Question Recommendations for a reliable NAS Enclosure ?

[barbarianhorde]

Hey guys,

I was thinking about getting one of those NAS enclosures that are more or less plug and play, they have a built in NIC and they hold anywhere from 2-6 HD's for the lesser expensive models. Anyways I've never really looked into these and I wasn't sure which ones are generally the best in terms of reliability, I've seen Buffalo, Terramaster, and a few other ones in the past, so I'm just curious which ones are generally the best bang for your buck? Ideally I was hoping to get one that holds 4 drives. My current "file server" is an old desktop that I had kicking around and I have 3, 6TB drives in it. I was hoping to get something that was a bit more built for that purpose so to speak as my current rig is pretty old and I have no idea how long it'll end up lasting. Seeing as this is a subject I'm not very familiar with I apologize for any dumb questions, I'm just trying to make the best informed decision that I can while simultaneously getting the best advice possible, so I figured that this would be a good place to ask those questions. I appreciate any input you guys can bestow upon me.

Thanks!
Dieter

 

[kanewolf]

Hey guys,

I was thinking about getting one of those NAS enclosures that are more or less plug and play, they have a built in NIC and they hold anywhere from 2-6 HD's for the lesser expensive models. Anyways I've never really looked into these and I wasn't sure which ones are generally the best in terms of reliability, I've seen Buffalo, Terramaster, and a few other ones in the past, so I'm just curious which ones are generally the best bang for your buck? Ideally I was hoping to get one that holds 4 drives. My current "file server" is an old desktop that I had kicking around and I have 3, 6TB drives in it. I was hoping to get something that was a bit more built for that purpose so to speak as my current rig is pretty old and I have no idea how long it'll end up lasting. Seeing as this is a subject I'm not very familiar with I apologize for any dumb questions, I'm just trying to make the best informed decision that I can while simultaneously getting the best advice possible, so I figured that this would be a good place to ask those questions. I appreciate any input you guys can bestow upon me.

Thanks!
Dieter

I have purchased Synology. I have had several over the last decade. I usually replace the entire unit when the hard drives are 5 or 6 years old. That way I can copy data off the old unit to the new one.
The brands I would recommend looking at at Synology, QNAP, Thecus and Asustor. I know Synology and QNAP have "virtual" NAS units on their website that allow you to check out the software. Get the one you like the software most.

 

[USAFRet]

I have a QNAP TS-453A.
Just turned 6 years old, 24/7 operation.

And as above, Synology is another good brand.

 

[hotaru.hino]

You can't really go wrong with either Q-NAP or Synology. However, look at the features their OS provides and see which one provides the features you need. If it ends up being both still meet your needs, get whatever's cheaper.

 

[barbarianhorde]

Hey guys, I really appreciate all of the responses! I'll take a look at the models/brands you mentioned, if I have any additional questions I'll go ahead and post em in here.

 

[barbarianhorde]

Hey guys,

So there are 5 that I'm looking at, the ones that hold 2 drives are more in my immediate price range, though there isn't a HUGE difference between the 2 and 4 bay ones in terms of price.. So I have a few additional questions, admittedly I'm in IT, but I haven't been following HD tech or much in the way of latest tech for quite a while, it's something I need to rectify. Anyways, I know back in the day people would warn you against getting the extremely large platter drives due to reliability issues, is that something that is still an issue? If it's not, I wouldn't have an issue getting one of the 2 Bay Asustor's or Synology's and putting a couple of 20, or 22TB drives and putting them in there, as 40-44 TB would hold me over for QUITE a while, my existing "file server" has 2 8TB's one of which has about 1TB left, the other has about 4TB left, so 40-44 would last me for a few years.

If there's still a reliability issue in relation to size, I wouldn't mind getting one of the 4 bay units and putting either 4, 12's or 4 16's and setting up a raid array. I'm a little partial to using 2 as opposed to 4, as you're just increasing your chances of something going wrong with the more drives you're adding. So I just wanted to get your thoughts/input on that. I included links to the ones I was looking at below. Thanks in advance!

Asustor Lockerstor 2 Bay
Asustor Lockerstor 4 Bay
QNAP 4 Bay
Synology 2-Bay
Synology 4-Bay

 

[USAFRet]

I wouldn't mind getting one of the 4 bay units and putting either 4, 12's or 4 16's and setting up a raid array.

One thing you have to get your head around....RAID is not a backup.

A RAID 1 or 5 is only for physical drive redundancy, and uptime.
It is NOT for data security.

A RAID 1 might be good for running a webstore, where downtime = lost sales.
In the event of a dead drive, the system can stay running, until such time as you can schedule downtime to replace the drive and rebuild the array.

But an accidentally deleted file is simply gone.
There isn't a magical 'second copy'.

 

[kanewolf]

Hey guys,

So there are 5 that I'm looking at, the ones that hold 2 drives are more in my immediate price range, though there isn't a HUGE difference between the 2 and 4 bay ones in terms of price.. So I have a few additional questions, admittedly I'm in IT, but I haven't been following HD tech or much in the way of latest tech for quite a while, it's something I need to rectify. Anyways, I know back in the day people would warn you against getting the extremely large platter drives due to reliability issues, is that something that is still an issue? If it's not, I wouldn't have an issue getting one of the 2 Bay Asustor's or Synology's and putting a couple of 20, or 22TB drives and putting them in there, as 40-44 TB would hold me over for QUITE a while, my existing "file server" has 2 8TB's one of which has about 1TB left, the other has about 4TB left, so 40-44 would last me for a few years.

If there's still a reliability issue in relation to size, I wouldn't mind getting one of the 4 bay units and putting either 4, 12's or 4 16's and setting up a raid array. I'm a little partial to using 2 as opposed to 4, as you're just increasing your chances of something going wrong with the more drives you're adding. So I just wanted to get your thoughts/input on that. I included links to the ones I was looking at below. Thanks in advance!

Asustor Lockerstor 2 Bay
Asustor Lockerstor 4 Bay
QNAP 4 Bay
Synology 2-Bay
Synology 4-Bay

The hardware is usually similar. A low power Intel CPU, and multiple 1 GE ports. You really should go test drive the software. That is the more important part.
I have two DS720+ units. I actually purchased the 720 over waiting for the 723. The CPU in the 720 is a quad core and the 723 is dual core. The NVMe slots are nice. I have mine setup as cache, but I wonder if I should break the cache and setup the NVMe as a separate volume with some files and the HDDs as a separate storage pool.