NAS recommendation

[iunlock]

I hate to see people over-buy.

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

I'm with you on that. For most casual users they don't need anything more than an efficient economy car. Point A to Point B.

 

[kng]

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.

The current "nas" it's a powerfull desktop on which I am running many virtual machines, in general 2 virtual machines simultaneously. This is why it has an i7 with 18GB RAM. And I used that computer to add many disks in it, I have a RAID mirror for some disks (the ones with real important data), I'm using it also to access my data from any other device I have at home (4 laptops, tablet, media players).

The new NAS I want to use it for storing data, for playing multimedia files, for storing the virtual machines on it, to run them remotely from my laptop. I will not run them on my laptop, just that I don't want to copy them on my local disk.

From this point of view I am not so sure that I really need a powerfull CPU on the NAS. The i/o is my concern here, the speed when copying some huge files through the network (already gigabit as said), security (for sure I will enable encryption on the disks, maybe here a better CPU is needed, but I was expecting for an Atom to be able to handle this).

 

[iunlock]

The current "nas" it's a powerfull desktop on which I am running many virtual machines, in general 2 virtual machines simultaneously. This is why it has an i7 with 18GB RAM. And I used that computer to add many disks in it, I have a RAID mirror for some disks (the ones with real important data), I'm using it also to access my data from any other device I have at home (4 laptops, tablet, media players).

The new NAS I want to use it for storing data, for playing multimedia files, for storing the virtual machines on it, to run them remotely from my laptop. I will not run them on my laptop, just that I don't want to copy them on my local disk.

From this point of view I am not so sure that I really need a powerfull CPU on the NAS. The i/o is my concern here, the speed when copying some huge files through the network (already gigabit as said), security (for sure I will enable encryption on the disks, maybe here a better CPU is needed, but I was expecting for an Atom to be able to handle this).

With the info and usage you have listed, an Atom based NAS won't cut it. Regardless of what anyone says trying to defend the Atom, which seems pretty silly to me given that it is what it is, I come from a similar background with your usage needs and can relate. As I've already mentioned, I regretfully own 3 NAS's with Atom CPU's and am very familiar with what they can and can not do well.

I'm a big security fanatic myself so when you've mentioned security/encryption, it just goes to say again that you're much better off getting something that can not only handle your needs well, but that is future proof to at least some degree.

Out of the choices you've listed, the TVS-871 w/ the G3250 is your best bet. I'd highly advise staying away from Atom's if you can. The choice is ultimately yours.

Cheers.

 

[kng]

I regretfully own 3 NAS's with Atom CPU's and am very familiar with what they can and can not do well.

What models do you have? The hybrid raid is a nice feature of Synology.

L.E. I did some research on the internet, I see that many owners are complaining about the CPU having a load of over 90% when playing mkv at 1080p through the network.

 

[iunlock]

The most worst to worst:

• The old school Synology DS412+
• WD DL4100
• Synology DS415+

My current NAS's:
QNAP TVS-671 (Quad Core - i7) 16GB RAM- Home
QNAP TVS-871 (Quad Core - i7) 16GB RAM -Office

The DS415+ isn't too bad for light use and it reminds me a lot of the J1900 CPU, but it's no champ. Their whole push on the encryption engine and multi client usage is a joke. It's basically Quad Core for nothing. I would never spend that much on an Atom powered unit for the purpose of wanting performance. The WD is more of storage only unit that was bought on a big sale. I've pretty much only paid for the cost of the drives and the shell was almost free. For it's purpose, it's excellent. The DS415+ was a freak buy that my son had ordered online and after using it, he didn't want it anymore because it was too slow for his usage needs, so he pretty much brought it back home and just left it here. All the three units are just back up storage tanks sitting in the garage. That's it.

 

[RMerlin]

I recently got an Asustor AS-5004T for home, and so far I love it. It also replaced my Zotac HTPC at the same time.
While I always go with Qnap for my business customers, I couldn't justify their price premium for home usage.


Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk

 

[kng]

Qnap is quite expensive comparing with Synology and I can't find 871 or 671 with i7 CPU. I estimate that the proce for TVS 871 with i7 will be at least 2 000 euro in my country. For 1400 euro I can buy a Synology with 12 bays, rather than a QNAP with 8 bays.

If I will buy a Qnap with G3250 CPU do I have to change the motherboard in the future also, or only the CPU?

 

[iunlock]

Qnap is quite expensive comparing with Synology and I can't find 871 or 671 with i7 CPU. I estimate that the proce for TVS 871 with i7 will be at least 2 000 euro in my country. For 1400 euro I can buy a Synology with 12 bays, rather than a QNAP with 8 bays.

If I will buy a Qnap with G3250 CPU do I have to change the motherboard in the future also, or only the CPU?

The TVS-671 or 871 doesn't come with the i7. They only come stock with the Pentium, i3 and i5. I swapped out my i5 with a i7-4970s. That's the highest i7 cpu you can put in the TVS-X71 line. (which is darn high = future proof). That's why the QNAP is being recommended. You don't have to change the motherboard.

So just buy the Pentium model and swap it out later if you need more power. It'll save you hundreds of euros.

 

[kng]

Is the difference so big for a NAS, between i5 and i7 CPU? Currently no store has TVS-x71 locally

 

[iunlock]

Is the difference so big for a NAS, between i5 and i7 CPU? Currently no store has TVS-x71 locally

For most people (99%), no. The i5 is plenty. However, for power users like myself we need all the power we can get.

Just put it this way, for the things you've listed, the i5 will work wonders. Heck, even the i3 and highly likely the dual core 2.4GHz Pentium as well. All I'm saying is, if, you needed more power down the road, there's always the option to swap it out. That's the luxury you have with the QNAP over having to buy another unit to meet your needs in the future.

 

[kng]

I am just thinking if I should buy the dual core Pentium, and some time later an i7, or if I should go with i3/i5. When I will change the CPU I will remain with a useless i3 or i5. The i7 CPU is another 400 euro I think.

 

[iunlock]

I am just thinking if I should buy the dual core Pentium, and some time later an i7, or if I should go with i3/i5. When I will change the CPU I will remain with a useless i3 or i5. The i7 CPU is another 400 euro I think.

Let's refer back to your needs from your first post:

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.

All the things in bold require CPU power. Especially running virtual machines. If you plan to have more people streaming from the NAS in the future, you'll need more power.

With the usage details you've provide, even the Pentium would suffice. I'd go with the TVS-871 or 671 with the Pentium and run that for the time being. It'll hold you over. Later down the road when you absolutely need more power, then you have the option to get the i7 to swap out your Pentium. Only then, it won't have a price tag of ~400 euros. It'll be cheaper! Much cheaper...all the CPU prices are going to drop when Skylake launches soon.

Do keep in mind...while you're deciding on the Pentium, i3 or i5 that you can always sell that to recoup the cost toward your i7 purchase, whenever that may be. Something is better than nothing. Same goes for the stock RAM....sell it. Also, the difference from the Pentium to the i3 should be roughly ~$100. The big jump is from the i3 to i5. Honestly, if you're going for the i5 right now, might as well just get the Pentium and upgrade right away yourself. That's only if you're seriously considering the i5 right now. If you can wait....just get the Pentium now and upgrade later. It's the best route.

 

[kng]

There will be 2 users only (it is for home), most of the time only me. The virtual machines will not run on the nas, they will be stored on nas and I want to run them from my laptop. In this situation I don't consider that a fast CPU is needed. Too bad that I can't use the i7 I have it now, for sure I would save some money

How did you setup the raid on your Qnap? What type of RAID? If I will buy the 671 model, I would setup a RAID 5 with hot spare, so I will have only 4 hdds for usable data. Because of this I am thinking to the 871 model, to have 6 usable disks.

 

[iunlock]

There will be 2 users only (it is for home), most of the time only me. The virtual machines will not run on the nas, they will be stored on nas and I want to run them from my laptop. In this situation I don't consider that a fast CPU is needed. Too bad that I can't use the i7 I have it now, for sure I would save some money

How did you setup the raid on your Qnap? What type of RAID? If I will buy the 671 model, I would setup a RAID 5 with hot spare, so I will have only 4 hdds for usable data. Because of this I am thinking to the 871 model, to have 6 usable disks.

If it's just you and occasionally another person, go for the Pentium all the way. It's no slouch. Especially if you won't be running VM's on it. It'll save you a good amount of euros to put toward the hard drives.

I'm a huge RAID 5 fan, despite it only having one parity disk. I have two cold spares ready to go at a moments notice. Plus I have 4x 5TB external hard drives that I use to back up the important data that I store on the NAS. As you know a RAID of any kind is not a back up.

Then I have all that data uploaded to my unlimited cloud service that I use. As a secondary off site back up, I have storage space on my NAS at my friends house and in return in have a NAS he owns at my place.

So all on all, I have 2 local and 2 off site back ups. Well, actually more but that's another story.

Storage space wise between the 6 bay and 8 bay...well...there's a lot of ways to look at it.

6 bay x 6TB = 36TB
8 bay x 6TB = 48TB

However....if you do the math it can add up...hard drives add up...with the 8 bay if you were to get the WD Reds for example that's already another $500 for just two drives.

The question is...do you really need more than 36TB? Well minus the parity...but you get the point =)

 

[kng]

First of all, I am thinking to use 4TB hard drives. As far as I've read, these are more stable than the 6TB drives, which fail faster. So I would have (for the 8 bay nas) 4 * 6 = 24 TB. One drive would be for the parity and another one for hot-spare.

The other user would be my wife. But she would need to access data and streaming (photos, videos), while I will be using mostly for my VMs and streaming also. I like to listen to the music or have a movie on another screen, while working on something.

As far as I've read, the Intel Atom from Synology has the same performance as the Pentium from Qnap. Indeed, Synology cannot be upgraded.

 

[iunlock]

First of all, I am thinking to use 4TB hard drives. As far as I've read, these are more stable than the 6TB drives, which fail faster. So I would have (for the 8 bay nas) 4 * 6 = 24 TB. One drive would be for the parity and another one for hot-spare.

The other user would be my wife. But she would need to access data and streaming (photos, videos), while I will be using mostly for my VMs and streaming also. I like to listen to the music or have a movie on another screen, while working on something.

As far as I've read, the Intel Atom from Synology has the same performance as the Pentium from Qnap. Indeed, Synology cannot be upgraded.

I too favor the 4TB drives as well, for that very reason of it being tested and proven with a track record much longer than the 6TB. It is true that the 6TB has a higher failure rate than the 4TB. In this case, you should get the 8 bay with 4TB drives giving you 32TB of space. (25.5TB usable space w/ RAID5).

The Atom's in the Synology are still slower/weaker than the Dual Core Pentium in the QNAP.

 

[kng]

I just used the demo platforms of both and I like more the Qnap interface than the Synology one. Maybe the internet connection was too slow with the Synology demo, because the interface seemed to run slowly than the one of Qnap. So from this point of view, for sure I will go with the Qnap.

 

[iunlock]

I just used the demo platforms of both and I like more the Qnap interface than the Synology one. Maybe the internet connection was too slow with the Synology demo, because the interface seemed to run slowly than the one of Qnap. So from this point of view, for sure I will go with the Qnap.

Great choice. I love the QNAP interface. It's very well polished and forever expanding. I've spent a lot of time on the phone with an expert (literally) over at QNAP going through all different types of things on the QNAP GUI. It's loaded....

So you're going for the TVS-871?

 

[kng]

This is the plan. At this moment I can't find locally any of the x71 models, they are not on stock . I just returned from my holiday and my pockets are rather empty, so probably next month I will find the nas in store and I will have the budget.

I was even thinking of the 471 model for start, but even this is missing from the stores and the price difference between this and the 8 bay model is small (about 400 euro I think).

 

[iunlock]

This is the plan. At this moment I can't find locally any of the x71 models, they are not on stock . I just returned from my holiday and my pockets are rather empty, so probably next month I will find the nas in store and I will have the budget.

I was even thinking of the 471 model for start, but even this is missing from the stores and the price difference between this and the 8 bay model is small (about 400 euro I think).

Indeed. The price difference is too small to not jump up to the 6 or 8 bay. Keep us updated on how things go. A month from now, they just might be on sale.