Weekend Open Forum: Do you use network attached storage at home?

Justin Kahn

Posts: 752   +6

open forum weekend open forum network attached storage synology diskstation nas

While I have used networked drives and cloud storage previously, I recently added an affordable Synology NAS DiskStation to my home set-up. So far I am really enjoying the convenience of being able to access my content and files via the DSM user interface Synology has provided. It, not unlike those from other companies, provides some interesting browser apps for playing back video and audio files and is just a generally easy way to get at files. 

On top of the UI and the basic accessibility it offers for multiple users on my home network, it also provides some handy tools for privately sharing certain files stored on the system to others. While NAS solutions are probably just as likely to randomly fail as any external storage solution, it tends to feel more reliable than a basic desktop drive to me, due to having multiple drives and the possibility of easy cloud backups. 

So for this week's open forum we want to know about whether or not you use a NAS bay at home? What are some of your favorite options if so? Or do you think it's just overkill considering the cost of some of the options out there?

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I don't at this time, but I can see it happening with my next major upgrade which will happen sometime next year.
 
I have a Synology DS1511+ on my desk at work but at home I have a home-built fileserver that serves a very similar function. I do also fancy the DSM interface and all the apps available to the device.
 
I don't, but I've been ogling them for a while, one on the picture here in particular, it looks sexy.

I'm really close to buy one these days. The ones I like:

Synology DS412
51QFWNaQc7L._SL1500_.jpg

Synology DS414 slim
41UkB7d6ccL.jpg


Therefore, any comments on the aforementioned units is much appreciated ;)

If I am to buy one of these, I would be fitting in Seagate Enterprise 6TB or 8TB drives, in RAID 0. The latter is promised to be released soon.
 
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I use Iomega, Western Digital Live, Windows Server and Synology DSM. Each has its place.

Windows Server is needed when you need to be able to run certain software and have server admin experience. Also good for client windows backup. Not for everyday consumer.

Iomega and Western Digital are good for cheap, easy file sharing, time machine and media server. Good for people who want to buy something simple with just those features.

Synology is great tho. I love the features and ease of configuration. I've played with VPN, mail servers, DDNS, media servers, PXE, file sharing, web access, iPhone and android apps, time machine and downloaders on Synology and its all been very simple to use.

I recommend Synology NAS for anyone who wants a ton of features, expandability and access from tablet/phone.
 
I live alone and do everything on my desktop PC (even watching movies) so no, heh. Seems like a really interesting solution if you have a family who likes to use a lot of media files anywhere.
 
My D-Link two drive unit has been going strong for over three years. Dirt cheap and does its job day and night. DLNA, iTunes..it'll even torrent for you if you don't want to use your PC for that. The configuration is just "OK" and it doesn't seem to provide true Windows login support - sharing is pretty much either on or off.
 
I built my own using FreeNAS. I have six 2 TB Western Digital Red drives in a RAIDZ2 using ZFS. That gives me about 7.1 TB of storage space with 2 sets of parity data. Meaning it would take 3 drive failures for me to lose any data. FreeNAS also has plug-in support so it can do a bunch of other things, like running a Plex Media Server. I bought server grade parts for my latest build (to use ECC RAM) but any 64bit computer with more than 8 GB of RAM and some hard drives will do. The forums are very helpful if you have any issues and they maintain a very easy to follow wiki.
 
I'm cheap and built my own file server from an old tower that holds about 9-drives using flexraid running WHS2011. I have about 16 Terabyte to hold all my p:)rn, movies, TV series etc... cost me about $100 not including hard drives which I already had, haha. I like flexraid because I don't have to use all the same size drives and can easily add/remove drives
 
I'm super cheap and I had a pile of hardware laying around the house. I put together a Asus motherboard and filled it with all the drives I could and installed FreeNAS on a flash drive. It is perfect for a budget NAS and it runs Plex too!
 
I run 2 Nas4Free servers with several ZFS arrays. They have been pretty solid for the last 3 years.

- NAS4Free-x64-embedded-9.2.0.1.972
- Chenbro SR30169T2250
- Sans Digital TowerRaid TR4X+B
- ASRock FM2A85X-ITX
- LSI SAS 9212-4i4e
- AMD A6-3400K (3.4GHz)
- 8GB 1333MHz DDR3
- 4x WD Green 2TB (single parity raidz)
- 2x WD Red 2TB & 2x Hitachi 2TB (single parity raidz)
 
Nah. I don't need anything like NAS, my storage needs aren't great, I can get comfortably by on a TB hard drive and my free cloud storage.
 
I'm using a HP Microserver Gen8. Fitted it with 16GB of RAM, 4x 4TB WD Red Pro's (Raided), 1x Intel 520 240GB SSD, a 16GB MicroSD and a low power (17w) Xeon processor and VMware 5.5. On this I have a few servers running but just as a test I installed and started using FreeNAS to see what the family thought of having space on the server and being able to share files etc... So far so good. doesn't really use much resource either so yeah. Pretty epic. Although Server2012R2 is useful as I installed iHomeServer so I can stream stuff to my Apple TV's across the house. That to works pretty good xD.
 
Something just doesn't add up. All these NAS solutions currently on offer can generate internal performance up to 1GB/s and above. In the meantime, they are all offered with 1Gbit Ethernet as the main interface. Is this pathetic or what?

There should be a 10Gbit main channel. This is why I'm looking at ones with thunderbolt instead.
 
I don't, but I've been ogling them for a while, one on the picture here in particular, it looks sexy.

I'm really close to buy one these days. The ones I like:

Synology DS412
51QFWNaQc7L._SL1500_.jpg

Synology DS414 slim
41UkB7d6ccL.jpg


Therefore, any comments on the aforementioned units is much appreciated ;)

If I am to buy one of these, I would be fitting in Seagate Enterprise 6TB or 8TB drives, in RAID 0. The latter is promised to be released soon.

Don't buy the slim version, you'll be restricted to the smaller more costly laptop hard drives.

As for me, I started with the ds413j which was great but with 4 bay, I quickly ran out of space. Got a great deal on a ds1812+, so upgraded to that and fill it up with 8 wd red 3tb.
 
Nope. No NAS at home. Don't have a need to access docs or media stored exclusively on a NAS. I only have a non-NAS eSATA external drive connected to my desktop, as a backup drive, and my laptop and desktop are both visible and accessible to each other over the home wi-fi network, as is the eSATA drive. This of course means that if I am on my laptop and need a file from the eSATA drive, the desktop has to be awake too - the NAS will clearly obviate the need for this. So do I really need a NAS now? If you gave it to me for free, sure, I'll put it to use, but I'm not yet going to buy one.
 
This Thursday I'll be giving my boss $300.00 for his used Netgear ReadyNAS Pro Pioneer Edition. I've worked on the box for a few months now: it's only been used for testing purposes and is in great condition. Going to put a HGST 4TB drive in there for backup purposes.

If you're looking for a NAS server, but might want to run a small server on the side, Netgear NAS servers are an excellent product to consider. They run a stripped down version of Debian, and have a package manager installed, with the default Debian repositories commented out in the sources.list file. Remove that comment, and you have a full-fledged Linux system to do with as you will. I absolutely love it.
 
nsa325_p_380.gif

I use the NSA325 from ZyXEL. 2-Bay Power Plus Media Server which handles up to 6 TB. DLNA Streaming features are excellent. File Server, FTP Server, Web Server, Print Server and Media Server. Support for Dropbox an etc. All PCs on my network uses the NSA. Under the hood, is 1.6 GHz CPU with 512 MB of RAM, 1 GBps Ethernet Port, USB 3.0 and 2.0. Built-in Backup to t USB HDD 3.0 or 2.0 .

882654_10151921512732949_713944369_o.jpg

Mini Rack Network System Image above as taken in 12/13 gone is the chain-link you see on left side.
 
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My modem/router supports USB storage and I've been meaning to test that, but it's nowhere near the top of my list of things to do. The way I use my PC's (or don't), I don't see much practical use for it.
 
Synology DS1512+ and DX510 expansion for me.
10 drives in raid for backup and archival.
Works great - Diskstation software gets better every week.
 
Still on a QNAP TS219P that gets its regular firmware update.

All important data is also synced to multiple cloud offerings.
 
I've just spent a weekend reading reviews and opinions about all these prosumer NAS offers, only to conclude how large a waste they are, and I mean any product that has 1Gbe Ethernet as the primary connection.

Even if you buy the smallest, 2-bay NAS, you might want to stick 2x6TB Seagate Enterprise drives in it for maximum space and performance (ops!). Except that those drives coupled can yield over 400MB/s in RAID 0 in read speeds. That requires 4Gbe in network traffic, of which you will get zilch.

In all, it doesn't make sense to buy a NAS today that doesn't have 10Gbe in it. You would be effectively castrating all the hard drives you put in there.

And as far as I can see, Synology doesn't have good products in that area at all. All their consumer-oriented products are 1Gbe only.

QNAP, on another hand, offers plenty of products with 10Gbe on-board, starting with TS-x70, PRO and all the way to TS-EC1080 Pro.

They of course would cost more than those stupid 1Gbe "NAS" from Synology, bit you will get a proper server.

If those are too expensive, you will be better off with an all-in-one USB 3.0 external hard drive, with couple drives in it in RAID 0, which can give much faster speeds than the pathetic 90MB/s with those Synology 1Gbe NAS products.

Also, in terms of the value, QNAP TS-870 PRO is definitely at the top. That's a whopping 8-bay monster, with 2 x 10Gbe ports. And with a proper search and QNAP's regular 30% discount one can be found for around 1K, now that's one awesome investment!
 
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