Need help on choosing NAS

Bryan Kortez · 5 Jun 2015 at 07:41

I am trying to figure which NAS would best suit me. Here are the two that have caught my eye at the moment.

NetGear 104
Synology DS215j

At the moment, I am going to be the only person access it, but may go up to 3 people in the future. The file sizes I work with are around 100mb. The ability to make a backup to a connected USB drive and to an offsite location over FTP at scheduled times.

I do like the look of the Synology, but the 4 bays on the netgear could become useful for the future.

mysticsniper · 5 Jun 2015 at 14:23

Synology and WD Red drives are the popular choice on here. I'm looking to invest in a NAS drive also, Synology 415 is going to be my flavour of choice

Craig321 · 5 Jun 2015 at 14:31

HP Micro server with FreeNAS + WD red drives.

m4rkw7 · 5 Jun 2015 at 14:33

Craig321 said:
HP Micro server with FreeNAS

+1, what I use at home.

Bryan Kortez · 5 Jun 2015 at 14:38

I think the Micro Server might be a bit overkill for my needs, I also want low running costs.

Craig321 · 5 Jun 2015 at 21:05

I doubt they use much more power than a normal NAS tbh. Well worth looking into & would be quicker than a NAS of the same price i reckon

Skynet5 · 7 Jun 2015 at 23:10

Craig321 said:
HP Micro server with FreeNAS + WD red drives.

+1 for freenas. Although I run a supermicro self build.

Skynet5 · 7 Jun 2015 at 23:11

Reminds me..I'm still rocking desktop grade disks. Need to work out how to switch in some reds one at a time into the RAID.

Don't forget to automate a backup to AWS. So cheap to store data in there you're a fool not to. Expensive to get it out of course.

Craig321 · 8 Jun 2015 at 09:35

lnoton said:
Reminds me..I'm still rocking desktop grade disks. Need to work out how to switch in some reds one at a time into the RAID.

Don't forget to automate a backup to AWS. So cheap to store data in there you're a fool not to. Expensive to get it out of course.

I looked into Glacier / AWS once, but the cost to get all my data out in case of disaster was ridiculous, a couple of hundred £ or something stupid.

Go for CrashPlan instead, especially if you're running FreeNAS. You can run it on there and configure/monitor from your desktop quite easily. Only £3 a month and it's unlimited. I have about 500GB on there now and a guy at work has around a TB without a problem.

anything I don't mind · 8 Jun 2015 at 12:19

I know i am going to regret not buying a NAS when one of my hard drive fails and i lose 3tb+ But with the amount of data I have it is going to cost upwards £500.

thephoton · 8 Jun 2015 at 15:01

I've got a Synology DS1515 at home with WD Red 2TB Drives in. Used for storing media for XBMC, can't fault it!

The Synology boxes run a torrent + usenet client if you're into that kind of stuff, and you can also get them to do remote access and numerous other things