QNAP TS419P or Synology DS-409 & questions?

[wm_cheng]

Hi all,

After spending days on this great site, I have finally narrowed my choices down to either the QNAP TS419p or Synology DS-409 (and learned so much!). This is just a home server/backup setup - I'd just like a single portable device to take and run in case of fire or something like that.

My needs:
Network, share & backup 3 WinXP desktops, 2 WinXP laptop & 1 MacBook Pro
Serve MP3 iTunes library
Serve 1+Tb of HD movie files to PS3
Gigabit Eithernet
eSATA connection for faster initial backup and external NAS backup
Ability to upgrade RAID 5 with larger drives (without taking data off)
USB Print Server

I believe the price point for 1Tb drives to be pretty reasonable now, so with 4x 1Tb drives, I should get 2.7Tb of storage with a RAID 5 array. I would like to upgrade to 4x 2Tb drives latter when the price falls for those to under $100/drive (WD Caviar Green EADS). So it would be nice to "expand" my RAID with larger drives just by replacing each drive with the larger one (one at a time) in the future. I doubt I will have anywhere to put all that data temporarily while I re-build the RAID, so it's nice to have an online expansion capability. The QNAP advertises that it has this ability, while the Synology seems vague about RAID expansion, stating that it supports it, but no other details.

My plan is to back up my desktops to this NAS (probably instantaneously - will have to see what kind of performance hit that becomes) and occassionally back up my laptops to it when they dock (hardwire). I want to backup my digital photos AND share them (as they are most important archive) probably to have them both on my main desktop and NAS for 2 locations and occasionally store them off-site on an external hard-drive. Then I want to share my HD Movies, but just have them reside on the RAID drives (I realize after reading the buying advice that its no substitute for a real backup...) but I can't afford a redundant system for now, plus I have all of them on BluRay anyways. So the bad drive failure is all the protection I can afford at the moment (which is better than what I have now, only residing on my desktop drive). The movie collection is expected to expand. So any comments or suggestions to my needs and strategy would be appreciated.

I finalized on these because I want a 4 bay NAS, mostly due to the fact that I will have at least 2Tb of data to store in the end and 2Tb HDD are still too expensive. The QNAP is pricey for me (plus the cost of the 4 HDDs) but the Synology is around $120 cheaper, but lacks a display (its nice to know whats going on without turning on a computer and loading a web browser). I'd love the cost of the DLink 343, but the toublesome RAID rebuilding/recovery is the last thing I'd need should a drive fail (unless anyone know if they've fixed that via recent firmware?) - I do like its price tag though, at least $150 cheaper than the Synology. I've read the interface of Synology is better than QNAP - any comments? QNAP has the OLED display on the unit itself and 2 eSATA ports, but its also the most expensive.

Lastly, a specific question I haven't found an applicable answer anywhere. Some of my HD media are in various formats that my PS3 can't natively read, so I use PS3 Media Server on my desktop which transcodes the various video files into a format compatible with my PS3. Currently there isn't any problems streaming the transcoded video in 1080p via my ethernet network to my basement where my PS3 is. But if I now store these video files on a NAS on the network, then I would have to read the file via the network to my desktop, transcode the file and then stream the transcoded file to my PS3 downstairs via the same network. Will I effectively "half" the bandwidth of my network because I'm reading from and stream to on the same network? Will I have enough bandwidth to do this without stuttering? This is a deal breaker for me if I can't store the HD files on the NAS and stream from my desktop at the same time (the NAS doesn't have enough horsepower to transcode and stream). I have Gigabit from my desktop to router to a gigabit switch in the basement to my PS3 which is Gigabit, so I should have Gigabit all the way to my PS3 - is there a program that confirms this and looks for potential bottlenecks?

Sorry this was longer than I expected, any comments and suggestions are welcomed.

 

[thiggins]

Both the Synology and QNAP do online RAID expansion and migration.

The GUIs are now comparable, since QNAP has upgraded to an AJAX GUI.

Since the file is not on a local drive, you are pulling it from the network to the desktop for transcoding, then serving it out the same Ethernet port to the PS3. Performance depends on how smart the transcoder is about buffering, i.e. if it builds large enough input (from the NAS) and output (to the PS3) buffers to keep the bits flowing nicely.

 

[wm_cheng]

Thank you for the quick reply,

Is there anyway or program that I can use to measure to find out if the transcoding program (PS3 Media Server) is doing the buffering in sufficient size to keep the streaming smooth?

Will you be doing a review of the QNAP TS-419P soon? (especially how it compares to the Synology?)

 

[wm_cheng]

There's a sale on the Acer Aspire Easystore H340 Home Server - would this fill my needs?

I can't find too much about WHS other than the Microsoft sales literature but that's vague. Are WHS RAIDed? There is disk duplication, but what is that, can I use one of the disks there for backup against drive failures? What about a controller board failure, can I take the drives out and put them into any other box to retrieve the info?

 

[thiggins]

Is there anyway or program that I can use to measure to find out if the transcoding program (PS3 Media Server) is doing the buffering in sufficient size to keep the streaming smooth?

Only way I know for sure is to try it.

Will you be doing a review of the QNAP TS-419P soon? (especially how it compares to the Synology?)

No. Performance should be similar to the TS-219P, however.

 

[thiggins]

WHS is a customized version of Windows Server 2003. It's limited to 10 simultaneous users.

It does not do RAID, but in a multi-disk system will duplicate files to protect against disk failure.

It has an active developer community and many add-in modules. I don't know if WHS will run the PS3 Media server.

 

[wm_cheng]

Thanks so much thiggins,

I won't need more than 10 connections. I think I get the WHS duplication thing, but since its just a CPU and Intel ICHR-7 - won't that support RAID at the hardware level (I guess that would assume drivers for RAID in WHS?)? Wouldn't it be great to have a $299 RAID 5 box? I know feature wise it doesn't compare to the QNAP or Synology - but you get what you paid for.

Yeah, I'm pretty sure WHS won't run PS3 Media Server, but it would be the same situation with a RAID box (with PS3MS running on my desktop)

So which one would you suggest?
QNAP TS-419P - $690 (without HDDs)
Synology DS409 -$530 (without HDD)
Acer H340 - $299 (with 1 WD 1Tb HDD w/OS pre-installed)

 

[thiggins]

Either the QNAP or the Synology would work fine. Haven't tested the Acer, but have reviewed the HP LX195.

 

[wm_cheng]

Thanks so much,

Do you feel there's a $120 difference between the two companies, the performance and features seem pretty similar, so the extra $120 gets me a display and extra eSATA port? What do you think?

 

[thiggins]

Pay your money, take your choice.

 

[wm_cheng]

Thank you so much!

BTW, I really enjoyed pouring though you many articles on NAS, 2 weeks ago, I had absolutely no idea what a NAS was. Now at least I can ask questions!

 

[eddomak]

AJAX GUIs - Synology vs QNAP

Both the Synology and QNAP do online RAID expansion and migration.

The GUIs are now comparable, since QNAP has upgraded to an AJAX GUI.

Hi,

As a user/administrator of both the Synology DS207+ (in a small office environment) and the QNAP TS209-II (at home), and using the latest firmwares on both (so they both use the AJAX GUIs) I can tell you for a fact that they aren't really comparable. Synology is supreme and way ahead, especially using the file-explorer.

When I was tossing up what to buy for home, the Synology was top of the list, but I couldn't justify the $AUD100 more for the GUI. In my humble opinion, the Synology is still way ahead. The times that I have had issues with the QNAP their technical support ranged from fantastic (knew what to do, went the extra mile) to abysmal (absolutely no idea, didn't listen & asked the same questions within the same conversation, basically said "format and restart, and lose your data"). I haven't needed to use Synology's tech support - but probably because I am fiddling less with the NAS.

All the best.
Edwin.

 

[TheGreatKhali]

Hey guys... I have the same Problem... But I wonder, that you ask about the Synology DS409 and not the DS409+

I'm not sure what to buy... A friend of mine has the DS409+ and got Windows to NAS Transfer Rates about 35mbs...

The Qnap TS419P has near the same specs... but what I read... Qnap Performances with identical Hardware are lower than Synology... is that right?

I definitly need at least 30mbs write to Nas because I have to transfer often big Filesizes.

The Qnap Thing would cost me about 75$ more than the DS409+

If the Qnap has the same performance I would prefer the qnap because of the nice hot swappable HDDs feature...

Changing or adding HDDs to Synlogoys DS409+ is annoying