Please help me choose a cheap 2-bay NAS

[strange_guy]

Hi everyone:

I am currently in the process of buying my first 2-bay NAS for home use and would really love your input. Because I am a student my budget is pretty small, which limits my choices to cheaper models.

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I'd love to get the feedback of the group:
- did I miss anything?
- anything else I should consider?
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Background
Location: Austria

Purpose:
- Media Server (music; photos; video) to notebooks & maybe XBox
- Media Storage (music; photos; video)
- Back-up destination for my girlfriend's notebook and my notebook

Further requirements:
- silent operation
- ability to download torrents

Not necessary but nice to have
- remote access
- printer support
- support for usb drives

Devices I could afford (always 2TB):
WD My Book World II
Iomega StorCenter ix2-200
Seagate BlackArmor NAS 220
Buffalo Link Station Duo
LaCie Network Space Max
Netgear Stora

I have read through the reviews on snb.com and skimmed some amazon reviews for these NASes but I still don't know which one is the best. I hope you can help me -

 

[MacYost]

I am considering a QNAP TS-212 or TS-219P+. Is there a reason why these are not on your list? They do everything you describe, even your wishes. They are faster than everything you mention, more expandable and more feature rich.

http://qnap.com/pro_detail_feature.asp?p_id=192

http://qnap.com/pro_detail_feature.asp?p_id=182

 

[strange_guy]

HI MacYost,

thank you for the tip - but unfortunately these are too expensive for me. My budget is just 250€ (~250$) for the NAS and drives, so my choices are limited. But thanks for your help anyway.

 

[thiggins]

Why do you want two-bay? You can get 2TB in a single bay NAS.

Of your choices, I'd eliminate the NETGEAR, LaCie and Seagate.

Consider warranty length and make sure that you have a backup of the NAS if it is the primary storage for files.

 

[strange_guy]

Hi thiggins,

Thank you for your suggestions - I will keep the warranty length in mind as I make my choice. My main considerations will most likely be price and warranty length, since I think that for my purposes all the remaining units are fine anyway.

I would prefer a two-bay one so that I could use RAID1 as a backup for the NAS. I am aware of the fact that RAID is not a backup solution, but since the NAS would mainly be used to back up our notebooks anyway the drive redundancy would be enough for me.

One more thing - due to a promotion that Netgear is currently doing in Austria I could also afford the Netgear ReadyNAS Duo (RND2110) with two 1TB drives. That one is not in the performance charts here, so I am not sure whether it is better or worse than the remaining contestants (WD My Book World II; Iomega StorCenter ix2-200; Buffalo Link Station Duo). Any thoughts there?

 

[thiggins]

The Duo is in the charts if you look at the Average Write and Read performance benchmark charts. The tests were run before we started using the File Copy benchmark. Average Read/write speed is in the mid-teen MB/s.

 

[strange_guy]

Oh, sorry - I missed that. But from these numbers it seems as if the Duo was actually worse than the other units I am still considering. Do you suggest that I focus on the WD, Buffalo and Iomega instead?

And I also have another question - do you happen to know whether any of the devices I listed stores data in RAID 1 in a way that is readable on a normal computer? In other words - if the NAS dies - can I access my data somehow?

Thank you for your help -
chris

 

[travisco_nabisco]

I have the Iomega and am quite happy with it. The drives are not silent, but if the NAS is in a closet you would never notice. I would not recommend it if you want it sitting on the desk next to a computer though due to the noise.

The built in torrent client is sufficient, but not fantastic. I have installed Transmission and use that through a web client as my torrent engine of choice.
Other than noise I don't have any complaints about this device.

 

[stevech]

Though I use a small always-on Win 7 PC with two drives in RAID 1, in looking at the NASes out there, seems to me that the new synology DS211J ($199, diskless on newegg) is a good choice, if you want one with a large variety of functions rather than just a disk store.

I do wonder though, with QNAP or Synology or other NAS, if the CPU/controller fails, how pray tell do you get to your data on those proprietary format drives? If RAID1, will one drive mount under a linux system as EXT3?

My windows RAID1 has two generic NTFS drives, which, supposedly can be moved to any other PC and read should the motherboard RAID controller fail.

 

[BostonDan]

ReadyNAS-DUo and Synology DS209

I have both a ReadyNAS-Duo and Synology DS209. Between the two, the DS209 is faster and I like the interface of the DS209 better. I use the ReadyNAS-Duo as my backup of the Synology DS209. Hope this helps.