New to NAS - Buying Advice for 4-Bay NAS

[Sohaib Najam]

Hi everyone, I have been reading and researching a lot of NAS in the last couple of days and to be blunt, I'm not really good at this type of stuff when it comes to NAS technology, as that's really not my interest.

What I Want in a NAS:
-Be Mac Compatible i.e. Time Machine is a must
-Good Real world Read/Write Speeds
-Have remote access to it when I visit other countries
-Not Break the Wallet - Nothing over $1000.00 CAD whatsoever
-Simple Software; hence why I was looking into Synology
-Must be 4 Bay Minimum - Going to buy 2TB Hard drives x 4 in Raid 5 most likely - Most likely WD Green, can't afford 4 WD Reds yet.
-Reliability is a must, as I have stated above, I'm a complete novice when it comes to NAS

-Streaming: Not the end of the world for me, I don't mind just putting a movie on my USB and plugging it into lets say my Smart TV - Would prefer it if the feature is available and works fast enough for at least 720p streaming; and again doesn't break the bank, by buying something ridiculously expensive for a feature I might not use.

What I've Considered:
-Synology DS415Play -> heard it had poor Reads/Writes performance and isn't very good at streaming as well so not really considering it anymore
-Synology DS414+ ->People said it was quite a bit faster than the DS415Play
-Synology DS415+ -> Apparently some report having bad performance, others say it's good

-A Few QNAP ones, but got deterred from QNAP as it apparently does not have as easy to use or quite as polished Software compared to Synology; Unless you guys think that it is easy enough to use for my particular use case scenario.

-WD EX4 -> Did consider it in the beginning, but the performance of it is appalling.


*** Main Purpose for a NAS for me: I have multiple Mac's - Reliable Time Machine Backups; 2) Be able to transfer large files quickly e.g. I watch/download lots of documentary and anime, easily exceeding 100GB per anime/documentary series. 3) Would love to have remote access or give it to other people so they can access the files stored on the NAS. --->Those are the main things I need it to do, I am tired of carrying 6-7 external Hard drives in various sizes for multiple Time Machine backups and just general backup of my files and shows ***

State of my home:
-100mb/s down and 10mb/s up
-2 Apple Airport Extremes (Wireless AC)
-5 people at the very most would try to access the NAS at any given point so nothing intense, and no one really would stream off of it.

Any Help would be greatly Appreciated! Thanks.

 

[thiggins]

Your needs are relatively simple. Keep in mind you need Gigabit Ethernet, not wireless, to achieve the top transfer throughput shown in the NAS Charts. Wireless AC will NOT be sufficient.

The 415play and 415+ have both been tested and reviewed.

Both QNAP and Synology have easy to use interfaces. The "better" one is a matter of personal preference.

 

[htismaqe]

Your number 1 requirement was Time Machine support and you mentioned having multiple Mac users. For that reason alone, I would recommend Synology.

http://www.snbforums.com/threads/ts-251-ds215j-or-readynas-202.25652/#post-191367

 

[Sohaib Najam]

Your needs are relatively simple. Keep in mind you need Gigabit Ethernet, not wireless, to achieve the top transfer throughput shown in the NAS Charts. Wireless AC will NOT be sufficient.

The 415play and 415+ have both been tested and reviewed.

Both QNAP and Synology have easy to use interfaces. The "better" one is a matter of personal preference.

Yeah, will be hooking it up directly into the airport extremes gigabit port.

Your number 1 requirement was Time Machine support and you mentioned having multiple Mac users. For that reason alone, I would recommend Synology.

http://www.snbforums.com/threads/ts-251-ds215j-or-readynas-202.25652/#post-191367

Yeah that's why I was leaning more towards synology as multiple sources said it was more friendly with time machine. I was just wondering if the ds415+ is worth the extra $100-$150.00 for its increased performance, because I won't be buying another Nas for a long time after this one - would love it if it works flawlessly for at least 5+years at least the Nas itself, I know hard drives can fail at any point.



Thanks for the help to both of you, now I'm just wondering which synology to pick up.

 

[sfx2000]

Point to consider...

Apple has never published to 3rd Parties on how TimeMachine actually works - so others have had to reverse engineer it.

Since OP has an Apple Airport Extreme - thought here is perhaps put a large USB drive on the Airport, and use Air Disk just for TimeMachine - and then periodically export TimeMachine snapshots over to the NAS box.

 

[htismaqe]

Point to consider...

Apple has never published to 3rd Parties on how TimeMachine actually works - so others have had to reverse engineer it.

Since OP has an Apple Airport Extreme - thought here is perhaps put a large USB drive on the Airport, and use Air Disk just for TimeMachine - and then periodically export TimeMachine snapshots over to the NAS box.

That's actually pretty much what I do. I run TimeMachine on a Firewire 800 enclosure and then have a weekly process that images the volume via Disk Utility and copies it to the NAS.

 

[L&LD]

I would suggest to forget the Green drives and get the RED drives instead.

Time Machine requirement is a non-issue as you have the airport extreme as sfx2000 stated.

QNAP is my NAS software/hardware preference. Usually more powerful platform for similar costs.

 

[Sohaib Najam]

I would suggest to forget the Green drives and get the RED drives instead.

Time Machine requirement is a non-issue as you have the airport extreme as sfx2000 stated.

QNAP is my NAS software/hardware preference. Usually more powerful platform for similar costs.

Yeah, I think that would be the best idea of just connecting a large external hard drive to the extreme directly and just backing that up once in a while on the NAS. and as for synology vs Qnap, now that everyone has suggested I do time machine via the AirPort Extreme and then back that up once in a while, I think I will go for QNAP as they offer substantial performance increase for the same price.

As for WD Red, I have already previously stated that they cost too much for me atm, can't afford 2tb x 4 for the NAS, even though had I had more money I definitely would.

Any recommendations for a good QNAP Nas, that has stable reads and writes over a single gigabit network?

To everyone else, thank-you for helping me so far. I appreciate it.

 

[L&LD]

The WD Red is highly recommended over the Green series for NAS use or not. The Green series drives may be less costly right now, but when they fail, it will cost you more than just dollars.

 

[Sohaib Najam]

The WD Red is highly recommended over the Green series for NAS use or not. The Green series drives may be less costly right now, but when they fail, it will cost you more than just dollars.

Yeah, but again it depends how much the NAS itself ends up costinge at this point, I'll try to pick up some reds as that is currently what I use for external caddy.

Just curious as I've been hearing this a lot: does QNAP have more difficult software to understand than synology. I mean substantially more complicated?

 

[L&LD]

https://www.synology.com/en-us/dsm/live_demo

https://www.qnap.com/i/en/support/con_show.php?cid=8


I don't think so. But test them out and see for yourself.

The cost of the NAS is not separate from the cost of the drives to me. And I usually buy at least 2 or 3 extra and identical drives too at the time of purchase as 'insurance' for those 2AM 'oh no' times when hdd's go bad.

You'll need to decide your performance level and budget for the total cost of the system. Increasing your budget is easy if the benefits will be seen over the next half a dozen years for a slightly higher one time cost today. Even if it means saving for a little while longer to get the NAS. An arbitrary budget is almost as bad as no budget if it limits your choices to a suboptimal solution for the long term.

A significantly more powerful platform for a somewhat higher cost is cheaper in the long run than something that is just enough for what you need of it today. This applies to the better reliability of the Red drives vs. the Green drives too.

 

[Sohaib Najam]

https://www.synology.com/en-us/dsm/live_demo

https://www.qnap.com/i/en/support/con_show.php?cid=8


I don't think so. But test them out and see for yourself.

The cost of the NAS is not separate from the cost of the drives to me. And I usually buy at least 2 or 3 extra and identical drives too at the time of purchase as 'insurance' for those 2AM 'oh no' times when hdd's go bad.

You'll need to decide your performance level and budget for the total cost of the system. Increasing your budget is easy if the benefits will be seen over the next half a dozen years for a slightly higher one time cost today. Even if it means saving for a little while longer to get the NAS. An arbitrary budget is almost as bad as no budget if it limits your choices to a suboptimal solution for the long term.

A significantly more powerful platform for a somewhat higher cost is cheaper in the long run than something that is just enough for what you need of it today. This applies to the better reliability of the Red drives vs. the Green drives too.

I was considering this after I saw the list for the NAS on this website: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...yMark=False&IsFeedbackTab=true#scrollFullInfo

Quick Question does this have remote access, so when I visit America, will I be able to access my NAS for free? And am I able to give access to other people via a password or some other form of verification. Thanks.

 

[htismaqe]

Yeah, I think that would be the best idea of just connecting a large external hard drive to the extreme directly and just backing that up once in a while on the NAS. and as for synology vs Qnap, now that everyone has suggested I do time machine via the AirPort Extreme and then back that up once in a while, I think I will go for QNAP as they offer substantial performance increase for the same price.

As for WD Red, I have already previously stated that they cost too much for me atm, can't afford 2tb x 4 for the NAS, even though had I had more money I definitely would.

Any recommendations for a good QNAP Nas, that has stable reads and writes over a single gigabit network?

To everyone else, thank-you for helping me so far. I appreciate it.

Since you have the Airport, using it for TM is definitely a much better option. In that case, QNAP does offer several enhancements when you're looking at price vs. performance, as you've noted.

If you're on a budget, you should consider HGST drives. I've been using them for NAS/external applications for a long time and have had a great experience with them.

 

[htismaqe]

Just curious as I've been hearing this a lot: does QNAP have more difficult software to understand than synology. I mean substantially more complicated?

Not in my opinion, not at all. They're much similar, actually.

 

[Sohaib Najam]

Not in my opinion, not at all. They're much similar, actually.

I see. Alright, well I've decided to go with QNNAP, get better hardware and hopefully have enough leftover for WD red drives. Just wondering if there is much benefit in my case for getting the TS 453 pro over the TS 451. Thanks.

 

[L&LD]

The TS-453 Pro 8G is vastly superior to the TS-451.

Almost twice the processor performance (4 cores vs. 2 cores), twice to eight times the ram depending on the 451 model compared to. Difference less than $150 (here).

http://www.cpubenchmark.net/compare.php?cmp[]=2167&cmp[]=2131

The small savings here (cost of one drive) is insignificant to the real world use the higher spec'd model will offer over the long term.

 

[sfx2000]

I see. Alright, well I've decided to go with QNNAP, get better hardware and hopefully have enough leftover for WD red drives. Just wondering if there is much benefit in my case for getting the TS 453 pro over the TS 451. Thanks.

453 has 4 cores, the 451 has 2 cores... they run at the same speed, 2.0GHz turbo up to 2.4 - The 451 can do what most folks need in a home environment, the 453Pro is more than most folks need...

453 has internal power supply, 451 is a external adapter

453 has an LCD, but that's not a deal breaker...

Both run similar SW, and have similar capabilities - I have the 453Pro

Do not run WD Green's in a NAS, well documented firmware issues when running RAID - WD Red's or Seagate NAS drives are strongly recommended. I'm running 4 3TB Seagate Enterprise NAS drives in RAID10, so perhaps I'm living dangerously, but I've got backups, lol..

 

[Sohaib Najam]

453 has 4 cores, the 451 has 2 cores... they run at the same speed, 2.0GHz turbo up to 2.4 - The 451 can do what most folks need in a home environment, the 453Pro is more than most folks need...

453 has internal power supply, 451 is a external adapter

453 has an LCD, but that's not a deal breaker...

Both run similar SW, and have similar capabilities - I have the 453Pro

Do not run WD Green's in a NAS, well documented firmware issues when running RAID - WD Red's or Seagate NAS drives are strongly recommended. I'm running 4 3TB Seagate Enterprise NAS drives in RAID10, so perhaps I'm living dangerously, but I've got backups, lol..

Lol. And yeah I decided to go with WD Red. Also most likely decided to go with the TS-453 pro. Just a quick question and I'm pretty sure it does have this feature but just to be on the safe side: does this particular Nas have remote access so that I may be able to access it when I leave Canada for a vacation and whatnot? Also can I give other people access to the NAS with some form of verification e.g. Password or they have to make an account and I register them so they're allowed to use it? Thanks.

 

[sfx2000]

451 and 453 both support QNAPCloud..

Yes on your other questions...

 

[Sohaib Najam]

451 and 453 both support QNAPCloud..

Yes on your other questions...

Thanks for all the help so I've decided to get the QNap TS-453 pro with 4 x 2TB WD Red Drives.