[Comp] NAS Superthread (current deals on NAS devices)

[lead]

EXT4 is fastest? Good to know one can use two NAS or more to mirror each other.

in these little boxes with embedded processors ext4, if supported, offers the latest most efficent stable format. But at a slight speed cost compared to the earlier ext2 format which is not as stable hence not as secure for potential data loss. On the 320 I saw around 8-10 meg difference in throughput vs ext3. But 3 was the only choice of format offered, I formatted out side the box for ext 2 just to test, but ext 3 is what I currently use. Its rather easy to mirror since most of them offer built in rsync for concurrent backups. I chose to do that vs say running 2 boxes with raid 1 or mirrored individual mounts. I'd rather have a true separate mirror available, scheduled during the late hours. You could pull off the same thing thru the usb on the synology's and qnap. But if the box goes down so do the usb/esata externals and they too would be gone from the available network till fixed

[lead]

Yes, especially if you're using "green" drives. Some makes don't play well in a raid environment. The disks keep trying to spin down which is a problem when multiple drives are linked to each other.

wd greens aren't very friendly with these boxes outside of individual mounts. But in these boxes I'd recommend individual mounts vs raid or jbod.Their isn't going to be a substantial speed or security increase that raid or jbod would offer vs going the extra 5min to schedule a mirror to the second drive instead of raid 1. It will still monitor smart data for hard drive health.

[ihatebell]

Easy there tiger. Someone asked me to compare it so I did. Some people.. seriously. Also what would I need 69MB/s for? I recently had to transfer 3 TB of data over the network. 40 MB/s would've taken 25 Hours whereas my and at 70MB/s took about 14 Hours. Kind of important for me. I don't know about the dude who asked me the question though. Different people different needs.

Thank you for confirming/clarification. The numbers/pecs on paper and user reviews were contradicting.

I am easy. (lol). And seriously, how many times are you going to transfer 3TB over the network? I'd suspect for the average user, the dns320 would be just fine. That said, one key thing that people look for that the DNS320 can't provide is a 4-bay enclosure.

[craeyon]

wd greens aren't very friendly with these boxes outside of individual mounts. But in these boxes I'd recommend individual mounts vs raid or jbod.Their isn't going to be a substantial speed or security increase that raid or jbod would offer vs going the extra 5min to schedule a mirror to the second drive instead of raid 1. It will still monitor smart data for hard drive health.

The safest drive to put in your NAS would be the 1 TB WD Black. I don't think I've seen an NAS that isn't compatible with that particular HDD.

[gheart008]

Dlink NAS has got nothing on QNAP. Not only is the software management is robust but the hardware surpasses by a mile.

The QNAP is running a faster Marvel processor 1.2 GHZ vs 500Hz of the Dlink. QNAP has more ram 256 Mb vs 64 MB. This means your transfer and read rates are going to be much higher. The DLink is reported to have 13MB/s writes and 22MB/s reads which would be terrible for doing things like streaming 1080p movies to your Western Digital box. The QNAP has 33MB/s writes and 69MB/s which is stupid fast. QNAP also has support multiple RAID modes, DLink only does till RAID 0 and 1 and JBOD. QNAP is just a better machine.

Dlink is fine for a cheapo solution. Been using it for months and it's been fine.

[CDN_Blizzard]

This Patriot Javelin S4 has decent reviews on other sites.

http://ncix.com/products/?sku=60865
The $100 MIR expires this week.

[lead]

The safest drive to put in your NAS would be the 1 TB WD Black. I don't think I've seen an NAS that isn't compatible with that particular HDD.

runs too hot, all though the synology has a nice fan. The samsung f4 work great, f3's and the hitachi 5k000 are lean quiet cool running drives that are faster than these boxes could ever take advantage of there is no reason for a 7200 rpm drive. The greens really blow for acess time because of the 8 sec park while scrolling thru your large library. They'll park before you make a selection of a file adding to the latency.

[tomjose]

Ok this question is gonna be way off topic (or maybe not since it is a NAS related q)

I recently got the Seagate GOFlex Home Network Drive (3TB) for 200 tax in.
I was wondering if I should return this cus well to me, the hard drive seems to be just enclosed in all that plastic and all without any vents or anything.
Well at least i didnt spot any as i looked at the enclosure.

So i was wondering if i should just bring it back to staples and try to get my hand on one of those proper NAS drives with the fan and all that.

The transfer speeds i get from my Laptop to the Drive (wireless N) while transferring say 15GB is like 8 to 9 MB/s

Wired on the PC downstairs i get around 14-17MB/s

Speeds arent that bad but when I see other users mention speeds like 24 or 32MB/s WRITE, im like 'wow, i want those speeds too'

So would you guys recommend me keep the Seagate or return?
I dont want the drive failing on me a year or 2 down the road. Im moving some fam photos, videos and stuff on it and if it crashes then...
Damn i need to get those RAID setups or something lol

[oldskool75]

Updated for clarity - it will be updated constantly. Thanks.

Thanks.. OP Thanked and followed.

FWIW, I bought the DS211j while it was on sale in Dec.. Love the features.. After reading about the SHR, I kind of wish I bought a 4 or 5 bay system. :-/

(SHR - Synology Hybrid Raid -- which is kind of like Drobo, but with non-proprietary tools and formats, so you should be able to recover the data from the disks with standard linux tools vs something like a drobo which would require another drobo if the controller/enclosure failed (and not the disks))

[craeyon]

-snip-

If you want a proper MANAGED NAS you will have to fork out the money for it. Staples ddoesn't carry the proper ones. The read write speeds or throughput as they call it are depended upon the processor and memory. What is good NAS for you? I don't know... if you want a 2 Bay get the QNAP TN-219P+/TN-212 or if you want the 4 Bay get the QNAP-TN412.

Personally I don't have much faith in the Dlink 320.

[MiKrofT]

What about NAS capable of running sabnzbd at a decent speed?

[Jest3rr]

Is DLNA support essential?

[joey003]

Anyone else here waiting for the synology 1812+?

I've been running a 411j for nearly a year with 4x 2TB in raid. It's been nearly full and really need to expand soon. But even with low ram and a slow CPU it manages sabnzbd, sick beard and streaming on a daily basis quite well.

[joey003]

I think you're confusing MB/s and Mb/s. The DLink with 22MB/s reads can stream 1080p just fine. In fact it should be able to stream about 3 full bluray streams at the same time, if it can maintain that 22MB/s.

You are thinking 720p which is around 4 to 8 MB/s. I was talking about 1080p files which are on average 20 MB/s without burst. I am also going by what people are saying about the Dlink 323 and 1080p video streaming is an issue with this unit. I don't know maybe you are having luck?

Edit just for clarification. The 20MB/s is for AVC codec whereas the MKV which is x.264 codec is around 10 - 12 MB/s for 1080p video. On paper it makes sense but I don't know why people are having problems streaming that on Dlink 323. It has to be the low 64MB ram and 500Mhz processor.

Melmo is right - Don't you mean Mbps and not MBps? A 1080p file which you mentioned averages 20 MB/s would be 160 Mbps. If you follow the link you provided it mentions "bitrates are averages and are in megabits per second (Mbps)"

Just clarifying anyway.

[AAAAAAA7]

Is DLNA support essential?

Yes exactly what I was thinking reading through this thread.
DLNA is essential really because that is where the industry is going for playing media, especially video. I would not even consider a NAS that doesn't support DLNA. For instance a lot of bluray players are "network" capable yet will only recognise DLNA drives and it wil just keep going in that direction.

The OP posted a nice enclosure that is DLNA certified. Thumbs up to that,