Synology Shows Off Two New NAS at Computex

[JMcEntegart]

We took a little peek at Synology's NAS solutions on show in Taipei.

Synology Shows Off Two New NAS at Computex : Read more

 

[kcorp2003]

or you can build your own with the aid of freenas.org that is open source too

 

[razor512]

It is annoying how expensive NAS devices are (without hard drives)

For many, you can build a PC that will support more drives, the same raid methods, and have significantly better performance and offer more features, all for much less money than a dedicated NAS.

for example, on an old system that I use as a NAS/ server/ DLNA/ game server/ torrent box (sometimes performing many of those functions at the same time) the AMD 64 3200+ system, can read and write to an encrypted partition at around 110MB/s (max speed of the 7200RPM drive)

If I want the transfer to also be encrypted, then I can SSH into the device and perform the transfer and the speeds will still be about the same.

I mainly use the DLNA function for streaming media to my tablet (since no transcoding is needed (tablet supports pretty much all of the popular formats as well as soft subtitles)

I can usually have a backup going while at the same time downloading a torrent, and hosting a left 4 dead 2 server

and still have the backup go at around 100MB/s + (I have multiple hard drives, but I did not set up raid )

The CPU rarely clocks up to it's full speed.

Not sure about the load power of that NAS box but I am sure that the old PC uses more power, but overall, it does more, it offers better performance, supports 4 drives (and can be expanded if I get a cheat $12 2 port raid card, (I can add up to 4 of them) (I can also add a USB 3.0 card since a full sized pci-e slot can also support x1 cards though I will lose a standard PCI slot since I would have to install a regular PCI videocard)

 

[smorizio]

your spell checker was broken...statement has a b in it

 

[freggo]

Why do I have the feeling these may be out of my price range ?

 

[jwcalla]

I'm leaning towards ZFS for a home-made file server. If not, I'd probably end up with one of these.

 

[Darkk]

I am currently building my own NAS using FreeNAS and it's really easy to re-use old hardware and PC. I would, however, like to see more open source support for the custom hardware if I don't like the OS that comes with. I know I can build my own using standard PC parts but you have to admit these guys do make them very compact, uses little power and fits anywhere.

I also been using Iomega StorCenter ix4-200d 4TB (non-cloud edition...don't get me started about not being able to hack the firmware to become cloud aware) for years and been working great. Found a way to enable telnet and hack into it's bits and glory.

 

[razor512]

A NAS can be built to be low power and still perform extremely well for less money than a prebuilt NAS.

Simple get a mini itx board and a low power CPU and a cheap case,, (on newegg, you can build a mini ITX system (minus the hard drive) for about $150

and a system like that will get you a small size, 4 sata ports, a pci-e slot, 2 memory slots.

That is enough expansion to rival and beat most NAS devices, and if you need extra sata parts, then all you need to do is get a cheap raid card

many of the newer Llano CPU's (especially the really cheap ones, have a very low power consumption especially at low loads (a mini itx based system is almost like running a laptop with a bunch more expansion ports, generally 6 USB ports, 4 sata ports, and sometimes, an esata port and some other random port)

 

[kcorp2003]

^ and you can always turn on your computer remotely by external modem (BIOS), whenever you need data on the go weather its on LAN or WAN. this way your saving power. check out Hamachi

 

[EXT64]

The Synology NAS are actually pretty nice, and you can grab the 2-bay DS212j for about $150 if you wait for a decent sale. So really an OK deal.

 

[nebun]

price....an arm and a leg

 

[stu wart]

Yes, you can build your own NAS for less $$. However, there are other benefits provided by the DS series - lower power consumption, warranty, camera support, DSM and add-on features, aesthetics, user knowledge base and forums, and your time. I guess for some of you it may be worth spending the time to put together spare parts and save some money in the short term. I submit that in the long run, most of us will actually get a better value by going with the DS. Time=money. The more $$ you earn, the more precious your time is.