- Apr 3, 2018
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Let me preface this to say that currently IMO the best, most secure in terms of data loss, and cheapest (even free) options for storage are in "the cloud".
With that said….
Years ago I was introduced to the world of "NAS" by a cheap little device called a DNS-323. It was amazing. It supported a great deal of share formats, had some neat built in features for sharing, and was superb for a mirror backup. It's major setback was it's storage size at (2TB) 2 x 1TB. As time went on the speed of it's onboard processor and memory also became issue. It didn't want to play right with Linux shares, Plex, Roku, etc, and wouldn't stream movies over 720 with any manner of respectable framerate/resolution.
Even with the shortcomings, it was simply amazing for an always on, low power, low emission backup and server. I took mine out of service mere months ago mostly due to the sheer inability to acertain which files to securely keep on a device that small. 1TB isn't much anymore.
Since the time that I got that I have played with any manner of home use server builds. The last one of these was a hot-swappable 5x 3.5 stack with the room in case for 2 more drives. I played with that in FreeNAS/Linux flavors/Windows and have come to find along all that that I:
Prefer my share to be on or very Windows-centric as apposed to "Plex shares" or other Linux/Android varieties.
Really liked having a unit that just does a variety of shares as opposed to having a Windows based OS to keep updated, and the power requirements of running a full sized system.
I realize that those two statements don't "get along" very well.
Here is what I am running into:
I run a small business from home. I like to use a "common" save desitination so that any computer within the office has the same files. IE I can be on this computer, the computer in the living room, or laptop and see everything and update it to the same file as seen on all computers without syncing or scheduled backups/mirror.
I have been considering a modern replacement to the venerable DNS 323. It won't take the place of onboard drives for games and such, but a common, local destination for work saves accessible to any computer on the LAN.
I want to avoid HDD latency. This must be awake at all times, low power, low emission...and I want it to hold SSD. Two drives, a small fan, very much like the aforementioned NAS with a small footprint and mostly un-noticable.
What will play along well with Windows and fits within those parameters in the modern market?
I see a few things out there that well surpass the needs and cost I would like to put towards this. Cheap and reliable is golden.
To be clear I already use Dropbox and Google Drive. This situation is ONLY for LAN side saves and storage in order for all info to be uniform and backed up automatically. It will be likely used as a two drive mirror and must be hot swappable.
Go.
With that said….
Years ago I was introduced to the world of "NAS" by a cheap little device called a DNS-323. It was amazing. It supported a great deal of share formats, had some neat built in features for sharing, and was superb for a mirror backup. It's major setback was it's storage size at (2TB) 2 x 1TB. As time went on the speed of it's onboard processor and memory also became issue. It didn't want to play right with Linux shares, Plex, Roku, etc, and wouldn't stream movies over 720 with any manner of respectable framerate/resolution.
Even with the shortcomings, it was simply amazing for an always on, low power, low emission backup and server. I took mine out of service mere months ago mostly due to the sheer inability to acertain which files to securely keep on a device that small. 1TB isn't much anymore.
Since the time that I got that I have played with any manner of home use server builds. The last one of these was a hot-swappable 5x 3.5 stack with the room in case for 2 more drives. I played with that in FreeNAS/Linux flavors/Windows and have come to find along all that that I:
Prefer my share to be on or very Windows-centric as apposed to "Plex shares" or other Linux/Android varieties.
Really liked having a unit that just does a variety of shares as opposed to having a Windows based OS to keep updated, and the power requirements of running a full sized system.
I realize that those two statements don't "get along" very well.
Here is what I am running into:
I run a small business from home. I like to use a "common" save desitination so that any computer within the office has the same files. IE I can be on this computer, the computer in the living room, or laptop and see everything and update it to the same file as seen on all computers without syncing or scheduled backups/mirror.
I have been considering a modern replacement to the venerable DNS 323. It won't take the place of onboard drives for games and such, but a common, local destination for work saves accessible to any computer on the LAN.
I want to avoid HDD latency. This must be awake at all times, low power, low emission...and I want it to hold SSD. Two drives, a small fan, very much like the aforementioned NAS with a small footprint and mostly un-noticable.
What will play along well with Windows and fits within those parameters in the modern market?
I see a few things out there that well surpass the needs and cost I would like to put towards this. Cheap and reliable is golden.
To be clear I already use Dropbox and Google Drive. This situation is ONLY for LAN side saves and storage in order for all info to be uniform and backed up automatically. It will be likely used as a two drive mirror and must be hot swappable.
Go.
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