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NAS Advice 2016

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  1. #1

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    NAS Advice 2016

    It would be for a home situation.

    Not a power user with 500 GB of data now so thinking about 2 or 3 TB as will be looking at buying a new video camera and moving away from Mini DV tapes for home videos of the kids.

    Main purpose is to be a file server and not stream videos or music or as a back up.

    Would like to use a NAS vs Google drive or like options due to our slow and unreliable internet situation in Sai Kung.

    Considerations:
    - PC environment with 1 Desktop, 2 lap tops and happily using a CISCO Linksys E1000 wireless router.
    - It will be stored in the bedroom so less noise is better.
    - I am not a tech person so I am not purchasing a NAS to fiddle with hardware = ) however it is possible for a newbie to set up remote access securely?
    - Affordable is better.

    Any recommendations on a particular model? From previous research is seems that buying in HK is close to US prices.

    Thanks!


  2. #2

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    I use one of these at home, you can run security cameras, personal cloud, NAS:

    http://www.wdc.com/en/products/produ...Tab2&Tab2child

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  3. #3

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    Thanks for the recommendation.


  4. #4

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    I have a Synology 2-Bay NAS DS2** and totally happy with it. Synology has plenty of phone apps too to upload your Pix to the NAS automatically, and other sweeties, such a torrent dl station, and a VPN server, very handy when you travel to China.

    One advice, don't buy fast HDDs for the NAS, buy real NAS HDDs. They have a better lifetime.

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  5. #5

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    Quote Originally Posted by flameproof:
    I have a Synology 2-Bay NAS DS2** and totally happy with it. Synology has plenty of phone apps too to upload your Pix to the NAS automatically, and other sweeties, such a torrent dl station, and a VPN server, very handy when you travel to China.

    One advice, don't buy fast HDDs for the NAS, buy real NAS HDDs. They have a better lifetime.
    Having tried to figure out what a "NAS" hard drive is, I've come to the conclusion that it's essentially a normal desktop hard drive with a slogan and a 30% price premium slapped onto it.

    The manufacturers make vague claims about firmware optimisation, there are suggestions that the read/write heads might be a bit narrower, but as far as I can tell, that's essentially it and there's no difference that contributes to drive longevity. They don't use different bearings, they don't use more robust actuation mechanisms or arms.

    In my opinion, with a few exceptions, consumer drives are essentially luck of the draw when it comes to reliability so you may as well buy on price and capacity, and *perhaps* rotation speed and plan on having to replace them occasionally if you have enough drives to bring your failure probability up. The premium on supposed 'reliability' is like the premium you pay for bottled water over tap water. You're getting the same product with different branding.

    @OP it's hard to go wrong with either of the big market names, Synology or QNAP. Both have IP camera capability which you mention, especially for a single camera (these NAS devices are pretty weak in the CPU department, but should handle a single camera fine). All brands offer remote access, but IMO that's a pretty big security risk to be running unless you seriously know your networking security.
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  6. #6

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    @ JGL thanks for the information...I was thinking that about remote access and was leaning towards not having that open and confirmed by your post.


  7. #7

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    NAS drives cost pretty much that same as normal desktop drives. If more, it's really minimal. They spin a bit slower, which might increase the lifetime. I wouldn't have bought NAS HDDs if they were more then HK$50 more expensive.

    For the speed of the NAS. It's ok for files, video etc. If you plan to use them as a webserver they might be a bit slow (with static sites), and really slow with dynamic sites.

    My Synology can do cams too, but I think they require a certain protocol to be fully functional. I guess there are workarounds though.

    But as the asker is in Saikung, and hence most likely on ADSL, webserver will be out of the question anyway due to pathetic upload speed. Don't expect fluid video transmission when you login from remote. This said, if you use ADSL then the VPN option will also work rather slow.

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  8. #8

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    Quote Originally Posted by jgl:
    Having tried to figure out what a "NAS" hard drive is, I've come to the conclusion that it's essentially a normal desktop hard drive with a slogan and a 30% price premium slapped onto it.

    The manufacturers make vague claims about firmware optimisation, there are suggestions that the read/write heads might be a bit narrower, but as far as I can tell, that's essentially it and there's no difference that contributes to drive longevity. They don't use different bearings, they don't use more robust actuation mechanisms or arms.
    I was under the impression there actually was a hardware and firmware difference:

    Pick The Right Drive For The Job — 24/7 NAS HDDs vs. Desktop HDDs | StorageReview.com - Storage Reviews
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  9. #9

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    Hm, hadn't realised that NAS drives could be so similar in price. I was comparing WD Blues and Reds (standard vs 'NAS' drives if I remember their branding correctly) which has a much bigger differential.

    I've personally found it worthwhile to go with 7200rpm drives though. I've used 5400 disks and throughput was noticeably slower... not something I'd notice every day, but whenever I did have a lot of data to move it was annoying.

    Admittedly, this if this is going over wireless, disk speed is really not important.

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  10. #10

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    Quote Originally Posted by 100LL:
    I was under the impression there actually was a hardware and firmware difference:
    Yeah, I'd read that before and that was one of the things that made me conclude "not much difference, really". I do realise that a lot of people do buy into the NAS/24x7 drive idea though.

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