Best bang for buck NAS solution?

Streeteh · 19 Sep 2011 at 21:04

Hi guys,

I'm looking into the exciting world of NAS storage as my case is full of drives which are also getting quite old now (one is probably around 7 years old!).

I'm just after storage and quiteness is also pretty important as it'll be stored in my living room. Ideally i'd like a 4-bay solution, but they just look way too expensive if i'm honest. I'm not after any features other than RAID for data security (not overly fussed about speed).

One such example is this:

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=NW-003-SY&groupid=46&catid=1834&subcat=

It's got way more features than i want, and costs quite a fair whack.

Am i barking up the wrong tree for my needs? What's the most cost effective way of incorporating a low-power high storage device into my network?

Thanks for any advice you can give.

[EDIT] Oh and, XBMC needs to be able to communicate with it, so i assume it does need some form of simple media server?

memyselfandi · 19 Sep 2011 at 22:03

You probably don't want to stream media off the NAS to XBMC using media server software on the NAS ... rather have shares from the NAS mounted on the XBMC system and then have XBMC access the files directly.

Fact of life ... cheap NAS devices are normally slow and underpowered (which could give you access if you are dealing with large hi-def files). Good NASes, (like the one you linked or equivalent QNAP devices), tend to be very expensive.

For the price of a good NAS plus storage, or less, you could probably build your own server .. which is what some people would suggest ... but that is likely to be larger and more power hungry, will likely involve a lot more setting up, will require tuning to run optimally and have higher ongoing maintenance requirements.

tezmo · 19 Sep 2011 at 22:11

Have a look at unraid.

Craig321 · 19 Sep 2011 at 22:14

I'd say build a PC yourself and put FreeNAS or OpenFiler on there.

That way you'll be able to get proper gigabit speeds, your choice of case, and you can make it nice and quiet, especially with a passive or on-board graphic card. Hard drives aren't difficult to cool at all, so you could get away with 1 120mm fan.

As memyselfandi said, it will require more setup, maintenance and may take more power, but you'll definitely get better performance when comparing it to a cheap NAS.

ReadyNAS NV+ are very good. 4 drive bays, it sorts it's own RAID out and the OS/software is excellent. They can be fairly noisy though, but it's the type of noise that would quickly be drown out.

TheVoice · 19 Sep 2011 at 22:35

HP MicroServer perhaps? There's been a long-running cashback deal going on those, don't know if it's still active but if it is, it might be an option worth considering.

Streeteh · 20 Sep 2011 at 11:05

Thanks for the suggestions guys.

If i'm honest i'd like to avoid the home-built option, i need something really small as i'd like to fit it in a cupboard and i like the idea of the convenience of a ready built NAS. Unless someone can recommend a case of a similar size perhaps?

I've had a chat with my parents and, with Christmas coming up, they've told me they'd be willing to chip in on one, so i can probably swing £200-250 for it now.

What's a good brand? I've been looking at the synology diskstation below:

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=NW-002-SY&groupid=46&catid=1834&subcat=

But i've also looked at the ReadyNAS NV+ after Craigs recommendation, which seems to be a bit cheaper. Is it worth the extra for the Synology, or are there any other models i should consider over these two?

Also, when it comes to raid i know nothing. If i buy a NAS and say, two 2tb drives can i at a later date just shove in another drive and the Raid will reconfigure itself and add the extra capacity or will it need to be formatted and set up from scratch?