Synology DS212

TheCSSDoctor · 13 Dec 2011 at 14:37

As I have a 500GB drive in my PC that has music on, is it worth picking up a Synology NAS to transfer the drive over to so that I don't need to have the PC on if we want to listen to music downstairs via the PS3 or stream to my phone while at work, with a view to picking up a couple of drives later once the prices drop again?

I do realise I would have to transfer the music off the drive to drop the drive into the NAS, but is this worthwhile or should I just wait for drive prices to drop and buy the whole lot in one go?

Question - If I got a NAS now, would I be able to drop another drive in later and transfer the data from the smaller drive to the larger one and then replace the small drive with another larger one?

Longer term, IF we get a new house in the next year I would be planning to network it all anyway and start ripping my blu-rays so they are accessible all around the house and for the kids as well

The_Baron · 13 Dec 2011 at 23:35

We must be telepathically linked. I've been researching the same thing with a view to getting my itunes library working with a planned Sonos purchase.

I read the manual online and you can indeed add the second hard disk later, and even configure it for RAID1. Its also possible to copy back and forth between drives, if you get a bigger one later.

My intention is to have one in the spare room connected to my network by a set of Devolo 200AV Powerline adaptors. My guess is theres too much noise for a bedroom set-up for example.

The_Baron · 13 Dec 2011 at 23:36

Meant to say also, that the NAS apparently reformats the drive when you mount it, so bear that in mind

TheCSSDoctor · 14 Dec 2011 at 17:38

Yeah, I was pretty sure it would reformat the drive, so I would dump everything onto another drive in my PC when I chuck the current drive into the NAS - if I can then just transfer everything onto the bigger drive when I get one that is ideal

Not too bothered about RAID really for the time being - any important stuff is already backed up

Essexraptor · 14 Dec 2011 at 20:28

My guess is theres too much noise for a bedroom set-up for example

They are whisper quite and you can enable timed hibernation on some models so it shuts down to very low or no noise and very low power usage.

It's worth having a look about for the 211(j) and 210(j) models as well because the price can vary so much

Flogged a single drive 107 and looking for another now to supplement my Microserver as a backup.

SimonC · 15 Dec 2011 at 16:45

Essexraptor said:
Flogged a single drive 107 and looking for another now to supplement my Microserver as a backup.

There's a DS107 on a certain well known auction site currrently at 22 quid.

Not meaning to hijack but, I've never had a NAS drive before, do they have to be plugged straight into a router or can I plug one into a ethernet power line adapter and have the drive in my room?

The_Baron · 15 Dec 2011 at 18:05

The 211j and 210j mentioned a few posts up- they are lower specked in terms of processor/memory. Does this make much difference in real world usage? Ie streaming DVD/blu ray rips, copying to and from the drive. What is the advantage of the higher specced ones other than connectivity assuming the capacity and drive number remains the same? Sorry NAS nube here

Essexraptor · 16 Dec 2011 at 09:10

SimonC said:
There's a DS107 on a certain well known auction site currrently at 22 quid.

Not meaning to hijack but, I've never had a NAS drive before, do they have to be plugged straight into a router or can I plug one into a ethernet power line adapter and have the drive in my room?

It's on my "watch list"

but to be honest they go for silly prices. A new 110j, with warranty, can be found for as little as £105

You'll just take a hit on file transfer speeds depending on the rating of the power line adapters. Just think of it as... if you have a 1Gb router and a 1Gb NAS with a 300 Mb powerline between the 2. The weakest link in the chain is the powerline so that will effect the overall transfer speed.

Essexraptor · 16 Dec 2011 at 09:22

The_Baron said:
The 211j and 210j mentioned a few posts up- they are lower specked in terms of processor/memory. Does this make much difference in real world usage? Ie streaming DVD/blu ray rips, copying to and from the drive. What is the advantage of the higher specced ones other than connectivity assuming the capacity and drive number remains the same? Sorry NAS nube here

To be brutally honest for a out of the box, easy to set up solution - any model in the 2 bay range will do much everything you need for home use. Be it standard, "+" or "j". Just check the specs if you really want some functionality or other.

It's banged on about a lot... but bang for buck a HP Microserver is really good value. For the same money (+ £100 cashback) you can get a 4 bay ( but with modding 6 bay ) device that will last you a lot longer in terms of future storage needs. It just talkes a bit more setting up.

It's a hard choice

SimonC · 16 Dec 2011 at 18:43

Essexraptor said:
You'll just take a hit on file transfer speeds depending on the rating of the power line adapters. Just think of it as... if you have a 1Gb router and a 1Gb NAS with a 300 Mb powerline between the 2. The weakest link in the chain is the powerline so that will effect the overall transfer speed.

Oh ok yer of course. I'd be connecting to it through my laptop so would be 130mbps connection to the router, not sure what that means transfer speed wise, will have to see.

welshdragon · 17 Dec 2011 at 16:51

Essexraptor said:
They are whisper quite and you can enable timed hibernation on some models so it shuts down to very low or no noise and very low power usage.

It's worth having a look about for the 211(j) and 210(j) models as well because the price can vary so much

Flogged a single drive 107 and looking for another now to supplement my Microserver as a backup.

I've been running my DS210j for a little while it is really good. Replaced the fan under warranty with Synology a little while back.

Currently got my DS210J in the mm price check section to find a fair price as thinking of changing it. If I do will definately get another synology drive enclosure.