Would a NAS box suit my needs?

riskyfrisky

riskyfrisky

riskyfrisky

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Okay, my networking knowledge is poor so bear with me.

I've currently got two PC's and a laptop that I would like to be able to access all of my videos and music from.

I'd like my data to be stored in one location, rather than having to copy everything to both machines. Will a NAS box do this job?

For example, say I want to watch a video on any device, could I simply use the NAS box like any other simple volume that will appear in My Computer, browse to the file in question and play it from the NAS box without having to copy it to the PC?

Thanks for your thoughts.
 
I assume £150 without drives? Takea look at the Synology DS213j. Or a micro server with thecashback offer running the Synology software if you like to tinker!
 
Yeah £150 without the drives. I've been looking at the Synology boxes, they've had solid reviews and look easy to set up. I need something that isn't overly complicated.

Should I get proper NAS hard drives or will normal 7200rpm drives suffice? I've noticed there is a compatibility list on the Synology website, and it includes a ton of hard drives so i'll probably end up using hard drives i've already got lying around assuming they're compatible.
 
If you haven't already ordered it might be worth checking the new ASUSTOR AS-302T. Intel Atom dual core processor and it's all but the same price as the DS213j
 
I honestly would say, from experience NAS boxes are a pain! Get a cheap second hand pc, load win 7 on and grab a 2tb drive. They are so much easier!

At work we use this a the preferred backup solution to NAS boxes - It give you more control!
 
Maverick01 said:
I honestly would say, from experience NAS boxes are a pain! Get a cheap second hand pc, load win 7 on and grab a 2tb drive. They are so much easier!

At work we use this a the preferred backup solution to NAS boxes - It give you more control!
Click to expand...

What??? NAS boxes are so easy to set up and get configured, took me to set mine up in less than 5 mins. You must be doing it wrong if you feel NAS boxes are a pain lol.

OP id suggest using NAS HD's in a NAS box especially if they are running 24-7, reason i say this is that a couple of weeks ago one of my 7200 rpm drives failed in my box probably due to overheating. Ended up replacing both of them with the WD Red HD's, you wont notice much of a speed difference and they run much cooler as well.
 
Maverick01 said:
I honestly would say, from experience NAS boxes are a pain! Get a cheap second hand pc, load win 7 on and grab a 2tb drive. They are so much easier!

At work we use this a the preferred backup solution to NAS boxes - It give you more control!
Click to expand...
Must say i agree with this guy
While i have only use `home user`nases they are just sooooo slow to transfer data to and from.Do not believe for a second that having gigabit ports on a nas will give you gigabit speeds
On the 3 or 4 that i have tried over the years none/that is none have ever achieved over 30 meg transfer speeds.most have struggled to get to 10 meg :(
Small pc like the hp microserver that was on offer a while ago get consistent 70 meg+usually a lot more
This is my opinion and findings anyway :)
 
KIA said:
A cheap NAS won't offer amazing performance.

The read/write performance of the DS213j can be seen at http://www.synology.com/products/performance.php?lang=enu#tabs-2
Click to expand...

I hear what you are saying but a pc/microserver is so much more versatile,and it `was` cheaper than a top of the range nas.you can fit a hell of a lot more drives to one.the power usage is not a great deal more either,i am pulling around 45 watts on my micro
 
Maverick01 said:
I honestly would say, from experience NAS boxes are a pain! Get a cheap second hand pc, load win 7 on and grab a 2tb drive. They are so much easier!

At work we use this a the preferred backup solution to NAS boxes - It give you more control!
Click to expand...

Cheap NAS boxes are a pain, something like a Synology or QNAP or of that ilk is a very different story. Theres no way I'd give my QNAP up for a PC/microserver unless I had need of windows specific functions.
 
I gave up tinkering with FreeNAS on a Microserver and bought a DS213. It's not as fast but I can leave it sat there and it will work when I need it to, so it was worth the trade off.

Having a hearty laugh at whoever said they use a second hand PC with Windows 7 on as a backup solution at wherever they work.
 
Caged said:
Having a hearty laugh at whoever said they use a second hand PC with Windows 7 on as a backup solution at wherever they work.
Click to expand...

I've set a couple of friend's small businesses up with a similiar setup to what I run - 2 or 4 bay NAS (First one was QNAP but subsequent ones have been Synology) internal RAID mirror and USB realtime replication to an external USB drive thats in plain old NTFS format. Then they can also snapshot the current data via the front USB port using USB copy with a single button press to keep regular off site backups.

I'm not an expert in the field but seems like a fairly foolproof, easy to setup/maintain and cost effective way for smaller businesses to keep important files safe, one of them now wants to have certain documents automatically sync'd via cloud storage for additional offsite backup and ease of access externally so I'm gonna have to look into that.
 
That's very different to a second hand PC though.

Synology have an Amazon Glacier 'app', and Glacier is dirt cheap for long-term archival. It's what I've used successfully with a small business on a Synology box.
 
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