Need solution For home nas/server

[buxbunny]

I would like some professional advise as i've spent weeks looking for solution and more i search the more complicated it gets.

Firstly like to explain i my setup
Living room (wired):
Main gaming pc
xbox 360
wii
ps3
htpc

bedroom (all wireless):
gaming htpc
wii
xbox 360
ps3
ps2(not wireless)

etc
3x laptops
phones(iphone/andriod)
other wireless (hand held gaming)
router asus rt-n56u(bought after reading reviews on site so thank guys)

Dilemma
I used my main gaming pc as a nas/server with 2x 1tb disks to store all files i.e dvdrips/blueray rips boxsets games etc and stream and allow access by sharing the drives so can use it anywhere in house. Also pc runs 24/7.
Now have about 38gb left so i have been looking into nas but for life me can't figure out what to do. just purchased 2tb but still in packaging.

What I'm looking for
I need something that be on 24/7 stream to all device up to 1080p. Need also back up all devices but this isn't essential but i need backup content on internal drives. I know off raid but whole raid process confuses me. Raid 1 option but don't know if i can raid 0 then have sencond nas backup all the first nas data. Want be able download content directly on it so all devices have access. Easily expandable as my collection grows ridiculously fast hence why want 4bay options so i can easily have 8tb option. I'm not sure if selected nas support 3tb plus price hike seems more economical to go for 2tb drives.

The shortlist
HP ProLiant Turion II N40L MicroServer (£149 with cashback)
I know not nas per say but what I've read can do what i want and is dirt cheap with cash back so can buy loads.

Netgear RND4000 ReadyNAS NV+ 4-bay (£257)

Qnap Ts-412 (£275)

Netgear RNDU4000 ReadyNAS Ultra 4-Bay (£413)



Or build DIY
Reason being i have alot spare part lying around which i could just use to make a nas which has option going up to 16+ drives (if need be) and cost no where near price having 10+ bay nas or even with new parts. Although it may cost as much as buying nas it just has the expandability factor and upgradable.

I would appreciate any advice that will help me make a good decision or any other options you may have in mind but i'm trying to limit my budget to £500.

 

[stevech]

Opinion--- synology or qnap.
DS111 or DS211 or the latest is DS212.

I don't consider netgear as comparable.

 

[thiggins]

RAID is not a substitute for backup. Backup must be kept on a physically separate device. This would be another NAS, networked file share on a computer or attached USB/eSATA drive.

 

[buxbunny]

Thanks for input guys.
I didn't know you could attach a nas to a nas
but I decided to go with a unraid as it seems fit my needs;
[CASE] ANTEC Three Hundred Illusion Micro-ATX
[MOBO+iGPU] ASROCK 880GM-LE AM3 HD4250 Micro-ATX
[CPU] SEMPRON 145 SDX145HBGMBOX 2.8GHz Single-Core AM3 45W
[PSU] CORSAIR CMPSU-430CX 430W 80Plus certified ATX12V
[RAM] Kingston ValueRAM 1GB (1x1GB) 240-Pin DDR3 1066Mhz CL7

stevech: The thing is those snyology are to small for what I want but probably get nas to back up the machines

 

[stevech]

Wow. Blows my mind that the low cost NASes from Synolgy/QNAP, with 2TB, are too small for home use. I guess it's because I don't appreciate what it takes to have a big library (e.g, ripped DVDs ?). My collection is just a few dozen plus 50GB or so of family photos and financial info.

 

[stevech]

RAID is not a substitute for backup. Backup must be kept on a physically separate device. This would be another NAS, networked file share on a computer or attached USB/eSATA drive.

Re "physically separate device..." How about this scenario: Dual-drive NAS. Each drive is an independent volume, independent file system. Not RAID1 mirroring because we don't want a corrupt file system on drive 1 duplicated on drive 2 as would happen with RAID1. So some NAS auto-copy software keeps drive 2's file system having the same files as in drive 1, but independent file systems. Both drives are in the same enclosure.

I suppose there's a chance that some NAS disk interface failure mode would corrupt both drives' independent file sytstems, but this seems unlikely.

So this is a scenario to avoid plugging in an eSATA or USB external drive all the time.

 

[buxbunny]

Wow. Blows my mind that the low cost NASes from Synolgy/QNAP, with 2TB, are too small for home use. I guess it's because I don't appreciate what it takes to have a big library (e.g, ripped DVDs ?). My collection is just a few dozen plus 50GB or so of family photos and financial info.

I'm sorry stevech i didn't mean to offend you. As i said i didn't know you could have multiple NAS attached or same network.

Before i received replies to post i was still researching and was advised unraid best for media storage and made sense to me as I could just add a disk as and when i ran out space and it had a priority drive in case disk failed.

If i'd known what you said in last post maybe could saved few £100.

I'm assuming using a duel drive NAS in you scenario you would have 10+ and double amount if wanted to back up?

 

[kevinherring]

Re "physically separate device..." How about this scenario: Dual-drive NAS. Each drive is an independent volume, independent file system. <snip>

I've suggested this a million times before but have you considered storing your second NAS at a tech-savvy friends house? Sync nightly using Rsync. That way you have redundancy against theft and acts of god....

 

[stevech]

yes, I've considered that. But my ISP's uplink speed is just 0.9Mbps (downlink is 10-20Mbps).

My preference for off-site backup is drive that I stick in a drive caddy, write, then take to my office. I do this now and then, so there is a time window of risk.

My REALLY important files (financial info) - fits on an encrypted USB thumb drive which isn't left near the home computer for a thief.

 

[stevech]

I'm sorry stevech i didn't mean to offend you. As i said i didn't know you could have multiple NAS attached or same network.

Before i received replies to post i was still researching and was advised unraid best for media storage and made sense to me as I could just add a disk as and when i ran out space and it had a priority drive in case disk failed.

If i'd known what you said in last post maybe could saved few £100.

I'm assuming using a duel drive NAS in you scenario you would have 10+ and double amount if wanted to back up?

I wasn't at all offended, just wondering why a home user needs multi-TB. I have a personal video DVR (Sage TV), in use for years, with 1TB RAID0 for big video recorded TV shows (taken from the HDMI output of a cable box controlled by Sage). Over the years, we have archived a few TV shows/movies, but even in HD 1080i, these don't use 500GB.

Independent of the TV recordings, recently I've done a lot of work testing and deciding whether to make or buy a new/better home NAS. (I had purchased, used, discarded (literally trashed) a Netgear low end unit; still use a cheapie Airlink AirNAS - for years, but it's dog slow). So I tested the heck out of FreeNAS and last week, unRAID. On a mini-ITX AMD E350 based motherboard system. I really tried to like both. unRAID's user interface was, for me, much better than FreeNAS, though each uses a different strategy for hard drive failure protection. Also, OpenFiler didn't do what I want.

For a home NAS, I rate ease of use, ease of administration months from now when I've forgotten how it was setup (the NAS is to be an appliance) - and for LAN storage, remote FTP access, remote web browser based up/download, etc. I did use the add-ins that I could find, such as the AJAX-based file manager/server for Linux (added to unRAID).

unRAID is great in ease of expansion, but write speeds do slow throughput,but even so it's good enough for a home NAS (10's of MB/s).

My own conclusion was to buy, not make, primarily because, though I am a Unix-literate software/firmware developer by profession, at home, with the NAS, I didn't what to use shell commands much at all, for the functions listed above. I didn't want to struggle with chown, group management, chmod, mkdir, blah, blah. I found that FreeNAS and unRAID have a nice GUI for storage functions, but not for adding users for remote access (like friends/family), many admin things, and so on.

I hope to just web browse to the NAS, less frequently as time goes by, and quickly do what needs to be done, and not grunge around with shell commands and try to remember, in Linux, that to do A, I have to remember how to do B, C and D from the shell.

So my decision came to which vendor is viable and will be here 3 years from now, has support to answer the phone in my language and time zone, answer my dumb question, has a price I can stand for a mid-range dual drive SOHO unit, supports USB3 so I don't have to struggle with eSATA for removable media, and which has the easiest to use UI.

I made that decision and my toy arrives Jan 20.