ASUSTOR AS-5104T

robj20 · 23 Jan 2015 at 11:41

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HD-024-AS&groupid=46&catid=2125

Is there anything else out there that offers the same power and features as this? Seems a great buy, NAS are something i know little about i want somewhere to backup my photos and stream movies around the house, will this handle MP4 and MKV to smart tvs and consoles.

Redgie · 23 Jan 2015 at 11:45

Seems overkill for such standard usage, but then I suppose if you've got the money, why not!

robj20 · 23 Jan 2015 at 11:48

What would you recommend for such usage, i wouldnt mind more storage either but about £450 is as much i can go.

lumencreative · 23 Jan 2015 at 15:42

Personally, I would go for a HP Microserver which will cost you about £150 after cashback. Then you've got an extra £300 to spend on hard drives

robj20 · 23 Jan 2015 at 17:07

And how do you go about setting one of those up.

welshdragon · 24 Jan 2015 at 12:41

It depends how many bays you want, your budget (£450 including drives?) and indeed what you want it to do. As a backup and just to serve the occasional file to a media player then a two bay Synology DS215J would be sufficient.

However, depending on what exactly you mean by streaming films around the house then you might need more power and ram. Multiple hd streams running concurrently will really fly on the more powerful hardware.

Personally I think if you need four bay then you can't fault that Asustor. QNAP are also flying high at the moment, one to look at would be the TS-453 Pro. The QNAP for example allows you to create vm's extremely easily and you could run a windows vm or something under the tv on it.

Both have HDMI out so if you could site it near your tv you can use xbmc on it.

I always see the argument for the HP microserver appearing but really they are two different things.

The beauty of the Asustor/QNAP etc is that it's extremely easy to setup and has dedicated mobile apps and downloaded apps for the unit. V V easy

lamboman · 24 Jan 2015 at 13:50

Honestly, at that price I'd be looking at building your own running OpenMediaVault or similar if you want something easy to manage and use, or running Debian (which is what OMV is) if you're wanting to learn a little more about Linux.

welshdragon · 25 Jan 2015 at 14:32

Both have there place to be fair. I personally think you'll find the nas a much easier and streamlined experience.

robj20 · 28 Jan 2015 at 13:47

Price would be without HDDs i already have some spare 3TB drives. I want a min of 4 drives so i can use RAID 5 or similar for some drive redundancy.

Streaming wise it will be a mix of HD films and files with 5.1 sound as well, maybe more than one at a time. The fact it has a HDMI means i might get away with having it behind the main TV so streaming will be direct and not through the network.
Might be some streaming to devices like a playstation and phones.

I dont think a server is the way to go, not in the mood to be messing around just want something simple but powerfull for future use.