Trying to make my mind on 4-bay NASes... Narrowed it down, but need final advice.

[Joe Daring]

Hi everybody on this Forum and thanks SNB for this wonderful/useful space...

It's getting me some headache, but that's the cost of having never looked at network stuff seriously before!

I'm in the market for a 4 Bay NAS for home use... you know, the usual storing/serving/streaming services everybody is looking to accomplish to ease managing the increasing amount of Data a modern family has to cope with.

Currently, and not without losing some sleep, I narrowed down my choices to two NASes: the DS-411 +II and the QNAP TS-439 Pro II+ (Other QNAPs are out of my reach!)...

To tell the truth, I was convinced 'til yesterday that the Synology was MY best choice, but then a lightning struck!

Performance-wise, I have no doubt the TS-411 +II will be better... BUT, and here's my question, will its lonely two USB ports be sufficient for my needs?

I know, for starters, that I'll need one USB for a printer and another one for the UPS and its sync... USB are already over... now what???
There'll be no more USB available for USB ThumbDrives, USB HDDs (OK, there's an eSATA, but I have quite a few USB HDDs lying around and I'd like to use them!) and God knows what else I may need (Card Reader?)!

The QNAP competitor has 5 USB, with one being on the front with a "Copy" button, (that will be handy for the rest of the family transferring pics, mp3s and so on...), and 2 eSATA ports, making it more flexible but, on the other side, its single-core processor will make it a bit less of a performer, PLUS... it would cost me a bit MORE actually, which I would hate to do (I.E. Paying MORE for the LESS performant, and a bit older, unit)!

So, for those of you that have similar Synology products, is the limited USB availability a, well, LIMITING (!) factor in everyday use of the box?

All in all, would it be better to have more horsepower (Synology) and A BIT less flexibility, or the HotSwap, the 5 USBs and the 2 e-SATA of the QNAP???

BTW, I guess that BOTH units are already an overkill for home use, but I'm somehow a tech fanatic and usually I try to get the best my budget permits when shopping... Knowing too little on these boxes and having NO direct experience, MAYBE this will save me from being in the need to change this NAS shortly because I underestimated my needs.

Thanks in advance guys!

Will appreciate any suggestion...

Joe

 

[claykin]

One more lightning strike for you...

Make sure your USB printer is on the NAS vendors compatibility list. Some printers work, others don't.

http://www.synology.com/support/faq_show.php?q_id=116&lang=us

Also check the compatibility list for other USB devices you are considering connecting.

http://www.synology.com/us/products/compatibility.php

Next, you may be able to use a powered USB 2 hub. Usually NAS vendors don't support USB hubs so your mileage may vary. I have successfully used a USB hub with Readynas.

Last thing, make sure the disks you purchase to populate your NAS are on the NAS vendors compatibility list. Very important.

 

[Joe Daring]

Hi Claykin,

Thanks for your reply, in the first place... I know it can be painfully boring to repeat the same advices over and over to newcomers...

I would have had happily avoided doing this (boring, I mean...) myself but, seriously, this NAS selection exercise is unnerving!

Most good units cost quite a bit of money and, not having a direct and proven first-hand experience on this stuff keeps me getting to a firm decision and then start the whole selection process from scratch when I discover something disappointing I had overlooked before, just because I was looking at some other features that catch my attention...

If you've been there already for some reasons, then you can understand my feelings...

So, Claykin, I definitely didn't need ANOTHER lightning striking on me! ;-)

I mean... I don't know why, but I had given it for granted that to overcome the USB ports limitations on the Synology, I would have been able to just use a powered USB Hub on one of its two ports... of course I would have been sharing this resource among several devices, and this would have been a bit of inconvenience, but doable, in the end...

Your head-up to the fact that this is NOT granted to work gave one more hard hit to my Synology inclination! :-(

Besides this, I've been carefully checking the Charts on this site, and compared the QNAP TS-439 Pro II and the Synology DS-411 +, which are the closest tested unit to the ones I'm looking at...

I'm surprised by the fact that, notwithstanding the Dual Core CPU in the 411 +, the only benchmarks in which the QNAP is notably behind the Synology are the "Write" ones, while in most of the others the 439 is just behind the Syno or, as in the "Backup" benchmarks it is even ahead of it...

I'm starting to lean towards the QNAP as I collected a few "+" to its credit:

+ Better Build Quality and Appearance
+ Hot Swap
+ More USBs
+ 2 eSATA
+ 2 Ethernet ports
+ Internal Power Supply
+ Ease of Third-Party SW installation (QPKG)

The Synology has fewer "+" in MY compare list:

+ Dual Core (Among the TOP performers in the Charts)
+ SHR (Which I won't use as I already ordered a batch of identical disks)
+ It would cost me 40 Euros less... no big deal, but a welcome saving.

While I'm sure that AGAIN I'm overlooking something, I'm now closer to buying the QNAP...

Unless some other user steers me away again... let's see if someone else have good advices for me!

Thanks again, and sorry for such a LOOONG post.

Joe

 

[normlan]

this might help:
http://www.nasreview.org/compare/Synology-DS411II-vs-Qnap-TS-439-PROII

 

[vortex.net]

Couple of points

A couple of points which swung my own decision between these two units.

I went for the DS411(the 1.6GHz one) over the TS419P+

What swung it for me:
- Synology DSM 3
- Synology Hybrid RAID
- lower power consumption
- I have read a number of reports of QNAP NASs being unable to recover a RAID5 array when a drive has gone down.
- some debate over QNAP DLNA certification

 

[quantum]

- some debate over QNAP DLNA certification

For what its worth, QNAP has an optional Twonkymedia qpkg plug in which is definitely DLNA compliant. I've used Twonky on other devices and they give you good control over which folders to share and works very well.