My First NAS

olivier renault · 23 Apr 2013 at 11:17

Heyup everyone,

I'm moving into the world of NAS. Nothing fancy, just some simple data backup. I'm thinking of these

YOUR BASKET
1 x QNAP Turbo NAS TS-412 4-Bay Network Attached Storage Enclosure £263.99
1 x Synology Diskstation DS212J 2-Bay Gigabit Ethernet Network Attached Storage Enclosure £169.99
2 x Western Digital Caviar Red 3TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache WD30EFRX - OEM HDD £119.99 (£239.98)
Total : £685.96 (includes shipping : £10.00).

I like the Qnap for the hot-swap capabilities, as well as 4 bays. So I can store my main backup in my two 3TB RAID drives, and ship 2TB drive copies to my sister and brother.

The Synology looks good too, but doesn't seem to offer anything extra. It's about £100 cheaper though.

I'm really tempted by the Qnap, which is at the top end of my budget. I'm also opened to other suggestions, things that I would welcome would be USB3 support (I have an external USB / ESATA HDD bay), hot swap, low power, and of course 3TB compatible. My network requirements are very simple, Home network, broadband, no weird device support, a couple of windows 7 machines. I can handle a little bit of shenanigans and not really bothered about user interface.

I would like to purchase asap.

olivier renault · 23 Apr 2013 at 12:13

I'm moving towards the DS213 now...

cyber69 · 23 Apr 2013 at 13:01

I have 2 x Synology DS212's and 1 x DS710+ units, so 3 in total. Running the DS212's with a pair of 3TB WD red in each and the DS710+ has a pair of Sammie 2TB's.

I would wholeheartedly recommend the Synology units but thinking back, I wish i'd paid out a little more and bought a 4 bay one.

olivier renault · 23 Apr 2013 at 13:36

cyber69 said:
I have 2 x Synology DS212's and 1 x DS710+ units, so 3 in total. Running the DS212's with a pair of 3TB WD red in each and the DS710+ has a pair of Sammie 2TB's.

I would wholeheartedly recommend the Synology units but thinking back, I wish i'd paid out a little more and bought a 4 bay one.

Aye, One thing I don't like about the DS212 is the lack of USB3 / E-SATA. I've gone for the DS213+. I know, expensive, but it's got everything I need. I don't think I'll ever need more than 3TB (2x3TB in RAID1), and i've got my IcyDock that I can plug in for external backups (rather than go through the main PC). I like the Synology software interface.

welshdragon · 23 Apr 2013 at 13:52

cyber69 said:
I have 2 x Synology DS212's and 1 x DS710+ units, so 3 in total. Running the DS212's with a pair of 3TB WD red in each and the DS710+ has a pair of Sammie 2TB's.

I would wholeheartedly recommend the Synology units but thinking back, I wish i'd paid out a little more and bought a 4 bay one.

You can expand the DS710+ using the 2 or 5 bay expansion unit if you need more space.

TheVoice · 23 Apr 2013 at 15:06

"Nothing fancy" he says, spending £685.

unleashed · 23 Apr 2013 at 16:32

How about re-purposing any redundant kit you may have lying about and build yourself a server box? WHS 2011 will do all you need and way way more.

JonJ678 · 23 Apr 2013 at 17:05

Inevitable recommendation to buy a HP microserver instead...

olivier renault · 23 Apr 2013 at 17:16

TheVoice said:
"Nothing fancy" he says, spending £685.

I'm only buying one device, but yeah, I've got more money than sense

JonJ678 said:
Inevitable recommendation to buy a HP microserver instead...

Didn't they stopped their offer? TBH, that was a good option, but a NAS sounds like it's gonna be a bot easier to handle.

JonJ678 · 23 Apr 2013 at 17:22

They may have. It'll probably come back. I bought the old n36 box without cashback for the same price that the new one would have been with cashback as it seemed simpler. That's probably still an option .

It is hassle though, you have to install your own OS after all. That's at least, um, 20 minutes of your life wasted

TheVoice · 23 Apr 2013 at 17:57

Yeah the HP offer ended, I think it's been (or will be) replaced with a newer model.