NAS Choice Hell!!

[ericlrees]

Hello all,

I hope everyone had a great New Years!

I've been researching a new NAS for the last several days and I'm turning myself inside out trying to decide. The more I research, the more I get myself perplexed as to which is the best way to spend my monies. I think the two things that are most important to me are reliability, as I will have my entire life saved on this (pictures, music, movies, porn; the usual stuff) and noise level since it will be sitting in the living room next to my new Dell Zino HD (Merry Christmas to me!). Obviously speed is of a concern, but not as much since I don’t see myself streaming any 1080p stuff off it (but you never know down the road, so I don’t want a slouch either).

And I should also mention I’m planning on putting 4 x 2 TB Western Digital Green drives running a RAID 5 configuration, while hardwiring it into my Linksys WRT610N (Gig connection).

At this point I’m looking at 5 different options, all listed below. I’ve included links to some of the articles I’ve been reading (though not all). At the current moment I think I’m leaning towards the QNAP and the Synology, while ruling out the Netgear (because I hear it’s fairly loud). The Thecus and Promise are sitting on the fence.

Any who, I’d love your input on this. It’s always nice to have the communities insight.

QNAP TS-419P - http://www.qnap.com/pro_detail_feature.asp?p_id=127
NO AMAZON REVIEWS
NO NEW EGG REVIEWS
http://www.legitreviews.com/article/1132/1/
http://www.tweaktown.com/reviews/298...ver/index.html

Synology DS409 - http://www.synology.com/us/products/DS409/index.php
http://www.amazon.com/Synology-Stati...DateDescending
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...CustomerReview
http://www.techspot.com/review/169-synology-ds409p/
http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/index...0838&Itemid=75


Promise NS4600 - http://www.promise.com/product/produ...product_id=211
http://www.amazon.com/Smartstor-NS46...DateDescending
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822328003
http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/net...or-ns4600.html
http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/content/view/30877/75/


Thecus N4100PRO - http://www.thecus.com/products_over.php?cid=10&pid=77
http://www.amazon.com/Bay-Nas-Amd-Pr...DateDescending
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...CustomerReview
http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/content/view/30612/75/
http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/net...-n4100pro.html

Netgear ReadyNAS NV+ - http://www.netgear.com/Products/Stor...NASNVPlus.aspx
http://www.amazon.com/Netgear-ReadyN...DateDescending
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...CustomerReview
http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/content/view/29829/75/
http://review.techworld.com/nas/531/...t-readynas-nv/

Thank you and regards,

Eric

 

[dpci]

Hi Eric,

I am researching NAS and have found the QNAP products
seem to be the best for the price. Second place I would guess
is Synology. Both are Chinese or Taiwan based companies
and the hardware business seems dominated by those
countries now.

Netgear and Linksys are both Cisco companies and the reviews
I have seen confirm my low expectations of their recent products.
I used to love Netgear products before Cisco bought them and
tossed them on the same merger scrap heap as Linksys (which
has always been junk).

IMHO,

Regards,
James

 

[ericlrees]

Hi James,

Thank you for the reply. So over my searches/researches I agree that QNAP and Synology are probably the best choices for me. Recently a friend let me borrow a QNAP TS-809 Pro unit to play with. I really liked the interface, however during the time I had it (only about a week), it was reporting some errors with one of the drives. Now it could have very likely been an issue with the drive itself, but I (unfortunately) did not have the time to really investigate, so it could have been a problem with the unit itself. I’m trying not to put blame on the QNAP unit itself, but it does tend to make me take a harder look at Synology.

I’ve also actually even decided to up the quota from the 4-bay to the 5-bay (never have enough storage right!). So with that said I’m looking at the Synology DS509+, but not completely ruling out the QNAP TS-509 Pro. Just gotta do some more research on them.

On a side note, I did send out an email to both QNAP and Synology and only Synology replied…I guess QNAP doesn’t need my business.

Regards,

Eric

 

[radyair]

Netgear and Linksys are both Cisco companies . . .

Netgear is a publicly traded company, listed on the NASDAQ.
As of today the major shareholders, a matter of public record, are:
http://www.nasdaq.com/asp/holdings.asp?symbol=NTGR&selected=NTGR
FMR LLC 5,099,557
VANGUARD GROUP ... 1,681,769
JENNISON ASSOCI... 1,671,548
ROYCE & ASSOCIA... 1,636,500
BLACKROCK FUND ... 1,473,658

I would share your concern if Netgear had been purchased by Cisco, but that doesn't appear to be the case. Phew.

 

[ddo2]

Eric, I haven't used any of the specific models you mentioned, but I have used a different Synology 209J, which I really enjoy. Fairly quick response and a decent web-based interface. Setup was a little slow (for instance, reformatting as RAID1 was essentially something I had to do overnight), but once up and running, its like a "real" server in terms of responsiveness.

 

[ericlrees]

Hi ddo2,

thanks for your input. I actually ended up purchasing the Synology DS1010+ and I'm very happy with it. I actually had a problem with two of the drives I put in it (they failed) and the support for Synology was outstanding. Definitly the brand to buy.

Regards,

Eric