend getting the DS212 over the DS212J. It's noticeably faster.

MiniNukinfuts

silvine wrote: »

I had the HP Microserver and I sold it and bough the Synology. It's smaller, quieter and easier to set up than UNRAID. I'd recommend getting the DS212 over the DS212J. It's noticeably faster.

Thanks, I've read a few reviews and the DS212 looks to be much better. I think it'd be work the extra bit of money in the long run.

Wcool

silvine wrote: »

I had the HP Microserver and I sold it and bough the Synology. It's smaller, quieter and easier to set up than UNRAID. I'd recommend getting the DS212 over the DS212J. It's noticeably faster.

I am bit surprised that you did this, the HP microserver is faster, has more room for extra disks and can do a lot more for about the same price. It's not too loud and big nor too energy consuming compared to any NAS. Once you've set the server up you don't have to look after it anymore, just like a NAS.

Was it only size, noise and comfort, that made you decide to go for a NAS?
I used to have 2 NAS drives and made the opposite move, never a NAS again, it's just too inflexible.

silvine

Wcool wrote: »

silvine wrote: »

I had the HP Microserver and I sold it and bough the Synology. It's smaller, quieter and easier to set up than UNRAID. I'd recommend getting the DS212 over the DS212J. It's noticeably faster.

I am bit surprised that you did this, the HP microserver is faster, has more room for extra disks and can do a lot more for about the same price. It's not too loud and big nor too energy consuming compared to any NAS. Once you've set the server up you don't have to look after it anymore, just like a NAS.

Was it only size, noise and comfort, that made you decide to go for a NAS?
I used to have 2 NAS drives and made the opposite move, never a NAS again, it's just too inflexible.

I set up The HP Microserver in my sitting room and I found it a bit too bulky for my HTPC setup. The fan was also noticeably noisy (granted it would be fine for a closet ). I also found unraid a pain to setup. That said once I got it working it looked effective and yes it's a really upgradable device.

It took me 20 mins to install sabnzbd , sickbeard an couch potato on my Synology device and it requires no
Maintenance and is really quiet. I can also control it with my iPhone with the official apps and from any PC. I use it for
Media for my htpc and to stream music to my phone. That said I know it's not as ugradable or powerful as the HP machine.

The synology is great for plug and play users and the microserver is better for those who need more flexibility or for those who like to to tinker.

I wanted a nas that just worked and found the DS212+ to the best piece of kit I've bought in a long time.

liamf

I have a QNAP TS-410

http://web.qnap.com/pro_detail_feature.asp?p_id=134

To be perfectly honest, despite the fact that it is running just fine, and has a lot of very nice s/w pre-baked into it and a very nice web interface, I would not recommend one to a non Linux expert.

I run MySQL on it, using it as the db server for XBMC boxes in the house, and the media server, and shared folders for the XBMC units, and backup for main family PC. My XBMC units are diskless.

However, I had a disk fail in it, and the QNAP misdiagnosed the failure, flagged the incorrect disk as failing, and it took a pretty serious nerd level to recover from this without losing all the data on the RAID array.

On that basis I'd look to the Synology units ...

I looked into building one at the time: I could not match the price point of the QNAP going the build-my-own route, and I wanted something with a small form factor, with efficient power usage. So buying one was the way to go for me.

In fairness for stock hardware items (like a 4-bay NAS), IMO it is pretty much impossible to match the price point of off-the-shelf mass produced purpose built hardware.

By all means look into building something, if you want to learn from it, or build a multipurpose system (i.e. something which can do media playback, and not just storage/streaming). But if you shop around, you'll find a purpose built NAS/streaming box for cheaper than you can assemble one, once you take the cost of ownership and power consumption into account.

Synology: excellent choice.

MiniNukinfuts

So I'll get the DS212+. All I need now is a HDD, I'm looking at the new WD Red NAS drives. Anyone have any recommendations/ opinions they'd like to share?

silvine

MiniNukinfuts wrote: »

So I'll get the DS212+. All I need now is a HDD, I'm looking at the new WD Red NAS drives. Anyone have any recommendations/ opinions they'd like to share?

I have x2 2tb Caviar Green. They're nice and quiet. Kind of sorry I didn't save for the 3tb drives though.

MiniNukinfuts

silvine wrote: »

I have x2 2tb Caviar Green. They're nice and quiet. Kind of sorry I didn't save for the 3tb drives though.

I was planning on getting x1 2TB drive for the time being, and if I needed, I'd get a 3TB in the future. Would I be better off sticking to x2 of the same HDD?

silvine

Well that's what I did but I think the Synology can use any HDD. There's a calculator for HDD sizes (and a list of supported drives) on their website.

vibe666

i had 5x 1.5tb samsiung spinpoints in my previous NAS for about 3 years and they're all still in use today (albeit elsewhere) and i've since put 8x 2tb spinpoints in my new NAS around June last year and they're all still going grand, they're not too noisy and performance is good, so feel free to take that as an endorsement.

liamf

MiniNukinfuts wrote: »

I was planning on getting x1 2TB drive for the time being, and if I needed, I'd get a 3TB in the future. Would I be better off sticking to x2 of the same HDD?

Of course you realise that 1x any sort of HDD is just a drive failure and utter and complete data loss waiting to happen, unless you have a backup strategy.

One of the main reasons for getting a NAS is that it will have built-in RAID support which will protect against a drive failure.

If you don't care about that (and there are reasons why you might not, of course), you might as well get a cheap SATA dock and stick the disk into a USB port someplace :-)

MiniNukinfuts

liamf wrote: »

Of course you realise that 1x any sort of HDD is just a drive failure and utter and complete data loss waiting to happen, unless you have a backup strategy.

One of the main reasons for getting a NAS is that it will have built-in RAID support which will protect against a drive failure.

If you don't care about that (and there are reasons why you might not, of course), you might as well get a cheap SATA dock and stick the disk into a USB port someplace :-)

Well, I hadn't taken that into account. Thanks. I suppose i'd get x2 3TB drives. This still would only allow me to have 3tb storage right? While the other 3tb is for the backup of the backup?

liamf

MiniNukinfuts wrote: »

Well, I hadn't taken that into account. Thanks. I suppose i'd get x2 3TB drives. This still would only allow me to have 3tb storage right? While the other 3tb is for the backup of the backup?

With a 2-drive bay, yes, your only RAID option which provides redundancy is RAID-1 which just mirrors one drive onto the other. So you have 2x 3TB disks, but only 3TB of "usable" storage.

With a larger (e.g. 4-drive unit) you have other options, RAID-5 being the most popular. In that case you'd use 1 drive for parity, so you have 75% of the nominal total capacity of your 4 drives available.

vibe666

liamf wrote: »

So you have 2x 3TB disks, but only 3TB of "usable" storage.

not to be pedantic (okay, yes i'm being pedantic!:o), but it's actually only about 2.72tb on a 3tb drive once it's formatted.

just if you're trying to work out what you actually need size wise, that 230gb you won't get could make all the difference.

chahop

Opinions appreciated

Hope its ok to jump in here, seriouslly thinking of getting a Syncology DS411 of DS411J as I need a raid setup and my current 2td external HD is nearly full.

I currently have a E machines 1401 hooked up to my tv with a 2 tb external hd full of downloaded tv shows and movies, playing through xbmc.

So I want more storage, network attached and protection from disc failure and I want to be able to add to it as I go.

Would it be best to buy a ds411 + 2* 3th hds and would it then be possible to put the 2 new hds into this on setup then transfer the data from the 2tb external drive to the nas and then take the old drive out of its case and use it as a 3rd hd in the nas.
I guess what I'm asking is it just as easy as popping in an additional drive and the nas adding this to the raid array or is it best to set these up with the max storage to begin with.

Thank's for reading if you have any other ideas i'm open to suggestions.

MiniNukinfuts

Was just about to order the DS212+ today when I saw this device. What are people's opinions on these? Seeing this has got me thinking, do I really need all those features that the 212+ has? What would be the advantages of buying the DS212+ over the one linked? Thanks

silvine

MiniNukinfuts wrote: »

Was just about to order the DS212+ today when I saw this device. What are people's opinions on these? Seeing this has got me thinking, do I really need all those features that the 212+ has? What would be the advantages of buying the DS212+ over the one linked? Thanks

Well you can run Sabnzbd, Transmission, Sickbeard, Couchpotato, Transmission, an iTunes Server, Time Machine and a host of other apps on your Synology. It also has USB3.0. You can access it remotely and control it with iOS and Android apps and stream music to your phone over the net. It's easy to use and the software is rock solid (there's plenty of videos on YouTube). You can also install up to 6GB of HDD and it supports RAID and an expansion array.

As far as I can see the device you've listed only runs a torrent client and supports media streaming. It appears to have less features and less space and less redundancy. I guess it's down to what's most important to you. Granted, it's cheaper but sometimes quality is worth paying extra for.

If you want to save money, I'd opt for the HP Microserver over the device you've listed here.