Well past time I got NAS'd at home. Thoughts?

Forums › Home Theatre (including HTPC and EPG Collector) › Well past time I got NAS'd at home. Thoughts?

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#864391 23-Jul-2013 16:08

Qnap is decent but in my experience the Synology software/firmware is better.

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Snowflake

#864403 23-Jul-2013 16:16

NZtechfreak:
Regs: my thoughts? use the DEL key instead of hoarding ;)

I would, if only I weren't so gosh darn attached to all these pictures and video of my family.

lol. 12TB is a *lot* of family pictures and videos :)

I thought the 100GB of HD Video (around 1000 clips) and 100GB of photos (around 35,000) was a lot... i have a couple of 1TB drives mirrored in my PC, plus a cloud sync backup in place for these.

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Amosnz

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#864435 23-Jul-2013 16:31

I have a Qnap TS-419PII that I ended up buying in Aussie on a trip over as the exchange rate was much more favourable. Its an ARM based cpu but does everything I need it to.
Version 4 of the OS is much prettier to look at than the previous versions.

Speedtest

jarledb

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#864560 23-Jul-2013 19:15

davidcole:
jarledb:
+1 for Synology. Have the DS-1512+ and couldn't be happier with it.

Are these ARm based or the Intel based ones?

I do believe its Intel, Dual core 2,13 Ghz with 1 GB of RAM

Full specs here: http://www.synology.com/products/spec.php?product_name=DS1512%2B&lang=us#p_submenu

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afe66

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#864659 23-Jul-2013 21:14

I've got a synology 412+ with two 3 TB drives leaving two bays spare for later.
Running Plex media server on it to W7, Ubuntu, iPad, raspberry Pi. Also access photos, music to Sonos system, download/BitTorrent server.

More features than I understand but exploring options interesting. Next thing to master is the VPN server.

No regrets about purchase at all.

A.

JimmyH

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#864705 23-Jul-2013 22:04

So far I've narrowed my likely choice down to either a QNAP TS-412 (4-bay) or a Thecus N7700 (7-bay). Likely not until Christmas tho' and after I have upgraded my main PC. The constraints are more time than financial.

On balance, probably the Thecus with 4 of the 7 bays populated initially, and the other three providing headroom for growth. The Thecus isn't as "nice" as the Synology boxes, but seems the best value for that sort of capacity. Planned use is mainly media storage (music and films) plus backups of desktop and laptop systems. Would be nice to have my CD/DVD collection all in a big networked pool, rather than having to rat through piles of cases to find what I want to watch.

Spinynorman

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#864736 23-Jul-2013 23:03

I have a Synology DS412+. It's the 3rd 4-bay Synology I've owned after a 407+ and a 409+. They're great devices and have the best management interface (UI) and mobile support for NAS devices available.

Some things to consider with the Synology range:
-If you want to run Plex etc, get the + models which have the extra grunt;
-The mangement UI, Disk Station Manager is updated quite regularly and support lasts for approx 3 years. The current beta version (4.3) drops support for the 409+ device. So we have been replacing ours each 3 years or so (which is really easy to do - just swap the discs);
- There are some really good 3rd party apps available on dev community sites. You can look them up yourself;
- Don't forget to buy a UPS, especially if you're in Wellington at the moment. I have an APC ES-700 which performed admirably during the storm a few weeks ago.

I'm sure more things will come up. Enjoy!

macuser

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#864737 23-Jul-2013 23:06

Is adding a UPS to these devices essential? I have a photography studio and the power is a bit shaky at points, my workstation is a big ol laptop so a power failure wouldn't mess that up but I'm guessing a NAS losing power could be painful?

Actually have a couple more questions

Am I able to use wifi for internet and have a ethernet cable from my PC directly into my NAS? (Windows 8)

What will adding ram actually do? Faster transfer speeds?

Amosnz

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#864738 23-Jul-2013 23:12

- Don't forget to buy a UPS, especially if you're in Wellington at the moment. I have an APC ES-700 which performed admirably during the storm a few weeks ago.

+1 for the ES-700 too.
Automatic detection on the QNAP, gives the NAS an estimated uptime of 55mins but I've got it set to shutdown automatically after 10mins.
It also powers my router and I'd rather my internet\wireless stayed up longer.

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NZtechfreak

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#864739 23-Jul-2013 23:17

JimmyH: So far I've narrowed my likely choice down to either a QNAP TS-412 (4-bay) or a Thecus N7700 (7-bay). Likely not until Christmas tho' and after I have upgraded my main PC. The constraints are more time than financial.

On balance, probably the Thecus with 4 of the 7 bays populated initially, and the other three providing headroom for growth. The Thecus isn't as "nice" as the Synology boxes, but seems the best value for that sort of capacity. Planned use is mainly media storage (music and films) plus backups of desktop and laptop systems. Would be nice to have my CD/DVD collection all in a big networked pool, rather than having to rat through piles of cases to find what I want to watch.

Thecus units seem great, very highly regarded with good performance and offering HDMI output which is not insignificant for me (the reason I am still considering them with the Synology).

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NZtechfreak

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#864742 23-Jul-2013 23:21

Regs:
NZtechfreak:
Regs: my thoughts? use the DEL key instead of hoarding ;)

I would, if only I weren't so gosh darn attached to all these pictures and video of my family.

lol. 12TB is a *lot* of family pictures and videos :)

I thought the 100GB of HD Video (around 1000 clips) and 100GB of photos (around 35,000) was a lot... i have a couple of 1TB drives mirrored in my PC, plus a cloud sync backup in place for these.

I have a big media library, god knows how many DVDs, growing collection of bluerays, all of which are much more convenient in electronic form. They're stored on several drives and probably total 3TB. My music collection is approaching 150GB too. Family photos and videos must be at least half a terrabyte. To have all of that with redundancy for the important stuff and some room to grow... 12TB seems adequate for the medium term.

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kiwitrc

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#864774 24-Jul-2013 06:09

NZtechfreak:
Regs:
NZtechfreak:
Regs: my thoughts? use the DEL key instead of hoarding ;)

I would, if only I weren't so gosh darn attached to all these pictures and video of my family.

lol. 12TB is a *lot* of family pictures and videos :)

I thought the 100GB of HD Video (around 1000 clips) and 100GB of photos (around 35,000) was a lot... i have a couple of 1TB drives mirrored in my PC, plus a cloud sync backup in place for these.

I have a big media library, god knows how many DVDs, growing collection of bluerays, all of which are much more convenient in electronic form. They're stored on several drives and probably total 3TB. My music collection is approaching 150GB too. Family photos and videos must be at least half a terrabyte. To have all of that with redundancy for the important stuff and some room to grow... 12TB seems adequate for the medium term.

Are you planning on mirroring or using all 12Gb?

jarledb

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#864809 24-Jul-2013 08:44

kiwitrc:
Are you planning on mirroring or using all 12Gb?

With 4 x 3 TB disks you could stripe it (RAID 0). That would give you a full disaster if one of the disks fails, but gives you a very quick big disk. And even then you are not getting 4 x 3 TB in usable space.

Using it as a traditional NAS you would set it up with RAID 5, that would allow you one disk to die without any loss of data. But that will give you even less space than RAID 0. But its well worth it for the extra security if you ask me.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAID#RAID_5

kiwitrc

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#864829 24-Jul-2013 08:56

jarledb:
kiwitrc:
Are you planning on mirroring or using all 12Gb?

With 4 x 3 TB disks you could stripe it (RAID 0). That would give you a full disaster if one of the disks fails, but gives you a very quick big disk. And even then you are not getting 4 x 3 TB in usable space.

Using it as a traditional NAS you would set it up with RAID 5, that would allow you one disk to die without any loss of data. But that will give you even less space than RAID 0. But its well worth it for the extra security if you ask me.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAID#RAID_5

Thanks!

keepitwarm

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#864897 24-Jul-2013 10:50

+1 Synology, use their SHR ( synology hybrid raid) its similar to Raid 5 but squeezes a bit more useful space. Got mine of amazon, was heaps
cheaper even with import tax on top, its been running everyday for years, and as above the firmware and apps keeps improving and has good
community base and support, and 3 year warranty.

.............................................................

simple logic.

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