Which NAS to buy?

Qdos

Qdos

Qdos

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Hi guys, looking for a bit of advice on which NAS to buy. My main use is streaming SD/HD video across the network to several machines (Mac and Windows clients) - my current setup is being to creak and I'd like to replace it before it falls over completely. I ideally want a 4 HD bay NAS so I can really maximise available storage.

I'm looking to replace a creaking PC with a one stop solution. My preferred option was going to be a Drobo with the Droboshare to get it on the network. However, I've read a lot of bad reviews about reliability and slow transfer speeds - can anyone who has got one shed some light?

The other option I've seen is the Netgear ReadyNAS NV+ - but that doesn't dynamically adjust to differing hard drive sizes, which is a problem for me as I have a few SATA drives I want to use. It also says on the spec sheet that it only protects 3TB worth of data, not really enough for me.

Which one would people recommend, or is there a better option out there?


Cheers!
 
I've just replaced my Drobo with the ReadyNAS NV+. Easy decision for me as i had 4 x 2TB drives already. Great bit of Kit and so much faster than the drobo.

Although saying that the drobo was good if you had different drive sizes. The ReadyNAS does protect more than 3tb as its doing so right now with me. Why not take the opportunity to upgrade your drives too?

Failing that the QNAP was another contender for me, cant recall the model 410 i think.
 
I use a Qnap 439 - if you can afford the high purchase price it got a lot going for it, atom based, 1 gb memory, 4 bay (takes 3.5" and 2.5" drives) and very easy to use :)

Combined with a 1Tb usb Western Digital drive for automated backups its a good setup with enough speed. Need to get a third 1.5Tb WD green to expand from RAID 1 to RAID 5 operation and liberate some more speed :)
 
Thanks for the replies guys. Having read the reviews on a few sites, it seems the Droboshare causes a load of problems, so I don't think it's worth getting (even though the Drobo is a fantastic bit of kit.)

Had a look at the Synology DS410j as that has been very well recieved. I'm very tempted by this as I can get it from my local PC store, so if I have any problems its not a pain in the arse to return it.
 
I moved from a QNAP 209 II to a ReadyNAS NVX and I couldn't be happier. Fast, reliable with plenty of features. There is no limit to disk size and you can mix pairs of disks and still have redundancy, not recommended but an option.
 
Having had two Synology units now I'd go for another one any day. The 209+II is simply awesome. Go for the 4-Bay version and job's a good'un!
 
The other alternative is build your own:

Chenbro ES34069 mini-itx NAS case - comes with PSU 4 hotswap drivebays.

Add a micro-itx motherboard such as an atom ION chipset then add MS home server.

This will give you a very capable 4 bay NAS which can run other applications too (although from experience it's suggested you upgrade the RAM if you're going to be running things like SVN services, torrent or other services). ION chipset boards have gigabit networking too.

Homeserver is based on MS Server 2003 technology and uses a file based replication system rather than RAID5. The next version of home server coming out improves on the performance and storage replication efficiency.
Last tip about this case - if you have slimline drive in the case you should get low profile memory.

Lastly - for a large NAS you will want eSATA connectivity for backups .
 
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I've had a Icybox and a QNAP TS-209. The QNAP was decent but was still very slow.

I sold it and built a silent atom based PC for less money and now push files around our network at 80MB-90MB/s quite happily.

Plus Windows Home Server is fantastic for automatic backups of all PC's.
 
celliott said:
I sold it and built a silent atom based PC for less money and now push files around our network at 80MB-90MB/s quite happily.
Click to expand...

That's quite fast isn't it? I take it thats to more than one client?

I have a server running FreeNAS which is connected to my Airport BaseStation Extreme via Gigabit connection which is connected to the Client via Wireless-N (In the same room about 1m from the router). The best I can get is around 17.5MB/s and the theoretical speed is more than double that.
 
Wireless N is probably limiting you there, even in the same room. Try using a direct connection.

Personally I'm running a home built Windows Server 2003, on Athlon x2 with a hardware raid controller. 8 hot-swap drives in RAID5 and I get 100MB/s windows read or write transfers over gigabit.
 
Conrad11 said:
Even with a direct connection I am only getting around 30-40MB/s
Click to expand...

Could be a few things, the NICs at either end, operating system (Win7 and Vista are much better than XP)
Could also be down to FreeNAS itself, Linux samba shares have never been particualarly quick in my experience.

If you feel up to it, install iperf on both machines and you can benchmark the raw hardware capabilities without samba getting in the way.
 
Depending on the QNAP model they are powered by an ARM, Atom or Celeron. Albeit expensive I went for the QNAP TS-639 Pro for business and personal stuff, and very happy with it as an out of the box solution for RAID 6, Twonkymedia streaming, iTunes server, web server, MySQL etc. Has good forum support and extra apps can be easily installed.

QNAP do 4 bay models you may wish to look at.

All hooked up on Gigabit Lan and the PS3 makes a great TwonkyMedia client under the TV.

For a less costlier solution you could always go the self-build route and use FreeNAS.

Either way I just love having my media and work stuff consolidated on one box - no more need for lots of storage on any of the client PCs. And I can access work docs from anywhere.
 
I've got a Qnap TS209 II which is ARM-based and very slow. It barely uses the available network bandwidth as it's CPU-bound. I'm tempted to try one of their Atom-based boxes next as I like the general Qnap facilities.

I've tried FreeNAS and didn't like it much but did like the ability to boot from an old CF card.
 
I've got both a ReadyNAS Duo(2x1.5G Mirrored) and NVX (4x500M Raid 5ish, Netgear implementation).

Duo is used mostly for backups and a repository for drivers and other downloads where speed of access is not an issue. Typically get 10-20MB/s on a gig connection.

The NVX is used for a media store to stream both HD and SD content to a Popcorn media player. Again connected via gig to my PC and 200M powerline to the media player.

NVX can get speeds of up to 95MB/s reading depending on the client. Writing is up around 50-60MB/s

Both have performed flawlessly in the past 3 months.

Hope this helps.

Richard
 
Snapshot said:
I've got a Qnap TS209 II which is ARM-based and very slow. It barely uses the available network bandwidth as it's CPU-bound. I'm tempted to try one of their Atom-based boxes next as I like the general Qnap facilities.

I've tried FreeNAS and didn't like it much but did like the ability to boot from an old CF card.
Click to expand...

I read that the 800Mhz CPU really limits bandwidth, but once you start getting to 1.2Ghz onward on a dual bay its OK. QNAP table here

http://www.qnap.com/images/products/comparison/Comparison_NAS.html
 
turboChiken said:
I've got both a ReadyNAS Duo(2x1.5G Mirrored) and NVX (4x500M Raid 5ish, Netgear implementation).

Duo is used mostly for backups and a repository for drivers and other downloads where speed of access is not an issue. Typically get 10-20MB/s on a gig connection.

The NVX is used for a media store to stream both HD and SD content to a Popcorn media player. Again connected via gig to my PC and 200M powerline to the media player.

NVX can get speeds of up to 95MB/s reading depending on the client. Writing is up around 50-60MB/s

Both have performed flawlessly in the past 3 months.

Hope this helps.

Richard
Click to expand...

I am looking to invest in a NVX but I am unsure with hard disks to include in the unit itself. I have currently got 5 samsung hdds, but have a feeling that this wont cut the mustard for some reason...
 
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I am looking to invest in a NVX but I am unsure with hard disks to include in the unit itself. I have currently got 5 samsung hdds, but have a feeling that this wont cut the mustard for some reason...
 
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