Looking to upgrade my NAS system - Suggestions?

[liberty610]

Hey everyone.

I currently have a Western Digital My Cloud EX4 NAS unit (4 drive bays) with16tb of storage space (4 drives - 4 TB each - Raid 5 config).

I bought the unit almost 2 and 1/2 years ago, and I leave it on 24/7. I currently have no real issues with it in terms of operation. It does what it is meant to, and I use it to back up my entire file collection. But it is a smaller base style unit, where speed is starting to be an issue. I'm a power user, and I run a small project studio. I have a Sony NX100 camera that records huge full HD videos, and trying to stream or watch them off the NAS is a daunting task. I like Western Digital products. I have never had issues with anything from them. I have had very few drives of theirs die, and when that ever did happen, it was after the drive was well used.

One of the features I like about the EX4 is the cloud app for Android, iOS, and PC where I can give family user accounts on the unit, and we can swap out photos and files with each other. I am not sure of what other NAS units may have this feature, but it is a heavy plus for me.

Here are the two main reasons I am looking to possibly upgrade my NAS unit. The first one, (and for me being a computer geek/power user, its the most annoying one) - The EX4 is not the fastest NAS by far. I knew this going in to the purchase of it, but at the time on a budget it was a solid option. Transferring files to if over Ethernet is the best way to do large files. But I can't really do much else with it if I am transferring larger files. So, if I wanted to do a large transfer over it while watching a video off it at the same time, it buffers terribly. And streaming videos or media content to more then one device is pretty much a no go, and there are some files, as I stated above, I have shot with my Sony camera (full uncompressed HD video at 60 fps) that won't play well, if at all, even off the Ethernet connection.

So cloud access I give to friends/family so we can ping pong files with each other is a wanted feature, and I would like a much faster unit. I see that Western digital has a couple other NAS options out now, but I am wondering if anyone else has an suggestions? I am currently looking at the My Cloud PR4100 Pro Series. I know other companies like Bufflo and Qnap are high contenders, but I don't know much about the features side of things. And I would like a unit that I can use my current 4 WD red drives in.

Thanks in advance for an suggestions!

 

[USAFRet]

I have a Qnap TS-453a, and it has (so far) zero issues doing multiple things at once.

Watching a movie, receiving ~400GB data (4 files of 75-125GB each), playing music out to a 3rd device....all at the same time, without a burp.
Streaming directly out to the TV? No problem.

4 x 3TB drives, RAID 5 = ~8TB actual space.

For your current drives and data...I expect that you'll reformat each on insertion to some other NAS device and implementation.
It might be just plug n play, but be prepared for a lot of data shuffling.

 

[liberty610]

Thanks for the reply!

The data I currently have on my EX4 is all data that is already on my internal drives on my PC. So if I have to transfer the files over to a new NAS, that won't be a problem. The Ex4 has a single core processor and only 512gb of ram. I was looking at the My Cloud PR4100 which apparently has 4gb of ram and an Intel Pentium N3710 quad-core 1.6GHz processor. I also read a review on it from Amazon where the person said that moving the files from an EX4 like I currently have to the new PR4100 was plug and play. He didn't have to format the drives. I may end up doing that anyways if I go with the pr4100.

I just don't know much about the Qnap and Bufflo cloud options, and having the ability to make multiple users for family to get access is a must.

 

[USAFRet]

Thanks for the reply!

The data I currently have on my EX4 is all data that is already on my internal drives on my PC. So if I have to transfer the files over to a new NAS, that won't be a problem. The Ex4 has a single core processor and only 512gb of ram. I was looking at the My Cloud PR4100 which apparently has 4gb of ram and an Intel Pentium N3710 quad-core 1.6GHz processor. I also read a review on it from Amazon where the person said that moving the files from an EX4 like I currently have to the new PR4100 was plug and play. He didn't have to format the drives. I may end up doing that anyways if I go with the pr4100.

I just don't know much about the Qnap and Bufflo cloud options, and having the ability to make multiple users for family to get access is a must.

0.5GB RAM is a large part of your multitasking issue.
I upgraded my Qnap to 16GB..>

Qnap has a similar cloud function. Access it from anywhere, multiple users with individual permission levels.
https://www.myqnapcloud.com/

 

[liberty610]

Thanks again for the reply! I'm going to be weighing in all my options this week and going from there! Thanks for the help!

 

[USAFRet]

And whichever one you get, absolutely disable the default admin account, and create your own.

My NAS has had no less than 6 login attempts to the default admin account.
Egypt, Russia x 2, Portugal, etc.

Just random attempts, not directed at this box. All failed, but they are out there.

Good luck.

 

[liberty610]

And whichever one you get, absolutely disable the default admin account, and create your own.

My NAS has had no less than 6 login attempts to the default admin account.
Egypt, Russia x 2, Portugal, etc.

Just random attempts, not directed at this box. All failed, but they are out there.

Good luck.

Thanks for the tip! I don't believe I used the default Admin account on my current EX4. If the user name is usually 'Admin' I am pretty sure I canned that account and made my own anyways. And I'll be sure to do that with the new one as well.

I decided to go with the WD PR4100. Read a lot of positive reviews on it, and I am familiar with the operation/setup. It has 4gigs of ram in it be default, but is user upgradable. It'll take my current 16tb 4 drive setup, and based on an Amazon/com reviewer, I apparently will be able to plug and play the drives right from the EX4 because they both use the same configurations. I'll be double checking with Western Digital on this. Even if I can't, this is not an issue, as I can easily format the drives and re-upload the content.

 

[USAFRet]

Good deal.
Going from WD -> WD should not entail any drive reformatting.

I wonder how many similar NAS type boxes are running with the default admin account username and passwords.
Probably more than we think...🙁

 

[liberty610]

Good deal.
Going from WD -> WD should not entail any drive reformatting.

I wonder how many similar NAS type boxes are running with the default admin account username and passwords.
Probably more than we think...🙁

The EX4 was my first NAS. I don't remember much about the initial setup, and I learned a lot as I went, but I never used a default 'Admin' user name or password on it. And I won't be doing that with the new one either. Not many users are tied to my NAS storage. A couple family members is all. And I am taking the steps with them to make sure their cloud access is well protected password wise. Thank you for the replies!

 

[liberty610]

Okay, so as of yesterday, I got my PR4100 up and running. Not much difference between the EX4 and this one other then speed and a few extra app choices.

One thing in curious about is risks with adding certain users.

So, If you create aMyCloud account with Western digital, you can goto their website, login, and you can instantly access any device you have been given permission to.

For example, a family member of mine went to Western Digital's website and created a My Cloud account. When I give that family member an account on my PR4100, if I put the email address he used to create his my cloud account on the WD website into his account info on my PR4100, it will instantly give him access to whatever files/folders I have given him access to.

If they don't have a my cloud account made on the WD website, I have to give them a coffee that the PR4100 beverages to register that code with the my cloud app before they can get access to my device.

Use there less a risk for one method over the other in this situation? Like, what if WD's servers get hacked and the password my Grammy member made for his account gets hit? That gives access top my cloud to hackers. But if he gets a generated code, he's actual device with the app is the only way to get access to my unit, it's it not?

I'm just curious as to what I should or could do to keep my unit away from potential attacks. Obviously anytime you connect anything online, you are at risk to some sort of a degree. But obviously there are many personal files on personal cloud units and I wouldn't want to have access to people or groups I don't know...

Am I being overly paranoid ha?

 

[cuzed2]

liberty610,

Hope you don't mind me following along. I am about to become a "NAS newbie" and the PR4100 is a front runner that I am thinking about purchasing (the other one I'm considering is a Synology DS918+).

Have already purchased 4x WD 8TB hard-drives

 

[liberty610]

liberty610,

Hope you don't mind me following along. I am about to become a "NAS newbie" and the PR4100 is a front runner that I am thinking about purchasing (the other one I'm considering is a Synology DS918+).

Have already purchased 4x WD 8TB hard-drives

This post is from a while ago, Cized. I actualy have been running the Pr4100 for several months now. It's only my second NAS, but compared to the EX4 it's WAAAYYY faster, and I love it. I have had no issues with it, and I have enjoyed it's performance.

 

[failboat]

Proxmox with zfs is pretty sweet. You can run containers and VMs for anything else you want it do. I use a ssd boot, 3 disk raidz + ssd cache, ie raid5, and a turnkey file server container. plex with lifetime sub can probably do the file stuff you want. it's on the fly compression is very nice. need to spec it out right for that. i use my box for routing/firewall as well with a pfsense VM. im using a lower power xeon e3, i7 equiv, from ivy bridge, supermicro mobo with 2 nic, ECC ram. it pulls about 50W/hr which will be a lot higher than the nas boxes.