Need advise on NAS storage

[Ramelec]

No idea about what is a good NAS
First time exploring and wanting to get a good brand for personal storage
Can anyone recommend and how do i start?
Thank you

 

[eD|t|0n]

I think anything within the QNAP or Synology is good enough for personal use.
Depending on your IT knowledge/experience as well..

 

[TanKianW]

No idea about what is a good NAS
First time exploring and wanting to get a good brand for personal storage
Can anyone recommend and how do i start?
Thank you

General rules when consider getting a NAS:​

• Room for upgrade: If you need a 2-bay, get a 4-bay. You will likely upgrade when you familiar yourself with a NAS or create additional backups/mirrors. Give yourself more room (bays)​
• CPU: Get one with x86-64 hardware. preferably one from Intel, which supports QuickSync for transcoding. Powerful CPU allows you to do more, like creating VMs or multiple containers running services. Do consider your needs before committing to the CPU of your choice​
• Fast networking: Go for one with at least 2.5G networking, skip the 1G​
• HW lock in: Get one without hardware lock-in like the "Syno....."​
• Software: Go watch some reviews on YT and compare the different NAS software and which one best suits your use case in terms of user friendliness and support for popular containerisation like Docker​

Weigh the pros and cons, you will find the "good NAS" you need.​

 

[kamsani0]

1. Must be prepared to spend money.

2. Need lots of time learning. Not all at one shot, but slowly.

3. Do you really need an NAS?

 

[Ramelec]

1. Must be prepared to spend money.

2. Need lots of time learning. Not all at one shot, but slowly.

3. Do you really need an NAS?

What option beside (3)?

 

[kamsani0]

1. External HDD with thunderbolt/usb4 speeds.

2. External HDD cases with 2-4 bays and RAID 0/1/5. Also with thunderbolt/usb4 speeds

These are mainly and solely for the purpose of storage. No need to share the HDD, internally or externally, no use for any apps/functions of NAS.

Get high quality HDD, like the enterprise ones. Highly durable and long lasting.

 

[naked123]

buy 2nd hand dell optiplex or equivalent (tower not SFF) and setup your own NAS with openmediavault or others

cheap cheap

 

[rosschang]

1. External HDD with thunderbolt/usb4 speeds.

2. External HDD cases with 2-4 bays and RAID 0/1/5. Also with thunderbolt/usb4 speeds

These are mainly and solely for the purpose of storage. No need to share the HDD, internally or externally, no use for any apps/functions of NAS.

Get high quality HDD, like the enterprise ones. Highly durable and long lasting.

Interesting...

#2. What are the external HDD option with 4 bay + RAID5 + usb/thunderbolt?

Sounds like a good option to connect a Raspberry Pi

 

[kamsani0]

Interesting...

#2. What are the external HDD option with 4 bay + RAID5 + usb/thunderbolt?

Sounds like a good option to connect a Raspberry Pi

1. OWC ThunderBay 4

So many out there. Go amazon.com and search for 4-bay raid boxes

 

[-Synchronicity-]

The absolutely cheapest option.....is an external HDD plugged in to your router via USB.

Absolutely NOT for backups and only for storing non important data. But it's a cheap and workable solution .

 

[deepblue_82]

or if u have a older pc around just use that as a nas

 

[zephyr11]

The absolutely cheapest option.....is an external HDD plugged in to your router via USB.

Absolutely NOT for backups and only for storing non important data. But it's a cheap and workable solution .

sorry tag on to TS qn i also looking for similar basic options;


is this doable? i actually wanted to use this to access my music file from my streamer.


my router is a asus rt be58u, i read the usb on the back is for tethering or something, not sure if it will support a hdd, if can i'd def go this route as this is not for backup or storing impt data.

 

[megaweb]

Popular NAS brands are Synology, Qnap and Terramaster.

Heard lastest model of Synology NAS only support Synology HD to get full feature support. Synology HD is very costly.

 

[-Synchronicity-]

sorry tag on to TS qn i also looking for similar basic options;


is this doable? i actually wanted to use this to access my music file from my streamer.


my router is a asus rt be58u, i read the usb on the back is for tethering or something, not sure if it will support a hdd, if can i'd def go this route as this is not for backup or storing impt data.

Yes.

 

[zephyr11]

Yes.

woah, great news, thank you for sharing! i was this close to putting down $400 for 4tb a nas.

 

[-Synchronicity-]

woah, great news, thank you for sharing! i was this close to putting down $400 for 4tb a nas.

Note that this is for internet. Local do not need such complicated setup.

 

[zephyr11]

Note that this is for internet. Local do not need such complicated setup.

meaning this is what i need to do if i want to access my hdd when i'm not at home?


also i found a old hdd to test if this works and happy to report it does! i did follow almost exactly as per the page you shared, i'll go grab a 4tb hdd now. thank you very much!

 

[TanKianW]

meaning this is what i need to do if i want to access my hdd when i'm not at home?


also i found a old hdd to test if this works and happy to report it does! i did follow almost exactly as per the page you shared, i'll go grab a 4tb hdd now. thank you very much!

Suggest you read up more on how to secure your data before you open this up to the internet.

Half bake advise comes with full bake security vulnerability.​

 

[kamsani0]

Suggest you read up more on how to secure your data before you open this up to the internet.

Half bake advise comes with full bake security vulnerability.​

Key word here is READ UP.

Many failed to do so, and ended up got major problems along the way.

NAS is not plug and play.

 

[Phen8210]

Most NAS got user interface that is meant to be user friendly.

You don't need to be tech savvy like me (ex da, ex swe & current solutions architect), just having general technical knowledge will do.

The only issue i see is how it is portray to be a cheaper option in long run that is not true if you do redundancy, also its like saying time is free.