Small domestic NAS suggestions

[TooMany2cvs]

Anybody got any suggestions/recommendations/avoids? I'm after a small domestic NAS box. The miniITX PC that I've been using for years has recently died a death, probably not before time...

Couple of drive bays would be perfectly adequate. What'd be really nice is if it can act as a USB print server, too... Absolute silence is not required.

I think I'm currently leaning towards Synology DS216j, but what thoughts do you have?

[jonnyb]

Really depends on what you want it to do.
Media streaming? Transcoding? Plex or iTunes?
Or just holding files, and documents?

[TooMany2cvs]

jonnyb said:

Really depends on what you want it to do.
Media streaming? Transcoding? Plex or iTunes?
Or just holding files, and documents?

Primarily storage, some media streaming.

[Slushbox]

I have a D-Link Sharecenter 2 bay. Pros: cheap, RAID1, 2 bay, media server. Cons: slow, and noisy when warm.

Verdict: If you want a cheap, slow, noisy NAS, this is it. Fine for auto machine backups. Wouldn't put it in the lounge. Cat sits on it and blocks the vents. Not cat-proof.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/D-Link-ShareCenter-Networ...

[TooMany2cvs]

Thanks, Slushbox. Given our cats, I'll take that as an "avoid"...!

[Whoozit]

I have a 2 bay Netgear readyNAS duo. It's going on for 6-7 years old and wasn't the latest and greatest when I bought it. It's not played well with the early versions of Win10. But... it's taken power outages, hot disk removals, accidental hard resets, and drive upgrades without much fettling.

Edited by Whoozit on Wednesday 18th January 20:00

Edited by Whoozit on Wednesday 18th January 20:01

[Slushbox]

TooMany2cvs said:

Thanks, Slushbox. Given our cats, I'll take that as an "avoid"...!

Fur enough.

I did have a Buffalo thing which was pretty lame. It got fried in a power surge, so I now have everything on an APC 'Back-ups' UPS. Powers the Ethernet switch, Cat-NAS, VOIP phone and other obstructions.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/APC-Back-UPS-BX-Uninterru...

Edited by Slushbox on Wednesday 18th January 19:47

[ian in lancs]

WD My Cloud EX2 dead easy to set up. Mine has 2x 4TB WD Red drives for a 160,000+ photo archive including 36Mb RAW files and 200Mb PSD files and is plenty fast enough for Lightroom and Photoshop.

[Roger645]

I bought the Synology DS116 which is only single drive but have been impressed with the Synology software in terms of ease of use and ability to integrate to other stuff.

[Murph7355]

I have 4x Netgear ReadyNAS units of different vintages. Bought the first 11yrs ago and it's still going strong (though has had a variety of drives - Seagate ones being particularly st of late...WD Reds used now). They're all at least 4yrs old.

[jonnyb]

TooMany2cvs said:

jonnyb said:

Really depends on what you want it to do.
Media streaming? Transcoding? Plex or iTunes?
Or just holding files, and documents?

Primarily storage, some media streaming.

The DS216J will be fine. If you think you might stream a bit more in the future the DS216Play would be a good upgrade.

[The Moose]

I'm after something similar, however I'd like an HDMI output as well so it can sit next to the TV in the living room. I suspect my real issue is going to be I'd like it to be as quiet as possible. I've had a QNAP and wouldn't want that sitting next to the TV in the living room.

[Vaud]

ian in lancs said:

WD My Cloud EX2 dead easy to set up. Mine has 2x 4TB WD Red drives for a 160,000+ photo archive including 36Mb RAW files and 200Mb PSD files and is plenty fast enough for Lightroom and Photoshop.

I've been impressed by mine as well. Easy to set up as a media server as well.

[Don]

TooMany2cvs said:

I think I'm currently leaning towards Synology DS216j, but what thoughts do you have?

Synology are the Rolls Royce NAS solution. I've had mine for a few years now. It's made the death of two hard drives inconsequential due to the disk mirroring. No problems. Rock solid reliable.

It also supports Glacier Backup (Amazon Web Services Backup of LAST RESORT) for total peace of mind. That costs about £1 a month to back up to. I dread to think what the costs of recovering it all would be if I had to. Done over time it wouldn't cost too much.

I also back up to an Apple NAS in the event of unit failure I am covered.

[jonnyb]

The Moose said:

I'm after something similar, however I'd like an HDMI output as well so it can sit next to the TV in the living room. I suspect my real issue is going to be I'd like it to be as quiet as possible. I've had a QNAP and wouldn't want that sitting next to the TV in the living room.

To be fair, I think that's down to the disks you put in it. Unless it's fan noise.

[TooMany2cvs]

jonnyb said:

The Moose said:

I'm after something similar, however I'd like an HDMI output as well so it can sit next to the TV in the living room. I suspect my real issue is going to be I'd like it to be as quiet as possible. I've had a QNAP and wouldn't want that sitting next to the TV in the living room.

To be fair, I think that's down to the disks you put in it.

Depends if it's disk-noise-clicky-clunkiness or fan noise, I'd guess.

[The Moose]

TooMany2cvs said:

jonnyb said:

The Moose said:

I'm after something similar, however I'd like an HDMI output as well so it can sit next to the TV in the living room. I suspect my real issue is going to be I'd like it to be as quiet as possible. I've had a QNAP and wouldn't want that sitting next to the TV in the living room.

To be fair, I think that's down to the disks you put in it.

Depends if it's disk-noise-clicky-clunkiness or fan noise, I'd guess.

It was fan noise and the occasional beep from the QNAP.

[chopper602]

I have the DS216Play. Pair of 3Tb drives and it sits under the telly (TV connects to router), can't tell it's on and gives excellent results even streaming more than one movie. After a few different varieties of NAS, this one is the most stable and gives excellent connectivity. I'd recommend it.

[Sheepshanks]

TooMany2cvs said:

I think I'm currently leaning towards Synology DS216j,

I've had a DS213j for a few years, with a couple of 3TB WD Red drives.

I only use it for keeping copies of data but it's just worked. In my very quiet home office I'm just about aware of it when it spools up but it's on my desk and only about 3 feet away. I doubt it would be noticeable in a normal living room environment.

[TooMany2cvs]

Thanks, folks. That seems to be fairly conclusive.

While we're here, any suggestions for a WiFi-to-USB print server? Needs to work with an HP colour LJ 2025CP, and from Linux clients.