Budget NAS

Caseh

Caseh

Caseh

Soldato
Joined
10 Sep 2007
Posts
5,398
Location
Sheffield
Hey..

I'm looking for a NAS for £150ish but I can go a little over if needed. I want it to stream to PC, Smart TV, Xbox One, iPad, and iPhone. Also a hub for downloading, etc. Probably never more than a couple of devices streaming at a time. I looked at the DS215J, but I don't really know much about these things.

Thanks
Cas
 
The words "Budget" and "NAS" are never a good combination imo!

I had a budget Buffalo NAS a few years ago and it was painful to use - swapped to a Synology and all is right with the world again!

I can't recommend Synology enough - the UI is a joy to use (which is, lets face it, the only component that you will have any interaction with!)

I've got the DS213 so I'd imagine the DS215J (albeit that's the cut-down 2015 version) will be more that adequate for your needs!
 
For a simple plug and go option then you can't go wrong with Synology.

If you want more options/flexibility/painful set-up phaff get yourself a HP microserver (Gen 8 with celeron are almost within budget).

Personally try the synology and see how useful it is. If you want more in the future, when it is time to expand the storage then consider the more powerful microserver options.
 
Thanks for the response!

I know being on a budget isn't great, but how it is for now :p I have read reviews of the 215j which seems to get good reviews, and it's not like I'm wanting to set up my own server or anything crazy. I have most files as MKV, but I'm sure I've read they can be streamed to the Xbox one? And the only other important one is streaming to the PC.

I have used a friends DS214se, which the UI felt powerful, the it's hardware is lacking.

Edit: I'm not really interested in a Micro Server. I'd like to just get something with my files on, and be able to stream them when I want. And download stuff. That is it.
 
Those Asustor do look good value for money, but I don't personally know anyone that has one, and I hear nothing but great things about the Synology ones.
 
Just so you know. When you put a drive into it, it will format the drive (it HAS to). Will format it in EXT4 format.

I'd just put one drive in to start off with. It will put the Synology OS on that disk, it will update to the newest OS and then will run a disk check.

-

You have 3 options of how to set up the disks.

Option 1 - Safest option

SHR (Synology Hybrid RAID)
If you put 1x 4TB drive in, it will give you 4TB of space.

Adding the second drive, it will make this a 1:1 live copy of the other drive. Total usable space is 4TB.

-

Option 2 - Two volumes

Set them up as 2x single drives, would give you 2x 4TB volumes to use.

-

Option 3 - Reckless option :p

Set them up as RAID0
Will give you a single 8TB volume. But if one drive fails, you lose the lot!
 
CasKirensys said:
I have most files as MKV, but I'm sure I've read they can be streamed to the Xbox one?
Click to expand...

I have found that streaming MKV to the xb1 does work, however the functionality of the controller is lost. If I try and pause then restart the film it jumps back to the beginning. It doesnt do this if I pause it from the pc that I am streaming from but that kinda defeats the purpose.
If I convert the file to an mp4 then all is well.
 
Thanks for the replies guys.

The Reds are currently empty as I bought them to go into a NAS drive, I just couldn't make a decision on what NAS to buy. I was thinking going with 2 separate drives, but not sure yet - I only have just under 2TB of data at present. If the XB1 has problems with streaming direct, would setting Plex up on the NAS work?

Thanks everyone, I'll post back in this thread to let you know my opinions on the setup :)
 
Only some Synology boxes can have the Plex server installed on them.

I use my Synology as my Kodi file server and for storing the library DB.
 
Very impressed so far. Streaming 1080p movie to my PC, Xbox one and Smart TV in another room, whilst also transferring data to it and I have a couple of downloads in the Download Station running. Not a stutter from any of it. I love how everything just.. works.
 
CasKirensys said:
Very impressed so far. Streaming 1080p movie to my PC, Xbox one and Smart TV in another room, whilst also transferring data to it and I have a couple of downloads in the Download Station running. Not a stutter from any of it. I love how everything just.. works.
Click to expand...

Welcome to Synology DSM - you'll never go back! :p
 
Next step..

Set your shares as 'NFS' shares.
Install Kodi on your PC
Import your TV collection
Import your Movie collection
Be impressed :D

Then..
Create a mariaDB sql shared library for Kodi.

Pause a film in the living room.

Unpause it on another machine running Kodi.
 
I'll have a look at all that at some point, but things are working exactly as I'd hoped so far. I love being able to stream to the TV and Xbox using my phone, it made it much easier giving others access to the videos. This has been possibly the most seamless start to any software/hardware I've ever had haha
 
I'm really liking the NAS and its ease of use, love how is it is to stream to everything in my house! Just one problem though.. I'm trying to make a MyDS account, I put my email in and it says it will email me an activation code, but it never does.. I've been doing this every 4/5 days since I bought it. Any ideas what I'm doing wrong/why its not emailing me the activation code?
 
CasKirensys said:
I'm really liking the NAS and its ease of use, love how is it is to stream to everything in my house! Just one problem though.. I'm trying to make a MyDS account, I put my email in and it says it will email me an activation code, but it never does.. I've been doing this every 4/5 days since I bought it. Any ideas what I'm doing wrong/why its not emailing me the activation code?
Click to expand...

Try using a different email provider.
 
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