ScoobLou

iTrader: (21)

As above.

Requirements are:

Must support up 4tb
Wireless (this is what is making it harder to find the best one)
Raid
I-tunes
Backup software
3 or more usb ports.


Anyone point me to one?

ChefDude

My g/f just bought a Synology DS1511+ and filled it with 2TB drives.

http://www.synology.com/us/products/DS1511+/spec.php

Seems to work very well.

LostUser

It's not technically a NAS but alot of people are going for the HP Proliant Microserver at the moment. It's only £140 (if you include the £100 cashback)

You have to install your own OS, there's loads of options, but it does have 4 drive bays with the possibly to use the CD/DVD drive bay as a 5th slot. It also takes a couple of PCI cards and has USB if you want to add a wireless adapter.

I've got one with 1 x 250Gb drive and 2 x 2Tb drives running WHS 2003. It sits in the corner under a desk running 24/7, very quiet and very small.

Coffin Dodger

Synology or Qnap. Why does it have to be wireless? Just locate it next to your router and plug it into that, all devices will be able to access it, wired or wireless.

ScoobLou

iTrader: (21)

Due to where are router sits, this won't be easy hence the wireless.

We don't really want it sitting on the floor.

Any how apparently most can be made wireless via usb.

ALi-B

iTrader: (1)

You can always just plug it into another wireless router configured as an access point, then it can go whereever there is a power socket and enough signal.

Waste of a gigabit LAN port if you don't have a 'N' type wireless network though, meaning its stuck at 54Megabits (slow, well for large data transfer like films and stuff).

kernel

I went the cheap server route with Windows Home Server V1 running on it so I can have the drive pooling thing. Not as energy efficient as a NAS but it does everything a NAS could and more. I especially like the way the PCs around the house all automatically backup to it. Recently lost 2 boot drives on the clients and the recovery process was painless.

XRS

I like the look of this one

http://www.synology.com/us/products/DS411j/spec.php

stiscooby

I have recently got one of these myself. Better than a true NAS in my opinion as your not so limited with what you can do with it. I use mine as a HTPC

ALi-B

iTrader: (1)

Eh?

Does it have a HDMi / DVI+audio outputs or are you just streaming over the network?

ScoobLou

iTrader: (21)

All we want is a central hard drive to keep all our files on.

We don't require a server.

We want the hard drive mirrorred and some usb ports to take a back up which will be taken to work once a week.

We don't need a pc server as we want to save power too!


Thanks for all the suggestions though.

LostUser

It only has VGA output as standard but many people have fitted graphics cards so they can use HDMI etc.

acstua

iTrader: (1)

as above Synlogoy or QNap

Buffalo have also been alright for me in the past, netgear are abit ho hum atm..

also those HP mini servers (or other hardware) can run UnRaid which is pretty sweet
i've spec'd up a small celeron to do it all for me with about 4 tb and a parity drive
although was tempted by those HP minis :/ didnt see them till after id brought into mine
(seen them for as low as 89quid too :O with cash back etc)

acstua

iTrader: (1)

http://www.qnap.com/pro_compatibility_Wireless.asp

ChefDude

I'd suggest then to go for g-technology.

ALi-B

iTrader: (1)

Technically a NAS is a file server, just with lower performance and less features.


Very tempted myself now; I find the CPU on my NAS too slow for large file backups (Netgear Ready NAS Duo) and most NAS units are similar. The readyNAS is good for about 180Mbits throughput on a 1GB wired LAN, but sometimes thats not enough and the GUI menu system and web based file browser is annoyingly slow. Which leaves me with SMB, which works ok, unless its a password protected share, as there is a glitch that causes issues with Win7 and Vista.

ScoobLou

iTrader: (21)

I understand that but a proper server has features I know we will never ever use and uses more power so we bother when we can have a NAS?

ALi-B

iTrader: (1)

Cost really:

Usually a NAS is cheaper so puts a FS out the equation, but the HP proliant currently has £100 cash back until the end of this month. So thats £140 plus the hard drives.

(for comparison my ReadyNAS duo is on eBuyer for £120 plus hard drives)

Obviously its not an all-in-one bundle, so probably not as user freindly (I haven't touched windows server for years).

ScoobLou

iTrader: (21)

Not really surely the cost you save running and maintaining (if any) on a NAS outweighs my reasons for spending the same on the hp?

We have 6 pc/laptops altogether in the house we don't require another!

Iain Young

I'd avoid Synology. I had one and it was terrible. Slow, unreliable, kept crashing and corrupting the raid array. Add to that terrible customer support. Never again...

Replaced it with a QNAP which not only has been 100% reliable, but is pretty quick and has far more freatures than I'll ever use. Wouldn't hesitate to get another QNAP

ScoobLou

iTrader: (21)

How noisy is it Iain?

Iain Young

Almost silent. You only ever hear it (quietly) when the discs are accessing, or if the fans cut in a for a short while.

ScoobLou

iTrader: (21)

Ah brillant.

Which model did you go for?

ALi-B

iTrader: (1)

Something I need to point out here: One of the biggest noise factor on most NAS'sand FS's is based on what HDs are in there and how many there are, so a different size/make of drive could be alot noiser than another one housed in an identical model NAS. i.e because someone's 1TB NAS is quiet, it doesn't automatically mean the 4TB version will be too! Especially as one could be made up of two drives and another could be running four of them.

Tip: If a drive is noisy, its always worth pulling it out and plugging it into a PC and making sure it accoustic management settings are set to quiet (http://translate.google.com/translat...ngpair=de%7Cen ).

ScoobLou

iTrader: (21)

Ah good point!

This Nas sounds like a good one:

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/149510

The hard drives I have so that cost does not bother me.

ScoobLou

iTrader: (21)

or this one:

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/255610

or LG (love LG!)

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/261316

Iain Young

http://www.qnap.com/pro_detail_feature.asp?p_id=179

That's the latest version of my one (had it about 4 years now so my model is no longer made).

ALi-B

iTrader: (1)

I have the 2 x1TB model. (RND 2110 but with a second drive installed )

Personally I'd say its average, it does the job, but I don't always get on with it. Liked it at first but now the honeymoon period is over I reckon there has to be better out there.


Main gripes:

Too slow on large file transfers (however most home user focussed NAS's are like this)
Web interface is annoying/slow.
Password/user login issues on shares with Vista/Win7,
HDs rumble through the casing when accessing (one seagate pipeline HD2 and one barracuda 7200) so I have keep it inside a cupboard ontop of a pad of paper to stop teh vibrations transmitting.
Bundled NTi shadow software is buggy in Win7 and Vista (crashes, then insists on doing a full backup afterwards).
ReadyNAS photos uselessly slow for sharing pics (CPU isn't up to the job)
Not true "Raid", all it does is mirror the data on both drives, so I have 2x1TB drives, but 1TB capacity (basically RAID1 and nothing else).
Security certification error bugs when using SSL/HTTPS to access the menu.
No real SSL ability except for remote admin (specs do says its SSL capeable; its not ).
Not the best user manual/documentation IMO


Plus sides:
Small (although it is fairly deep - 22cm and heavy, plus it has a seperate laptop style power brick)
Gigabit LAN (although you won't get it to go much faster than 25MB/sec (200 megabits/sec) through it due to the CPU.
Bit torrent client works a treat (but don't use it for illegal stuff as it is traceable! )
DLNA works nicely
And file versions on backups are fine too.
It doesn't crash/lock up (yet, although Shadow does and it does hang when access admin menus if its busy doing other stuff).
Good community forums to help get you unstuck with the basics.

Personally I think there has to be better out there. Although I could be wrong and I'm just being ultra picky.

acstua

iTrader: (1)

http://www.qnap.com/pro_detail_feature.asp?p_id=182

Littleted

Netgear Duo here.

Does everything i need and backups everything i have thats 6 Units total, No issues seen yet, but i really only use it for NTI Backup and the Z drive share for film streaming and kids stuff.

Been rock solid since i got it,

Had Buffalo prior now that was and still is a slow bag of ****