Help me choose my next NAS please!

[quantum]

hello,

i am on the market for another NAS. i currently have 1.5TB in a dns323, and reached capacity. its used with Win7 and WinXP computers at home.

other than centrally storing my data, i mainly use my NAS to stream content (music, photos, movies), most importantly movies streamed to my PS3. I've funplugged the twonkymedia server on the dns323, and works well. My increasing collection of blu-ray means that media takes up the vast majority of my storage needs. the dns323 can stream HD content just fine, but i will say that fast forwarding or rewinding a HD video does not work well. i guess the throughput or the processor speed of the dns323 can't handle the high throughput required? so, unless its cost prohibitive, i'd like my new NAS to be able to handle fast forwarding of HD movies.
1) should I be looking at the file read/copy performance metrics to evaluate this?

after reviewing the NAS charts on SNB, my impression is that the throughput of the NAS are limiting compared to the hard drives (ie. up to 100Mbps NAS vs 3Gbps HDD). therefore,
2) does it matter if I buy (lower performing) green drives? for ex. will i see a performance gain by using WD caviar blue/black over caviar green? (assuming answer yes to question1)

i *think* i want this new NAS to supplement my existing dns323, however, if it makes more sense to get a bigger 4bay unit to consolidate all my storage and then retire/recycle the dns323, then i'm open to that as well.
my current 1.5TB got filled in about 1.5+years of use. I believe this pace will continue - if I buy a 2TB drive, it will be consumed in about 2+yrs. - makes me think I could get a pair of 2TB drives throw them in a 2bay unit, mirrored ... would last me another 2+ yrs. or config as JBOD would last 4 yrs.
another consideration is the first issue i asked about above - throughput speeds. if i got a 4 bay unit and configured RAID5, is the file read performance gain significant? (again assuming yes to question 1)
3) Supposing I am ok to shop for a new NAS again in ~2+yrs... should I get a 2 bay or 4 bay NAS today?

based on the NAS charts on SNB (particularly price/perf), i have narrowed down to qnap and synology (but still open to suggestions). a slight advantage for qnap since they provide a twonkymedia qpkg plug in. can anyone vouch for synology's DLNA/uPnP streaming to a ps3? the TS-212 seems to be a good candidate (78Mbps), and the TS-219p+ looks even better (94Mbps). but for the cost of the TS-219p+, the TS-412 and the synology DS-411j are within striking distance! decisions decisions. the DS-411j is not reviewed on SNB, so, hard to compare metrics.
in case it may influence decision, on the fly transcoding of mkv's would be a big plus.

so am i on the right track with the listed models? i am kinda leaning towards a 2bay if only to be cost conscious, however, i would rather buy something and be happy with it... looking forward to hearing what you think!

 

[quantum]

let me try this again.

when streaming a HD video from the NAS, does fast forwarding the playback require a higher throughput from the NAS?

if so, which measure should I be looking at? File/copy Read performance?

 

[GregN]

let me try this again.

when streaming a HD video from the NAS, does fast forwarding the playback require a higher throughput from the NAS?

if so, which measure should I be looking at? File/copy Read performance?

The NASPT benchmarks specifically address Media performance. Take a look at those figures.

I think we see the QNAP vs. Synology question four, five times a week here. And none of those can get answered categorically. You need to look at the UI live demos for both, make a list of compelling features and check if that feature is here or there, look at the performance figures for what you are going to be using the NAS for, then decide for yourself.

I also recommend reading everyone else's forum posts on just this issue.


I personally can recommend building your own...

 

[quantum]

Thanks GregN! I wanted to know what performance number to look at, so thanks for that. I am one of the strange people who actually enjoys doing the research myself but wasn't sure if i was looking at the right metrics.(even from reading other threads)
the naspt figures (vs cost) will weigh a lot in my decision.

The other performance item i wanted to inquire about is the hard drives. i've used "better" drives in the past, but after looking at the nas charts, i am wondering if they actually yield better performance, given that the net throughputs coming out of the NAS is less than what you get from the drive. will the power conscious "green" drives yield any difference in performance than the "better" performing drives?

thanks in advance for any feedback. i appreciate it.

 

[thiggins]

See Can Your NAS Do Two Things At Once? for starters.

Yes, "Trick modes", i.e. fast forward / reverse, increase bandwidth required proportionally. 2X fast forward requires twice the bandwidth.

Most all today's NASes should handle trick modes fine, IF, you are connected via Ethernet. Wi-Fi, even 802.11n, won't do it.

As far as high performance drives, don't bother. The only thing "enterprise" grade drives will get you is perhaps longer life, but at the expense of more heat and noise. I would use them only in situations where the NAS is constantly being hammered on with small file tranfers, like database or webserving.

 

[quantum]

Thanks thiggins.
would there be a different between the non-enterprise drives like WD's caviar black/blue/green?