Spec me a NAS

Marakith

Marakith

Marakith

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Joined
22 Nov 2004
Posts
441
Location
London
Hello,

My QNAP TS-209 is giving up the ghost.

I'm looking for a new NAS solution that will:
  • Upgrade easily (software/ firmware)
  • Stream to Plex or Kodi and to an internet radio
  • Automatically back itself up to a cloud storage account
  • Support big disks in RAID (I'll probably go for 6TB

Price is important, but since this is something I'll do every 8-10 years or so I'm willing to be generous.

Can anyone recommend a good setup? I've been looking at Synology and HP but can't really decide.

Thanks!
 
Both good. Why wouldn't you choose a QNAP again? I'm currently reviewing a QNAP TS 453 Mini. Extremely powerful. Not long reviewed the Asustor 5102T, similar spec and very powerful.
 
We have been using a Synology 1813+ at work for the last 2 Years - absolutely faultless

Marakith said:
[*]Upgrade easily (software/ firmware)
Click to expand...

Our Synology auto updates, and just emails when it is about to do it

Marakith said:
[*]Stream to Plex or Kodi and to an internet radio
Click to expand...

Synology have a proper Plex app - no idea on Kodi though

Marakith said:
[*]Automatically back itself up to a cloud storage account
Click to expand...

Several native apps for backing up, including Cloud Sync that will do Google Drive or Dropbox, as well as a native app for Amazon Glacier and several others.

Marakith said:
[*]Support big disks in RAID (I'll probably go for 6TB
Click to expand...

Not looked, but sure they will do


Marakith said:
Price is important, but since this is something I'll do every 8-10 years or so I'm willing to be generous.
Click to expand...

Would happily buy Synology again, and more than happy to pay a price premium, as it "just works".
 
I agree with all the above, you will not go wrong with Synology. The QNAP and ASUSTOR have, depending on model HDMI out which basically turns your nas into a media pc with a KODI app. The ASUSTOR's have that feature on all but the lowest too. They also both have plex apps.

They all feature cloud backup's,easy software upgrades etc.
 
I have the new Synology 1515+ it is utterly amazing and I will probably never use another brand.

Fantastic OS, great applications especially Plex which is unbelievably good.

The iOS Apps are fantastic too.
 
Marakith said:
I probably only need 2 bays (in RAID for safety) - will this do?

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HD-064-SY
Click to expand...

It will certainly do, but you mentioned 6TB - I can't help thinking thats a lot of data to put on a single disk (even if mirrored)

Might be better to go for say a 1515 (https://www.synology.com/en-uk/products/DS1515), and 4x 3TB Drives, in either RAID10 or RAID6 (RAID6 would give you the option to add another drive and expand the array or add a SSD cache if required.

The 1515 costs about £500, but 4x 3TB drives would be ~£380 vs £420 for 2x 6TB drives - and as you say the NAS is something you are looking at keeping for 8-10 years.
 
I've went from Synology to a Qnap TS 451. It's easy to setup and it has 7.1 channel through HDMI. Kodi is installed :)
 
Marakith said:
I probably only need 2 bays (in RAID for safety) - will this do?

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HD-064-SY
Click to expand...

If you have your heart set on a two bay unit then I would skip the 1214+ and go for the 1215+ (not stocked OcUK currently) as the 1215+ is the 2015 model whereas the 1214+ is the 2014 model.

Armageus said:
It will certainly do, but you mentioned 6TB - I can't help thinking thats a lot of data to put on a single disk (even if mirrored)

Might be better to go for say a 1515 (https://www.synology.com/en-uk/products/DS1515), and 4x 3TB Drives, in either RAID10 or RAID6 (RAID6 would give you the option to add another drive and expand the array or add a SSD cache if required.

The 1515 costs about £500, but 4x 3TB drives would be ~£380 vs £420 for 2x 6TB drives - and as you say the NAS is something you are looking at keeping for 8-10 years.
Click to expand...

I tend to agree if you can afford a unit that has more bays then I would do that as it allows for future expansion without having to get rid of a device. Along with the 1515 or 1515+ the 415Play would also be a good choice.

YOUR BASKET
1 x Synology Diskstation DS415Play 4 Bay Desktop NAS Enclosure £389.99
Total : £399.59 (includes shipping : £8.00 Ex.VAT).



I would not worry about going RAID 6 or RAID 10 and just select Synology SHR (Synology Hybrid RAID) as it handles it all for you and also allows you to add drives of different size and is much better at dealing with unused space.

Check out the Synology RAID calculator.

https://www.synology.com/en-us/support/RAID_calculator
 
ive used 6 different brands of NAS
QNAP - would touch with a barge pole. Software is flaky slow & sometimes unsusable.

synlogy - easy, fast,reliable,dream to setup & supports chromecast & other synlogy apps.
 
Yes Smogsy - I'm not happy with my qnap TS-209 - it always seemed slow and I found the features pretty poor.

Right now I can't even log into the admin screen over my network. No idea why.
 
Marakith said:
Yes Smogsy - I'm not happy with my qnap TS-209 - it always seemed slow and I found the features pretty poor.

Right now I can't even log into the admin screen over my network. No idea why.
Click to expand...

I'll be honest the 209 came out about 7 years ago? With a 500 MHZ cpu and 128 MB Ram? Lets be fair those specs aren't going to set the world on fire.

Current QNAP models such as the 453 Mini are packing a 2GHz quad core cpu with a min of 2GB ram. Easily upgradeable to 8.

Their new QTS software is night and day better than previous versions and whilst I agree they used to lag behind Synology on that department I would be hard pushed to say so now.

I agree Synology nas's are great, the software is the most polished, but I wouldn't discount QNAP or Asustor for that matter. I regularly use all 3 and these days all bost big feature sets. The difference is with Synology you'll pay more of a premium
 
So it's a toss-up between the Synology DS415Play or the QNAP TS-451.

The Qnap is cheaper and has an HDMI port. I hear stories that the Synology is better at transcoding and I know for sure it supports Amazon Cloud Drive, which is a plus for me.

What's the tie-breaker here?

Thanks!
 
It's hard to say mate, the Synology is a cracking box.

The qnap on the other hand if it's the 453 mini can have it's ram upgraded and plays kodi etc direct on the tv, so no transcoding unless you stream to a device, and then its cracking. I stream Game of thrones in HD to my iPad using plex and then airplay to my apple tv and work spot on
 
I would go for the Synology based on my experience.

I thought at the time that the lack of HDMI would be an issue but it really isn't and I don't really see why or where I would use it now.

Plex is amazing on the Synology and is one of the best features for it, all of the video content is sent round the house by Ethernet or wireless so HDMI seems irrelevant.
 
Update - the DS415Play is pretty poor at transcoding. It struggles and maxes out at 97% CPU when playing high res MKV files.

Perhaps I have to re-code some of my files to prevent this, but I was really hoping it would have a bit more grunt.
 
Without want hijack the thread what's the cheapest Synology that can handle transcoding as part of the Plex Media Server?

Thanks
 
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