Best sub-£400 NAS box?

Arterion · 24 Apr 2014 at 11:36

Hi all,

Was wondering if someone could help me decide on which four-bay NAS I should be looking at. I guess it's probably between the QNAP TS-421, ASUSTOR AS-304T and the Synology DS414...

Prices are similar, but wondering if anyone has experience which could suggest which is the best at this price point?

Cheers!

KIA · 24 Apr 2014 at 15:14

I prefer Synology.

stufflol · 24 Apr 2014 at 15:15

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=NW-018-SY&groupid=46&catid=2125&subcat=2127

Looks good

AStaley · 24 Apr 2014 at 16:01

Another vote for the Synology. DSM5 is great, love my DS214. If you haven't already got the disks I would suggest the WD RED's, performance is good and they are very reliable.

If you've not had a chance to look over DSM, check this; http://www.synology.com/en-us/products/dsm_livedemo

Nymins · 24 Apr 2014 at 16:56

I use an Asustor AS-302t and its great.

Uses an Intel Atom Dual Core CPU with 1GB ram, so much faster than most on the market (in its range), including the DS214 which still uses a Marvell CPU.

Loads of apps available. I use SABnzbd, VPN server, Transmission, XBMC on mine and its great. No sign of slow down.

Epoch · 2 May 2014 at 14:30

AStaley said:
Another vote for the Synology. DSM5 is great, love my DS214. If you haven't already got the disks I would suggest the WD RED's, performance is good and they are very reliable.

If you've not had a chance to look over DSM, check this; http://www.synology.com/en-us/products/dsm_livedemo

I've just purchased a DS214se with 2 WD REDs. What would the best RAID setting for storing media? Hybrid raid (which I don't really understand) or raid 1 (Worried about bit rot)?

Edit : Upset I didn't get my haribos

TheVoice · 2 May 2014 at 14:56

Synology stuff is great. I've also got a DS214se and it's great, the software is very powerful and Synology's additional support by way of Android apps etc is superb too.

There's plenty of officially-supported packages you can install but there's also a lot of unofficial ones:
http://www.synocommunity.com/packages

SC0TTRS · 2 May 2014 at 15:01

KIA said:
I prefer Synology.

I prefer QNAP.

FreeStream · 2 May 2014 at 18:38

Build your own.

Lots of NAS software available, higher performance, more customisable...

My original unraid build was £250 all in minus drives.

Buffalo2102 · 2 May 2014 at 19:51

Concorde Rules said:
Build your own.

Lots of NAS software available, higher performance, more customisable...

My original unraid build was £250 all in minus drives.

^^^
This. I had a Synology NAS for a couple of years but found it too CPU limited and was running out of capacity. Bought a HP micro server and initially installed Xpenology, which was great, but still somewhat limited. Then decided to build my own using all free software. It stores my data and media, is a DNLA/upnp server, does all my downloading, records TV and makes breakfast. Alright, not the last bit.

The server was less than £100 after cashback and I sold my Synology for about £70, so my "upgrade" cost me £30. Also cost a fair bit of my time but it was fun!

Wouldn't buy a ready-made NAS again now.

demon8991 · 3 May 2014 at 00:08

As suggested by many others, Synology would be my choice with 1-4 Western Digital Red 4TB drives in it.

YOUR BASKET
1 x Synology Diskstation DS414 4 Bay Gigabit Ethernet Network Attached Storage Enclosure £371.99
1 x Western Digital Caviar Red 4TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache WD40EFRX - OEM HDD £131.99
Total : £513.58 (includes shipping : £8.00).

abbotsmike · 3 May 2014 at 15:37

Buffalo2102 said:
^^^
This. I had a Synology NAS for a couple of years but found it too CPU limited and was running out of capacity. Bought a HP micro server and initially installed Xpenology, which was great, but still somewhat limited. Then decided to build my own using all free software. It stores my data and media, is a DNLA/upnp server, does all my downloading, records TV and makes breakfast. Alright, not the last bit.

The server was less than £100 after cashback and I sold my Synology for about £70, so my "upgrade" cost me £30. Also cost a fair bit of my time but it was fun!

Wouldn't buy a ready-made NAS again now.

What software are you running now? When I get round to it I'm torn between a free/linux based system or a full server 2012 build (which I get free as a student)

Buffalo2102 · 3 May 2014 at 20:27

abbotsmike said:
What software are you running now? When I get round to it I'm torn between a free/linux based system or a full server 2012 build (which I get free as a student)

I'm using Ubuntu server 12.04 headless with TVheadend, Sabnzbd, Couch Potato, Sickbeard and Universal Media Server. Not that simple to set up but there are plenty of guides out there and it's fun to do.
I have recently realised that I am now more comfortable with Linux terminal than with Windows command prompt. Never thought that would happen.

Steveocee · 3 May 2014 at 21:15

Another vote for the microserver.
I just set mine up, specced it to run ESXI (multi OS) but decided to go for a headless Ubuntu instead.
So far only got Plex, Samba and Webmin up and running but going to stick deluge on and see how it goes.

(I'm running mine 4x2TB Seagate drives in Linux RAID 10)

welshdragon · 4 May 2014 at 13:01

The Asustor AS-304T is tremendous value for money and going from strength to strength.

You can also hook it direct to your tv and use it as a HTPC

abbotsmike · 5 May 2014 at 01:10

Buffalo2102 said:
I'm using Ubuntu server 12.04 headless with TVheadend, Sabnzbd, Couch Potato, Sickbeard and Universal Media Server. Not that simple to set up but there are plenty of guides out there and it's fun to do.
I have recently realised that I am now more comfortable with Linux terminal than with Windows command prompt. Never thought that would happen.

I guess from that you are running it all from the command line? I've played around with command line ubuntu server, but always got annoyed/given up before I've gotten samba shares working fully (never managed to get them across XP and 7. XP not really a concern anymore though!

Buffalo2102 · 5 May 2014 at 06:41

abbotsmike said:
I guess from that you are running it all from the command line? I've played around with command line ubuntu server, but always got annoyed/given up before I've gotten samba shares working fully (never managed to get them across XP and 7. XP not really a concern anymore though!

Yes, I had a keyboard & monitor plugged into the server for the initial installation of Ubuntu but that was it. Everything else done command line using Putty from my Windows machine. I can also access it from my laptop, iPad and Android phone. You can have a desktop on the server if you want, just access it remotely using rdp or vnc instead.

I haven't had a problem with Samba at all but I don't use XP anymore either. As I said, there are plenty of good guides out there (and some poor ones) but the easiest way is probably to install Webmin on the server and set it up through that.

memyselfandi · 5 May 2014 at 06:52

QNAP or Synology personally (I tend to use the former). I've done the whole Linux server thing for many years, in fact my backup server is still running CentOS, but nowadays I prefer to have a small pre configured unit which just works.

abbotsmike · 5 May 2014 at 15:53

Buffalo2102 said:
Yes, I had a keyboard & monitor plugged into the server for the initial installation of Ubuntu but that was it. Everything else done command line using Putty from my Windows machine. I can also access it from my laptop, iPad and Android phone. You can have a desktop on the server if you want, just access it remotely using rdp or vnc instead.

I haven't had a problem with Samba at all but I don't use XP anymore either. As I said, there are plenty of good guides out there (and some poor ones) but the easiest way is probably to install Webmin on the server and set it up through that.

Cheers for that, I'll look into it. Headless Ubuntu is also much lighter than server 2012!

XP was the root of my problems, but I've not got anything running it anymore. Simplifies things!