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New NAS advice | Coming from router-NAS combo (WNDR4700)

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dummed

New Around Here
I had bought Netgear WNDR4700 lured by it's single bay HDD an year back. It took me a while to realise that cut-copy-paste is pretty much all that I can do with the files. So I find myself excited to buy an actual NAS.

I'm from India and the top 3 brands (QNAP, Synology and Asustor) are not available. So ebay Global buy is the only option. Customs and shipping have led me to a weird conundrum.

My options:
2 bay
QNAP 251 : 464 USD
QNAP 251+ : 532 USD
Asustor 5002T : 460 USD (with 2 GB RAM)

4 bay
Asustor 5004T : 532 USD (new but open box)

My use:
I'm buying it to play with it mostly. HTTP downloads are something I'll be using a lot. I'm going to start to use Git for my hobby programming. I'll play with virtualization too (although I don't know how much I'd benefit out of it)
I'll not use RAID for now. I will put 1 HDD and 1 SSD lying around in my house.

About QNAP 251: QNAP software is supposedly better since they're a PRO in this business. NAS is relatively cheap. Build is plastic. White looks bad.

About QNAP 251+: A remote (a might not be using HDMI at the moment so not really useful at the moment). Quadcore CPU (Does it make a difference??), Black color but again plastic.

About 5002T: Cheapest with 2 GB RAM added. Asustor is new in the business. Strong metal build but is OS Reliable?

About 5004T: Why buy 251+ if I can get 4 bay at the same price? But is buying 4 bay a better deal than buying a more mature QNAP?

Also worth mentioning, I have windows phone so asustor have 0 apps on it. But that's fine if the browser would work. So how much do QTS and ADM depend on third party plugins? Do they work with MS Edge? Does QTM require Java enabled browser? I've heard asustor's file browser does require Java.

Can someone help me solve this? 4 bay looks tempting since I can buy HDD and put in without pulling the two I have out of the house. But..
This has driven me nuts.
 
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They're all pretty close - the 251Plus has 2 more cores, but generally performance should be similar..

QNAP has a more mature ecosystem and a larger user base, Asustor is newer, but rumor is they've hired on a lot of ex-QNAP folks (which may explain why things are very similar)...

Really comes down to your local support options if you need repairs...
 
Local support is nill :p so it's a bullet in the dark. If I get a DOA, I'll have to salvage the PCB.
So as per your opinion, I should either go for 251 or the 4 bay asustor? Is that so?
And if you were in my position, what would you buy?
 
I have the TS453Pro, so I pretty much made my decision ;)

I would check reviews (here on the main site as well as others), check out their support forums and see what's going on over there...

Both are good - the Asustor does have the advantage of 2 more bays...
 
I was initially inclined to buy a NAS that has upgradable processor to make it future proof. But apparently QNAP x70 and above only support it which are out of budget. I'm already paying a premium over US buyers :/

QNAP forums are filled with users while Asustor ones are pretty much deserted. Even SNB doesn't have a dedicated subforum for asustor :eek:
 
NAS like QNAP and Synology don't normally enable CPU upgrades via mainboard swap as in PCs.

QNAP and Synology forums here -- this is a small web site of forums, very few users as compared to the user counts for products these two companies sell. Best to read their user forums. But bear in mind, happy customers rarely post.
 
I was initially inclined to buy a NAS that has upgradable processor to make it future proof. But apparently QNAP x70 and above only support it which are out of budget.

Not that big of a deal - most NAS activities are not overly CPU bound unless doing some very specific things...

The J1800/J1900's in the NAS boxes, they're all soldered down...
 
I ended up buying the 251. Also ordered 1x4GB RAM. Everything should be here within a week :)
Excited and simultaneously worried what if I won't end up getting a DOA unit.
BTW Asustor's web UI is not as fancy as QNAP.

Thanks to all for your help
 

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