NAS recommendation

[kng]

Hi,

From some time I'm thinking to buy a NAS at home. As I don't want to find myself in a few years that existing storage it's not enough, I'm thinking to buy a NAS with at least 8 HDD slots.

At this moment I'm looking at following models:
- Synology DS2415+
- Synology DS1815+
- Qnap TVS 871
- Qnap TS853 pro

I need everything: data safety (I' thinking to have a RAID 5 for a better redundancy), performance, scalability in the future. Probably I will not start with 8 or 12 HDDs from the start, but at least with 5 and I will add more disks lately.

Currently I have as "nas" an old PC (first i7 CPU, 18 GB of RAM), with 5 HDDs in it, 2 in raid 1 (mirror) for critical data, an external USDB drive for backing up my data from time to time.

What I would like to do:
- streaming (currently I have PS3, Apple TV and PS3 media server on my PC for PS3). Some new players will be added later, a dedicated network player, blu ray player.
- store my work in a safe location
- store photos from holidays, pretty much
- store the virtual machines I'm using in my day to day work and being able to run them directly from the nas. I have a MacBook Pro 2015, I will use this for running virtual machines, I just want to map the shared folder from nas, on my laptop.
- access my work remotely, from different locations. I just upgraded my network connection to 500/25 Mbps to be sure that the upload connection is ok.

My network at home is already gigabit (cable), I have also an Asus RT-AC66u router and I am able to get about 320 Mbps over wireless with my existing "nas". Upgrading wireless performance will be another topic

At this moment I would go with Synology 2415+, but I don't know which performs better: Qnap or Synology?

Thank you

 

[stevech]

Rethink RAID. Most likely data loss risk is not drive failure, IMO.

RAID is not a backup.
How are you going to backup this 8 bay monster?

Don't over-buy.

 

[kng]

I know that RAID is not a backup, and it's too expensive to buy 2 of them. I don't know yet how I will implement a backup, what type of backup. Probably I will buy some external disks, and periodically copy critical data on those.

 

[L&LD]

There are two kind of backups you should consider. One is the data itself, of course.

The other is the reliance or critical need to access that data at any given time in any way the NAS you choose offers. By that, I mean you should consider being protected from a hardware failure, if that is a major concern.

If a NAS hardware failure would be catastrophic even if you had access to the raw data, consider buying two 4 bay (or larger) NAS units (and for further protection, not identical. But they should have similar features, of course).

Keep asking questions and posting examples of how you want / expect to use a NAS on a day to day basis. The answers you get may not be the expected ones and this can help you from making a costly mistake or worse.

 

[kbp]

Buy a 2 bay to back up the larger NAS. Does not need to be "raided". Speed here will not be an issue.

 

[stevech]

OP said "From some time I'm thinking to buy a NAS at home..."

Some in this thread are leading OP down a gross overkill path.

 

[L&LD]

OP said "From some time I'm thinking to buy a NAS at home..."

Some in this thread are leading OP down a gross overkill path.

OP also said and I quote "I need everything".

Overkill is worth risking if it means learning and knowing all options ahead of time rather than when it is too late (after you have committed to a less well thought out path).

 

[stevech]

I'm too cheap to need everything.
I might want everything.

 

[KenZ71]

I need everything as well until my wallet gives a reality check

 

[RacerRon]

Check out the Asustor NAS offerings. I recently purchased an I3 processor model and am quite impressed with it. It was certainly less expensive than the comparable Qnap or Sysology models.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk

 

[stevech]

Asustor ... beware early adopter syndrome

 

[iunlock]

The Asustor was briefly on my short list until I took it off. I'll leave it at that.

OP, I would recommend the TVS-871 over the Synology models. That's just my opinion upon my own research before buying my TVS-671. (I didn't have any particular brand loyalty until now....I've had it all....QNAP at the end of the day tops the charts in the areas you've mentioned + with the TVS-x71, it's future proof. Hint hint.)

 

[kng]

Sorry for my late reply, I was in holiday, a trip with the car through Europe, no laptop or tablet during this time

First of all I need a big storage space with RAID 5 I was thinking, in order to be sure that I still have my data if a disk crashes. I don't want to buy another NAS in the next 5 years let's say. I don't expect to have 3 disks crashing in the same time, that willll lead for sure to data loss.

 

[iunlock]

Sorry for my late reply, I was in holiday, a trip with the car through Europe, no laptop or tablet during this time

First of all I need a big storage space with RAID 5 I was thinking, in order to be sure that I still have my data if a disk crashes. I don't want to buy another NAS in the next 5 years let's say. I don't expect to have 3 disks crashing in the same time, that willll lead for sure to data loss.

Fun times. Welcome back.

If you need lots of space I'd go with the TVS-871, max out the RAM to 16GB, and you can always do a motor swap later if you need more power. The key here is that you have the ability to upgrade at your own will. I'm with you on future proofing and one thing great about the TVS-X71 line is that it's 4K ready, upgradable to 10Gbe monsters and in the meantime hard drives will only get bigger in capacity. Again, the key here is that you are able to upgrade and this line makes the perfect platform to carry you well into the future.

 

[iunlock]

I've forgot to mention that with the luxury of space on a RAID5 set up (aside to having only one parity), you'll have lots of space to play around with storage pools and volumes.

Just make sure to have some cold spares on tap. (I keep two hard drives on standby at all times. Ready to go "when" needed.)

 

[kng]

Just did a quick check of prices in my country.
TVS - 871 with i5 cpu costs about 1800 euro
TVS-871 with G3250 cpu costs about 1350 euro
DS1815+ with Intel AtomC2538 costs about 980 euro
DS2415+ with the same C2538 costs about 1380 euro

In this situation I would go with Synology, not sure yet which model, there is a 400 euro difference between 1815 and 2415, 8 bays vs 12 bays. If I would go with 1815, I will have only 6 usable HDDs, one would be for RAID 5 redundancy and another one for hot spare.

Qnap is expensive with almost 400 euro also, for a 8 bays NAS. Does it worth the difference?

 

[iunlock]

Just did a quick check of prices in my country.
TVS - 871 with i5 cpu costs about 1800 euro
TVS-871 with G3250 cpu costs about 1350 euro
DS1815+ with Intel AtomC2538 costs about 980 euro
DS2415+ with the same C2538 costs about 1380 euro

In this situation I would go with Synology, not sure yet which model, there is a 400 euro difference between 1815 and 2415, 8 bays vs 12 bays. If I would go with 1815, I will have only 6 usable HDDs, one would be for RAID 5 redundancy and another one for hot spare.

Qnap is expensive with almost 400 euro also, for a 8 bays NAS. Does it worth the difference?

Me personally I would not go with the Synology with the weak Atom processors. Trust me my friend. I've gone through that nightmare. If you will only be using the NAS for very light purposes than, maybe. But since you've mentioned future proofing, I'd stay away from Atom processors. They are very very weak. I have 3 NAS's with Atoms. My biggest regrets ever.

I'd recommend going with the TVS-871 with the G3250 and even though it's a Pentium Dual Core 3.2GHz, it's way better than Atoms. Also, if you need to upgrade and do a swap (if you're up for it) you can. It's not hard.

So again...future proofing. You'll save yourself money going with the TVS-871 (G3250) model and having the "Ability," to upgrade.

Whatever you do, stay away from Atom cpu's! They are not powerful at all. I don't care if there's quad core Atom's, it's not worth it.

 

[stevech]

My NAS speeds and so on are modest. A sub-GHz or thereabouts is fine. Most of the NAS work is I/O bound, not CPU bound. I don't need more. The DS212 is fine. Someday I'll update but I'm not at all dissatisfied with speed or features.
I have a mini-ITX Atom based PC (not a NAS). It's slow, of course. But I expected that.

 

[iunlock]

My NAS speeds and so on are modest. A sub-GHz or thereabouts is fine. Most of the NAS work is I/O bound, not CPU bound. I don't need more. The DS212 is fine. Someday I'll update but I'm not at all dissatisfied with speed or features.
I have a mini-ITX Atom based PC (not a NAS). It's slow, of course. But I expected that.

That's good. As long as it's serving your needs. I am basing my recommendations based on what the OP had listed above. From the sounds of it, he needs some power that is more than an Atom. I'm assuming this to be true based on what he already has. "...an i7 with 18GB of RAM..."

Buying anything with an Atom for him would be a downgrade.

 

[stevech]

I hate to see people over-buy.

But I'm frugal, though I need not be so.