Network Attached Storage suggestions requested

Talk about setting up your home network.
Post Reply
ja216

Posts: 14
Joined: Sun Aug 25, 2013 11:57 pm
Location:

HTPC Specs: Show details

Network Attached Storage suggestions requested

#1

Post by ja216 » Mon Aug 26, 2013 12:17 am

Hello,

My windows media center collection is about 6TB now and I need a better backup solution. I am leaning towards the Synology DS413J or DS413 using their hybrid raid and 4 x 4TB hard drives. Any and all suggestions would be very much appreciated.

I am decently familiar with traditional raid and have built & serviced many raid 5 machines, but do not want to go thru the expense and extra work. I've also looked at FreeNAS but since I am not looking to use this as a media server that too would be overkill.

thanks in advance for any reply.
john

jerryt

Posts: 79
Joined: Wed Jan 18, 2012 3:13 pm
Location:

HTPC Specs: Show details

#2

Post by jerryt » Mon Aug 26, 2013 1:35 am

I discovered some information researching this topic for an upgrade myself.

Synology spins up all drives when you are access any data.

Whereas unRaid and FlexRaid will spin up just the drive with the data on it. This was important to me because my current server is using 150 Watts with all four drives spinning, I hope to get this down near 70 watts accessing data and 20 something watts at idle.

I am using FlexRaid's Transparent Raid which is in pre-release (Price not determined yet).

User avatar
WarrenH

Posts: 135
Joined: Wed Jun 08, 2011 8:37 am
Location: Kent, UK

HTPC Specs: Show details

#3

Post by WarrenH » Mon Aug 26, 2013 5:00 am

Personally I use QNap which has excellent and very regularly updated firmware and software, they come in both the common Linux and Intel versions, the latter will give greater app flexibility and work with things like Dropbox.
They are a bit pricey tho compared to Synology and others. The power management is extremely good.

blueiedgod

Posts: 726
Joined: Fri Jul 15, 2011 3:02 pm
Location: Amherst, NY

HTPC Specs: Show details

#4

Post by blueiedgod » Tue Aug 27, 2013 7:25 pm

If you are going to spend time installing hard drive and configuring Synology at $1000, might as well just re-purpose an old computer, install those hard drives and just use software RAID that comes with most Windows or Linux Distributions.

This is coming from someone who has been using PII 233 MHz machine as NAS/Server running RAID5 in Windows 2000 Server for the last 8 or 10 years. Couple of years ago I had to add more drives, so I bought a PCI-to-SATA (no PCIe slots existed at the time PII was relevant), added 4x 2TB drives.

It is not hardware RAID, so don't expect blazing speeds, but it also did not cost me an arm and a leg. It is no slower than a USB exteernal drive.

ja216

Posts: 14
Joined: Sun Aug 25, 2013 11:57 pm
Location:

HTPC Specs: Show details

#5

Post by ja216 » Mon Sep 09, 2013 6:10 pm

I finally ended up with the Synology DS1513+ and It is just right. Quiet, fast, compact and easy to use. Their tech support is reachable (real people) , polite and helpful. I called for setup help since their initial setup instructions were less than stellar. I use their SHR - which permits different size hard drives for their raid setup. This is an expandable unit - having 5 bays and the ability to attach 10 more as well as more thru their usb 2 and usb 3 ports. It also has 2 ESATA ports where I have my older 1TB external drive connected.

Next step is a 8 port gigabit switch - as my router is now full and I want to change out my ceton 4 port pcie unit for a 6 port network unit. Ideas?

jerryt

Posts: 79
Joined: Wed Jan 18, 2012 3:13 pm
Location:

HTPC Specs: Show details

#6

Post by jerryt » Mon Sep 09, 2013 6:18 pm

ja216 wrote:I finally ended up with the Synology DS1513+ and It is just right. Quiet, fast, compact and easy to use. Their tech support is reachable (real people) , polite and helpful. I called for setup help since their initial setup instructions were less than stellar. I use their SHR - which permits different size hard drives for their raid setup. This is an expandable unit - having 5 bays and the ability to attach 10 more as well as more thru their usb 2 and usb 3 ports. It also has 2 ESATA ports where I have my older 1TB external drive connected.

Next step is a 8 port gigabit switch - as my router is now full and I want to change out my ceton 4 port pcie unit for a 6 port network unit. Ideas?
Do you have any data on the wattage of the DS1513 while in use?

ja216

Posts: 14
Joined: Sun Aug 25, 2013 11:57 pm
Location:

HTPC Specs: Show details

#7

Post by ja216 » Tue Sep 10, 2013 8:58 pm

Specs are on this page
http://www.synology.com/products/spec.p ... #p_submenu

and it shows 51 watts access and 26 watts hibernating. Power consumption is measured when fully loaded with Western Digital 3TB WD30EZRS hard drive(s).

Hope this helps you
john

Post Reply