rgvWTK: NAS boxes

[rgvlee]

I've been hunting for a NAS box lately. I've read a thread recently that gave me a bit of insight as to whats out there and gave me a starting point but not a conclusive answer.

Scenario:

I want a central storage point for movies, TV, music, documents etc to serve up to upto 3-6 devices. Initially 2 of these will be HTPCs, 1 will be a netbook and 1 normal PC. Not counting other things like iPhones, ps3 etc. There will most likely be another HTPC added in the future. The house has 5e wiring and will have a gig router. Router will be wireless N for wireless devices. All HTPCs will be wired.

Streaming Full HD media to the HTPCs is my main focus. I need something that's going to be able to keep up in this regard. I haven't thought about recording TV to the NAS box, or even if it possible. Maybe via a share, I'm not sure if media center will allow it.

Being my first foray into NAS boxes I'm aiming at a 2 bay for now. The prices go up a bit when you go 4 bay and I am not sure that I will need it at the moment.

I've been looking at QNAP, Synology, Thecus and Netgear.

What I have found so far is that the dual core boxes tend to smoke the single core ones in write speed - double in most cases. Read speed seems to max out at about 100mb/s. Is the write speed really worth paying for? I would think that I'll be reading from this box more than writing to it.

OS's - QNAP/Synology/Thecus/Netgear - any comments on the management software? What's easy to use, plug in support etc?

Any rave reviews? Nath and Fez recommended the synology DS211J in another thread, I think though that it may be a little underpowered for what I want with the 1.2 CPU and 128mb ram. Advertised read/write speeds seem good for the price/spec though, it's really about $100 jump up from there to get big differences in advertised performance.

What about green drives in a NAS? I prefer WD over seagate, any recommendations for whats out there at the moment? I haven't had a WD go over the years but have had plenty of seagates go south.

[Nath]

More spindles = more performance, if you can stretch the budget go a 4 bay (just paid ~$500 for a DS411).

I only recommended the DS211J as a good entry level NAS, in saying that I'm only upgrading mine now for the extra capacity. The DJ211 would be adequate for most homes.

Synology software beats the QNAP hands down, not had any exposure to thee Thecus or Netgear.

I'm running green drives in my 211J and have another two here for my DS411 (which is currently in transit), if you want fast storage go direct attached, for NAS its likely you will not notice the difference (assuming you don't have specific requirements).

[Nath]

Some related links.

Performance Synology Inc. Network Attached Storage - NEW NAS Experience

DiskStation Manager 3.2 Beyond NAS server operating system Synology Inc. Network Attached Storage NEW NAS Experience

[busa_bloke]

If you have an old computer tucked away try FreeNAS.

It's a free version of FreeBSD that is customised to do this exact job.
I'll be setting up one on an old laptop this week as an experiment, using USB drives.

FreeNAS - Browse Files at SourceForge.net is where you can download it.

[Captain Starfish]

Oh good, Buffalo aren't on your list.

I bought one a few months ago - mirrored RAID, did most things I want.

BUT...

The RAID shits itself on a fortnightly basis and I have to rebuild it. Craps out when the (wireless) network gets busy copying files from my computer. Absolutely destroys itself with Transmission torrents. Oh, the torrent client on there only saves to a root directory: you can't organise your shit as you set up the downloads. In fact the whole web interface is a pile of crap which is a shame, because it's the ONLY interface: no ssh/telnet/ftp access to speak of unless you re-flash it with some open source O/S in which case you may as well buy a PC and use that.

Time will come before long that I give it the arse in favour of a QNAP box. If I was using them for anything but holding old copies of Buffy and Stargate I would have pissed it off ages ago.

Samsung 2TB drives in there coz they were cheap and they format/test just fine everytime the box shits out. Repeat: the drives are fine, the box they're in kinda sucks.

So, when you're looking at eBay and these things appear: don't be tempted. Just don't.

[remand]

Synology ds211j.

Does is all and does it well.

[D'Artagnan]

We use and are happy with the WD World Book Edition II but the other option is Open Filer. Free like FreeNAS.

[lee]

oooo mint, i was looking for something with online raid expansion that wasn't bullshit expensive and underspecced like qnap/drobo. those synology things look the biz. are all the software addons you can download free?

friends don't let friends build freenas boxes either. fkn pains in the neck.

[Ferris]

Yeah,all the addons are free. Also, there's a few 3rd party apps you can install too. FWIW, these things really don't need a lot of grunt. They're nothing but fancy file servers. The only thing that will bog one of these things down is running it as a fully fledged mailserver, and a sabnzbd+ box. And aside from the sluggish response from say, loading a Sab page, there's nothing to actually use the mild cpu anyway. I'll have slow Sab page refreshes but still full transfer speed up and down at the same time.

I've got 3 Synology NAS now, 2 2-bay and 1 4-bay and I won't recommend anything else. Their software is truly truly without compare. Hardware specs wise, different story, but yeah, their software is really a pleasure to use.

[lee]

Transcoding with DLNA can be a bit cpu intensive though, I imagine with a smaller ARM processor it'd be a reasonable amount of work?

[busa_bloke]

friends don't let friends build freenas boxes either. fkn pains in the neck.

Care to elaborate, using your experience? When was your experience with FreeNAS? Has the interface and installation improved since then?
I can't say it's great, because I haven't tried it yet. Have you?
But given the price, for me it's worth a try. After all, the commercial NAS boxes are probably using a BSD or Linux of some description underneath.

And didn't you say something similar about Linux some time before?

[Nifty]

I considered a NAS but friends who had tried some said they were crap, so I just bought a Raid 5 card and racked up 4 x 2 Tb drives in My Medica Centre PC. It's great having everything centrally stored instead of on 6 external drives.

[Captain Starfish]

I'll just put it out there for those thinking of FreeNAS: in spite of the fact that you could get something going with some shitty old 286 your uncle gave to you and you've had sitting under the tree out the back patiently waiting for the day you build that trebuchet: there's something quite nice about a very small, discreet and silent box sitting there serving your gear rather than turning your loungeroom or study into something whose background noise resembles a Rolls Royce turbine test facility.

[rgvlee]

I've done the *nix cheap central file server in the past, many times. Sure it's nerd cool but I just don't have the time to muck about with them nor do I have any old PC hardware banging about. I really want something I can plug in, do the bulk setup in a couple of hours and then leave it sit there fat dumb and happy.

Funnily enough noise isn't too much of an issue as it will be in a broom cupboard (more like a server cupboard with all the ethernet points in it).

How does the low end/budget synology stuff go with serving up Full HD mkvs/HD avis to multiple HTPCs? I would have thought media server on the HTPC will do the decoding so we're just talking file transfer performance. When looking at the budget synology units the CPU seems OK it's just the RAM that's really low compared to some of the other stuff. Is it worth spending a bit more, instead of the DS211J going for the DS211?

I'm going to stick to a 2 bay for now, it's a cost decision. If I like the concept I'll go bigger as the need arises. What RAID are you running? RAID 0? I would imagine it's better than JBOD. It's my intention to back up to an external caddy so the RAID config for me would be for performance.

As has been pointed out the synology management software is what is really pointing me towards them. A lot of people give it the thumbs up. If their hardware was a bit better I wouldn't even be asking the question.

[Desmo]

If a Thecus is on your list and in your budget, buy one.

[Nath]

I've done the *nix cheap central file server in the past, many times. Sure it's nerd cool but I just don't have the time to muck about with them nor do I have any old PC hardware banging about. I really want something I can plug in, do the bulk setup in a couple of hours and then leave it sit there fat dumb and happy.

This really can't be overstated.

How does the low end/budget synology stuff go with serving up Full HD mkvs/HD avis to multiple HTPCs? I would have thought media server on the HTPC will do the decoding so we're just talking file transfer performance. When looking at the budget synology units the CPU seems OK it's just the RAM that's really low compared to some of the other stuff. Is it worth spending a bit more, instead of the DS211J going for the DS211?

My DS211J will serve up 720mkv's to my WDTV over wireless no problems at all, I can even get a second stream going to the mac (over GigE). If you want to enable many of the features you will be really wishing you had spent the extra for the DS211, its really not designed for multiple intensive operations.

I'm going to stick to a 2 bay for now, it's a cost decision. If I like the concept I'll go bigger as the need arises. What RAID are you running? RAID 0? I would imagine it's better than JBOD. It's my intention to back up to an external caddy so the RAID config for me would be for performance.

Most of the units mentioned make this really easy, move the drives to a bigger box, add some new disks and migrate RAID levels via point and click. Based on the performance data there is a ~20% difference in performance from the low to the mid-range models, if you are going for speed then its probably worth it.

As has been pointed out the synology management software is what is really pointing me towards them. A lot of people give it the thumbs up. If their hardware was a bit better I wouldn't even be asking the question.

Have you heard anything particularly bad about the hardware ? I haven't seen any huge failure rates, the build quality seems on par with just about everything else out of Taiwan in this space, In my opinion you will be replacing drives before you have any issues with the storage hardware. I haven't seen any of the suggested brands/models with a huge Australian presence/support infrastructure with the exception of Netgear but with the reputation their typical consumer hardware had I would be hesitant to go that route. Either way I think you will be relying on the quality of your re-seller should a problem arise.

[lee]

Suggested resellers plox?

[Nath]

If you or anyone want a DS211J I'll be getting rid of mine when its replacement shows up.

i just looked at staticice for a reputable company that was cheap taking into account shipping....

[rgvlee]

pccasegear seems OK on price for the brands mentioned.

Desmo, there is a thecus that is in the budget - n2200xxx - not sure what I think of them. They don't seem as polished as the others iykwim.

Nath, hardware wise I am talking about spec, CPU and RAM specifically. The budget ones have very little RAM, I'm not sure how badly that affects performance though. From what you are saying though the DS211J would be fine for a 1 HTPC over gig eth but would struggle with more... and going for the DS211 would be a better bet.

[Nath]

pccasegear seems OK on price for the brands mentioned.

Desmo, there is a thecus that is in the budget - n2200xxx - not sure what I think of them. They don't seem as polished as the others iykwim.

Nath, hardware wise I am talking about spec, CPU and RAM specifically. The budget ones have very little RAM, I'm not sure how badly that affects performance though. From what you are saying though the DS211J would be fine for a 1 HTPC over gig but would struggle with more... and going for the DS211 would be a better bet.

pccasegear - just check the shipping, for me it was double other options.

I have heard good things about the Thecus, but am of the impression they are a bit behind the more popular manufacturers with their current releases.

Yep - Highly recommend going the non budget version.