Considering buying a NAS ... Need some advice

azibux1 · 6 May 2012 at 19:14

Hi,

I am looking at buying a NAS as me and my brother have a lot of movies and music, and he has one 500GB external HDD and I have a 1TB one

He wants to upgrade his external drive, and we thought it might be good to get a NAS then we can easily stream things to the blu-ray player downstairs, PS3, TV etc and access files remotely over the internet?? (Is that last one possible? I do not know much about NAS's so I'm not sure)

Would anyone be able to recommend a NAS that would be suitable? Maybe something we can put a hard drive into, and connect my USB 1TB drive to it too

Hope you can help, also any tips / advice would be good

Thanks

jamesfreddie · 6 May 2012 at 19:18

HP Microserver

See Thread Click Here

azibux1 · 6 May 2012 at 21:33

jamesfreddie said:
HP Microserver

See Thread Click Here

What are the advantages of that over something that is specially designed as a NAS rather than a server?

Sorry if it's a stupid questions, don't know much about servers and NAS's

welshdragon · 6 May 2012 at 21:48

It sounds like a Synology DS212j would fit the bill nicely here. Check out my review HERE

The DS212j is a NAS which takes two hard drives. It is exceptionally simple to setup and all you need is the unit, 1 or 2 hard drives and thats it. The Synology software is exceptionally good.

The HP Microserver is also good. It is a 4bay server which, with the cashback offer means it comes in at around the same price as the DS212j. However, you then either get free software such as FreeNAS or buy a copy of windows home server. To set it all up it has to be hooked up like you would any pc for the installation. After that it can just be tucked away and you can remote into it if you need to do anything.

The Synology solution is plug and play, fast and easy to setup and will do all you need of it. Synology regularly update their software and have good support if you contact them direct.

The nearest competitor to SYnology is QNap, having just reviewed a unit they are also very good but not quite as polished as Synology.

Edit: by all means trust/email me any and all questions if you like I am happy to help.

azibux1 · 7 May 2012 at 13:32

welshdragon said:
It sounds like a Synology DS212j would fit the bill nicely here. Check out my review HERE

The DS212j is a NAS which takes two hard drives. It is exceptionally simple to setup and all you need is the unit, 1 or 2 hard drives and thats it. The Synology software is exceptionally good.

The HP Microserver is also good. It is a 4bay server which, with the cashback offer means it comes in at around the same price as the DS212j. However, you then either get free software such as FreeNAS or buy a copy of windows home server. To set it all up it has to be hooked up like you would any pc for the installation. After that it can just be tucked away and you can remote into it if you need to do anything.

The Synology solution is plug and play, fast and easy to setup and will do all you need of it. Synology regularly update their software and have good support if you contact them direct.

The nearest competitor to SYnology is QNap, having just reviewed a unit they are also very good but not quite as polished as Synology.

Edit: by all means trust/email me any and all questions if you like I am happy to help.

That looks very good, reasonably priced and from your review it sounds good too

What would it be like to put one HDD inside the NAS and then connect my Western Digital Elements 1TB drive to a USB port. Would the USB connection be really slow??

Also, what do you think of the 3TB Seagate Freeagent GoFlex Home NAS Drive? Am I right in saying that comes with 3TB already installed for a similar price to the Synology one that comes with no HDD's? Is that 3TB upgrade-able to more or not?

Or would you still recommend the Synology?

Thanks for your help

Also what do you think about this problem that people seem to mention, has it been fixed yet? See below for some reviews mentioning it:

Have returned this as unfit for purpose as it will take literally weeks (no, I'm not exaggerating) to index a reasonable number of photos uploaded to it.
The problem is with thumbnail generation, which is necessary for the media server or the app called Photo Station to work.

There are many people on the Synology forum complaining of this issue.

Synology have not acknowledged the problem, let alone promised a fix.

Unusable. Poor support (5 working days to respond to a support call). Don't buy.

I am writing this in the vague hope that Synology read these reviews and fix the problem. And it is a massive problem. There is a major bug and that is that the device churns at 100% CPU for several days if not weeks to create thumbnails for all the photos. And without letting it churn away for days on end you can't view thumbnails of the photos on your devices.

Search for "thumb.conf" in the synology forums and you'll find all the disgruntled clients. And why no-one has posted this on Amazon directly is a mystery?

And don't bother with the HACK that edits the thumb.conf file to stop the unsharpening of the thumbnails or indeed stop the production of the 1280 version altogether because it makes very little difference. My DS212j has been churning @ 100% for 8 hours overnight to thumbnail 330 photos and 55 videos. So that's not even 1 a minute and with 24,000 to go that's going to take 2 weeks!

FAIL.

2ND EDIT: Ignore that last extra part, I have just seen this:

I thought I'd write a review just to state that the problem the Diskstation creating thumbnails for photos and videos has been solved a long time ago. The DiskStation management software (a stripped down Linux-based OS that the DiskStation uses to manage the disks and install applications) is now on version 4.0 and by default doesn't create any thumbnails; you can enable this option if you like and even choose whether you'd like normal or 'high-quality' thumbnails.

In our house we have a BT Homehub 2 and then we either connect wirelessly or we have a ethernet ports in each room, that are linked downstairs using a system by 'Small Office Networks' installed by the previous owner of the house. It is basically some live telephone line connections, that are connected to a 10/100 Base T Switch Hub, then you connect up the ports that you want to use in the rooms. I was watching a video on youtube and the guy said to benefit from the full speed of the NAS you need to have it connected to a Gigabit ethernet port, rather than a standard one. The BT homehub 2 only has standard ports, so if we were to get a homehub 3 (with gigabit port) or another router, and connect the NAS to that, would we benefit from the extra speed or will the wired distribution system bottleneck it? How do I know/find out if the distribution system is gigabit ethernet or not? I don't think it is, guessing by the '10/100' written on it. Would there be any point getting a better router with a gigabit port then or not?

Thanks

welshdragon · 7 May 2012 at 16:14

I suggested the DS212j as it is a dual bay model which makes mroe sense as it is not much of a premium and it gives you the option to use raid 1 if you use two hard drives. However you could get a single bay model if you so desire the DS112j. I think it is worth the extra for the dual bay myself.

I would avoid the seagate. The seagate/buffalo/iomega units I have tested are poor with at best dire software and laughable transfer rates. In the sistuation you get what you pay for and I consider my DS212 an investment as it will last a long time.

You can connect an external hard drive and it should perform fine and you can see it on the network as a share. However, being connected by usb is the bottleneck and thus when accessing the contents it will be slower. You would be better removing it from the enclosure and sticking it in the nas.

With regard thumbnails, if you upload say 10gb of photo's then tell it to create thumbs it is going to take a long time. The synology assistant software which runs on your pc not only allows you to setup/connect to your nas it also has a tab you can enable called 'photo upload' whereby you select the photo's you are uploading and it will load them, and create thumbs on the pc first. Thus utilising your pc to create them whcih will take a fraction of the time. Although, you can do as above.

Synology are very quick with updates and taking care of flaws/problems. Other manaufacturers are not.

If I understand this right your home wired network is rated 100mb as is your ports? To get the best out of it ideally you would want a gigabit network, especially for streaming hd etc. If you upgrade your homehub to gigabit, that would mean you could access the nas faster on that, however those wired connections in the rooms would still be at a slower speed because of the switch they all connect too. If I understand you correctly.

It will still work fine on a non gigabit network but you will struggle streaming hd. Could the hub/bt home hub be changed? You would benefit either way. Switch hubs are very cheap, don't know if BT would upgrade you free on the home hub? I assume then the wiring to each room is cat 5, so you wouldnt need to change that as it should be fine for a gigabit network.

azibux1 · 7 May 2012 at 17:37

Okay, I think we will stay away from the seagate one then as like you say, even if we're not going to have two hard drives at the moment, it makes sense to have that option for future

I thought that about the external drive, taking it apart and putting it in the NAS but someone said that as USB is a bottleneck, manufacturers don't bother putting fast drives into external drives anyway. I think what we will do is purchase a drive to go into the NAS, keep my 1TB external drive as a back up / portable drive and sell my brothers 500GB external drive to make some money.

That sounds fine then, they sound like a good company if they quickly sort out problems

Below is a picture of what we have:

So yes what you're saying is right, I think it is Cat5 cable to all the rooms, so I think we'll get the NAS and HDD for now, then if we find it slow, then we can upgrade the switch hub and router.

Would the only part in the picture that needs upgrading be the bottom 'rack'?

EDIT: Also am I right in saying that there is no point in getting a 6gb/s hard drive as mechanical drives can't actually work that fast / they're not worth the money? That's what I was told when I built my PC recently so I just got a Samsung SpinPoint F3 1TB then. Any specific hard drive suggestions?

welshdragon · 7 May 2012 at 17:46

Yes I would have thought so. A ccna course is on my list of things to do.

Before changing anything though I would get the nas and see how it performs then upgrade if necessary.

Dont worry about hard drive speed. The usb interface does bottleneck it somewhat but to give you an idea I have two 2tb Western digital green drives (slower 5400rpm ones) in raid 1 and I get cracking speeds mate.

I have no link to any company but the reason I recommend synology is they are simply the best nas. QNap are a close second but not quite so user friendly.

azibux1 · 7 May 2012 at 18:00

welshdragon said:
Yes I would have thought so. A ccna course is on my list of things to do.

Before changing anything though I would get the nas and see how it performs then upgrade if necessary.

Dont worry about hard drive speed. The usb interface does bottleneck it somewhat but to give you an idea I have two 2tb Western digital green drives (slower 5400rpm ones) in raid 1 and I get cracking speeds mate.

I have no link to any company but the reason I recommend synology is they are simply the best nas. QNap are a close second but not quite so user friendly.

That's what I'm thinking too, I've done two CCNA courses at college, just not entirely sure how this system works as we didn't install it, previous owner did

Yeah we will get the NAS first and see what speeds are like

Don't want to take either of the external drives out of the cases really, as we know someone that might buy my brothers one, and I want to keep mine just so we have one external drive with a reasonable amount of space on it. Still deciding on what drive to put into the NAS, will post back here for opinions once I have found one. Have you got the model number for the exact one you have please?

Yeah I've been looking at some reviews online and people seem to say that Synology are good

welshdragon · 7 May 2012 at 18:13

I would go for a 2tb drive. Down to preference really.

I use older versions of the Western Digital 2tb Green drives (WD20EARS). Latest model is WD20EARX. Will be more than fine mate. Streams HD video etc fine. Good speeds too.

Or there is the Seagate ST2000DL003 Barracuda Green 2tb. To name just two.

Which ever one you go for make sure you check it is on Synology's compatable list. Means it has been tested and known to work fine with their hardware. Found HERE

On a side note, the 2tb drives offer best price per gigabyte and your space will soon disappear once you start hosting everything!

Duke · 7 May 2012 at 18:36

Another vote for Synology. I've got an older 2 bay unit (207+) but it still goes strong. They are well built and the GUI is great.

azibux1 · 7 May 2012 at 18:47

welshdragon said:
I would go for a 2tb drive. Down to preference really.

I use older versions of the Western Digital 2tb Green drives (WD20EARS). Latest model is WD20EARX. Will be more than fine mate. Streams HD video etc fine. Good speeds too.

Or there is the Seagate ST2000DL003 Barracuda Green 2tb. To name just two.

Which ever one you go for make sure you check it is on Synology's compatable list. Means it has been tested and known to work fine with their hardware. Found HERE

On a side note, the 2tb drives offer best price per gigabyte and your space will soon disappear once you start hosting everything!

Thanks for those links and model numbers, will check them out

... they seem to be a good price too

Will check the compatibility list too (Y)

I think I will probably get a 2TB one for that price.

What are the disadvantages of the eco drives?

Duke said:
Another vote for Synology. I've got an older 2 bay unit (207+) but it still goes strong. They are well built and the GUI is great.

Thanks (Y) I'd never heard of them before, but after reading reviews they seem to be good

welshdragon · 7 May 2012 at 21:22

To be honest I cant think of disadvantages right now. Technically eco drives are a shade slower on paper but as I mentioned I have two and no problems. They save a bit of power though when the nas is on for long periods.

I personally dont think you would see much difference between 5900/7200 rpm drives in this scenario.

Maybe someone else can suggest potential disadvantages I am not aware of?

azibux1 · 7 May 2012 at 23:06

welshdragon said:
To be honest I cant think of disadvantages right now. Technically eco drives are a shade slower on paper but as I mentioned I have two and no problems. They save a bit of power though when the nas is on for long periods.

I personally dont think you would see much difference between 5900/7200 rpm drives in this scenario.

Maybe someone else can suggest potential disadvantages I am not aware of?

Hmmmm okay, what you're saying about the power saving as it is going to be running 24/7 makes sense, but my brother doesn't want it to be slow, that's the only thing we're worried about

You say it is OK for streaming things in HD (reading), is it also quick for writing things to the drive??

Van Diemen · 7 May 2012 at 23:26

+1 for the Synology DS212j

I have a DS212+ & a DS212j

the DS212j is perfect for home use

azibux1 · 7 May 2012 at 23:33

Van Diemen said:
+1 for the Synology DS212j

I have a DS212+ & a DS212j

the DS212j is perfect for home use

That's great then (Y)

What are your views on HDD's? Go for a green one or spend a bit more and buy something a little faster? That's the one thing we're undecided on

Am I right in saying you can use the 'Enable Web Station' option and purchase a domain name, then host your own webiste? Or is it not that simple?

Seirrah · 8 May 2012 at 00:03

Also (and sorry for the slight hijack) could I start with a single drive in the Synology 2-bay NAS (either model mentioned above) and then add a second drive months later and easily setup RAID 1 using the contents of what is on the first drive?

shine · 8 May 2012 at 00:15

azibux1 said:
That's great then (Y)

What are your views on HDD's? Go for a green one or spend a bit more and buy something a little faster? That's the one thing we're undecided on

I use green drives in both of my Synology NAS's. No problem with streaming/copying files.

welshdragon · 8 May 2012 at 10:21

azibux1 said:
Hmmmm okay, what you're saying about the power saving as it is going to be running 24/7 makes sense, but my brother doesn't want it to be slow, that's the only thing we're worried about

You say it is OK for streaming things in HD (reading), is it also quick for writing things to the drive??

Yes very quick. Green drives are quite good these days. I think green drives are perfect for home use.

azibux1 said:
That's great then (Y)

What are your views on HDD's? Go for a green one or spend a bit more and buy something a little faster? That's the one thing we're undecided on

Am I right in saying you can use the 'Enable Web Station' option and purchase a domain name, then host your own webiste? Or is it not that simple?

As mentioned above and by the other op, we use green drives and they are spot on. Its down to you though.

Web station is designed so you can host your own site (up to 30 I believe). I have not used it yet thoguh so can't comment on it specifically, but knowing synology it should be fairly straightforward and their wiki/online support is great if you ahve any problems.

Seirrah said:
Also (and sorry for the slight hijack) could I start with a single drive in the Synology 2-bay NAS (either model mentioned above) and then add a second drive months later and easily setup RAID 1 using the contents of what is on the first drive?

Yes.

azibux1 · 8 May 2012 at 14:24

shine said:
I use green drives in both of my Synology NAS's. No problem with streaming/copying files.

welshdragon said:
Yes very quick. Green drives are quite good these days. I think green drives are perfect for home use.

As mentioned above and by the other op, we use green drives and they are spot on. Its down to you though.

Web station is designed so you can host your own site (up to 30 I believe). I have not used it yet thoguh so can't comment on it specifically, but knowing synology it should be fairly straightforward and their wiki/online support is great if you ahve any problems.

Hmmmm are either of you running in a RAID setup so maybe it's faster? Or as they running independently? We will only be having one hard drive for now. My brother just doesn't want it to be too slow

Yeah webstation sounds quite cool

EDIT: Just so we can research, what hard drive is one step up from a green one?