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StarBlazer

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#940626 25-Nov-2013 20:22

I'm very happy with my Synology DS213J which can be picked up for under $350 - check Geekzone for prices

Very useful for backups from various devices and the media sharing capability. Buy today for only $171 from PB Tech!!! Bargain

Procrastination eventually pays off.

Yoban

453 posts

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#940662 25-Nov-2013 21:02

Hi all

Been looking at the ds213j, but thought I could freenas an old dell slimline (x-lease), but my catch is that any addition disk needs to be attached via the 4 USB ports externally.

Have seen similar done with Ubuntu zfs and USB disks.

Any alternative to attach disks with no internal space?

Yoban

chevrolux

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#940664 25-Nov-2013 21:04

StarBlazer: I'm very happy with my Synology DS213J which can be picked up for under $350 - check Geekzone for prices

Very useful for backups from various devices and the media sharing capability. Buy today for only $171 from PB Tech!!! Bargain

That would be a massive win.

I'm gonna go buy one now lol.... Worth it even to just put back on Trademe with drives in it 'ready to go'.

FKM

50 posts

Geek

#940696 25-Nov-2013 21:29

The Synology DS 213J does sounds like a deal at below $200.

So any 3.5" hard drives will fit into it, right? Any recommendations? WD is better than Seagate, right?

russelo

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#940731 25-Nov-2013 22:25

Man, you guys just made me bought one. Can't resist that half price.

Hammerer

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#940735 25-Nov-2013 22:39

Yoban: Hi all

Been looking at the ds213j, but thought I could freenas an old dell slimline (x-lease), but my catch is that any addition disk needs to be attached via the 4 USB ports externally.

Have seen similar done with Ubuntu zfs and USB disks.

Any alternative to attach disks with no internal space?

Yoban

Yes, there are options but they largely depend upon the computer features and what you want to do with it. FreeNAS is recommended to run from a USB stick so that frees up the existing drive in the PC for a start. You can also install FreeNAS to a USB stick without changing the current system. That allows you to check compatibility first.

If you're running ZFS or software RAID then RAM is important. FreeNAS recommends a lot of RAM even if you aren't running ZFS. If you don't have at least 2GB (4 is recommended for ZFS) then consider using NAS4Free, the old FreeNAS. if you can setup one then the other's not much different although ZFS setup was easier on FreeNAS last time I looked. On the old FreeNAS 5.? I was using ZFS with 256MB RAM and even 128MB at one stage. Not a problem even resilvering but I'm not sure what happens with the bigger drives nowadays.

I'd always look at internal drives first as performance is better. For example, I'm planning to use a desktop with 4 free SATA and 2 PATA in use to run 4 2.5" SATA drives in a 5.25" expansion chassis replacing the optical drive. I had looked at using an old SFF Compaq but it only had 2 SATA and I wanted 4 for ZFS with 2 disk redundancy. An expansion chassis with front access is only $60 including cables. Biggest costs is the drives but best price for 2.5" is about 12c a GB so $120 a TB or $60 or so for a much smaller drive. The 2.5" drives uses much less power and FreeNAS can run headless so I shouldn't have to upgrade the powersupply even if they were all 3.5" drives.

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SATTV

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#940741 25-Nov-2013 22:59

I just purchased one too,
The price is 1/2 that of my buy price at Dove.
I really wanted a QNAP but I can not belive this price.

John

I know enough to be dangerous

Yoban

453 posts

Ultimate Geek
+1 received by user: 86

#941060 26-Nov-2013 13:50

Hammerer:
Yoban: Hi all

Been looking at the ds213j, but thought I could freenas an old dell slimline (x-lease), but my catch is that any addition disk needs to be attached via the 4 USB ports externally.

Have seen similar done with Ubuntu zfs and USB disks.

Any alternative to attach disks with no internal space?

Yoban

Yes, there are options but they largely depend upon the computer features and what you want to do with it. FreeNAS is recommended to run from a USB stick so that frees up the existing drive in the PC for a start. You can also install FreeNAS to a USB stick without changing the current system. That allows you to check compatibility first.

If you're running ZFS or software RAID then RAM is important. FreeNAS recommends a lot of RAM even if you aren't running ZFS. If you don't have at least 2GB (4 is recommended for ZFS) then consider using NAS4Free, the old FreeNAS. if you can setup one then the other's not much different although ZFS setup was easier on FreeNAS last time I looked. On the old FreeNAS 5.? I was using ZFS with 256MB RAM and even 128MB at one stage. Not a problem even resilvering but I'm not sure what happens with the bigger drives nowadays.

I'd always look at internal drives first as performance is better. For example, I'm planning to use a desktop with 4 free SATA and 2 PATA in use to run 4 2.5" SATA drives in a 5.25" expansion chassis replacing the optical drive. I had looked at using an old SFF Compaq but it only had 2 SATA and I wanted 4 for ZFS with 2 disk redundancy. An expansion chassis with front access is only $60 including cables. Biggest costs is the drives but best price for 2.5" is about 12c a GB so $120 a TB or $60 or so for a much smaller drive. The 2.5" drives uses much less power and FreeNAS can run headless so I shouldn't have to upgrade the powersupply even if they were all 3.5" drives.

Thanks for that @Hammerer. Sounds like your project is what I am trying to do. I have Dell Optiplex G520 with 4Gb of RAM so will keep in mind that more is better. Had not thought about squeezing 2.5 in to 5.25 cage - do you have the link to the expansion chassis you are using. I will check the sata connetion tonight. I have 6 USB on the back.

Yoban

meesham

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#941072 26-Nov-2013 14:24

I recently expanded my storage and switched from WD Reds (2TBs) to Seagate NAS drives (4TBs), so far I've been pretty impressed (as in they are quiet and fast and basically just work). I went off Seagate for a few years after I had a couple of drives suffer from the click of death.

FKM

50 posts

Geek

#941174 26-Nov-2013 17:38

Got the Synology 213J and WD red.

btw, if I am not going to raid, is there any points to get WD red or other NAS design drives?

Hammerer

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#941244 26-Nov-2013 20:06

FKM: Got the Synology 213J and WD red.

btw, if I am not going to raid, is there any points to get WD red or other NAS design drives?

Better drive apart from being more expensive:

can get higher capacity
reliabillty - higher MTBF and can cope with higher g shock and higher temperature
same or more cache for equivalent size
lower power and quieter

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