NAS vs USB HDD

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wanwarlock

25 posts

Geek

#59585 7-Apr-2010 14:54

Hi all,

Not too sure if this is the right forum to post but here goes.

I'm looking to increase my data storage to >1Tb either with a NAS or usb hdd. I was going to go for a NAS but wondered what others think? Or should go for the usb and just share the drive in question on win vista? usb hdd is of course cheaper than NAS...

thanks all

ATinyChipmunk

138 posts

Master Geek

#315789 7-Apr-2010 15:34

The thing is with a NAS, you dont have to have your PC on, if your Gigabit its much faster than USB, other than that, its about it. you might have better security over a USB (could be wrong, if so someone correct me :))

sbiddle

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#315812 7-Apr-2010 16:56

It depends what you want the storage for, both are aimed at different markets.

If you want to be able to access the files from networked PC's a networked NAS is the best option. If you just require the files on a single PC the USB option is a lot cheaper.

Just be aware USB is very slow, certainly an enclosure with e-SATA is a far better option.

wanwarlock

25 posts

Geek

#315884 7-Apr-2010 20:38

thanks for the replies.

i plan to use it for my home network and share files/pics/media etc with my laptops so that everything is accessable. it's such a pain when i copy pics to my current usb drive (80GB which is almost full!) and hassle to transfer the hdd to my wife's laptop if she wants to view the pics.

i don't use bittorent as often now and i see that some NAS supports this ability which is a plus.

i'll probably go for a NAS then.

now, which one is ok? i saw the my world book from WD, seems a reasonable price. any recommendations?

sbiddle

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#315889 7-Apr-2010 20:44

wanwarlock: thanks for the replies.

i plan to use it for my home network and share files/pics/media etc with my laptops so that everything is accessable. it's such a pain when i copy pics to my current usb drive (80GB which is almost full!) and hassle to transfer the hdd to my wife's laptop if she wants to view the pics.

i don't use bittorent as often now and i see that some NAS supports this ability which is a plus.

i'll probably go for a NAS then.

now, which one is ok? i saw the my world book from WD, seems a reasonable price. any recommendations?

Best bet is to read the reviews online, network performance can vary significantly between brands.

richms

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#316010 8-Apr-2010 00:32

NAS may mean you need a different filesystem so you cant just pull the drive if the NAS itself fails. Also I have tried a couple of NAS's with gigabit ports, and the performance to be honest was complete $88t - multiple files copying at once and MP3 playback off it wouldnt even keep going, forget playing a movie while copying more onto it. Ideally you want to be able to use the USB ports on it for a normal drive that you can disconnect and take anywhere with you, that means NTFS, which not all will do.

I understand some of the later ones are getting half decent CPU in them which should help, but when advertised as being gigabit, I expect to see more than 150megabit when copying to or from it with just a single file, start a second and it would drop to about 80megabit.

If it has a upnp server in it to share media, keep in mind that it is a fundamentally braindead protocol which will share stuff with everyone, or noone.

For my purposes I need to have different access to different directories, some users read only so that the flatmates dont stuff up my music with itunes writing tags, and so they cant get into my personal backups or photos. No consumer NAS I looked at could do that so I just have a dinosaur computer running server 2003 sharing a few drives. The machine is so old that it needs replacement with something with newer things like "sata" and a CPU better than a P4 but it works just fine with what it has in it.

The consumer NAS market is like the router market 5-10 years ago - full over over promise and under deliver, sketchy firmware that locks up or causes data loss and many discontinued orphan products.

Richard rich.ms

VinLew

210 posts

Master Geek

#316811 10-Apr-2010 15:37

Would you be able to use a USB HDD + USB Networking Server? I think you can buy a USB Network Server from Jaycar, but I don't have a price atm. I wouldn't expect it to be very fast for read/write speeds though.

VST

3 posts

Wannabe Geek

#317267 12-Apr-2010 11:41

have a look at the Synology range

www.synology.com

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wanwarlock

25 posts

Geek

#317508 12-Apr-2010 20:51

thanks for the replies.

the synology range looks like it's out of my league. just looking for something cheaper...

i'm thinking of the wd my book world edition series. any body has one of these?

jaymz

1133 posts

Uber Geek

#317547 12-Apr-2010 22:16

I personally have a QNAP TS410 at home loaded with 1TB drives (but then I got a cheap deal through work)

Here is a comparison chart I saw about a year ago:
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/qnap-promise-co-world,2217.html

Basically, the cheaper you go the slower it will be (there are exceptions to the rule of course and it does depend on the speed of the drives)

How often will multiple people be viewing/accessing/copying data from the NAS? Is performance the main reason or is it storage. Answering these questions will help you choose the right NAS for your setup.

webwat

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#319757 17-Apr-2010 20:37

richms: I understand some of the later ones are getting half decent CPU in them which should help, but when advertised as being gigabit, I expect to see more than 150megabit when copying to or from it with just a single file, start a second and it would drop to about 80megabit.

If it has a upnp server in it to share media, keep in mind that it is a fundamentally braindead protocol which will share stuff with everyone, or noone.

maybe you can test whether the Gigabit performance improves after you set your lan to jumbo packets, eg 4096 bytes. I presume it happens automatically on a Gigabit switch, but can also be manually set on the properties for each network card. While less portable, you should be able to set security levels for individual users on a NAS, and it might even allow you to customise a variety of settings. Some of them are based on Linux using Samba server, so there are quite a variety of configuration options if the system lets you get into the configuration files.

I just finished setting up Samba on Ubuntu yesterday, so thats my NAS now :) You can build one more easily using FreeNAS -- http://freenas.org/freenas.

Time to find a new industry!

s540201

5 posts

Wannabe Geek
Inactive user

#319831 18-Apr-2010 08:50

Hi,

Here is my 2c..

USB is portable and plug-and-play, NAS is not and will burn a hole in your wallet. More so, the NAS requires some min networking know-how.

Your wife definitely knows how to plug in the USB and access the HDD content even when you are away..

Good luck.

wanwarlock

25 posts

Geek

#319984 18-Apr-2010 18:27

hi thanks for the replies

after doing a bit more googling, i'm thinking of getting the ac ryan playon hd - all in one for my purposes - NAS and to hook up to the tv. the reviews are good as well. from the research that i've done NAS are about $3++ and are just basically that, while this thing can be hooked up to the tv and play the movies that i've copied.

i was thinking of building but i want something compact and all in one.