Recommend a NAS?

[Blastuk]

I've never used a NAS before but I'm looking for a premade solution rather than building a box myself.

Any easy to use ones out there with decent performance?

Needs:

4-5 bay
Raid 5
Gigabit ethernet


I've looked at drobo and the performance doesn't seem to be very good as a NAS.

Any other solutions exist where you can just plug a drive in and let it do its thing?

[cptwhite_uk]

Check my thread here from a few weeks ago might be some useful info:

http://forums.hexus.net/pc-hardware-...preciated.html

[Dooms]

I vote was always one of the HP Microservers however as you want an out of the box solution I would either go for a QNAP or Synology. I prefer the hardware and software on the QNAPs however the Synology boxes are still very good, cheaper and have the very very great added bonus of being able to add 5 day extensions onto your box for future expansion.

[Blastuk]

How is the operation of the Synology NASes?

Do you just plug in the drives and do a quick setup?
What happens when a drive fails? How difficult is it to change drives or upgrade drives?

[Bonebreaker777]

+1 vote for Synology. The Synology OS is very easy to install, fast to get used to and configure. Most things have a wizzard to it.
Exactly as you say,you just plug the drives,do a quick installation and configure your RAID. Changing drives depends,you mean when one fails in a RAID or you would like to upgrade them. For upgrade there is a migration function I believe. Physically changing drives is literarily no skill,only software (I think, never had to do anything like that, my NAS just crossed 17000h online plus the hard drives inside and I recently introduced two people to the Synology products,so I can vouch for the installation and online phase).

[mycarsavw]

Another Synology vote here.

I've been using them (in a business capacity) since 2008. DS408, DS209j, DS211, DS213 - all are running 24/7 at various locations serving all sorts of users levels.

Always in a RAID config of some sort and I've never yet had an issue with anything.

I've just recently upgraded the drives in the DS408 from 4 x 750Gb to 4 x 2Tb - it took an age but again, no issues at all.

[Blastuk]

Thanks guys, currently looking at Synology DS414
Looks like it does what I need, and it has the hybrid raid which will be nice for upgrading.

[shaithis]

Yeah, Synology all the way. Had issues with QNAPs refusing to rebuild arrays (seeing new disk as wrong device id) that have put me off using them again.

[Bonebreaker777]

I had a chance to work with the DS414 (set up with 4 x 4GB HDD) and it was a bliss. Easy set up,easy remote management, easy playback of multimedia files on the move.

[Blastuk]

Got the NAS set up and in use, went from :

- 2x 1TB drives

- Replaced a 1TB with a 3TB, restored ok after clicking some buttons, took maybe 1 hour or so as it was checking the disk at the same time.

- Added another 3TB so it's now at 1TB, 3TB, 3TB; this part took probably about 16 hours to complete, it expanded the capacity of the NAS.

Will Probably be replacing the rest with 4TB as I go, but seems to be doing well.

It has so many features that I probably won't ever use, but it's cool

[Bonebreaker777]

Got the NAS set up and in use, went from :

- 2x 1TB drives

- Replaced a 1TB with a 3TB, restored ok after clicking some buttons, took maybe 1 hour or so as it was checking the disk at the same time.

- Added another 3TB so it's now at 1TB, 3TB, 3TB; this part took probably about 16 hours to complete, it expanded the capacity of the NAS.

Will Probably be replacing the rest with 4TB as I go, but seems to be doing well.

It has so many features that I probably won't ever use, but it's cool

Good for you! Have fun with it ;-)