Recommend me a NAS please

gupott · 7 Sep 2018 at 19:38

Hi All,

I have not really gone the NAS route for a while. I did buy a QNAP about 10 years ago but we didn't really get on. File transfer was slow and I ended up not really using it. I suspect this may have been down to me rather than it.

Anyway I would like a NAS now to primarily back up files which I have stored on PC (in addition to cloud). I would also like to put my film library on there too (1080p and 4k). I have also been working to install an Ethernet network in my house to replace home-plugs. I would also like to backup my music server (Roon NUC) to the NAS also.

When I have done my research online I always seem to get a bit bemused and unsure. I want, I think, at least two bay, but four bay possible. I have around 3tb of films, 1tb music, 500gb photos and 500gb other files. So I was thinking 8tb in size to give me a little space to grow. I assume I would want something fairly powerful with decent ram.

I am probably aiming for a synology or QNAP because of their compatibility with Roon but this is not 100% necessary. What are the best HDD to go for?

So, what do people think?

andy_mk3 · 7 Sep 2018 at 19:41

Syonolgy are very good, and I highly recommend WD Red drived for 24/7 power on usage.

Snapshot · 8 Sep 2018 at 07:22

I'll second WD Reds. I have far too many 3TB Reds and they've been faultless. If you want 8TB I suggest four 4TB drives in RAID10 which gives a good combination of resilience and speed at the cost of capacity.

I agree with your choice of Synology or QNAP with Asustor being another possibility. Be prepared to pay for the better models to get a decent CPU. I'd look at the DS918+ but I realise that's an expensive option.

gupott · 8 Sep 2018 at 12:58

Thanks for the replies.

Looking at the Synology's - A DS718+ with two 10TB Red Pro drives its £1021.97. If I look at the DS918+ with four 4TB Red Pro drives it is £1227.78. So both quite expensive. Any thoughts? I also see I can add ram as well, so I need to look into that. I will have a look at the QNAPs

I have been thinking about my main PC which is nearing the end of its life, however I am thinking I might get another year out of it, I am thinking about how I might reconcile drives etc. I think I might ditch my current two spinning drives (a 3tb and 1tb) and get a 8-10tb drive which I will use for all my storage and it will be from that drive that I back up on the NAS. Perhaps a WD 8TB Red pro for £299.99 fits the bill. I can then retain that drive for a new PC next year.

gupott · 10 Sep 2018 at 16:30

Still looking - any NAS would need to be able to provide 4k content across my network so I suppose it will need to be fairly quick. The DS718+ looks to be able to do that.

Snapshot · 11 Sep 2018 at 08:17

You don't need the Red Pro drives. The standard Reds are quite good enough and considerably cheaper.

iamtheoneneo · 12 Sep 2018 at 16:17

rosscouk said:
Still looking - any NAS would need to be able to provide 4k content across my network so I suppose it will need to be fairly quick. The DS718+ looks to be able to do that.

Define 'quick', any pc can run media over a network directly - thats more down to your network speed.
If you want to transcode thats different - but then I have no idea why you would want to do that if it's just on your home network and you defined as wanting to play 4k content. Kind of goes against having a high quality format in the first place.

I direct play original 4k files (50 - 77.9 Mb/s) from an old HP N40L via ethernet to an OSMC box with zero issues.