thinking of a new NAS ?

tim68

hi all

I currently have an ageing Qnap TS-412 (I think that's the right model number) only used really as media storage to stream movies and tv shows to Infuse on my Apple TV 4K.

I only switch on when I want to watch a movie but it's taking an age to boot up to a useable state, around 10 minutes.

I've not looked in to nas and networking since I bought the Qnap so no idea where to start now.

any pointers or general advice welcome

Thanks very much

wormvortex

If you're only using it for your Apple TV and turning it off when not in use why not simply get a USB HDD and connect it directly?

tim68

hi mate. thanks for the reply

the newest Apple TV 4K doesn't have a USB input, only HDMI out, power and Ethernet.

mushii

Turning off NAS is your problem. They are designed to be left on as every time you turn them off and turn them on they re-index the drives which is what takes time. Leave it on.

tim68

Thanks mate

I didn’t realise they were meant to be left on, tbh I am in the habit of switching things off if not being used. Are new models more power efficient today than they were 5 years ago ?. I don’t need a 4 bay nas so I could downsize to a 2 bay model

mushii

They are pretty power efficient and I know with the synology ones you can both spool down the HD's and actually sleep the NAS  between certain hours to make them even more energy efficient. This means that when they wake they wont spend 15 minutes booting and re-indexing drives. Honestly, if your only problem is the boot-up time, configure these two options under power and you will be set, why pay money if you don't have to.

tim68

thanks for the help mushii, much appreciated

I have found settings for HDD sleep, have set that to 10 minutes of inactivity

and have found power schedule, have set to shut down at 2am daily then wake up at 2pm for when I might watch something in the afternoon for a couple of hours,

are these settings ok for power savings or am I reading it wrong

sorry one more question about max size HDD's I can use but finding conflicting info, would like to add a couple of 8TB drives over time, but not sure if my nas can accept this size or if it is a max of 4TB each or I guess I can just use 4x4TB drives inc a parity drive for redundancy and still have roughly 12tb of useable storage.

I have my movies and tv shows backed up on portable drives.

thanks again for the help.

mushii

Power savings seem fine. You maybe best emailing QNAP directly on your drive size, they tend to be pretty good on support, otherwise what you propose seems logical.

Sloppy Bob

If you look on the QNAP website it says you can go up to 6TB drives but only with a couple of specific drives.

tim68

Thanks Bob. I did find a compatibility chart on the Qnap site and thought they needed new drive trays to hold them unless I read it wrong. I will stick to 4TB drives now as I don't think I will need all that extra storage.

most of my content now is purchased from iTunes and the only discs I buy now are Disney titles because they don't have 4K titles available on iTunes.