Cheap backup with no whistles!

[Deleted member 40788]

Hello all,

I'm looking for my first NAS box and need some direction on low cost reliable choice. My PC is currently housing my storage and is getting almost full do to large GoPro video files. Right now I have 2x 500GB drives acting like RAID1 but not really. I use the first drive to interact with all my data files and use synctoy to replicate to the second drive as redundancy. My main question is, if I do not require transcoding, media streamer, bitsync, bell and whistles etc.... Is there any good NAS boxes that can be at a lower price point and just be used to hold my files on the network? Most of the time I use my PC to edit the video and share it out to my Mac to edit audio and playback. I just want the NAS to be redundant solution and sharable solution.
I am looking at the QNAP TS-251 with 2 WD Red drives.

Thank you

 

[htismaqe]

Do you need 2 drives? I have the QNAP TS-112P for simple file sharing and storage and it works great. Very inexpensive and supports backup to USB3/eSATA external drives.

 

[Deleted member 40788]

Yes 2 drives is a must for residency. I would run it in RAID 1. Besides the video files I would be backing up other personal documents and pictures.

 

[thiggins]

TS-251 is a good compromise between price and performance. Also look at the ASUSTOR AS-202TE and AS-302T.

Also the Seagate Personal Cloud- 2 Bay is actually pretty good too for a basic NAS with decent performance. Doesn't come diskless, but changing drives on the 2-bay is pretty easy.

 

[htismaqe]

Keep in mind that RAID 1 doesn't offer you backup. It only protects you against a single, physical drive failure. If the NAS itself fails or does something strange and hoses the RAID array, you'll lose everything. Don't rely only on RAID 1 for keeping your files safe. An offline, external backup is critical.

 

[stevech]

No RAID offers backup.
As said above, external backup to USB3, eSATA, or rsync to another NAS or comptuer.
I'm of the opinion that rare is the home/SOHO user that needs a 4 bay NAS. Certainly don't pay for 4 bay just to get RAID, for the reasons above.
Think about rank-ordering your data loss risks and see what mitigates each, such as my ranking:

1. Theft of hardware
   
2. human error in admin of the NAS
3. Virus/malware/SSL/SSH breach that corrupts the file system
4. NAS power supply / mainboard failure that wrecks the file system
5. Drive failure

 

[stevech]

...
Also the Seagate Personal Cloud- 2 Bay is actually pretty good too for a basic NAS with decent performance. Doesn't come diskless, but changing drives on the 2-bay is pretty easy.

The SNB review of the product shows the hardware and documents transfer speeds.

But most users need to know how good and how complete the NAS operating software is. The stuff that QNAP, Synology and up-and-coming ASUS do. For the first two companies, NASes and the OSes are the only things they do and they do it well.

The topic of NAS software goodness is missing in the review.

Personally, I would not buy a NAS from the likes of Seagate, Western Digital, Buffalo, Netgear, and so on.

 

[thiggins]

The topic of NAS software goodness is missing in the review.

And how do you define "NAS software goodness"?

 

[Deleted member 40788]

So if RAID 1 is sketchy couldn't I just set the drives as JBOD and then sync between them? Someone else mentioned this from another post. I was thinking I can get a single bay like htismaqe mentioned and have a bigger 4TB drive in my main PC and then sync to the NAS? This way it's not RAID but a redundant copy but also shareable? Are the qnap and synology still leaders for single bay boxes?

 

[thiggins]

You'd have to set the drives as separate volumes, not JBOD. That strategy doesn't help or improve data robustness.

The key rule is that valuable data should never reside on a SINGLE device, RAID or not. As long as you follow that rule, you'll be fine.

You asked for no whistles. QNAP and Synology are leaders in bells and whistles and are fine products. But if you want simple backup, there are plenty of other options. It's your money.

 

[Deleted member 40788]

You'd have to set the drives as separate volumes, not JBOD. That strategy doesn't help or improve data robustness.

The key rule is that valuable data should never reside on a SINGLE device, RAID or not. As long as you follow that rule, you'll be fine.

You asked for no whistles. QNAP and Synology are leaders in bells and whistles and are fine products. But if you want simple backup, there are plenty of other options. It's your money.

My comment was leaning toward hardware reliability.

 

[htismaqe]

Yeah, I use QNAP and it has a ton of bells and whistles (that can all be disabled, FWIW). I've also used ZyXel and Buffalo NAS that were even less expensive and even lighter on features. Neither one of them performed as well as the QNAP and the QNAP is far more stable as well.

It's not that RAID1 is sketchy, it's that you should always have an external backup. For me, I have important data stored locally on my iMac. I sync that data with my NAS in semi-realtime. My NAS also then backs up to an external drive via eSATA.

So I have 3 copies of my data, on 3 different physical devices, in 3 different physical locations.

 

[thiggins]

I can't speak to that, since we can't test reliability.

I can say that I have a single drive WD My Book Live (precursor to the My Cloud). It has reliably automatically backed up to a single drive Synology DS109+ once a day for at least two years now without a hitch. And to a single drive Buffalo NAS before that. I also had a single drive QNAP TS-109 (if I remember correctly) in the mix for years.

None of them (or the drives in them) died and all worked reliably.

The only NAS I ever had die on me was an original RAID 5 Infrant (which was purchased by NETGEAR and became the ReadyNAS) where the controller board failed. I've also had a RAID 5 volume get wonky and keep flagging it needed to be rebuilt. This was a main factor toward my move to multiple single-drive NASes for my storage and backup needs.

So, I'm a believer in simple NASes that run cool. And I put EVERYTHING on UPS.

 

[Deleted member 40788]

So I think my setup will be as configured. Will have both HGST drives synced.

(PC)
Main drive: SSD 240GB
Games drive: SSD 180GB
GoPro drive: SSD 180GB
Storage drive: HGST 4TB (don't know if it will be the NAS or desktop version)

(NAS)
QNAP TS-131: HGST 4TB

Any rejection to this setup?

 

[Trexx]

Ok.. here is another viewpoint to things.

If your primary use case of the NAS is backups of files stored on your PC and that is all you want to do, I would buy with an external USB drive that you chain off your PC and be done.

If you are going to use the NAS for more than just a backup server, then I would go with the TS-251 (over the TS-231 if budget allows) w/2 Drives in RAID-1 config. Raid-1 protects you from data loss on the NAS in case of a single drive failing. By going with the TS-251, you are in the intel x86 family which has a larger SW base than the arm (ts-231 family) versions.

As others have said, RAID is not a substitute for backups, even on the NAS. I have my TS-453 in a 4 Drive RAID-5, but I also have 2 USB drives hanging off for backing up all my data on the NAS.

Also RAID won't protect you from accidental file deletions/corruptions. You would still need to recover the files from a prior backup.

 

[htismaqe]

When I was talking about reliability, I'm talking more about the architecture and resources rather than a unit just flat dying.

For example, the ZyXel NS302 was a fine NAS but if 2 PCs connecting via GigE were writing a bunch of data at the same time, it would lock up and have to be rebooted. It just couldn't handle the load.

 

[htismaqe]

FYI, I only use HGST drives anymore. Best combination of price and reliability for me.

 

[Trexx]

I have been using HGST drives for my last 2 purchases and couldn't be happier. Similar pricing to WD RED, but better performance and seems to be better reliability.

 

[Deleted member 40788]

I saw a reduced QNAP TS-251 on sale at my local Frys electronics store. It was an open box, but its working perfectly at home now. Got all my files synced using Synctoy on a single disk volume. If anyone does read this thread, all I can say for the installation and setup, it's a breeze and very easy to do. Very impressed. Now understanding all the apps if I even want them is a little harder. Seems like I all ready get these features from my Apple TV and Chromecast. Overall I'm happy with it.

 

[Deleted member 40788]

Ok update on my QNAP TS-251. I did a quick search on SSD caching and see there is somewhat of a performance boost, but will it make since to use my spare SSD for cache or just create another volume for music/video so it can be read faster? The SSD is a small 180GB Intel 520. Remember, I am currently using only one 4TB HDD in the TS-251 unit and have a spare slot.

The other option I was looking at was memory and bumping the pre-installed 1GB to 4GB and what the real benefit would be besides installing VM's.

http://forum.qnap.com/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=110935#p484415
http://www.snbforums.com/threads/nas-performance-using-ssd-caching.15921/