Buying 4-bay NAS, need help do choose

[beetle]

Sorry posted in the wrong place, could the post be moved to NAS buying advice?

I looking att Qnap TS-451, Synology DS415play and Asustor AS-5004t(or possibly the AS-5104t.

I'm not sure which I should for for, I plan on using 3 or 4 WD 2TB red in in RAID5 and it will be used for both streaming, storage and possibly as a local usenetserver(if I can find software for it).

I will probably be using Plex for streaming, which means the HDMI isn't necessary.

 

[L&LD]

I would look at finding a NAS (QNAP or Synology) that offered the highest level of hardware possible for the lowest price. The os used by both is very similar, although I prefer QNAP myself.

When buying with the above criteria, QNAP is usually the 'winner' and sometimes, by a large margin if certain features are required.

 

[sfx2000]

All three a pretty decent - slightly different feature sets...

Synology and QNAP are in the midst of their 2016 product rollouts, so see what those offer, and good deals on the 2015's...

 

[stevech]

I use/recommend 2 bay, two independent volumes, no RAID.
Mine's Synology but QNAP is near par.

 

[thiggins]

For equivalent hardware, ASUSTOR is usually lowest price.

 

[L&LD]

For equivalent hardware, ASUSTOR is usually lowest price.

But what about the software and os? Maybe this will make for a good article for 2016?

 

[stevech]

But what about the software and os? Maybe this will make for a good article for 2016?

A wise observation!

 

[sfx2000]

Esp. since DSM, along with QTS, have had a fair amount of changes since the last round - Not sure where Asustor is except that visually, it's very similar to QTS..

 

[beetle]

Thank you for your advises.

I got a good price on the TS-451, so I went for it. Unfortunately they were out of stock on the 2 TB drives, so I had to settle for 3 x 3 TB

So far everything is going fine

 

[sfx2000]

The TS-451 is a good box - make sure to get updated to the most recent version of QTS before getting along too far...

I would also suggest getting one more 3TB drive to fill out the bays, as it will give you more storage options (like RAID5 or RAID10)...

If it's the 2GB model, the RAM is fairly easy to upgrade to 4GB (and perhaps 8GB) if you want to play around with Virtualization Station.

Enjoy the NAS box - again, good choice!

 

[beetle]

I'm running it in Raid 5(3 drives), may get one more to have as spare.

The NAS came with 1 GB memory, but I had 2x2 GB sticks laying around and they worked fine ☺

 

[sfx2000]

I'm running it in Raid 5(3 drives), may get one more to have as spare.

The NAS came with 1 GB memory, but I had 2x2 GB sticks laying around and they worked fine ☺

RAID5 with 3 drives is really scary, and slower than you know what... getting that additional drive would do a world of good, whether staying with RAID5 or going to RAID10...

 

[beetle]

I know, but, pay day on Tuesday...