645

Hi all

Need some advice on which Network Attached Storage device to buy. I have a large collection of music, which I currently stream to a Roku Soundbridge, and would like to move it to this new device.

I also want to be able to load a media server on there (e.g. Twonkyvison), so I don't need my PC on to serve the music. I may also load large files (10GB+ video files) on there, so needs to be NTFS capable over LAN.

Any ideas which is the best?

Cheers

645.

Vonzack

Have a look at FreeNAS (ww.freenas.org), works well for me. The only thing is you will have to format your disks as ufs not NTFS as it is based on a FreeBSD.

stevem2k

How much is 'large' collection, and is it likely to grow. 1TB , 10 TB ?

Luminous

iTrader: (3)

You don't necessarily need NTFS partitions to store more than 4GB. There are some NAS drives that use proprietary drive formats that don't seem to have this file size limitation.

However, I think it best to stick with one that does use NTFS, as then you can always physically remove the drive from the NAS box and read it in a normal PC. Currently, that therefore rules out Buffalo, or just about any other sealed unit.

RoadrunnerV2

There are NAS units on the market with Media Server support built-in based on DLNA, UPnP AV or both. Actually DLNA spec incorporates UPnP AV but that's not important. Roku uses UPnP AV IIRC.

If your talking 1TB+ (1000GB) then your in the realms of mutli-drive NAS units which can use RAID as a form of redundancy against drive failure.

As Steve2K asked, what size space do you want as this will help in identify if you need to look at a single or multi-drive NAS.

KiwiGTI

No question, has to be a QNAP.

Luminous

iTrader: (3)

Just been to the QNAP website, all sounds very good. Do they work though? Not really heard much about them, and the "recommended by icons" they have on the frontpage don't ring any bells to me.

Charlie_Boy

I'm also interested in the Qnap 109 - Does anyone know if you can backup the data on the drive to an external USB drive and read that on a PC.

Dream Weaver

Search avforums, I've seen plenty of folk on there with the QNAP info in their sigs.

ozzy

The Q-NAP box has TwonkyMedia built-in to it. You can download a 30-day trial , stick it on your PC and see if it works okay with your XBox before splashing out on the Q-NAP unit.

TwonkyMedia worked fine with my XBox, but I still prefer the Vista MediaCentre interface on the XBox.

ozzy

The QNAP TS-109 is around £150 for the bare unit and supports a single SATA II drive (up to 1TB)

The Q-NAP TS-209 is it's bigger brother at around £220, but allows you to stick in two SATA II drives.

There's a lot of choice out there, but the Q-NAP boxes always get really good reviews. Iwas about to buy the Linksys NAS200 box until I heard the transfer rates for it are terrible (even at 100Mbps).

If you do go for one make sure it can support Gigabit to make copying files much much faster.

ozzy

I thought this was a gr8 idea with the built in router, wireless & gigabit connections until I saw the price.

Storage Gateway - Data Tank GateWay WLAN 1TB - Freecom

Mind you it does come with 2 x 500GB drives for the money.

Dream Weaver

Aren't Synology supposed to be good as well?

http://www.synology.com/

alistair

I have a spare PC - is there any benefit in using something like Free NAS over just loading the PC up with drives and leaving it running XP with the drives shared ?

spectrum48k

I use a Dlink DNS-323 NAS which comes with built in media server - works a treat with PS3

Firmware 1.4

Luminous

iTrader: (3)

Yes, the PC at the moment is just a file store. Other devices can connect to it, ask for a file, and then once they have the file they can do something with it.

You can kind of stream information off your sever, in that you could navigate to a file on your server that was an .mp3. Winamp could then play the .mp3 directly from your server, so your server would be streaming the .mp3 to the computer that was playing it.

However, the limitation is that the device that is accessing your server has to have the ability to play or use the file. I believe the whole point of these media streaming servers is that it is the server that has the media player installed. The server plays the video and steams the video a device that simply shows it. The device does not need to understand what the original format of the file was.

The later option opens up some interesting options (none of which I have played with). You could buy a wireless dongle that you plug into the back of your hifi for example. The dongle would accept wireless network transmissions and output a stereo input into your hifi.

For me, none of these features are worth it. I have a PC in my living area that plays anything I want it to, and is appropriately connected to other devices directly.

645

Sorry for the late reply - been away...

"Large" number of tracks - sorry, should have quantified this. ~20,000 tracks
, currently only 150GB at various bitrates, but in process of redoing in lossless so likely to grow significantly.

Also store video on there, as stated - each DV cassette aprox. 10GB per hour, so with editing space, easily could see 1-2TB all in for music and DV.


Cheers for the comment so far...

645.

Luminous

iTrader: (3)

Sounds like you are in need of a serious NAS drive. 4x1TB drives in a RAID array would be my guess.

AndyC_772

iTrader: (2)

I've heard good things said about Qnap too.

I have an Infrant (now Netgear) ReadyNAS NV+, which is a very capable piece of kit but somewhat nobbled by a very slow CPU. Its r/w performance is fine - dedicated hardware - but the web interface and SlimServer are painfully slow.

DemonDave

iTrader: (13)

Check here SmallNetBuilder - NAS Section especially for the performance charts - was going for a QNap Turbo Station TS-101 or 109 NAS Enclosure but now going for a Synology Disk Station DS-107 NAS Enclosure maybe even a 107+

got a wd netcenter but the disc is failing

Dave.

ozzy

The Qnap & Synology products look like great bits of kit, but they are £200+ for just the enclosure.

You can get a Lacie NAS with 1TB of disk space for the same money. The basic model doesn't have RAID, but you can get their bigger version for £280 if you need disk failure protection.

DemonDave

iTrader: (13)

but look for lacie in the performance charts - quite a difference

ozzy

But how much performance do you need once the data is on the drive? Is it worth the extra £100 when you're just streaming music/movies or watching pictures?

I was about to order a Synology one until I saw that prices for diskless NAS boxes looked very high in comparison.

I've seen other benchmarks for the Lacie drives which contradicts those on the SmallNetBuilder website. And some of the benchmarks are quite out-of-date, so don't take into account any firmware updates on the drives.

All very confusing

Stef

DemonDave

iTrader: (13)

for streaming no prob - but for the OP's " may also load large files (10GB+ video files) on there, so needs to be NTFS capable over LAN." it would make a hugh difference.