NAS solution that works with ML

bloodiedathame · 19 Nov 2012 at 10:38

Trying to find a reliable £50 solution that I can use as a media server (streaming to RPi) and mount external disks to to manually backup two laptops with CCC. I've had a look at Zyxel NSA310 and D-Link DNS-320, heard ok things about the Zyxel and bad things about the D-Link's compatibility with OSX. Any ideas OCUK?

joelk2 · 19 Nov 2012 at 11:11

bloodiedathame said:
Trying to find a reliable £50 solution that I can use as a media server (streaming to RPi) and mount external disks to to manually backup two laptops with CCC. I've had a look at Zyxel NSA310 and D-Link DNS-320, heard ok things about the Zyxel and bad things about the D-Link's compatibility with OSX. Any ideas OCUK?

i bought a WD MyBook Live 2TB Nas drive for £120 that would do what you require. (purple shirt sotre has it for £104.99 web price at the moment)

i have all my media on it but could also CCC my comp/laptop to it. (i would advise against this though as its not a backup)

its not a failsafe solution and its kind of putting all your eggs in 1 basket but it works for me. (i can re-rip all my media)

it mounts as an external drive on my mac and reconnects everytime i start up and also i have it as a networked drive on my pc.

currently my system is as follows

PC in office - Clone of HDD to another internal drive (not really worried if i lose stuff on pc as its hardly ever used)

Imac in kitchen - CCC i use to backup every other day to a G-Tech G-raid Mini (which is in Raid 1) (2 x 500gb drives - imac has a 500gb hdd)

the gtech is really just a clone so if the imac hdd goes kaput i can still go on working booting from the gtech.

everything i dont want to lose (just photos/documents) are manually copied to an external usb which is kept in the garage and updated bi-weekly

all my media (film/tv) is kept on the 2tb drive in the front room. jailbroken ATV2 with xbmc plays all my files.

bloodiedathame · 19 Nov 2012 at 11:38

I've heard good things about those, however I was hoping for just an enclosure solution as I have all the drives I need...

joelk2 · 19 Nov 2012 at 12:03

bloodiedathame said:
I've heard good things about those, however I was hoping for just an enclosure solution as I have all the drives I need...

i think they will work but gave up looking at the lower priced options due to negative reviews.

one of the best lowest priced options from my findings is a diy HP microsever. after cashback they can be bought for £100-£150.

FreeStream · 20 Nov 2012 at 12:37

joelk2 said:
i think they will work but gave up looking at the lower priced options due to negative reviews.

one of the best lowest priced options from my findings is a diy HP microsever. after cashback they can be bought for £100-£150.

This if you install UnRAID (or similar) on it which has AFP installed by default.

I currently run a Core i3-3220 server rig, but before then I was running a server that I built for £200 all-in. Probs do it for much cheaper using MM parts.

I personally Time-Machine to one disk in my server and then CCC to another disk. Another 4 drives hold my videos for streaming via Plex and PS3 Media server to my PS3, iPad, iPhone, etc...

Skyboat · 20 Nov 2012 at 12:45

Get a HP Microserver with unRAID. You can run up to 3 disks with the basic (free) version, one of which is used as a parity drive. Works brilliantly with ML over AFP shares and is incredibly configurable.

Concorde Rules said:
streaming via Plex and PS3 Media server

Out of interest why run both? Plex has a DLNA server built-in these days so it's one less application to worry about when streaming to all available devices.

Phate · 20 Nov 2012 at 13:10

I'm going to pickup a Netgear NAS Enclosure, a 4 drive one is about £120 and will do what you need.

FreeStream · 24 Nov 2012 at 09:58

Skyboat said:
Out of interest why run both? Plex has a DLNA server built-in these days so it's one less application to worry about when streaming to all available devices.

It doesn't work properly yet with the PS3.

'Go-to' doesn't work and some files flat refuse to work too.

I want a Mac Mini to install plex on so I can ditch PS3 Media Server but I don't have the funds atm!

bloodiedathame · 24 Nov 2012 at 10:03

Found a power supply for my external USB drive so plugging that in straight to the Pi.

Nearly bought a Qnap on MM but not 10.8 compatible. Will continue doing manual weekly backups as I have done for the last XX years.

OhEsEcks · 24 Nov 2012 at 10:10

bloodiedathame said:
Trying to find a reliable £50 solution that I can use as a media server (streaming to RPi) and mount external disks to to manually backup two laptops with CCC. I've had a look at Zyxel NSA310 and D-Link DNS-320, heard ok things about the Zyxel and bad things about the D-Link's compatibility with OSX. Any ideas OCUK?

I have the DNS-320 and it's so-so. It works fine with OSX ML. But transfer speeds aren't great. I use it mainly as a back up, rather than serving anything. I backup my itunes library, pictures and important documents with it and that's about it. I think if I was going to need something serving media across the network, I'd build something with a Pentium or FM2 chip.