First Commercial NAS
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So I'm looking to get a NAS but I want something more business-grade. I have two GoFlex Home Personal 2TB drives now, and they work, but both are running out of room. I'd like to invest in a good 2-bay (or 4-bay if the price is right, so I can grow in the future) diskless NAS. I know this has been asked before but I was curious. How much do they normally run, and between a Drobo, Synology, ReadyNAS or any other option, which is going to be the best? I want to do a RAID1 with 4TB drives. Newegg has 4TB Caviar Red drives on sale for $163 each right now, so that's not a bad option. I'd like the most bang for my buck, and cheaper isn't necessarily better, but would be preferred.
Thanks!
A.J. -
@thanksaj
If you're not averse to rolling your own, you could build a Linux box with FreeNAS. We used the commercial version (TrueNAS) at my last job, and it worked great. You could pick up a SuperMicro Chassis with multiple drive bays and go from there - heck, I'm using an old MediaSmart Ubuntu server for my main 2.68TB media share (although not for FreeNAS).
There's not much difference between the free/commercial offerings from what I recall...or are there specific features you're looking for?
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For two bays ReadyNAS and Synology are your good choices. Drobo starts at five bays.
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I'm no expert, obviously
Somewhat relevant link: http://arstechnica.com/civis/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=1199663
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Also check out IoSafe, they take the two bay Synology and make it fire proof.
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@scottalanmiller said:
For two bays ReadyNAS and Synology are your good choices. Drobo starts at five bays.
Which is better for the money in your opinion?
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@Rob-Dunn said:
@thanksaj
If you're not averse to rolling your own, you could build a Linux box with FreeNAS. We used the commercial version (TrueNAS) at my last job, and it worked great. You could pick up a SuperMicro Chassis with multiple drive bays and go from there - heck, I'm using an old MediaSmart Ubuntu server for my main 2.68TB media share (although not for FreeNAS).
There's not much difference between the free/commercial offerings from what I recall...or are there specific features you're looking for?
I've considered this...
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@thanksaj said:
@scottalanmiller said:
For two bays ReadyNAS and Synology are your good choices. Drobo starts at five bays.
Which is better for the money in your opinion?
Honestly, they are nearly equal. ReadyNAS hangs out in MangoLassi, though, so that is a vote for them. IoSafe does too. Of the three, only Synology themselves don't participate here.
ReadyNAS and Synology are really good, head to head competitors. They have nearly identical feature lists, prices, options, etc.
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Ok, so now I have another question: from what I'm seeing, I can get a 2-bay for around $150 and then get the disks separate. A 4-bay is about $240, also diskless. Now the 4-bay is appealing because, down the road, if I want to expand my storage, I can. I'm just debating if the extra $90 now is worth the room to grow in the future. What do you think?
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4-Bay unit with smaller drives and populate all 4 slots? upgrade as you need?
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@g.jacobse said:
4-Bay unit with smaller drives and populate all 4 slots? upgrade as you need?
I'd rather get a 4-bay and populate with 2x4TB drives in a RAID1 and have room for 8TB drives or bigger a couple years from now.
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I think it's Scott who's always saying don't buy for tomorrow, unless you really know what tomorrow will bring. Buy what you know you need today, tomorrow something different perhaps better will be out.
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@Dashrender said:
I think it's Scott who's always saying don't buy for tomorrow, unless you really know what tomorrow will bring. Buy what you know you need today, tomorrow something different perhaps better will be out.
Yeah, that's true. Ok, the 2-bay will work. Plus, the savings from not getting the 4-bay will pay for more than half of one of the 4TB drives.
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Would this be a good unit?
http://smile.amazon.com/NETGEAR-ReadyNAS-Diskless-Attached-RN10200-100NAS/dp/B00BNI4A90/ -
seems like a good option.
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Yup, that is a nice little unit. I think that that is one generation old (and therefore one generation newer than mine) hence the good price. Should run the latest Raidiator OS (6.x).
