Newbie help with NAS choice

nickg1977

Hi all

I'm looking to make the jump into NAS ownership.
Although I'm PC literate (having built my own a few years back) I'm pretty much a novice when it comes to NAS drives.

What I'm looking for is something that will:

1) Allow me to store my documents, photos, home movies and music
2) Run my Logictech squeezebox touch without having the PC on
3) (Not essential but I guess it's possible) - access the files on the NAS drive from my phone or another Internet capable device from wherever I am.

Total budget is around £400 but I can stretch a little if needed.

I was Considering the Synology 218j with 2x 4tb drives. Synology DS218j DiskStation 2-Bay 8TB Network Attached NAS Storage w/ 2x 4TB Seagate IronWolf Hard Drive

I'm guessing it's down to personal preference if you go for WD or Seagate drives?
I'd run in mirror, as my understanding is that if one drive fails the other still contains everything.

I think I'm also going to need some sort of router extension or switch, as I run a sky router and I'm pretty sure it's not gigabit friendly (my PC is). It also has no spare sockets left! All 4 in use.
No idea where to start with that though.

Any help or advice greatly appreciated!

Nick

cjed

I have a Synology 218j and it will do everything you want. To make your home network backbone Gigabit, all you need is a 8 port Gigabit switch (around £15). then plug all your wired devices (including your router, NAS and PC) into the switch - you'll even have a couple of ports for expansion.

As to setting the NAS up, rather than running mirrored drives you should consider only putting a single drive in the NAS (to start) and getting an external USB drive in addition for backing up the NAS. The reason is the mirroring the drives (or any form of redundancy) is a technique to ensure the the system continues to work in the event of a drive failure. While this is important in a business environment, it's not so critical in a domestic setting, where having the system down for the couple of days that it would take to replace a failed drive isn't such a disaster. Mirroring doesn't protect from accidental or malicious deletion/corruption of your files, where having a backup would.

nickg1977

Thank you for the advice.
Getting a single drive NAS and an external HDD sounds like a good idea.
Is it possible to backup the NAS to the external drive easily? For example is there a "one touch" type backup to run it when I plug the drive in, or is the idea that you leave it connected permanently? I like the idea of keeping the external drive at my parents house and brining it over once a month or so to do the backup.

Thanks

mickevh

As
It will depend on the operating system and/or additional apps. you select - you might find it built in, you might have to add it on, you might have to write it yourself - you'll need to check the spec. of the software offerings (and may need some hardware support to detect "hot" connection of external HDD's.)

If you are familiar with building PC (hardware) then a NAS is no different - it's just a PC like any other albeit with hardware (and hardware features) more akin to a "server" than a "desktop" form factor.

The major difference between NAS and PC is the operating system - either shipped with or integrated into it or something you install for yourself. Way back when, NAS OS's were seriously stripped down OS's with little ability apart from serving files - hence many are *NIX clones and derivatives (which had the added advantage of often being free of charge.) Over the years there's been a lot of "function creep" in the NAS OS realm with more and more features "added back" in so that these days there's sometimes little different between NAS and full fat OS's. But if one remains mindful of he original "simple file server" ethos of NAS, you'll hopefully understand why their OS's are as they are.

Others here know the NAS market much better than I and will doubtless opine over the merits of one particular NAS OS versus another.

nickg1977

Thanks.
Certianly seems a lot more capable than I need it to be!
I'm just really after additional storage, and the added ability to run squeezecenter without running the PC 24/7.
I've been toying with the idea of a NAS for a while, and done a little research on and off. Maybe the time has come for me to just bite the bullet and dive in. I think I'll learn a lot more by just "getting stuck in".
I couple more quick questions if you don't mind.

1) Would the spec in the attached screen shot work OK? 5m cable is because the NAS won't be next to the switch (the PC will, so I'd use the cable from the NAS to connect that)

2) If I go down this route of installing my own drive, is it easy to get the NAS up and running? I'd probably just go with synology recommended OS to start with, unless anyone else has a better suggestion, taking into consideration my primary requirements.

Thanks

Abacus

Synology has a superb OS, (You don’t need any knowledge to set them up) however if you are going to use it for multi-media then get the play version as the j version will be too underpowered to get the best out of transcoding.

Any program you want is probably available for the Synology and can be downloaded to the OS just like you add an app to your phone.

Search for Span dotcom on YouTube and you will find a multitude of videos to help you choose which NAS is best for you, or just search for NAS recommendations as there are a number of sites out there.

Have fun

Bill

nickg1977

Thanks Bill

I'm only looking to stream rather than transcode though.
Do I really need the extra power if I'm not transcoding?

nickg1977

Actually looking at the specs again, the 118 seems to do the transcoding (in case I need it) and is roughly the same price as the 218 I was considering.
Is that a better option than having the spare drive slot and a lower performance. I guess it's down to personal preference, but if anyone has an opinion either way it would be good to hear it

Thanks
Nick

BobA51

Might be some useful information in this thread - Help with Nas setup

I would re-iterate I'm on my 2nd Synology (3rd if counting my father's who I help manage) and find them easy and reliable.

Cheers,

Bob

Abacus

If you are only going for one drive check out your router, as many have USB ports that can be used as a NAS or Printer port, (You just set what you want to do in the router) thus giving you everything you need for streaming with just an external USB drive. (NOTE: It must have its own power supply)

If you are sure that you will only ever be using the NAS for streaming, the synology j version will be fine; however I always recommend that you go for more than you need, just in case your requirements change in the future. (NOTE: If you make sure you do regular backups, you can run the second drive in a 2 bay NAS in a Raid 0 configuration, thus increasing capacity and speed)

Bill