Need a quiet 2-Bay high-performance NAS... QNAP TS-239 Pro II?

[occamsrazor]

Hi,

I've been looking at NASes for seemingly ages, and never seem to get around to getting a new one. I have a Stardom SL-3620 and it's awful - very basic firmware, slow transfers, and what I consider to be an extremely loud fan - so loud that I basically don't use it anymore. I do realise it's an older generation NAS.

Anyway, the recent performance chart of the QNAP TS-239 Pro II renewed my interest, it seems like a really great device, but I have a few questions that perhaps owners of similar QNAP and other 2-drive NASes could answer:

1. Just how loud are these QNAP 2-Drive NASes? Decibels mean nothing to me. Would you be happy having this run 24/7 in your living room? Can you hear it from, say, 5 feet away?

2. What 2-drive NASes are considered the most quiet, if not the QNAPs, while still maintaining a feature set comparable to the QNAP?

3. I've read a bunch of stuff in the forums about power-management issues with the QNAP models - mainly the inability to manage automatic power-up/down, drive spindown, fan shut-off etc - has this been fixed in more recent firmwares?. My NAS does not need to be instantly-accessible 24/7 - I would much rather it go into a low power/noise mode after say 15 minutes of non-use, even if that means a delay in accessing again later, so long as it can automatically power-up again automatically when needed.

4. I'd love to get a 4-drive NAS, but am scared off by the likely noise. Are there any recommended ones given this factor?

Thanks a lot in advance if you can answer any of these questions...

Ben

PS - Most of my computers are Macs and I so I want good Time Machine support.

 

[thiggins]

I have a 239 Pro II running right now. There is virtually no fan noise from the product. But you can definitely hear the two drives spinning. Not much you can do about that.

In my experience, vendors, in general, have been doing a better job at keeping fan noise low in current designs. But, again, there's not much you can do about drive noise, except maybe go for a product that you can put 2.5" drives in. All the QNAPs support this. You can also look at products like the Buffalo Mini.

If you're really sensitive to noise, then don't put the NAS in a living room, or put it in a closet (I know, easier said than done.)

I've had no problem with drive spindown / up features on recent QNAPs. I haven't tested the auto shutdown / startup.

If you don't like listening to drive noise, then don't get a four drive NAS. There's not much NAS vendors can do about drive noise.

 

[occamsrazor]

Thanks for your quick reply...

I have a 239 Pro II running right now. There is virtually no fan noise from the product. But you can definitely hear the two drives spinning. Not much you can do about that.

If it's just the drive-noise I'm OK with that. I have a couple 2-drive firewire RAID units and don't find their drive noise to be a problem, it's just the fan noise of some of my units (which I find to be waay louder than the drives themselves, although I suspect they are particularly loud models)

I've had no problem with drive spindown / up features on recent QNAPs. I haven't tested the auto shutdown / startup.

Will the drives spin down while other computers are awake on the LAN. I read somewhere that e.g. Macs frequently poll the network (?) causing the NAS drives to never properly sleep. Or maybe I'm mistaken.

If you don't like listening to drive noise, then don't get a four drive NAS. There's not much NAS vendors can do about drive noise.

Out of interest (seeing as drive noise alone doesn't seem to be the problem for me)... are the 4-drive QNAP units (e.g. TS-459 Pro) significantly louder than the 2-drive ones, overrall, and in terms of fan noise?

Thanks for your help....

 

[thiggins]

Will the drives spin down while other computers are awake on the LAN. I read somewhere that e.g. Macs frequently poll the network (?) causing the NAS drives to never properly sleep. Or maybe I'm mistaken.

If something talks to the NAS, then it's going to wake up. That's not the fault of the NAS. I have no Macs on my network and the QNAPs I test seem to stay powered down unless spoken to.

Out of interest (seeing as drive noise alone doesn't seem to be the problem for me)... are the 4-drive QNAP units (e.g. TS-459 Pro) significantly louder than the 2-drive ones, overrall, and in terms of fan noise?

I haven't seen that to be the case. QNAP is doing a good job for thermal design of their products. Under heavy, continuous load, fan speed may pick up a bit. But not enough to scream. But think twice before you stick a four drive NAS in your living room. Drive noise from two drives may not bother you, but four drives are louder.