Roll my own NAS or go with Synology?

[baltik]

My mediasmart 470 just crapped out - sending me on my search.. my needs are as follows in order of priority

Ability to serve my sizeable HD movie library
Ability to serve my sizeable music library (iTunes)
Automatic backup of 2-3 home PCs (ideally Mac and PC)
Some data redundancy in case of single drive failure (raid 5, ZFS etc)
Ability to automatically backup specific folders to the cloud (photos)
Ideally be able to use hard drives of different sizes

Based on my research I really like the synology 412+ but don't love the price and the fact that it can't be expanded.

Synology 1512 is an even better solution but price is an even bigger hangup especially given my needs are relatively modest

homebrew solution using N54L MicroServer. - would probably go the nas4free or openindiana route


thoughts on my game plan? what would serve my needs best?

 

[travisco_nabisco]

The biggest decision you need to make is, "How much time do I want to spend administering and configuring my NAS?"

The Synology devices, though expensive, are very easy to use and have plugins that provide much more capability with minimal user effort. My DS-212j has been running for 60+ days without a restart, and the I have only logged into it to check on the status of downloads.

The DIY option will, most likley, provide you with a more powerful NAS as well as allow you to modify/upgrade it as need be. However you will spend a lot more time managing it and getting it configured how you want. There may or may not be simple plugins/addons to allow cloud backup.

I would encourage you to spec out all the hardware for the DIY NAS and then decide if the price difference between the Synology and the DIY is small enough that you would rather spend time than money.

Best of luck, getting a new NAS is always fun.