Question Rack-mountable NAS Sotrage Units

liberty610

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Oct 31, 2012
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Hello all,

I run a project studio and deal with all sorts of media-related tasks, not to mention that all my hobbies are PC/Media related. I do a lot of full HD video at 60FPS (5MB/s files) and I am starting to dabble in the 4k video market as well. I am currently looking into a serious upgrade to my NAS unit for future proofing my storage expansions. I started out with the Western Digital EX4 and then jumped to the Western Digital PR4100. It's been a great upgrade, but I want something that is more upgrade friendly/future proof. I want the options to add more drives down the line, and I am not sure if it is possible, but to add more NAS units that can be 'daisy chained' together.

I was currently looking into rack-mountable NAS units. I see Synology and Qnap offerings, but I don't know much about how they run. I build desktops for gaming and media purposes, so I am familiar with CPUs and ram. I see that rack-mountable NAS units appear to have lots of hardware upgrade options, which is an option I would like.

Right now, my main uses for the PR4100 is back up and cloud access. I also use it as a local streaming box for media. I have done a little research on the rack-mountable units, but I am not sure what operating systems they use or what setups there are out there. I would like something I can set up quickly, and add more drives to down the road, all while keeping a cloud access option on my mobile devices. With the Western Digital PR4100, you load in your drives, power it on, and all the settings are a simple setup in the units built in OS. Pretty user-friendly. I would like to have something similar in a rack-mount form. I currently have 4 WD Red drives that are 8TB each, and I plan on buying more of them down the line when I choose an upgrade. Eventually, I would like to add a second rack mount NAS and chain it to the first one to expand even more, but I was not sure if that was an option, and if I would have to stick to one brand in order to achieve that?

This is one I have been currently looking at, but I really don't know much about these larger units. Any info anyone could give would be much appreciated! Thanks.
 

liberty610

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Oct 31, 2012
466
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How many PCs have to access this NAS simultaneously? If it is more than one, you might want to get a NAS with 10GE and a switch to support 10GE.

I was reading about that actually. Thanks for the tip. Overall, my pc will be the main one accessing it. Not many others. I may be trying to run a couple gaming servers for a few friends and I, but only 5 to 8 of us play, and not usually all at once.

The biggest thing is, I'm not exactly sure what all a full NAS can do. I just really want to be able to exertions as I need it without having to buy a brand new full unit. And if I can add a second rack mount unit if I happen to fill all the bays, I'd like them both to work together as one unit... If that makes sense.
 

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