2 Drive NAS for Home Use

[Mondrin]

It's time to junk my old desktop which will leave my household all laptops. The NAS looks to be the best solution for a central store that can be accessed on my network.

Uses:

• Central store for music, images and home movies plus various other files.
• print server for current USB printer
• Backup to external USB drive

features:

• 2 drives for redundancy
• hot swap a major plus
• at least 2 USB
• decent wired performance for digital photo editing and recording video from my camcorder (DV tapes).
• maybe eSata
• Simple. I may be a computer person but I'm not a guru and my wife has a lower tolerance than I do.

Files will be mainly accessed over the wireless with performance intensive needs accessed with a wire. I have a G router now but will look at an N router shortly if needed. I don't care about streaming at this point and from reading this site (what a blessign to find) overall performance isn't going to be that much of a factor due to the wireless. An IT friends at work say I should have an e-SATA connection but i'm not sure if that's needed.

The Netgear duo looks like a good fit but is a bit older. Not sure if an update will be out with the same capability. Qnap looks interesting with their feature set but seem a bit overkill for my needs. New seagate Blackarmor 220 looks decent as well. There are so many others and I was hoping to get opinions here to help out.

Thanks!

 

[hbost]

Thecus N2200

Did you see the announcement of the Thecus N2200? Available next month at $200.

I am in the same boat and trying to figure out if I go QNAP, Synology or Thecus dual bay NAS.

 

[claykin]

Stick with a vendor that has a history of supporting their products through its lifecycle. Also one with decent support and a good user based help/forum system for when you need a little assist. To me the choices are: Netgear Readynas, QNAP and Synology. No one else comes close.

Regarding the Readynas Duo, agreed its a bit old, certainly compared to the other 2009 2 bay products. On the other hand its reliable and with the rebate thats running through the end of Sept is fairly reasonable. Hopefully a new Duo is coming, but Netgear won't even hint at it.

You may also want to look at the Windows Home Server products.

 

[Mondrin]

Thanks for the advice so far. I need to see what the rebate on the Duo is right now and look at the Thecus. I'm not as familiar with Thecus.

I forgot another one of my main considerations and that is power consumption. Minimal power consumption is a very high priority.

 

[thiggins]

For two-drive NASes, the biggest power draw is the drives. So you might want to look at products that support 2.5" drives like the QNAPs, Synologys (with optional drive adapter). There's also the Buffalo mini, but the drives aren't user replaceable.

 

[claykin]

For two-drive NASes, the biggest power draw is the drives. So you might want to look at products that support 2.5" drives like the QNAPs, Synologys (with optional drive adapter). There's also the Buffalo mini, but the drives aren't user replaceable.

QNAP at this time limits 2.5" support up to 500GB max. So, the 640, 750 and now 1TB models don't seem to be supported (yet). These new larger drives are 12.5mm thick and users on the QNAP forums claim the drive openings are only 14mm so it would be a very tight squeeze. Even if they fit, would there be enough room for airflow? QNAP claims to be evaluating the 12.5mm drives now.

The Synology should not be an issue as they are using adapters to fit 2.5" drives into 3.5" bays. The question is compatibility as their approved list does not go above 500GB drives (yet).

While power consumption is an issue for many, I give in as reliability is more important to me. I stick with Enterprise 24x7 drives when using in RAID configurations.

 

[flamaest]

Thiggins,

Can you reply on your thoughts about the Thecus N2200 possibly having bad service and support?

This seems like a problem and I would like to get you through on this..

F.

 

[thiggins]

Can you reply on your thoughts about the Thecus N2200 possibly having bad service and support?

I have no direct experience with Thecus support. Perhaps others can comment.

 

[flamaest]

It looks like the n2200 is now starting to show up in the retail channel after a quick google search for 'thecus n2200'.

B&H photo has it for a good price, but I was hoping to see it on amazon..

Can anyone please comment on their experience in using this product or about Thecus products in general? I need to make sure this NAS will be backed by a solid company before jumping in.

Thanks,
F.

 

[Lnin0]

I'm looking for the same solution. Interested in the QNAP TS210 but hesitant to pull the trigger due to the price.

For mostly storing/sharing photos, music and a printer at home I am wondering if I couldn't go with a single drive encloser (like the TS110) and get most of the same benifits.

I just don't see myself doing regular backups on a single drive NAS so really want the raid1 as a safety net. Someone said raid should not be a replacement for backing up data...what does that mean? I thought that is what raid1 was for?
________
CHRYSLER FIREPOWER

 

[thiggins]

Someone said raid should not be a replacement for backing up data...what does that mean? I thought that is what raid1 was for?

Smart SOHOs Don't Do RAID

 

[Lnin0]

Good read. Thanks for the quick response.

The biggest concern I have now is that family photos/files are not backed up beyond the usb HDD they are stored on. I know, bad practice, and that is one reason I was interested in the RAID solution - to avoid any manual intervention which I am obviously not good at.

Another big reason I wanted the NAS so that my wife's or my laptop or Xbox 360s can access printers/photos/music/movies without having everything shared through my large, power-consuming, heat-producing tower.

I think for what I need a single drive NAS might do the trick, and is cheaper to boot. I believe the QNAP TS-110 has an eSATA port and a simple way to schedule/create a backup of the NAS to an external drive. That would give me all the stuff I am looking for along with a seperate backup of our files.

Is it common for the smaller SOHO NASes, like the TS-210, to have only a single controller? Beyond the single point of failure aspect, I would think not being able to duplex would considerably slow down RAID1.
________
Blowjob Porn

 

[flamaest]

After much research, I concluded that:

I agree with the fact that Thecus has terrible service and support. Their forums [US and EU] are full of hostility and their phone ppl just point you to their forums.

I got a Synology dj209 and am waiting on its arrival. From everything I have read, this is the one to get for the money.

2 cents,
F.

 

[thiggins]

Is it common for the smaller SOHO NASes, like the TS-210, to have only a single controller? Beyond the single point of failure aspect, I would think not being able to duplex would considerably slow down RAID1.

All NASes we've tested have only one CPU. You have to get very high-end before you find products with redundant processors.

 

[Lnin0]

Ok, so now after reading more reviews on the one drive NAS solutions I am torn between the Synology DS109 and the QNAP TS110.

The QNAP TS110 has 128MB more RAM but the DS109 has a faster CPU from the looks of it. Not sure which is more of an advantage when it comes to streaming music/movies over the LAN which would be the main bandwidth consumer.

Both have the ajax interface that looks very similar so I guess my main concerns is which has the better backup solution to an attached USB/eSATA drive and which is quietest.

Any chance you have a TS110 review coming up soon? It has the nicer price point but someone claiming the the QNAP is horrible at backups in another thread has me a bit concerned. It would also be nice to know that the transfer rates on the TS110 are in line with the newer NASes. Hopefully the TS110 is not just rebranded and reboxed guts from an older model ?
________
Honda S600

 

[flamaest]

Wow, Just wow!

I got my new Synology DS209 and this thing is sweet and FAST! I just finished installing two 1.5TB drives quickly and the web-interface is crazy slick!

The install process was a breath of fresh air. Very easy with no bugs. Good job Synology!

Now I just need to figure out how to fill up my 3TB..

Highly recommended!
Fabian.