Network Attached Storage (NAS): What It Is and Why You May Want It

[Julio Franco]

If you have multiple computers, chances are you've wanted to get a file from one system to another at some point. Maybe you have some files on your phone that you want on your laptop, or media on a PC that you want to stream to a smart TV. Maybe you want a secure location to back up all your important files to. In any of these cases, Network Attached Storage (NAS) is a great option.

Read the full article here.

https://www.techspot.com/article/2016-nas-explained-tested/

 

[Aus spot]

Don't do it, started my first NAS for basic storage, then morphed into a plex server. 136tb later I have a library to rival plex, my dvd collection is filed under the house and no one in the house can stand tv with ads.

 

[VitalyT]

NAS market is in a state of absolute disgrace. You cannot find a single small NAS that would support or let you add 10Gbe Ethernet. They force you to go for a humongous 8-bay+ unit before they even let you upgrade it to 10Gbe, by paying them extra money for a proprietary 10Gbe extension card. It is an absolute shame! Damn monopoly and price fixing.

Buying a NAS that's limited to just 1Gbe is a waste of time and money today. Even 2 HDD-s in RAID 0 can reach 400MB/s in read speeds, while 1Gbe Ethernet caps it at a measly 110MB. And if you are buying a 4-6 bay NAS, your speed will be nearly 10 times slower, thanks to the lack of 10Gbe Eithernet, and inability to add one thereof.

In the meantime, the same a-holes boast 2.5GB/s read speeds on an 8+ - bay NAS units, equipped with just 1Gbe Ethernet, while those really require 40Gbe Ethernet + SSD cache drive to let you see the speeds they claim. Clowns.

What people really want these days, is 2-bay, 4-bay and 6-bay NAS units that come with 10Gbe out of the box. But there isn't even a single one anywhere in the world!

I have maxed out 8TB (RAID-1) on my Synology DS218+, and I cannot find anything good to upgrade it to, because there is no worthy upgrade option available today. I would have been happy to just swap drives for larger capacity ones, if the unit's un-upgradable 1Gbe wasn't so damn slow, but unfortunately it is, and so I do not see justification in spending more money to stay on such prehistoric performance. Damn shame, Synology.

 

[Digitalzone]

Well, those 1 or 2-bay NAS are worthy, you will not get a PC with such a small wattage, and is really easy to setup. Though performance is weak. But I'd go after ITX-mobo with integrated CPU for anything bigger like 5 or 6 bays. These 5/6-bays NAS are really overpriced imho.
Never seen any report how long does it take to rebuild the field, also how will you get the data out of synology hybrid raid etc.

 

[Digitalzone]

Don't do it, started my first NAS for basic storage, then morphed into a plex server. 136tb later I have a library to rival plex, my dvd collection is filed under the house and no one in the house can stand tv with ads.

And is it worthy? Cause I have only 2TB HDD of movies I consider good and I cant imagine collecting more than maybe 10GB of good movies as Hollywood is crap.

 

[Lounds]

NAS market is in a state of absolute disgrace. You cannot find a single small NAS that would support or let you add 10Gbe Ethernet. They force you to go for a humongous 8-bay+ unit before they even let you upgrade it to 10Gbe, by paying them extra money for a proprietary 10Gbe extension card. It is an absolute shame! Damn monopoly and price fixing.

Buying a NAS that's limited to just 1Gbe is a waste of time and money today. Even 2 HDD-s in RAID 0 can reach 400MB/s in read speeds, while 1Gbe Ethernet caps it at 110MB. And if you are buying a 4-bay NAS, your speed will be nearly 10 times slower, thanks to the lack of 10Gbe Eithernet, and inability to add one thereof.

In the meantime, the same a-holes boast 2.5GB/s read speeds on an 8+ - bay NAS units, equipped with just 1Gbe Ethernet, while those really require 40Gbe Ethernet + SSD cache drive to let you see the speeds they claim. Clowns.

What people really want these days, is 2-bay, 4-bay and 6-bay NAS units that come with 10Gbe out of the box. But there isn't even a single one anywhere in the world!

Surely just get a NAS with 4 NIC's 4Gbe is surely enough bandwidth for home usage, heck I doubt I'd saturate 2 NIC's worth of data.

 

[Axil00]

Well, those 1 or 2-bay NAS are worthy, you will not get a PC with such a small wattage, and is really easy to setup. Though performance is weak. But I'd go after ITX-mobo with integrated CPU for anything bigger like 5 or 6 bays. These 5/6-bays NAS are really overpriced imho.
Never seen any report how long does it take to rebuild the field, also how will you get the data out of synology hybrid raid etc.

I would love to see an in depth comparison of a some of these NAS options vs building a small box yourself.

I was about ready to pull the trigger on one to handle a few surveillance cameras, and log files from power monitoring.

There were some decently prices options that seemed up to it, but if I wanted expandability and more processing power for future use it seemed way cheaper to just build somthing myself. The built in software is nice but it also seems to commit you pretty heavily to whatever company you choose.

 

[mctommy]

I would love to see an in depth comparison of a some of these NAS options vs building a small box yourself.

I was about ready to pull the trigger on one to handle a few surveillance cameras, and log files from power monitoring.

There were some decently prices options that seemed up to it, but if I wanted expandability and more processing power for future use it seemed way cheaper to just build somthing myself. The built in software is nice but it also seems to commit you pretty heavily to whatever company you choose.

I had researched all this roughly 9+ years ago. Was going to build but then got a cheaper/weaker 4-bay synology with 4x2tb which I outgrew in no time. So I ended up with a 8bay synology with 8x3tb and that's been sufficient for the need of the household for the last 8 years. No regrets.

 

[Axil00]

I had researched all this roughly 9+ years ago. Was going to build but then got a cheaper/weaker 4-bay synology with 4x2tb which I outgrew in no time. So I ended up with a 8bay synology with 8x3tb and that's been sufficient for the need of the household for the last 8 years. No regrets.

Thanks!
Mind if I ask what you do with it?

 

[mctommy]

Thanks!
Mind if I ask what you do with it?

Most of the storage is for movies and tv shows, some for some older music that I ripped years ago.

Used to use it for the 1 IP camera I had (their surveillance tool is pretty good) but I moved away from that solution - not because of the software but because of the hardware failing.

Also use it as a cloud server for pictures and files and have a physical hard drive as a backup.

 

[madboyv1]

About 8 years ago I converted an old computer I put together in 2008 to effectively a NAS, adding a second hand 3ware RAID controller and starting with 4x 2TB drives in RAID5. A couple years later I upgraded to 4x 3TB drives still in RAID5. It's been pretty robust after all this time, but I can't say I haven't been tempted recently to downsize to a NAS from Synology or QNAP.

 

[DDG4005]

Don't do it, started my first NAS for basic storage, then morphed into a plex server. 136tb later I have a library to rival plex, my dvd collection is filed under the house and no one in the house can stand tv with ads.

Lol, too funny.

 

[itgee]

I was expecting Embedded / Development motherboards, low power CPUs, DIY NAS solutions included it the article

 

[TheDevopsGuy]

Just run freenas or something why go through the hassle of buying a glorified pc box for storage. The software support is the only benefit to these

 

[yazooo]

So I've built my own NAS, and run several others. Now on a Synology 8-bay, and would definitely replace it if it failed. Again depends on your uses, but runs a Media share, which several end points around my house can access via Plex/Kodi etc. It runs a VPN Server, an IP Camera Server, Download Server, DNS updater, FTP Server. It also hosts my Lightroom catalog, accessible from multiple computers which is handy, and backs up all my data to various clouds servers. I loved building my own NAS, and when it was up and running was more powerful than what I have now, but was more of a pain keeping it all up to date. Th Synology unit works out of the box, has a lot of added functionality. If you have multiple end points and users they are ideal, if you have just one TV/computer I see little point.

Invest in good HDDs, potentially always have a spare to swap in if there is a failure and consider UPS as well.

 

[brucek]

The Synology software suite includes a module for managing security cameras. I tried it out mainly for fun but was surprised by how useful it ended up being.

I wavered before purchase because I suspected I could build something more powerful on my own for less (as long as I didn't count the value of my time.) I probably could have but I feel like Synology did end up delivering on its premise of being a reliable, hassle-free, flexible solution.

 

[brucek]

What people really want these days, is 2-bay, 4-bay and 6-bay NAS units that come with 10Gbe out of the box. But there isn't even a single one anywhere in the world!

I suspect that use case is less common than you think. There is not that much 10Gbe in consumer homes or on consumer devices to begin with. Most of what many consumers use their NAS for is not very bandwidth sensitive either: media, backups, surveillance video do not need to be stored or retrieved at very high speeds. Data from typical consumer applications is small. And even if you were doing something like video editing, you'd probably work with local storage regardless, with later archives not being particularly speed sensitive.

 

[Evernessince]

I would love to see an in depth comparison of a some of these NAS options vs building a small box yourself.

I was about ready to pull the trigger on one to handle a few surveillance cameras, and log files from power monitoring.

There were some decently prices options that seemed up to it, but if I wanted expandability and more processing power for future use it seemed way cheaper to just build somthing myself. The built in software is nice but it also seems to commit you pretty heavily to whatever company you choose.

If you want something expandable build your own box and install FreeNAS. You'll spend a ton less to boot as well.

 

[Robert2016]

Another vote for FreeNAS. I have been running one for the last few years and it has been incredibly stable and offers countless options. I would recommend getting an old server and putting in new drives. Freenas with ZFS file system should really run on a system with ECC RAM.

 

[mctommy]

I suspect that use case is less common than you think. There is not that much 10Gbe in consumer homes or on consumer devices to begin with. Most of what many consumers use their NAS for is not very bandwidth sensitive either: media, backups, surveillance video do not need to be stored or retrieved at very high speeds. Data from typical consumer applications is small. And even if you were doing something like video editing, you'd probably work with local storage regardless, with later archives not being particularly speed sensitive.

Well said. My home was built in the early 2010's and only has cat5e so I would need to rewire the entire house to take advantage of 10gbe.

The Synology software suite includes a module for managing security cameras. I tried it out mainly for fun but was surprised by how useful it ended up being.

I wavered before purchase because I suspected I could build something more powerful on my own for less (as long as I didn't count the value of my time.) I probably could have but I feel like Synology did end up delivering on its premise of being a reliable, hassle-free, flexible solution.

yes, adding the value of your time in tinkering and setting up my own box as well as maintaining it in the last 10 years, the DYI box would have cost more. My 8-bay Synology NAS on the other hand, I've spent maybe 1 hour in configuration and downloads, and another hour downloading patches and updates in the last 10 year.

 

[VitalyT]

I suspect that use case is less common than you think. There is not that much 10Gbe in consumer homes or on consumer devices to begin with. Most of what many consumers use their NAS for is not very bandwidth sensitive either: media, backups, surveillance video do not need to be stored or retrieved at very high speeds. Data from typical consumer applications is small. And even if you were doing something like video editing, you'd probably work with local storage regardless, with later archives not being particularly speed sensitive.

And I think lots of consumers are in the same boat as myself, using NAS for heavy media content, like 4K movies, first of all. Those average 30GB in size, and using them while at 110MB/s speed is a torture, which is caused by 1Gbe Ethernet, and nothing else.

 

[QuantumPhysics]

I bought a My Cloud from Western Digital.

I don't remember exactly why I did, but I love having it.

#1 Small internet saves such as photos and video clips are great for this NAS drive because you can easily access them wherever you are in the world.

#2 You can easily share small clips and documents or photos from your server to friends and family.

#3 You can use it to back up your computer's main drives.


I took every CD/RW and DVD/RW I ever created and consolidated them into one of these. Then I backed up some of the more important things to a 4TB SSD drive. someday I'll be able to get an SSD large and cheap enough to back everything up to that. NAS drives aren't extremely fast but they store very well.

 

[brucek]

Really? I would have expected a 4K movie to stream just fine on a 1 GB network, and I think you'd have to be pretty lucky to be ripping it or downloading it at much faster than that either?

 

[cfbcfbcfb]

Well, those 1 or 2-bay NAS are worthy, you will not get a PC with such a small wattage, and is really easy to setup. Though performance is weak. But I'd go after ITX-mobo with integrated CPU for anything bigger like 5 or 6 bays. These 5/6-bays NAS are really overpriced imho.
Never seen any report how long does it take to rebuild the field, also how will you get the data out of synology hybrid raid etc.

Same take after looking at some 4 bay solutions. I have several old and admittedly larger but far more powerful small/mid size PC's with 5-10x the power that can take 4 drives. I'm not laying out $400-500+ for basically a router with four drive bays in it.

 

[cfbcfbcfb]

"Your average external USB storage device typically uses the cheapest drive possible to hit a price point"

And this is where I stopped reading, because its simply not true. WD externals used Red NAS drives for many years and just recently switched to "white label" drives, which folks have determined are red drives with a different label.

So yeah, your external drive if you buy it from a reputable HDD manufacturer WILL have good drives in them and are far more preferable than either storage losing or enormously expensive 4-5 disk arrays, and having something running 24x7 instead of an hour here and there is not likely to provide a better backup experience.

Similarly, using these with Plex makes little sense. What are you 'plexing' to? A roku player? Plug an external drive into it after sticking all your content on it. Do you have some old computer that can take 4+ disks? You already own something FAR more powerful than even the more expensive (500-1000) NAS solutions, which often feature a celeron. Stuff your drives in that and run Plex. It'll be far more functional and reliable than these $200-500 NAS devices, which are basically a $50 router with a bunch of drive bays on the front.

Plus you can stick something like an RX550 into the PC, and use it for HW encoding/decoding rather than a celerons integrated graphics.