Network Attached Storage

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bdcardinal

bdcardinal

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I have been looking at adding some large capacity storage to my home setup. I have a row of 4TD external hard drives that are getting close to full. A friend that does IT recommended Buffalo Technologies.

I was looking at something like this: http://www.buffalotech.com/products/netw...kless-enclosure

And then getting Western Digital Red drives to fill it.

Anyone have any personal experience with these and can lend any input?
 
Meh, some people like those type of NAS, I personally prefer an actual server, that way I can use it for other things, as well as implement software based snapshot RAID for parity. IF you want to go the NAS route though, nothing wrong with buffalo stuff. It's decent enough. And WD reds are also a good choice for drives.
 
you might want to just build something,

its cheaper than buying a box and higher performance...
but not plug and play.


You can build a basic one for under 200$(+ hdd cost) of course you can spend more for a nice case etc.
 
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Depending on how tech savvy you are you can make a your own NAS server from old parts you got laying around using something like NAS4Free or FreeNAS. They both support RAID and ZFS if you want. I've got a 6 bay ZFS setup on NAS4Free right now it works great.
 
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Does this potential system give you RAID capabilities? That way you have backup.
 
I built a computer before, and the whole experience left a sour taste. For my first NAS style rodeo I was wanting a prebuilt. It was down between the Buffalo and the Netgear NAS. I was planning on going down to Fry's Electronics this weekend (woot for being single on Valentine's) and see what they have in stock.

If this goes well, I will build something more substantial. The row of externals is about 24TB of storage and they are at almost 80% full. My computer may or may not be connected to torrents 24/7.
 
Originally Posted By: bdcardinal
I have been looking at adding some large capacity storage to my home setup. I have a row of 4TD external hard drives that are getting close to full. A friend that does IT recommended Buffalo Technologies.

I was looking at something like this: http://www.buffalotech.com/products/netw...kless-enclosure

And then getting Western Digital Red drives to fill it.

What are they full of?

Anyone have any personal experience with these and can lend any input?
 
Originally Posted By: bdcardinal
I have been looking at adding some large capacity storage to my home setup. I have a row of 4TD external hard drives that are getting close to full. A friend that does IT recommended Buffalo Technologies.

I was looking at something like this: http://www.buffalotech.com/products/netw...kless-enclosure

What kind of CPU does this rig have?

I owned a few older Buffalo NASes before, and the CPU was always the weak link. It was severely limiting the actual transfer speeds. The last one I had had a 1 Gbps network interface, but in reality couldn't send/receive data faster than about 10 MB/s. That's when I gave up on the whole NAS thing and just started using a standalone mini PC that I also use for other purposes (media server, etc.) But maybe these new NASes don't have that problem. Make sure to research what kind of actual throughput speeds people get on them.
 
If you get a Western Digital Red drive (or a Green), adjust the idle time.

Some have an 8 second setting, which means that if the drive has not been accessed in that time, it spins down. Windoze 8 will access a drive approximately every 9-12 seconds, especially if copying large files while the computer has other processes running...

The result is a drive that constantly spins up, then spins down, wearing out the drive...

Reset the idle time to 90-120 seconds...
 
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how many bay?

qnap ts451 for 4 bay is decent.

sounds like you need an 8bay for 30GB+

the qnap TS-869L
is on sale for 738$ right now.

the ts851 however is newer and ~~840$

this link could give you some ideas
http://www.anandtech.com/show/8757/asustor-as7008t-8bay-intel-haswell-smb-nas-review

you are upto 1000$ to get out of the atom processor category.

I could build something with 2-3-4x the specs for half the price... but that's not for everyone

Those 800$ ones come with a celeron aka atom as well...
(in that generation the celeron is an atom vs previous celerons)

examples would be a celeron 1037u vs a j1800
 
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I'd rather build something - way more CPU power that way. An out of the box consumer grade NAS will not be that fast. Usually low end components.

I run FreeNAS on a Celery mini-ITX board and it can saturate the network - the router ends up being the limiting factor rather than the NAS. (need a better router!)
 
Its very slow but works.

$35 raspberryPi computer +powered usb hub + old laptop drives in (2) $6.99 usb enclosures. I don't have raid but use rsync to keep a redundant copy in near realtime. I use OpenMediaVault as the software. My setup is
I think Bananna Pi $50 offers better performance by a long shot.
 
FreeNAS if you have some old hardware to spare. I setup a 6 drive, 2 x RAIDz (aka: RAID5) arrays for a total of 8TB with the ability to lose two drives without data loss.

I've since swapped out failed drives on two instances.

So far it's been bullet proof.

I have had very little success with entry level (aka: low priced) NAS units.
 
I've used the Netgear ones and had great luck with them. My current NAS is an old server (retired) but I'm going to be replacing it as it draws way too much power.
 
Originally Posted By: bdcardinal


If this goes well, I will build something more substantial. The row of externals is about 24TB of storage and they are at almost 80% full. My computer may or may not be connected to torrents 24/7.


and here i felt bad about having a measly 3TB drive nearly Filled....

and i have no idea what you mean by Torrents...
whistle.gif

... says the guy with a Jolly Roger Car Flag.
 
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You could also look into HP ProLiant MicroServer Gen8 - there is a miriad of choices there. Very well put together and very quiet.
 
Originally Posted By: earlyre
Originally Posted By: bdcardinal


If this goes well, I will build something more substantial. The row of externals is about 24TB of storage and they are at almost 80% full. My computer may or may not be connected to torrents 24/7.


and here i felt bad about having a measly 3TB drive nearly Filled....

and i have no idea what you mean by Torrents...
whistle.gif

... says the guy with a Jolly Roger Car Flag.


At least I have a very positive seed ratio
banana2.gif
 
Originally Posted By: bdcardinal




At least I have a very positive seed ratio
banana2.gif



how many bay's were you looking for, is an atom based celeron ok or do you want something stronger?

the ts-451 is on sale right now for 350$
 
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Originally Posted By: Rand
Originally Posted By: bdcardinal




At least I have a very positive seed ratio
banana2.gif



how many bay's were you looking for, is an atom based celeron ok or do you want something stronger?

the ts-451 is on sale right now for 350$


I was looking at 4 to start. If I need something bigger, I have no issues going all in on something way more than I will ever need.
 
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