Choosing a NAS

[Sneezer]

I'm trying to decide between these two items:
■Drobo 5n
■Synology DS1515 or DS1515+

From what I understand, the main differences are that the Synology has more RJ-45 connections and can be expanded to allow more drives via an expansion unit while the Drobo allows for hot data caching (increase cache sized with SSDs).

The ability to add drives, use the types of drives I want, and basically everything else I want to do seems about the same.

Does anyone know much about these two units to give me some insight outside of what I can read in descriptions?

Any input would be much appreciated.

 

[13thmonkey]

have you read the drobo review on toms, they seem to be a bit backward compared to other devices, except in their ability to cope with additional disks.

 

[Sneezer]

have you read the drobo review on toms, they seem to be a bit backward compared to other devices, except in their ability to cope with additional disks.

I haven't. I did this quick search but none of the 4 articles are about the specific unit I picked. There's one fantastic one that's 9 years old but it's for a USB3 version of a very old model. The others don't tell much, for my case.

Do you have another article I should read? All the NAS charts I looked at don't mention Drobo - maybe for a good reason.

This chart is the chart that's most closely associated with what I'll be using the NAS for.

 

[Sneezer]

have you read the drobo review on toms, they seem to be a bit backward compared to other devices, except in their ability to cope with additional disks.

The other thing I'm finding is that I'm getting different storage capacities on the calculator for each brand. When using dual disk redundancy for both, Synology spits out a higher storage capacity than Drobo in every case I've tried.

■http://www.drobo.com/storage-products/capacity-calculator/
■https://www.synology.com/en-us/support/RAID_calculator

 

[13thmonkey]

looked at this one? http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/drobo-b810n-8-bay-nas-review,review-33608.html

The model doesn't really matter, it's the featureset, drobo's big selling point is the disk management and how easy it is to add more redundant storage, vs a normal NAS with raid levels etc. BUT reading the review there are a lot of NAS toys that it simply can't do as they have not invested in the platform.

consider DIY and freenas.

http://blog.brianmoses.net/2016/02/diy-nas-2016-edition.html
This guy's build is very very low power, but using a more normal mobo would save you shedloads, i'm going to re-purpose some old gear i've got lying around into a freenas box over summer. There aren't many screen shots of freenas but a little play with it I had on a VM recently looks good.

 

[Sneezer]

looked at this one? http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/drobo-b810n-8-bay-nas-review,review-33608.html

The model doesn't really matter, it's the featureset, drobo's big selling point is the disk management and how easy it is to add more redundant storage, vs a normal NAS with raid levels etc. BUT reading the review there are a lot of NAS toys that it simply can't do as they have not invested in the platform.

consider DIY and freenas.

http://blog.brianmoses.net/2016/02/diy-nas-2016-edition.html
This guy's build is very very low power, but using a more normal mobo would save you shedloads, i'm going to re-purpose some old gear i've got lying around into a freenas box over summer. There aren't many screen shots of freenas but a little play with it I had on a VM recently looks good.

I saw it but somehow missed that it had multiple pages. The first page paints Drobo is a decently positive light. The rest of the pages - not so much. Going to skip Drobo.

FreeNAS was actually the first solution I stumbled up when trying to figure out how to find a solution for my issue. A guy at MicroCenter actually turned me onto the guide you just linked. I really like the idea but the price sort of scared me away. I'd like something small, in the Mini ITX/DTX or Micro ATX range, but anything I could find that supports 5-6 SATAIII connections either costs around $200 ($200 less than what he used). That would put his pre-drive build at $568.46.

Also, I'm good at teaching myself systems like this but the complexity sort of scares me. He even mentions having to go over his notes every time he starts installation because it's a bit complicated and seems to change. I assume he's more skilled than me so that scares me a bit.

It seems like I can get a Synology system that does what I want, is super easy to use, and it's around $699. I'd pay an extra $130 for piece of mind. It's not exactly apples-to-apples though. Have any thoughts on that line of thinking?

 

[13thmonkey]

What i'd suggest is that you download vmware workstation (free) and set up a little virtual machine to see what freenas looks like, it's a piece of cake. If you've any old hardware lying around, cases, mobo's psus etc. you can reuse them.

 

[Sneezer]

What i'd suggest is that you download vmware workstation (free) and set up a little virtual machine to see what freenas looks like, it's a piece of cake. If you've any old hardware lying around, cases, mobo's psus etc. you can reuse them.

I'll give it a shot. I've got plenty of old hardware laying around.

Thanks for the help!

 

[13thmonkey]

What i'd suggest is that you download vmware workstation (free) and set up a little virtual machine to see what freenas looks like, it's a piece of cake. If you've any old hardware lying around, cases, mobo's psus etc. you can reuse them.

I'll give it a shot. I've got plenty of old hardware laying around.

Thanks for the help!

VM if you have no hardware, physical machine if you do have hardware