Advice for a 2-bay NAS w/Dropbox Support?

[crazymoogle]

Hi folks, long time lurker, first time poster on SNB...

To cut to the chase, I'm looking for:

• A 2-Bay NAS (I plan to run 2x3TB in RAID1 or SHR/equivalent)
• Relatively idiot proof (Just something super simple for the wife and I to put docs/photos on)
• Dropbox Support (So if something ever happens to the NAS we still have a solid remote backup of a specific folder(s))
• DLNA Server (I have a Mac Mini and VLC to do the transcoding)
• Relatively cheap (sorry folks, that shiny DS214+ is just not in my range)
• Quiet (it's going to be sitting on an exposed shelf, I'm done with PS3 level noise)

So in my price range, I guess there would be...

• WD EX2
• Synology DS215J (I just can't stomach 256MB of RAM on the 214SE, but this is the top of my $ range)
• Maybe something QNAP...? (Most of the top SNB models are just too expensive for my realm...)

Originally I planned on picking the WD EX2 (good specs, cheap, idiot proof, etc) but the shreds of details I can find about their Dropbox support seem to all point at it being barely functional at all?

Thanks!

 

[stevech]

Dropbox - no.
USB3 or eSATA drive connected to NAS for backup - yes.
My bit USB3 backup drive is out of burglars' sight.

NAS: Synology or QNAP. Very comparable. Don't over-bye. Don't rely on RAID as a backup. It's not intended for that.

 

[crazymoogle]

Thanks for the reply. My backup strategy is RAID1 local (if a drive fails), Dropbox (offsite). Of course I can do the occasional USB3 backup (good if the whole NAS fries) but its crucial for me to have the dropbox option for both content sharing and the offsite backup...Does anyone here have any exp using Dropbox with their NAS?

 

[Trexx]

Fry's has a good deal going right now on QNAP TS-451 ($349) & TS-251's ($215) (without HDDs).
http://slickdeals.net/f/7835931-qnap-ts-451-4-bay-nas-server-349-ts-251-215-frys?v=1&p=75892301

The thing nice with the QNAP's is the build in HDMI, so you can run XBMC/Kodi right on the unit and playback to a TV or use Plex/DLNA/etc. to stream. It also supports realtime video transcoding when streaming remotely.

 

[crazymoogle]

Thanks for the link Trexx!

But sadly I'm north of the border so that unit is about $150-$200 over my price range, at the same price as the DS214play.
(Also, while I agree the HDMI is nice can it do 1080p transcoding? I thought it wasn't quite that strong.)

 

[Trexx]

I have seen differing answers re: 1080p transcoding on the Ts-x51 family when doing a quick google. I have the TS-453Pro which has a beefier processor.

 

[crazymoogle]

Well in any case I have the Mac Mini to do the same job. Thanks though.

 

[sfx2000]

Well in any case I have the Mac Mini to do the same job. Thanks though.

The MacMini running OSX Server can serve the files more than fast enough, but due to issues with MacOS X, it's not going to transcode very quickly - most of it is straight on the CPU... a Mini 2012 with Quad i7 has more than enough horsepower, but they're not common... Current Mini's (2014 edition) are all dual core i5's and i7's... but they're compute bound in transcoding for real-time..

Intel QSV hasn't been deployed there yet on Mac - and the x51/x53 QNAP boxes (along with other models perhaps) use QSV, and it's pretty much real-time...

 

[sfx2000]

FWIW - I replaced a Mac Mini 2010 Server (OS X 10.6 Server) with a QNAP TS-453Pro, and it's been a couple of weeks, but no regrets - thru QNAP's VirtSta, along collaspsed a hotel Linux box running Wordpress/mySQL/DokuWiki into a Ubuntu 14.04LTS instance...

See my other thread QNAP sub-forum on my experiences and deep dive into the TS-453...

 

[stevech]

Thanks for the reply. My backup strategy is RAID1 local (if a drive fails), Dropbox (offsite). Of course I can do the occasional USB3 backup (good if the whole NAS fries) but its crucial for me to have the dropbox option for both content sharing and the offsite backup...Does anyone here have any exp using Dropbox with their NAS?

I suggest to you that this is a very bad strategy. With RAID1, if the file system gets corrupted, or malware/virus wrecks the file system (which happened to some NASes lately due to a flaw in SSL), then with RAID1 you have no backup since both drives have the same file system.
Dropbox has file size / type constraints, costs a lot, and is not really meant for automated VIP file backups. I chose to use OpenDrive then a couple of years later I changed to ADrive as it is about the same and costs less.

 

[sfx2000]

suggest to you that this is a very bad strategy. With RAID1, if the file system gets corrupted, or malware/virus wrecks the file system (which happened to some NASes lately due to a flaw in SSL), then with RAID1 you have no backup since both drives have the same file system

NAS shouldn't really be considered as a backup perhaps if one is working the NAS filesystem as part of day to day work - doesn't matter it is RAID0,1, 5,6, 10... or just a bunch of disks...

NAS can be fine a near term backup, or even cold-storage, if it's backing up local filesystems.

sfx

 

[crazymoogle]

Hey guys,

sfx2000: I don't run OSX Server, FWIW. Right now I really just use VLC to pull files from my PC over DLNA. I don't use high bandwidth Blu Ray rips or anything so the Mini (2011+SSD) is more than capable of doing what it needs to do. Ideally I would use the NAS to take the PC role so I don't need to leave the PC on. That QSV stuff is interesting though out of my price bracket.

stevech: Well it's not a problem to just plug in a spare myBook lying around if the NAS supports incremental backup. But I'm not performing intensive daily work either (really just two users, no biz stuff) Mostly concerned about having a very user friendly approach since nobody in my home is going to be writing command lines or manual backups.