wootcat
Occasional Visitor
I am needing some advice and this looks like just the place for it. I'm asking for recommendations for a replacement NAS. I apologize in advance for the length of this post.
I've been running my own (wired wherever possible) home network for nine years. For those nine years, I've been relying on a ReadyNAS (pre-NetGear) NV+ which has been an awesome NAS. In those 9 years, I've upgraded my drives many times and had two failures, which resulted in no lost files. I've decided it's time to replace the NV+ for a couple reasons: I would like to replace it before it dies on its own; I don't really have a backup solution for it and its USB 2.0 ports are useless in that respect.
My setup is Cat 6 with gigabit ethernet switches and boards everywhere. The router and switches are NetGear. Internet is 25Mbps from Comcast. I do have a couple Powerline units for desktop PCs which aren't close to the ethernet. Wireless is only used for mobile devices and a shared printer.
Uses for the NAS are for central shared access to files and documents; fail-safe shares for all my family members, accessible from any computer; and media storage and access, which is a large iTunes music library, many movies and television show seasons. It's running as an X-RAID, which is similar to RAID-5, I think? I can hot-swap drives and everything is still accessible when a drive is missing. Capacity is based on the smallest drive in the unit.
I don't need the NAS to stream the media directly. I have a Mac mini connected to my entertainment system which runs iTunes and Plex. 98% of the movies and tv are handled via Plex. In this setup, I'm not sure if transcoding is a desired feature, or if it's even something to consider with Plex on the mini running the show. I assume Plex would have to handle any transcoding. If I am wrong, then transcoding is definitely a feature I am interested in.
I've decided to get serious about backups, and plan on attaching a USB 3.0 drive off the NAS for backup, and rotate that with another backup drive so one will always be kept off-site. Ideally, when I rotate each drive back in, the NAS won't want to back everything up, but will be able to incrementally back up all the changed files since the last time that drive was connected. Real-time syncing with the connected USB drive would be awesome, for I could then just disconnect it whenever I wanted, knowing it was up-to-date without having to run the backup manually.
I've been reading up on the various NASs from Drobo, Synology, QNAP and NetGear. I'm looking at the
Is there anything in my setup that would cause you to recommend one or more of these over another? Or another make/model entirely? I'm not familiar with the reliability or support of any of these companies other than NetGear. I'm impressed with how long my NV+ has been running, but not so happy with NetGear and how difficult it is to get support from them, for a router, not for the NV+ itself.
Thanks for sharing your knowledge and experience!
I've been running my own (wired wherever possible) home network for nine years. For those nine years, I've been relying on a ReadyNAS (pre-NetGear) NV+ which has been an awesome NAS. In those 9 years, I've upgraded my drives many times and had two failures, which resulted in no lost files. I've decided it's time to replace the NV+ for a couple reasons: I would like to replace it before it dies on its own; I don't really have a backup solution for it and its USB 2.0 ports are useless in that respect.
My setup is Cat 6 with gigabit ethernet switches and boards everywhere. The router and switches are NetGear. Internet is 25Mbps from Comcast. I do have a couple Powerline units for desktop PCs which aren't close to the ethernet. Wireless is only used for mobile devices and a shared printer.
Uses for the NAS are for central shared access to files and documents; fail-safe shares for all my family members, accessible from any computer; and media storage and access, which is a large iTunes music library, many movies and television show seasons. It's running as an X-RAID, which is similar to RAID-5, I think? I can hot-swap drives and everything is still accessible when a drive is missing. Capacity is based on the smallest drive in the unit.
I don't need the NAS to stream the media directly. I have a Mac mini connected to my entertainment system which runs iTunes and Plex. 98% of the movies and tv are handled via Plex. In this setup, I'm not sure if transcoding is a desired feature, or if it's even something to consider with Plex on the mini running the show. I assume Plex would have to handle any transcoding. If I am wrong, then transcoding is definitely a feature I am interested in.
I've decided to get serious about backups, and plan on attaching a USB 3.0 drive off the NAS for backup, and rotate that with another backup drive so one will always be kept off-site. Ideally, when I rotate each drive back in, the NAS won't want to back everything up, but will be able to incrementally back up all the changed files since the last time that drive was connected. Real-time syncing with the connected USB drive would be awesome, for I could then just disconnect it whenever I wanted, knowing it was up-to-date without having to run the backup manually.
I've been reading up on the various NASs from Drobo, Synology, QNAP and NetGear. I'm looking at the
- Drobo 5N
- Synology DS416 or 415+
- QNAP TS-451 or 451+
- NetGear RN214
Is there anything in my setup that would cause you to recommend one or more of these over another? Or another make/model entirely? I'm not familiar with the reliability or support of any of these companies other than NetGear. I'm impressed with how long my NV+ has been running, but not so happy with NetGear and how difficult it is to get support from them, for a router, not for the NV+ itself.
Thanks for sharing your knowledge and experience!
