NAS storage needed

[sikhwarrior]

Hi all,

 

As the title suggests, I am looking for a NAS box there are many out there not sure which one would be ideal for me. My budget is £200 and all I will be doing is backing up my PC of photos etc. I may use the streaming functionality but it won't be all the time so this is a nice to have feature.  

 

 

 

[Tantawi]

WD 4TB My Cloud  - £143.99

If 4TB is too much/too little, find other options there as well  If you already have some spare HDDs and woud rather buy a nicer box then check Synology DS216j, a much better buy in my opinion.

[Mando]

I have a couple of NAS units, both Buffalos, my oldest NAS thats just been retired has been running 10 yr 24/7 without a single issue!

 

I picked up a single disk 2Tb Buffalo for £100 (its backed up to cloud), for £200 you could get a dual disk NAS from Buffalo, for data security running them in RAID0 mirror.

 

job done

 

6Tb dual disk Nas £192.27 

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Buffalo-LS220D0402-EU-LinkStation-220D-Desktop/dp/B00ISM5DZY/ref=sr_1_fkmr3_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1506682501&sr=8-1-fkmr3&keywords=2%2Bdisk%2Bbuffalo%2Bnas&th=1

 

ofc if you dont need 6Tb there are 4 and 2Tb models on that link.

 

[sikhwarrior]

1 hour ago, Mando said:

I have a couple of NAS units, both Buffalos, my oldest NAS thats just been retired has been running 10 yr 24/7 without a single issue!

 

I picked up a single disk 2Tb Buffalo for £100 (its backed up to cloud), for £200 you could get a dual disk NAS from Buffalo, for data security running them in RAID0 mirror.

 

job done

 

6Tb dual disk Nas £192.27 

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Buffalo-LS220D0402-EU-LinkStation-220D-Desktop/dp/B00ISM5DZY/ref=sr_1_fkmr3_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1506682501&sr=8-1-fkmr3&keywords=2%2Bdisk%2Bbuffalo%2Bnas&th=1

 

ofc if you dont need 6Tb there are 4 and 2Tb models on that link.

 

Would that support my any HDD? as  I have 2 * 3Tb  HDD from Seagate? Seems a good price!

[sikhwarrior]

1 hour ago, Tantawi said:

WD 4TB My Cloud  - £143.99

If 4TB is too much/too little, find other options there as well  If you already have some spare HDDs and woud rather buy a nicer box then check Synology DS216j, a much better buy in my opinion.

 

1 hour ago, Mando said:

I have a couple of NAS units, both Buffalos, my oldest NAS thats just been retired has been running 10 yr 24/7 without a single issue!

 

I picked up a single disk 2Tb Buffalo for £100 (its backed up to cloud), for £200 you could get a dual disk NAS from Buffalo, for data security running them in RAID0 mirror.

 

job done

 

6Tb dual disk Nas £192.27 

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Buffalo-LS220D0402-EU-LinkStation-220D-Desktop/dp/B00ISM5DZY/ref=sr_1_fkmr3_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1506682501&sr=8-1-fkmr3&keywords=2%2Bdisk%2Bbuffalo%2Bnas&th=1

 

ofc if you dont need 6Tb there are 4 and 2Tb models on that link.

 

3

Between the two which is better? For the sake of argument, the ones without any HDD included as I will be using my own. 

[Co-ords]

One thing to consider when purchasing a NAS is if it uses multiple disks to store the data. If the one and only disk storing your data dies, you lose everything. If you can afford it look into systems that use multiple disks in RAID 5 where your data is safer. Obviously if your data is not that important, and it's only for movies etc, ignore this

[sikhwarrior]

3 minutes ago, Co-ords said:

One thing to consider when purchasing a NAS is if it uses multiple disks to store the data. If the one and only disk storing your data dies, you lose everything. If you can afford it look into systems that use multiple disks in RAID 5 where your data is safer. Obviously if your data is not that important, and it's only for movies etc, ignore this

Well, I will be storing family photos, so of high importance. So yeah anything that will allow me to have parity would be beneficial!  If there any enclosures that support this, then that would be ideal. 

[dipsylalapo Supervisor]

6 minutes ago, sikhwarrior said:

Well, I will be storing family photos, so of high importance. So yeah anything that will allow me to have parity would be beneficial!  If there any enclosures that support this, then that would be ideal. 

Don't forget that even with something like RAID 5 it's advisable to have a separate backup of data away from your NAS. Have a look at a cloud storage solution too if those photos are that precious. 

 

Also I believe with RAID 5 you need a minimum of 3 disks, so those linked above won't be of much use. 

 

My personal opinion, something like the Buffalo station and cloud back up is a good shout. 

[Som]

I had a few NAS drives over the years but when I decided to upgrade my last one I just built it and used FreeNAS as the OS...had an old Desktop case and got a cheap passive cooled motherboard, works great and you can keep adding to the storage

[dipsylalapo Supervisor]

1 minute ago, Som said:

I had a few NAS drives over the years but when I decided to upgrade my last one I just built it and used FreeNAS as the OS...had an old Desktop case and got a cheap passive cooled motherboard, works great and you can keep adding to the storage

If you have the know how and don't get mind getting stuck in, this is definitely a good shout. I did the same using the HP Microservers

[sikhwarrior]

14 minutes ago, Som said:

I had a few NAS drives over the years but when I decided to upgrade my last one I just built it and used FreeNAS as the OS...had an old Desktop case and got a cheap passive cooled motherboard, works great and you can keep adding to the storage

Sounds brilliant but unfortunately just need something off the shelf, due to time and also technical know-how of using FreeNAS and setting up RAID's. Will definitely look into creating my own 

[Jason S. Global Moderator]

"creating my own" but you need something off the shelf?

 

i would highly recommend you save up a bit more and get something from Synology. Their OS is amazing and even has support for cloud backup to, say, Google or Amazon.

 

something like this Synology DS418j - it's $299 on Amazon

[Mando]

2 hours ago, sikhwarrior said:

 

Between the two which is better? For the sake of argument, the ones without any HDD included as I will be using my own. 

im not a big fan of WD NAS personally, had a few deployed at work which have been a nightmare stability wise.

 

Ive had a buffalo running 24/7 for 10 years, still on the original HDD. I run single drives but have it backing up to the cloud (using buffalos cloud backup solution included), RAID0 (striped for capacity or mirrored for data security) is no safer than a single disk, if the disk fails due to hardware failure, the risk is 2x (or more depending on member disk numbers) on a RAID volume as they are identical drives  Ive also seen cases where RAID5 degrades to the point that no way in hell it can rebuild itself, RAID is not a replacement for backups, just as a NAS is not a replacement for backups.

 

[sikhwarrior]

On 29/09/2017 at 2:46 PM, Jason S. said:

"creating my own" but you need something off the shelf?

 

i would highly recommend you save up a bit more and get something from Synology. Their OS is amazing and even has support for cloud backup to, say, Google or Amazon.

 

something like this Synology DS418j - it's $299 on Amazon

sorry, long-term I will create my own, for now something off the shelf.   That Synology goes over my budget by £100. I think the Buffalo station will be adequate for me.