Buying advice: NAS or external USB drive for media storage server?

[axlwinter]

Hi all

I am currently in the process of upgrading my home network. I am thinking about both getting a new router (see separate thread) and a NAS/or external USB drive (connected to the router) to use as a central storage unit for all the devices on my home network. I will mostly be transferring/streaming movies over wifi to/from the storage unit.

I am kind of lost and I see pros and cons for both options. Some of the devices I have looked at, such as Seagate Central, have seemed great at first but then not so great upon further scrutiny.

What would you recommend me to get? My home network will mostly be based on wifi (I think only 1-2 units will be wired) and I need at least 4TB of storage space. I am looking at spending a maximum of around $500.

My home network devices is a mix of desktop PCs, laptops, tablet, smartphones, Raspberry PI, and SmartTVs. All of the units use 802.11n.

Your help is much appreciated!

 

[Angus66]

Would like to know the answer to this as well...

 

[stevech]

I recommend a Synology DS213j or QNAP's equivalent. Both disk-less.
You shop for drives of the size you wish; perhaps 2 x 2TB.

Setup as two volumes, not RAID.

IMO: Choose between one of the above. Try their on-line demos.

You can save some $ by buying a new DS212 (a year older model).
Shop Newegg.com and safe-looking Amazon sellers.

We here and the user forums for the two vendors above will help you decide how to config., then get it going. Once setup, it's an appliance you forget.

Also, get an external drive if you don't already have one, say, 1 or 2 TB, to use as the double-backup, hidden from thieves' eyes.

Seagate is terrible for end-item storage; they should stick to drives. Netgear ReadyNAS is popular, expensive, and IMO, undesirable.
A host of others are even less so, IMO: Iomega, LG, Buffalo, ...

The alternative, of some big USB3 or eSATA drives connected to a (windows?) PC, then made LAN shares- PC always on. Just file sharing, not media serving, secure remote access, cloud sync, and all the features that the NASes above have.

 

[thiggins]

What was your objection to the Seagate Central?

What are you currently using to store your video for streaming and is it working well?

 

[irvsp]

What was your objection to the Seagate Central?

I bought and returned this month a 2TB Seagate Central. Had it connected to a Netgear R7000 Nighthawk. The Netgear might have caused some of the problems I admit, but the killer was that it basically disabled the Internet connection to my Samsung Smart TV!

One of the reasons I bought the Central was because it supported via an app the Samsung. Great! However once I connected the Central, loaded some videos on it from my PC and then tried using Samsung's Smart Hub to get the Netgear app I couldn't? It said I didn't have a network connection. OK and it presented me with the network connection page and there was my connection showing. Gave it the UID and P/W and it connected. Great, tried again, same message? OK, I'll try Amazon and Netflix which worked the day before. Amazon never opened and NetFlix said it couldn't connect? Hmm. I'll move from 5Ghz to 2.4Ghz, same result. Unplugged the Central from the R7000 and rebooted the R7000. My network on the TV now worked? Plugged the Central back in and I lost it on the TV when I tried to do anything. Called Netgear and was told the app was for the 2012 sets only and I had a 2013 (they are working on that year was the answer). Back it went. I did have other issues with it though.