School me on Network Attached Storage (NAS)

[berth]

Integration of interface and ease of use.

Then there's the added value of the "cloud" services if that's your cup of tea, and finally you have a machine that power tuned to do just this, so, ideally, you're using as little power as necessary.

You also have a nice, integrated and designed box with a single power plug.

Also, the NASs readily offer exotic drive configurations (striping, raid, etc.).

The OSes do also, but, again, the user experience may be better with a NAS.

I can easily toss a pair of SSDs plugged in to a USB hub and mirror them on my Mac, and I do serve my local videos to our apple tv from it.

Also, another thing, something I'm planning on doing, is to set up a Backblaze account to off load everything to them as a backup.

I still have time machine, but it's not backing up media. Backblaze will back up everything, and ship me a drive to recover off. And it's gets it offsite.

$60/yr.

 

[RS250 Chester]

Thanks all! Looks like Synology is the shit and probably worth dropping the coin on for all those features.

If you are really looking into Synology products here are some tips in researching for buying new and used.

Since a new OS is coming, you may want a NAS that is compatible with the new OS. Here is a link with a list of compatible/non-compatible machines: https://mariushosting.com/synology-dsm-7-0-supported-devices/

If you want to start off small with a 2 drive system, try to find a system that is scalable, thus you can add an expansion unit to add additional drives. But, the resale value on Synology products is good. Thus if you decide to upgrade to a larger system later, you could just sell the 2-drive system and buy a 4/5 drive system without having to buy an expansion unit.

If you want to do active back-ups of computers and laptops, try to find a system that supports BTRFS file systems. This file system is standard in newer machines, but not older machines. Even if you get an older machines without BTRFS, you can still do back-ups, but with a third-party app like Acronis. Here is a link to Synology Active Back-up: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CSVuOkHtLbE

As for transcoding, yes the newer machines can transcode on the fly. I don't have a newer machine, but stream films easily, though I have to do a bit of work on the front end. I'm a user that still buys discs, so I rip my Bluray with MakeMKV and trancode with Handbrake. This allows me to stream films without the NAS or any PC to transcode. I transcode the film down to about 4-8 GBs. This has worked well for me with HD TV's. On our 4K TV, the transcoding is a little washed, but still fine for viewing. I will experiment with a higher bit-rate, but haven't do so yet.

Hope that helps.

 

[RS250 Chester]

N00b question: why is a stand alone NAS better than , say, just putting a mega TB drive in you computer and running some sort of media server?

Right now I have a SSD for the OS, a storage drive, and a media drive. I stream over wifi to any device in the house via mini-dlna. Is it just to avoid taking up processor/memory on the PC?

I despise the idea of Plex for security resons.

Exactly what Berth said..single box, size of a shoe box, low power, can schedule when it's on and when to shut down.

But the host of other features is key, "free own" cloud service; ability to add security cameras without monthly cost (like Ring) or purchasing a separate NVR; the ability to back-up computers all your devices.

It's one of those systems that seems like overkill, but once you have it, you wonder why you didn't do it earlier. Our family likes the ability to automatically back-up all their phone pics as soon as they enter our home, the ability to listen to 40K library of music from anywhere and the ability to share files/pictures with family members.

 

[fraz]

Most NAS stuff covered here. I have owned 2 Synology NAS for quite some time. Main reason I got was easy to manage RAID1 redundancy and a fileserver for critical backups.

My questions for those in the know regarding Plex. Is it worth it, all that? How much/often do you pay? Lifetime subscription the best value?

Was going to ask about the 7.0 beta compatibility but it looks like both of my devices are covered. https://www.synology.com/en-us/beta/2021_DSM_7_0_RC/release_note

 

[ScarySpikes]

N00b question: why is a stand alone NAS better than , say, just putting a mega TB drive in you computer and running some sort of media server?

Right now I have a SSD for the OS, a storage drive, and a media drive. I stream over wifi to any device in the house via mini-dlna. Is it just to avoid taking up processor/memory on the PC?

I despise the idea of Plex for security resons.

FreeNAS solutions are just computers with a special operating system it's perfectly possible. However, if you are going to have that computer pull double duty as a usable PC and NAS at the same time, it gets complicated. Windows is not designed to be a NAS operating system. it *can*, but a dedicated OS is easier and better (whether synology or freeNAS. If you are going to use freeNAS, you have to be prepared for the relatively complicated setup, and that computer is dedicated to the purpose of being a NAS/media server. A third option is to use virtual machines to setup a freeNAS VM and a Windows VM on the same machine, which gets even more complicated. It can work, but a synology is way more Luddite friendly.

 

[easter bunny]

Thanks. Right now my PC pulls double duty with no apparent issues - and it's vintage. I have a separate laptop for work. Rather than spend extra money and deal with the potential data security, plus the fact someone says they don't really work well for streaming it's a non starter for me. I download and store all the weekend races on the media drive and then watch later. Sounds like a NAS is more suited to archiving.

 

[RS250 Chester]

plus the fact someone says they don't really work well for streaming it's a non starter for me. I download and store all the weekend races on the media drive and then watch later. Sounds like a NAS is more suited to archiving.

Not the case, the whole thread will cover how a modern NAS will stream easily. As for security, never been an issue and Synology is active in providing updates.

 

[RS250 Chester]

Most NAS stuff covered here. I have owned 2 Synology NAS for quite some time. Main reason I got was easy to manage RAID1 redundancy and a fileserver for critical backups.

My questions for those in the know regarding Plex. Is it worth it, all that? How much/often do you pay? Lifetime subscription the best value?

Was going to ask about the 7.0 beta compatibility but it looks like both of my devices are covered. https://www.synology.com/en-us/beta/2021_DSM_7_0_RC/release_note

I have it installed, but I haven't paid for a subscription or lifetime pass. At first I thought I would use it when I'm traveling, but I figure with a couple of hundred movies in digital lockers, streaming services available on my phone/tablet, as Plex pass wasn't needed.

 

[ScarySpikes]

Thanks. Right now my PC pulls double duty with no apparent issues - and it's vintage. I have a separate laptop for work. Rather than spend extra money and deal with the potential data security, plus the fact someone says they don't really work well for streaming it's a non starter for me. I download and store all the weekend races on the media drive and then watch later. Sounds like a NAS is more suited to archiving.

a low power NAS will not be able to transcode as well as a PC based one. But they can stream content just fine so long as the content is in encoded in H.264.

 

[Sharxfan]

FreeNAS solutions are just computers with a special operating system it's perfectly possible. However, if you are going to have that computer pull double duty as a usable PC and NAS at the same time, it gets complicated. Windows is not designed to be a NAS operating system. it *can*, but a dedicated OS is easier and better (whether synology or freeNAS. If you are going to use freeNAS, you have to be prepared for the relatively complicated setup, and that computer is dedicated to the purpose of being a NAS/media server. A third option is to use virtual machines to setup a freeNAS VM and a Windows VM on the same machine, which gets even more complicated. It can work, but a synology is way more Luddite friendly.

You could just use a base Windows OS and then use VirtualBox to setup your NAS OS of choice.

After seeing this thread I did som eresearch and ASUS also has a NAS box out reviews are good but you never know if they are bought reviews or not even with bigger sites.

 

[TylerW]

Ok there's been a ton of hype in this thread for Synology's "new OS" - what's so amazing about it?

Not sure if I'm ready to pull the trigger yet, and that decision is complicated by the decision between the DS220j and the DS220+. Will the J support the new OS? And will I care if it doesn't?

 

[RS250 Chester]

Ok there's been a ton of hype in this thread for Synology's "new OS" - what's so amazing about it?

Not sure if I'm ready to pull the trigger yet, and that decision is complicated by the decision between the DS220j and the DS220+. Will the J support the new OS? And will I care if it doesn't?

I haven't tried DSM 7, as my NAS not compatible. I will look into upgrading later, after a few months of being out. I do know its supposed to be streamlined and the photos sharing capabilities are supposed to be better.

If you haven't seen it already, here is a link to DSM 7: https://www.synology.com/en-us/beta/DSM70Beta

Both the J and + series are supposed to support the new OS, per the link I supplied earlier. I would get the + model because of the CPU, RAM (upgradeable to 6GB too) and it supports BTRFS file system, which allows for full metal back-ups with Active Back-up package.

 

[Yakoo752]

Ok there's been a ton of hype in this thread for Synology's "new OS" - what's so amazing about it?

Not sure if I'm ready to pull the trigger yet, and that decision is complicated by the decision between the DS220j and the DS220+. Will the J support the new OS? And will I care if it doesn't?

I just looked through the release notes, not much wow. Nothing in it that would excite me enough to alpha install.

 

[berth]

You could just use a base Windows OS and then use VirtualBox to setup your NAS OS of choice.

I'm not sure why you would do that. If you're going to dedicate a machine to it, then, you know, dedicate a machine to it.

Out of the box Windows, Mac, and Linux can all do pretty good as an ad hoc file and media server, including fun disk geometries.

Just let the host OS do all of the work rather than jumping through hoops with a VM.

 

[Sharxfan]

Was replying to ScarySpikes about doing VMs. I have done quite a few VMs for different things as long as the computer has the horsepower to handle it.

 

[Sharxfan]

For those looking for a Synology NAS they are on Prime day deals right now for 25% off. Not sure how it compares to regular prices but just wanted to let you guys know in case you didn't see it.