Home NAS but no idea

So I need to set up a NAS system at home, predominantly to allow all my photos to be backed up to (and potentially viewed) and to have some films etc that could be streamed around the house. It doesn't particularly need any access from outside the home network, though that might be a bonus.

I currently back up my Mac to a TimeCapsule but need a load more space. It's been so long since I did anything like this I don't really know where I should be starting in terms of features and the like. I'm guessing a couple of hundred pounds would be sufficient for a home setup?

And that's before I even get into the concept of RAID setups which I haven't explored in some 10 years or so.

The other thought is to stick some external HDDs onto the TimeCapsule to extend the storage. I guess this doesn't add any redundancy to the system though?

Has anybody done this recently and found a simple, inexpensive all in one package?

Thanks

To keep it simple, have a look at Synology hardware. If you want redundancy then you'll need a minimum of a two disk setup. This is where "inexpensive" difficult to apply...

You could also look at a cloud backup. Google, Apple and Microsoft all offer relatively inexpensive cloud storage options.

I have so many cloud backup services throwing themselves at me but I was hoping for a local option as well.

Are you thinking this sort of thing? 4 Bay NAS Enclosure or this more simple one? 2 Bay NAS Enclosure

Do I need more HDDs to give more RAID options? Bearing in mind it's for a home network, what's the realistic RAID setup I need and consequently how many HDDs will I need then? Whilst they're all important family photos, it's not a super important family business. The World won't completely end if I lose them...!

Does something like this QNAP one or even this "entertainment" one offer me more options?

Edit: looking more like £300+ realistically..... So obviously next question, 2-4 reliable yet fast enough 2-3TB HDDs needed

I was looking for a cheap solution and opted for a 4TB WD My Cloud, its is a single drive unit so no redundancy. The redundancy isn't too much of an issue for me because I mirror it weekly to a usb HDD which I keep off site.

Synology is probably the best interface out there, but their hardware is very expensive for very little spec. I'd wait for the price of HP microservers to come back down in price and get one of them with xpenology on it

craig_t said:

Synology is probably the best interface out there, but their hardware is very expensive for very little spec. I'd wait for the price of HP microservers to come back down in price and get one of them with xpenology on it

Click to expand...

I'd echo the above but look at FreeNAS and Unraid as well for the software side.

I've run Synology for the last 2 years problem free, but like Craig says a bit overpriced.

Still a little unsure as to the brand I want for the NAS but also looking at the HDD manufacturer.

Most of the OcUK NASs offer the WD Red HDDs as part of a package. Are they the best? Obviously (perhaps) the most important feature is reliability so speed is a secondary feature - what's the best drive to get these days from this perspective? I'm assuming that the NAS manufacturer doesn't affect the drive you use, over and above the interface which is going to be pretty standard for the majority of NAS boxes? Quite a bit of love heading towards Hitachi and Toshiba....

I'd recommend the QNAP range, lower price and better spec than Synology. I've just gone from a Snyology to a QNAP and the interface and features are just as useable and powerful.

Eddie182 said:

I'd recommend the QNAP range, lower price and better spec than Synology. I've just gone from a Snyology to a QNAP and the interface and features are just as useable and powerful.

Click to expand...

Supposedly quite good them I've heard.


I'd recommend shopping round, Depending on what else you wish to do with it(now or in the future) might be better doing a DIY build

I managed to get a 4 bay enclosure with a GA-H97n-wifi/3220 cpu/4gb ram bundle for £280 . Just added 4x 3tb drives which made the total price a tad under £570.

In raid 5, formatted gave me 8.4TB to play with.
Have mine doing a lot more than basic NAS though so may be over kill for you munge.

pete910 said:

Supposedly quite good them I've heard.


I'd recommend shopping round, Depending on what else you wish to do with it(now or in the future) might be better doing a DIY build

I managed to get a 4 bay enclosure with a GA-H97n-wifi/3220 cpu/4gb ram bundle for £280 . Just added 4x 3tb drives which made the total price a tad under £570.

In raid 5, formatted gave me 8.4TB to play with.
Have mine doing a lot more than basic NAS though so may be over kill for you munge.

Click to expand...

Used to build and overclock PCs back in the day (remember single core CPUs??). Now can't be bothered, would rather, at least for something i'm going to want to use as a reliable backup, have a machine that is as bullet proof as possible. DIY jobs never seem to be quite that!

munge said:

Used to build and overclock PCs back in the day (remember single core CPUs??).

Click to expand...

I do miss them jumpers

munge said:

Now can't be bothered, would rather, at least for something i'm going to want to use as a reliable backup, have a machine that is as bullet proof as possible. DIY jobs never seem to be quite that!

Click to expand...

np, thought I'd suggest it though.

It's drives more than software I've found, If it's reliability then raid 5 is best bet tbh as you keep the redundancy whilst retaining some speed/space should a drive fail on you.

munge said:

Now can't be bothered, would rather, at least for something i'm going to want to use as a reliable backup, have a machine that is as bullet proof as possible. DIY jobs never seem to be quite that!

Click to expand...

I feel exactly the same way things like this now. Happy to build a PC, but for everything else I just want a reliable appliance that'll just do the job. The QNAP/Synology boxes are great for that.

Whichever you go with in the end, I'd advise a 4-bay variant if you can, they are much more flexible in the long term, even if you only use 1 or 2 drives in them to start with.

Go for something with a decent CPU though, it really does make a big difference to the performance. My old Synology DS212J could barely manage 30Mb/s write speeds, and it always made the network feel sluggish when accessing files.

In contrast the QNAP 415+I have now will max out the network all day long for both read and write, and I can have a backup running at the same time as streaming files with Plex, and accessing documents etc on the NAS and it doesn't even break a sweat. Not bad for £300 in my mind.

And I'm also so far out of the loop with what technology is doing I wouldn't even know where to start. Things have moved on a little form the Core2Duo height of technology when I was building... At least with something manufactured for the purpose, you know every bit of kit is guaranteed to play together nicely. I remember frequently with DIY builds there was always one bit that just didn't quite work happily even though it was supposed to.

My next door neighbours used to think I was building a world destroying robot due to the number of parcels I was having delivered, always striving for that faster PC

Id still go cloud for anything that you want to keep without failure.

Remember that raid systems and redundancy is great but heaven forbid something crazy happens like flooding or fire unless your grabbing your nas as your running for safety youl still lose your data

stuie said:

Id still go cloud for anything that you want to keep without failure.

Remember that raid systems and redundancy is great but heaven forbid something crazy happens like flooding or fire unless your grabbing your nas as your running for safety youl still lose your data

Click to expand...

True.

I'll be backing up everything to cloud like I used to do before I had 1Mbps internet, just wasn't worth the painful upload speeds, but now I've got fibre I'll do it again. To be honest, I'd completely forgotten about cloud backups having had such shoddy internet forever! All I need backing up are photos and some documents, everything else is replaceable.

If you're out of the loop just buy an off the shelf Synology and live with the lower speeds.

Synology would be my first pick but avoid the 'j' models - they are a joke for performance.

Had one bay QNAPS, 2 bay QNAPs and a 2 bay synology and now onto my 4bay 415+ - If you want something that just works and does a sterling job of it - Synology.

QNAP is quite good too - just not as polished as Synology.

Avoid the HP microservers - whilst they seem great for value spec wise - hardware spec isn't everything when it comes to a box thats going to be switched on 24/7. Also you need to faff with your own software on the HP boxes. They are more useful and suited to things like VM's etc - overkill for simple home NAS duties. A couple of my colleagues bought the HP's - they are regretting it and switching to Synology as I type.

hth.

craig_t said:

Synology is probably the best interface out there, but their hardware is very expensive for very little spec. I'd wait for the price of HP microservers to come back down in price and get one of them with xpenology on it

Click to expand...

This, assuming the OP has the correct technical knowledge and doesn't mind a little DIY. £110 for a reasonably powerful 4-bay NAS is incredible value for money.

Otherwise, I'd go down the Synology route.

KIA said:

This, assuming the OP has the correct technical knowledge and doesn't mind a little DIY. £110 for a reasonably powerful 4-bay NAS is incredible value for money.

Otherwise, I'd go down the Synology route.

Click to expand...

Happy to get my hands dirty if needed though like I said, a little out of the loop with current PC technology.

And fortunately, at that stage in life now where saving a hundred pounds here or there isn't the be all and end all, happy to pay a little extra for some convenience and to make my life easier.

It's probably going to be a toss up with 4-bay QNAP and Synology boxes for the shear convenience, thought the dormant geek in me looks at the HP boxes and thinks they could be fun....
Opinion does seem to be split between the two brands though, almost feels like one of those AMD vs Intel / Canon vs Nikon arguments; fundamentally they're both great and will do the job admirably but they also both have they're fans.

Likely end up with QNAP 453 or the Synology 415+ I think...