Recommend me a NAS Server?

JohnCleary

As the title says folks, there is so much choice, can anyone make a recommendation?

I used a Netgear ReadyNAS before and had nothing but trouble from it. Although that may be down to the 'eco' hard-drives I accidently purchased for it which didn't want to work with the NAS (ended up sending the lot back)

I don't need huge spec, a 2 bay with RAID 1 will suffice, that can take up to 2TB drives

DLNA is the only other thing that i'd want, think most are compatible these days regardless.

Suggestions much appreciated folks

LoGiE

I bought a QNAP TS-269 Prob last year and it's great. It also connects to my TV using HDMI so I can watch shows etc directly from the NAS. It's for SMB so might be outside of your budget but I also use it for Virtual Machine labs.

LoGiE

JohnCleary

Thanks for the info.

Yeah, a little over budget. Ideally I don't want to spend more than 450 euro (with 2 x 1TB drives)

I'll keep a lookout over the coming fortnight, but then I really need to get something

Alun

You can get a Synology DS214 from komplett.ie for a smidgin under €250. WD Red 1TB are €62.95 each, but you could get 2 x 2TB at €94.50 each and still be within your budget.

I have the 4-bay version, the DS414, and am very happy with it.

JohnCleary

Alun wrote: »

You can get a Synology DS214 from komplett.ie for a smidgin under €250. WD Red 1TB are €62.95 each, but you could get 2 x 2TB at €94.50 each and still be within your budget.

I have the 4-bay version, the DS414, and am very happy with it.

Thanks for that. I just want to get a NAS with some 'real' feedback - will give it a look

DieselPowered

Alun wrote: »

You can get a Synology DS214 from komplett.ie for a smidgin under €250. WD Red 1TB are €62.95 each, but you could get 2 x 2TB at €94.50 each and still be within your budget.I have the 4-bay version, the DS414, and am very happy with it.

I can second the Synology models also.

I've bought four of them this year for other people, two 2-bays and two 4-bays.

Just remember when you buy a NAS it might be a good idea to purchase a spare hard drive in case you have issues and you want to replace a failed HDD if you are going to set it up with Raid, in a couple of years time if one goes it might be harder then to purchase a similar spec'd HDD.

Alun

DieselPowered wrote: »

I can second the Synology models also.

I've bought four of them this year for other people, two 2-bays and two 4-bays.

Just remember when you buy a NAS it might be a good idea to purchase a spare hard drive in case you have issues and you want to replace a failed HDD if you are going to set it up with Raid, in a couple of years time if one goes it might be harder then to purchase a similar spec'd HDD.

If you use Synology Hybrid Raid (SHR) it's not that critical. As long as the replacement drive is as big as or bigger than the old one it's fine. You can also replace both drives with bigger ones, one at a time of course waiting for the replacement drive to rebuild.

oreillb

I was looking at the Synology DS214SE 2 Bay Desktop NAS on dabs.ie for €147 Does anyone know does this Nas device come with an 8TB drive?

Alun

oreillb wrote: »

I was looking at the Synology DS214SE 2 Bay Desktop NAS on dabs.ie for €147 Does anyone know does this Nas device come with an 8TB drive?

Generally they come with a 0TB drive

You'll have to add the drives yourself, and if you want to get 8TB, that'll mean 2x 4TB drives at approx €170 each (WD Red). You will, of course, get no redundancy at all with that configuration.

vibe666

or time travel about 3 or 4 years into the future and buy an 8TB drive when they have been invented, then time travel back and install it. :pac:

also, another vote for synology NAS's here, you really can't beat them.

i remember in 2009 when I got my first NAS (a 7 bay thecus with (initially) 4x 1.5tb drives) I was all excited and showing it off and one of the guys I worked with had a 1 bay synology NAS at the time and it basically pee'd all over mine in terms of usability and everything else too, except for raw speed.

my 2nd NAS was a home built freenas box with 8x 2tb drives and again i just spent my time trying to get things working that i felt should be included and work out of the box.

my 3rd NAS is a synology (12 bays with 7x4tb drives) and all i keep thinking about is how much time and money i wasted on the other NAS's when this one does everything you could possibly want and more right out of the box. EVERYTHING is easy, the OS is so polished and it all just works.

the one thing i know now is that (eventually) my 4th NAS will be a synology.

Issac

I'm in a similar position to the OP - I need advice on which NAS to get - hope you don't mind me piggy-backing!

My setup is:

TV (Pasasonic plasma - no DLNA)
l
Amp + Speakers
l l l
FreeSat ipod PS3&PS4

So I want a NAS that sits into this system

I would like to select a media file using my laptop / android phone and have that connect to my amp somehow, which will then play audio through the speakers and pass visuals onto the TV. The NAS will be used to store/share other types of data (documents etc.) as well.

Any suggestions? I like the interface of the Synology NAS drives previously mentioned but there's no HDMI out on these so how I would get the media to the amp may be a problem... also I'd like to get as high a quality as possible from and AV perspective.

Thanks in advance for any suggestions!

CptSternn

I have two of these:

http://www.dabs.ie/products/seagate-4tb-central-network-attached-storage-nas-8MY0.html

Under €200, 4 TB, accessible via your network, just drag and drop files to it like a USB and it has a built in DNLA server which I stream directly to my Smart TV. It does movies, music, and photos.

You also can set it up to access it remotely and stream files from it while on holiday or at a friends.

dr.fuzzenstein

Buffalo Linkstation Duo, it's a NAS and DLNA server with a foolproof Web interface. It also has a torrent client and you can configure access to your files from the internet.
http://www.elara.ie/products/harddisknet.aspx?available=checked&search=BUFFALO%20LinkStation%20Duo&gclid=CP3897eBs70CFYJe2wodHx4ARQ

Or build your own. I use a Raspberry Pi with an attached USB drive (granted, not RAID), using samba and miniDLNA, works flawlessly. It's not an out of the box solution, it will require a lot of configuring, but once it's up and running, no problem.
And I installed Transmission, so it downloads my torrents as well.
The advantage of the Pi over dedicated NAS solutions that work straight out of the box is versatility, if I don't want to use it as a NAS, I can turn it into anything I want.


**************REMEMBER*****************
RAID is NOT a backup!!!!!

Bladeserver

Synology are the business!!

You can get them populated from Amazon with WD RED drives! Up to 4TB. Deffo worth checking them out as they are designed to be used in NAS units! I have an Iomega and a Ditto and they are rubbish compared to the DS213 or 214 it is now (2014)...

vibe666

Bladeserver wrote: »

Synology are the business!!

You can get them populated from Amazon with WD RED drives! Up to 4TB. Deffo worth checking them out as they are designed to be used in NAS units! I have an Iomega and a Ditto and they are rubbish compared to the DS213 or 214 it is now (2014)...

I can't reiterate this enough, synology are the mutts nuts in the NAS world, nothing else even comes close.

There are plenty of good synology NAS's out there, but synology is the next level.

I'm just about to check the synology download station (on my phone) for new content in my rss feeds to download and browse my favourite torrent sites directly from the built in browser in the mobile version of the download station to send torrents directly to it.

I have a plugin for chrome on my laptop that is set up so that wherever I am, any time I click a torrent or magnet link, it sends it directly to my NAS regardless where i actually am, at home, in the office, at a hotel, anywhere.

Most NAS GUI's are like using a crusty old OS like Windows NT or a 10 year old version of Linux, or maybe at a push Windows 2k, but in a desktop browser, with synology you get a full up to date desktop OS within the browser to play with and perform all the NAS functions.

You just can't beat it, and it's a long term investment in your storage future that is well worth the price of admission.