WHS Alternatives?

[[GSV]Trig]

I've had this rig running both v1 and v2 of whs, however now I'm thinking of ditching for some sort of small low power NAS type box with some sort of torrent engine and basic jbod type of array..

i3-530
4Gb RAM
Intel DH55 board
2x2tb wd
1x1tb wd
1x500gb wd

I'm thinking something atom/arm based that I can drop .torrent files into a folder and it download (via schedule if possible so it only downloads 00:00-07:00) stuff to a set folder.

Backup of machine, not too fussed about, I can use synctoy or similar to fire docs/images to a folder.

Data duplication/fs.. I'd like the abiliy to set certain folders to be duplicated incase of drive failure and for the data to be in some fs that I can just drop a drive into my machine in the case of unit failure and get my data back.

Silent, currently the box isnt exactly what you would call noisey but seeing as its going to be low cpu power and have 2 drives in it (thinking of re-using the 2x2tb) a small low speed fan should do the job and be quiet.


So, anyone here been in a similar boat?

Whats the rig above worth, I'll be keeping the 2tb drives but can leave the others in, would it be feasable to get rid of this and buy a driveless unit?
Would obviously be supplying the v1 and v2 whs disks as neither would be of any use to me.

[BlackDwarf]

I've got a Synology DS410. It's epic.
I would definitely suggest a Synology product for your needs.

[Biscuit]

there is always freenas and openmediavault to try.

FreeNAS has a good community but i found it to be a bit dodgy with permissions, openmediavault isnt as fast much much easier to configure

[[GSV]Trig]

I was thinking more changing to something like the synology, I had already thought about freenas or similar but an i3 really is overkill

[shaithis]

You can get a low power hp microserver for around £120 after rebate. The N40L cpu in it has a 15w TDP and will spend a lot of it's life in powersaving states....

[[GSV]Trig]

Hmmmm, maybe, how physically big are they tho, I want to downsize and the NAS box not having an OS as such means less messing about to start off with..

[Biscuit]

they are quite big, not that much bigger than a 4 bay NAS really though

http://h18000.www1.hp.com/products/q...13716_div.html

[mycarsavw]

Synology +1

I've had 3 now, two I'm still using (DS408, DS211), one I've passed on to graze in pastures new (DS209j) and the new owner loves it as much as I loved it.

[[GSV]Trig]

Well I've had a quick look and so far these ones will be researched at the weekend..

ZyXEL NSA-320, Synology DS212J, DS411J, QNAP TS-259Pro+, NetGear RND4000..

I'd like 4 bay so I can have a bay or two free but cost might put that idea out but we'll see how much data I actually have that I want duplicated and how much I'm actually willign to put on top of the sale of the above rig..

[jim]

I've used the Netgear ReadyNAS Duo devices before and they've been great. Quiet, very easy to use and a decent range of add-ons for things like torrents. I think Logitech made a Squeezebox add-on for them as well, so they're definitely customisable.

Obviously you'll never get the flexibility of WHS with a NAS, but if all you're using is fileserving and torrent downloading, then you don't need more than a little NAS.

I was given some advice ages ago to always buy a driveless NAS, since then if it breaks you can post the NAS back but, importantly, keep your drives while they fix it. If you need more space, it might be worth selling all of your drives and buying some 3TB disks. Drives are expensive at the moment, but that works for old drives as well as new ones. You can flog 2TB and replace them with 3TB without losing out too much. Obviously though, if you've got enough space it doesn't matter.

[[GSV]Trig]

I went from big case full of drives to crap NAS box to whs, now going back the other way..

[jim]

I went from big case full of drives to crap NAS box to whs, now going back the other way..

Yeah I roughly did that, although without the crap NAS box. I'm using a MicroServer now with a unix fileserver OS, but obviously it can only do one thing. Thankfully I've still got the WHS box, which deals with everything else.

[Ross1]

I went from big case full of drives to crap NAS box to whs, now going back the other way..

I think big case full of drives needs a good acronym, not sure BCFoD rolls off the tongue that well.

My effort: http://i.imgur.com/Q3i6A.jpg

[[GSV]Trig]

Yeah looking familiar there, and the side of the case usually missing too...

[[GSV]Trig]

Well so far all I've done is ditched the Netgear one from the list, doesnt appear to do JBOD which I might end up using at somepoint..

Anyone had direct dealings with the following?

QNap TS-410 Turbo
QNap TS-412 Turbo
Synology DS411J

Want JBOD and a Bit Torrent client with 3+ bays.