Home NAS Suggestions

[Phosphonothioic]

I'm looking to set up a NAS system in my home. I would like some recommendations from people out there who have experience. Ideally I would like a system that is self-contained (not diskless) and has USB printer support.

I've looked at the Seagate GoFlex Home: Seagate GoFlex Home



It is the front-runner so far. But, I say that because I simply can't find anything else. I would like to spend no more than US$250.

Thanks!

 

[tripledouce]

use an old computer case and a copy of Free NAS to build your own.

 

[Solandri]

The front-runners for all-in-one NASes are QNAP and Synology. They're not showing up in your searches because you specified "not diskless". It is trivial to buy hard drive(s) and insert them into a NAS. Try this site for NAS reviews.
http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/tools/rankers/nas/ranking/NoRAID/rev5/39

Also, I would not recommend using an old computer as a NAS unless it's a laptop. A core 2 duo-era desktop burns about 75 Watts idle. If your electricity price is $0.12/kWh, then each Watt left on 24/7 is roughly $1/yr in extra electricity costs. A dedicated NAS will only burn about 15 Watts plus about 3 Watts per HDD. So the old computer will actually cost you about $55/yr extra in electricity. After 5+ years, you'll have spent more money on electricity than it would've cost to buy a decent NAS.

Sandy Bridge is about the point where Intel made vast improvements in idle power consumption. The server I have built around a Sandy Bridge i5 burns about 35 Watts idle (10W of which is HDDs).

 

[Phosphonothioic]

The front-runners for all-in-one NASes are QNAP and Synology. They're not showing up in your searches because you specified "not diskless". It is trivial to buy hard drive(s) and insert them into a NAS. Try this site for NAS reviews.
http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/tools/rankers/nas/ranking/NoRAID/rev5/39

Also, I would not recommend using an old computer as a NAS unless it's a laptop. A core 2 duo-era desktop burns about 75 Watts idle. If your electricity price is $0.12/kWh, then each Watt left on 24/7 is roughly $1/yr in extra electricity costs. A dedicated NAS will only burn about 15 Watts plus about 3 Watts per HDD. So the old computer will actually cost you about $55/yr extra in electricity. After 5+ years, you'll have spent more money on electricity than it would've cost to buy a decent NAS.

Sandy Bridge is about the point where Intel made vast improvements in idle power consumption. The server I have built around a Sandy Bridge i5 burns about 35 Watts idle (10W of which is HDDs).

Are 'bay' NAS setups simply 'Plug & Play' in terms of slapping in HDD(s)? Would I need to get NAS specific drives or would, for instance, a WD Black work?

 

[yoji]

Yuck.. don't like that GoFlex..
But depends what you after.. for me .. I wanted one with 2 drives.. so I could mirror data in case a HDD fails.. is that important to you?
I went for a Netgear ReadyNas 102... Been working really well.. you can buy it (or similar) with oir without disks.. should be in budget (depending on how big/many disks you go for)
I use mine in simple mode.. I don't use any fancy features..(except the DNLA media server) .. it just sits there as a simple file server for the 6 PC's, TV, PS3, iPad etc
Don't thinks it USB can be used as a network printer HUB.. but may be.. never tried.. I have my printer networked another way.
Anyway.. HTH
Cheers

 

[Solandri]

Are 'bay' NAS setups simply 'Plug & Play' in terms of slapping in HDD(s)? Would I need to get NAS specific drives or would, for instance, a WD Black work?

For the most part they are. They keep a copy of their OS in firmware. When you plug in the HDD(s), it creates a small partition and "installs" the OS onto it automatically.

If you're going for a single-drive solution, then any drive will work. If you're going with multiple drives for a RAID solution, then none of the WDs except the WD Red will work. Drives from all other manufacturers will work.

 

[yoji]

If you're going with multiple drives for a RAID solution, then none of the WDs except the WD Red will work.

That's not true.. Any WD drive will work.. (I had greens in mine for a year or so till I needed more space)..
But WD Red are designed and recommended for NAS type solutions.
Whatever NAS solution you go for.. do check "supported Drives" ... any will work.. but just to avoid warranty questions/crap.. go for officially supported drives. I have Reds in mine now.. just because of that.

HTH
Cheers

 

[Solandri]

If you're going with multiple drives for a RAID solution, then none of the WDs except the WD Red will work.

That's not true.. Any WD drive will work.. (I had greens in mine for a year or so till I needed more space)..
But WD Red are designed and recommended for NAS type solutions.

The non-Red WD drives do not support TLER. If you use them in a RAID configuration and encounter a read error, the drive will keep trying to re-read the sector for about a minute. The RAID software interprets a drive unresponsive for more than about 10 seconds as a malfunctioning drive, and will drop it from the array. After which you get to do a full rebuild and hope another drive doesn't encounter the same problem during the rebuild (at which point a RAID 1 or 5 is toast).

So just because you haven't had problems thus far doesn't mean you won't have problems eventually. You're setting yourself up for a world of hurt if you use a non-Red WD drive in a RAID.
http://wdc.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/1397/~/difference-between-desktop-edition-%28wd-blue,-wd-green-and-wd-black%29-and-raid

 

[yoji]

The non-Red WD drives do not support TLER. If you use them in a RAID configuration and encounter a read error, the drive will keep trying to re-read the sector for about a minute. The RAID software interprets a drive unresponsive for more than about 10 seconds as a malfunctioning drive, and will drop it from the array. After which you get to do a full rebuild and hope another drive doesn't encounter the same problem during the rebuild (at which point a RAID 1 or 5 is toast).

So just because you haven't had problems thus far doesn't mean you won't have problems eventually. You're setting yourself up for a world of hurt if you use a non-Red WD drive in a RAID.
http://wdc.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/1397/~/difference-between-desktop-edition-%28wd-blue,-wd-green-and-wd-black%29-and-raid

Well.. as I said.. you should go for supported drives for your devices... as they will factor in such things..
But to say other WD drives "wont work" is a gross overstatement (and not a statement restricted to WD drives).
The raid controller will still do a decent job of managing the drives.. just not quite as well as if you have a fully supported drive.
So if already had 2 drives (as I did with my greens) I very happy to use those.... and they worked fine..
But as I said.. if you buying new drives.. you should ofc go for "supported/recommended" ones.. and the more critical your data.. the more important.. so don't skimp (as reds are a bit more pricey).

Cheers