Best Home NAS?

[roadsmash]

Hi all. I want to get a Home NAS to store approx 5TB of various types of data on. My budget is probably £200-300 (excl drives).

My original idea was to have it connected via USB to my router (Ultrafast Home Hub 6) and map it as a network drive so my laptops and PC could access it, the NAS could then sit safely next to my router.

With this in mind, I did a little PoC while I was at my old man’s house today using his HomeHub 6 (I think his is the standard one as it doesn’t have Ultrafast on it) and an external drive he had... and the transfer speeds were about 50mbps, which seemed OK to me.

However it looks like the HH6 is only USB 2.0 so I suppose this isn’t a great idea?

All devices that will access it are Windows-based.

Any ideas on the best one to buy? There’s tonnes of them, all with various different connectivity options.

Cheers

[GSalt]

HP Microserver running FreeNAS or whatever the latest FOTM NAS software is. They come up on sale/cash-back fairly regularly.

[roadsmash]

GSalt said:

HP Microserver running FreeNAS or whatever the latest FOTM NAS software is. They come up on sale/cash-back fairly regularly.

Nice idea, a bit left-field! Although I think they’re a bit too big.

I like the idea of a purpose-built home NAS as they tend to be much smaller.

[rednotdead]

or for a more or less fit n forget solution look at the synology range.

[thebraketester]

I’ve got a synology which work nicely. If you do get one make sure you get an intel one, i slipped up a little bit and got an arm one. It still works great but there are a few things you can run on intel ones in docker such as pi hole etc.

[mathmos]

I've got one of these as a home media server running Plex.

Frankly it kicks ass....I have 4-5 streams running with transcode sometimes and it barley ticks over 20% CPU -

https://www.amazon.co.uk/WD-PR4100-My-Cloud-Pro/dp...

[mathmos]

There is also a smaller 2 drive version of it

[page3]

The WD or Synology would be an easier “out of the box” solution, however something like a microserver running a NAS os is more flexible, if initially more complex to set up.

I’ve very happy with my microserver + unraid setup. The big advantage being I could use a collection of different size disks I already had, rather than having to have identical sizes.

[Slushbox]

An Ethernet connection into the back of a recent HomeHub will give Gigabit speeds from a 'recent' NAS but not over wifi. (HH5 onwards?)

NAS will then be available as mapped Windows/Mac/Linux/NFS shares, plus you get other stuff like media servers, web servers, auto backup and cloud connections.

I don't know how fast the USB ports are on HomeHubs.

Costs: 4TB or 5TB drives are about £100+ each. Using a single 5TB USB drive you'd have to back it up elsewhere. Cost: £100 approx.

Using a NAS will add £100-£300+ but you can then add another £100 5TB drive for RAID1 mirroring. You've still only got 5TB, but the cost has now tripled, or quadrupled.

Take your pick.

I use a £100 2-bay Zyxel NAS326 with a couple of fast Seagate Barracudas stuffed into it with RAID1, plugged into the Wifi router with ethernet. Other brands are available.

Gives 980+ Mbs over Ethernet. Will accept any old disks in JBOD mode.

Also has 3 USB sockets for drives and USB sticks, backup to Gdrive, three different media servers, an FTP server, web server, remote MyCloud access, torrent app, OwnCloud app, an app to get more apps, and it runs Linux apps.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Personal-Storage-Remote-A...

Edited by Slushbox on Sunday 30th June 07:41

[roadsmash]

Thanks to everyone for their suggestions and Slushbox for the comprehensive reply!

This is what I think I’ve whittled my options down to (my HH6 hasn’t got any spare Ethernet ports available so time to get a simple 10/100/1000 switch also):



I’m thinking about going for the 6TB option.

Is there any kind of limitation at all with this set up that I should be aware of?

[The_Doc]

Could you stretch to the DS218play?

Its much faster.

I ran the 218j for ages and then moved to a play.

Noticeable difference.

[roadsmash]

The_Doc said:

Could you stretch to the DS218play?

Its much faster.

I ran the 218j for ages and then moved to a play.

Noticeable difference.

Thanks. Just doing some reading on it now!

[thebraketester]

I’ve got the ds218play and it’s great. Will run Plex too which is great. So easy to use too.

[roadsmash]

thebraketester said:

I’ve got the ds218play and it’s great. Will run Plex too which is great. So easy to use too.

Thanks to you and The_Doc, I too have bought the 218play! Will let you know how I get on.

Thank you to everyone for their help!

[dogbucket]

Please make sure you have a separate backup of anything important as to get the capacity you want it will have to be configured RAID0 which means no disk failure redundancy.

(of course any NAS should be backed up irrespective of what RAID it is running)

[thebraketester]

Use raid 1 or SHR (synology hybrid raid). With SHR it’s easier to upgrade the discs at a later date, or that’s at least how I read it.

[roadsmash]

dogbucket said:

Please make sure you have a separate backup of anything important as to get the capacity you want it will have to be configured RAID0 which means no disk failure redundancy.

(of course any NAS should be backed up irrespective of what RAID it is running)

Definitely. I have bought a 12TB capacity model to give me 6TB in RAID 1. So spent a bit too much!

I also use a separate cloud platform for important docs as a precaution.

[roadsmash]

thebraketester said:

Use raid 1 or SHR (synology hybrid raid). With SHR it’s easier to upgrade the discs at a later date, or that’s at least how I read it.

Thank you. Will have a look at that when I set it up.

[The_Doc]

roadsmash said:

Thanks to you and The_Doc, I too have bought the 218play! Will let you know how I get on.

Thank you to everyone for their help!

[TonyRPH]

roadsmash said:

Thanks to everyone for their suggestions and Slushbox for the comprehensive reply!

This is what I think I’ve whittled my options down to (my HH6 hasn’t got any spare Ethernet ports available so time to get a simple 10/100/1000 switch also):



I’m thinking about going for the 6TB option.

Is there any kind of limitation at all with this set up that I should be aware of?

That's only marginally smaller than an HP Microserver, and the Microserver has the added benefit of space for 4 drives.

But whatever floats your boat I suppose...