GigaBit NAS Questions

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Elf_Boy

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I am looking to replace my 8350 system.

I have a new Lenovo laptop with decent specs. I've picked up a StarTech box to split the video to 3 monitors.

Now for storage.

I dont have much experience with windows networking beyond the basic peer to peer file sharing.

I have a decent netgear gigabit switch.

What are some good home use network attached storage units?

While my knee jerk response would be I want 4 drive bays the reality is two+ would work.

Over ethernet how is watching p... movies? How is watching movies over wireless ac1700?

Older games like the original (or current) StarCraft, would they launch/play ok?

At this time my switch has my Buffalo Router, Ryzen, 8350 and two printer plugged in. I dont see network congestion being a thing.
 
Thank you.

I see a whole metric ton of different brand names out in the market place. Some are even decent brands like Netgear.

Are QNAP and Synology the better brands?

I also noticed browsing the market almost none of the units have the Ethernet speed/type listed in the specs. Is 1000baseT standard? Or should I be careful not to get 10/100 max?

Given a good network switch what other factors should I look into? Or are things pretty solid plug/play now?

How does GB Ethernet compare to Sata 3/usb 3.x/Firewire/Thunderbolt/etc for throughput? I imagine latency is much worse but what about raw point to point bulk data transfer?

Thank you to any and all.

-EB
 
Synology and QNAP are the more user friendly brands IMO.

Most new models come with 10/100/1000, a solid 1000mbps/gbit switch should max the network speed.

Latency aside, gigabit ethernet maxes out at 1000/8 = 125MB/s. With ethernet overhead, you typically see max transfer rates of 100-115MB/s. Obviously this is slower than the fastest SATA3/USB3/TBolt drives. SATA SSDs do 500MB transfer rates in comparison.
 
In my experience usb 3.0 will top out around 60-70 MB/s, ethernet will hit 100-125 MB/s. Synology and QNAP are the two biggest names in NAS machines.
 
Ranulfo said:
In my experience usb 3.0 will top out around 60-70 MB/s
Click to expand...

If your USB 3.0 is topping out at 60-70MB, you need a faster drive! I've seen some higher end sandisk USB drives go for 100-200MB/s for both read and write. I'm willing to guess there are faster drives at this point.
 
mda said:
If your USB 3.0 is topping out at 60-70MB, you need a faster drive! I've seen some higher end sandisk USB drives go for 100-200MB/s for both read and write. I'm willing to guess there are faster drives at this point.
Click to expand...

An M.2 SATA drive in a cheap enclosure can easily do >300MB/s :)
 
USB 3 speeds also depend what controller it is using and if the device it is connected to is sharing bandwidth or dedicated per port.

My QNAP with 4 x 3TB drives (2 toshiba, one WD and one Hitachi) i was hitting about 109MB/s when i was moving files off my main rig, i was definitely impressed! I also have it set up for LACP via my HP switch.
 
I went with Asustor Nas 1002T, with 2 5tb HDD in Raid 1, I use it to backup all of my systems in the house, Keep all of my downloaded music, and record video from my security system.
They have a tutorial program on there website, with different levels of engagement, Novice to Expert, to show you have to use your NAS and setup just about thing that it can do.
 
Ranulfo said:
In my experience usb 3.0 will top out around 60-70 MB/s, ethernet will hit 100-125 MB/s. Synology and QNAP are the two biggest names in NAS machines.
Click to expand...

Treat yourself to a Lexar P20 128GB.


And yes QNAP or Synology. Buy it, spend 20 mins setting it up and then forget about it.
 

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I see many of the units have usb/esata etc. Is that a secondary chanel? High speed to one computer kind of thing? Or is it either/or ?

Thanks again to everyone.
 
Elf_Boy said:
I see many of the units have usb/esata etc. Is that a secondary chanel? High speed to one computer kind of thing? Or is it either/or ?

Thanks again to everyone.
Click to expand...

Usually I only use them for a separate backup drive. For the companies I use the QNAPs in the setup is Two bay RAID1 with 128GB USB3.0 drive plugged in the back (HDD if larger but not required that often). The RAID then backs up using the built in backup client nightly or weekly to the USB overnight.

Most companies if they are not 'media creators' do not have masses of data. I also use the encryption facility on the RAID and the USB backup. Better safe than sorry.

You can also use the USB to transfer data to the NAS without the Ethernet/network overhead.
 
mda said:
If your USB 3.0 is topping out at 60-70MB, you need a faster drive! I've seen some higher end sandisk USB drives go for 100-200MB/s for both read and write. I'm willing to guess there are faster drives at this point.
Click to expand...

This all depends on the usb drive or hdd/ssd usb enclosure and the motherboard. My experience with older usb 3 systems is the 60-70 MB/s range, usually with standard lexar or sandisk drives. Newer ones not much better.
 
Ranulfo said:
This all depends on the usb drive or hdd/ssd usb enclosure and the motherboard. My experience with older usb 3 systems is the 60-70 MB/s range, usually with standard lexar or sandisk drives. Newer ones not much better.
Click to expand...


Things have improved but there is still a lot of USB2.0 crap masquerading as USB3.0 out there. Always buy reputable and always check the reviews. Your average $10 standard USB3.0 stick will hover in the 40-70MBps range but the more you pay the better you get. The ones that annoy me are the 100MBps Read but 20MBps Write ones. Grrrrrr!

I still keep a couple of old high quality USB2.0 sticks in my tool bag because they just always work. You know when you get a stick that just auto detects straight away in any machine and never gets messed up if it gets pulled out too quick. Cherish them! The fact they work every time makes up for their slower speeds.
 
QNAP typically gives you better hardware than the equivalently priced synology (faster CPU, more RAM, hot swappable bays in lower end) but synology has such an awesome OS and support (haven't dealt with QNAP support) that's its kind of a toss up. Being a hardware oriented user, I lean to QNAP.
 
KedsDead said:
I went with Asustor Nas 1002T, with 2 5tb HDD in Raid 1, I use it to backup all of my systems in the house, Keep all of my downloaded music, and record video from my security system.
They have a tutorial program on there website, with different levels of engagement, Novice to Expert, to show you have to use your NAS and setup just about thing that it can do.
Click to expand...


Good reviews, except the USB 3 speeds were aweful, if you ever planned to back up to a USB 3 drive

https://www.smallnetbuilder.com/tools/charts/nas/view
 
Ranulfo said:
This all depends on the usb drive or hdd/ssd usb enclosure and the motherboard. My experience with older usb 3 systems is the 60-70 MB/s range, usually with standard lexar or sandisk drives. Newer ones not much better.
Click to expand...
You can't bench a fast link with a slow device
 
I'd probably just go with the Synology DS918+. Decent price for a turnkey 4-bay NAS with the ability to add their 5-bay expansion chassis later on. The expansion is around $500, but that gives you an upgrade path. I have an Asustor AS6210T. It is a nice NAS but it is on the expensive side... about the same as an 8-bay Synology but with slightly better processor. The software between Synology and Asustor are about the same and both are updated frequently. My AS6210T handles transcoding well, but that is something I rarely use since I do 1:1 rips of my movies. Something like an Asustor AS61xxT series or lower Synology series will work fine if no transcoding is planned. I went with ten 8 TB HGST NAS drives for my Asustor and ended up with 62TB of storage with RAID-6. I'm currently using about 15TB on roughly 600 BD rips of movies and series episodes. I'm using a USB-3 RAID box ( Oyen Digital Mobius 5-bay fitted with 6 TB HGST NAS drives ) as a physical backup for what is on the NAS. It is a cheap mass storage box ( $200 ) but has some quirks, like shutting down after 20 minutes of inactivity ( which cannot be changed ) and having to re-share the drive in Windows every time it is powered up. Good enough for off-line storage, though.
 
I have been reasonably happy with the Buffalo routers I have used.

What do you guys think of this NAS Unit?

https://www.adorama.com/buls441de.html?gclid=EAIaIQobChMI1r--36Pn2QIVi5V-Ch1eLQBTEAQYASABEgKfKPD_BwE

Should get along with my router :)

I'm going on a business type trip for a few weeks in a few months. How difficult is it typically to set up a personal VPN type connection that is reasonably secure? Mostly to access movies - D&D Characters in case I need to play while I am on trip (Fantasy Grounds) We play 1-2 Saturdays a month.

My laptop has a 128gb m.2 nvme and 1 tb hd - decent space, but not enough for everything. I wonder how much a pain it would be to upgrade that m.2 NVME to 512 or bigger?

But um, back on topic - how about the Buffalo NAS system? With my Buffalo Router and Netgear Prosafe 16 port GB Switch?

Thanks everyone!
 
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