Advice for home NAS setup

[alexTheBuilder]

Hi,

I'm looking to redo my home NAS setup and retire my aging Netgear ReadyNAS Duo v2. These are my requirements:

- I'm looking to set up 8TB, which is way more than my current 2TB.
- No video streaming
- I'd like to move a 1-2TB size photo collection to the NAS. I have it on a desktop disk right now because it was too slow remotely. I hope that a new setup can get it closer to local disk speed.
- I'd like to set up a daily backup to rotating USB external drives, and/or to a second NAS.
- Data loss between daily backups is not a big concern, RAID is not a priority. A bigger concern is to loose the entire NAS including RAID through a burglary, so a second synchronized/replicated NAS for backup in a hidden place like garage seems like a better bet.
- The NAS should be a time machine server for a couple of MacBooks.

I like the Synology options, maybe a DS218j, DS218 or DS218+ as the primary NAS with 8TB Seagate Ironwolf and a DS119j or my old ReadyNAS as the backup garage NAS. Plus inexpensive 8TB external drives as rotating USB backups.

How does this sound, any other suggestions within the same price range?

Regards,
Alex

 

[degrub]

Look at the NASPT file and directory copy, usb3 backup to file system of choice to see if you are gaining anything over what you have other than larger volume size. Those tests have less marketing inflation and cherry picking scenarios. Note that your results heavily depend on the ethernet nic in your pc as well as the cpu and chipset and drivers. Read the test system config notes and disclaimers on Synology’s test results pages to see how closely you match up.

Any of the ones you picked would be ok for your light usage.
Don't expect to match local disk connected speed in all usage however. In other than large file transfer, the speed can get down to the 5-20 MB/sec region pretty easily. Cache size can easily affect results as well.

My old old netgear NV+ boxes transfer a directory copy only half as fast as the fastest today in the nas ranker. Part of that is nas cpu and some for buffer size. Since i dont need to go beyond 2TB, i have not bothered to upgrade to a “faster” nas.

You might actually be better off with a TB3 connected local storage box if you need to maintain closer to direct connected storage.

If theft is a concern, take a look at cloud services - Dropbox is one example, or a safe deposit box that is above flood water with an external drive + zip lock bags with dessicant and rotate once a month/week.

 

[sfx2000]

If theft is a concern, take a look at cloud services - Dropbox is one example, or a safe deposit box that is above flood water with an external drive + zip lock bags with dessicant and rotate once a month/week.

Don't forget about backups for the NAS...

 

[dosborne]

How does this sound, any other suggestions within the same price range?

I ran D-Link DNS323 NAS units for many years. Last year I decided it was time to retire 2 of them as they don't support larger drives.

I looked at the various options and the flexibility of the products and for me, the QNAP TS-231P was a good choice to move my existing 2TB (WD Red) drives into. I mainly wanted dual Gigabit ethernet but was really blown away by the difference a good processor made compared to my old NAS.

As I also wanted to increase my storage, I opted for another QNAP NAS, the TS-563. I populated it with 5 x 10TB Seagate Ironwolf drives. In the past I've always gone with the WD Red, but they weren't available at the time of purchase.

I opted for these models in particular as they had the options I wanted, and did not have the options I didn't want. I don't want a media player and a bunch of other "stuff", I just wanted storage. There units are quite flexible and can be tweaked (depending on your skill level) and have a lot of 3rd party apps available.