Topic: NAS Recommendation

[DavidPuddy]

I'm sitting on a few Toshiba enterprise HDDs and looking to get a 4 bay NAS for home use. Can anyone recommend a fairly future-proofed model? I'm looking at the Ugreen DXP4800 Plus but I don't love the Chinesium aspect of it. Use case is mostly home storage/retrieval with streaming both music and movies.

[grawk]

An m1 Mac mini and a jbod enclosure

[aaronji]

I am on my second Synology DiskStation. I have had zero problems with either. I replaced the first one only because it was more than a decade old and I started to have difficulties with software updates. For the second, I installed SSD drives and it runs cool and dead quiet...

[todd e]

synology - running (2) of the 4 bay boxes, two different locations.  zero problems, there are some 'gotchas' but not many. 
you can torrent off them, stream off them, and securely access off-site, very well.

had the drobo for a decade, and it worked ok, but the interface left much to be desired. 
synology is smooth, and has some great options depending on the size of your content. 
i used the WD red drives at 6tb and am very content, fwiw

i have been able to complete end my spotify streaming service, thanks to this NAS, fwiw.

[DavidPuddy]

An m1 Mac mini and a jbod enclosure

I wish I had the tech knowledge and free time to make this work! Checking out the Synology now…

[rocksuitcase]

Also a Synology user. Had a 5 bay one for about 7 years, the PSU died. Hack online to fix it for $40. WORKED!
Decided I should have a second one and it is now three years running smoothly. There are so many features if you need them.
I access it from my work site all the time. Can play off of it even when remote

[Thelonious]

Another Synology user here. I’m due for an upgrade as I’m coming up on 10 years for my current unit. It’s my second. I’ll be replacing to mitigate risk not due to failure. I’ve been very happy with both my units.

[scb]

I'm also a longtime Synology user, but I definitely say STAY AWAY from Synology units now. They recently locked their units down to only use Synology-branded hard drives. Meaning you have to overpay for their brand of drive and can't just put whatever you want in. No thanks

(They recently temporarily removed this restriction from some models, but you can't trust them to not break your device in the future if you don't have Synology branded drives)

[aaronji]

^ Didn't they reverse that when sales tanked dramatically?

[todd e]

^ Didn't they reverse that when sales tanked dramatically?

absolutely, they responsed by allowing all types.  still the point that they wanted to corner that market, and tried...  the comment isnt lost on me

[mrfender]

I run two (now older) Synology 220+ (2 drive) boxes, one with 6 TB WD Reds to stream my music collection to my receiver and another with a pair of well used 12 TB reds for a Plex server (33k hours on those).  The Synology software is super easy to use and, the recent drive controversy not withstanding, is what I would suggest.

[aaronji]

the comment isnt lost on me

Me either. I just hope they learned their lesson. I will be pissed if they end support for my WD drives...

[morst]

I heard that enterprise drives run hot, because they are made to be run in a data center which has large cooling apparatus.


The main use case for NAS is availability, so if you need to keep a lot of files online, and it's worth powering spinning drives, then it might be a good idea for you.


Personally I just use JBOD (just a bunch of discs) because I don't require 24/7 access to media files.


I keep an index of my disc files, and look up the locations where my desired file is stored as-needed, when I want to find it. Then I simply connect that drive and move the file to my computer to work on or view. My index software runs on mac but there's a PC version by the same company as well. https://www.cdfinder.de/
I'm aware that I'm not necessarily typical...

[gambra]

The main use case for NAS is availability, so if you need to keep a lot of files online, and it's worth powering spinning drives, then it might be a good idea for you.

Since this use case would be for backup rather than 100% availability, any modern NAS system will have a "spin down" capability. I have a DIY Unraid system at home cobbled together from old PC parts and then 4x 16TB drives attached (3x for data, 1x for parity) that will turn off drives not in usage for more than 30 minutes which really lowers the power draw and noise. Sure it means maybe 10s of a wait while it spins back up but I'm in the same use case of not needing a file instantly. For ongoing server usage I have an SSD that runs files.

Enterprise Drives aren't really needed at a personal NAS level, they do indeed run hot (and loud!) but regular desktop drives are totally fine for a personal NAS that will just be used for backing up files.

[mrfender]

I heard that enterprise drives run hot, because they are made to be run in a data center which has large cooling apparatus.

My pair of 6 TB drives are running at 75 degrees right now and they're tucked into a corner that isn't extremely well ventilated.  (Granted that they're pretty much idle right now).  The two 12's are running around 90 degrees while being used.