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Help me pick the right NAS please!

I have two proposed setups. I originally wanted a 6 bay NAS but it looks like 4 and 8 make the most sense. A 6 bay is 90% the cost of an 8 bay, might a well go with 8, or the 4 bay is half the price of the 6. 

 

The first setup costs $1985

it would use this NAS: https://www.amazon.com/Synology-bay-DiskStation-DS1817-Diskless/dp/B071K9J4MS/

And 8 of these drives set up in a RAID 6https://www.newegg.com/red-wd60efax-6tb/p/1Z4-0002-00MY7

That's 36 TB total if I calculated that right. Since 2 of 8 drives are for parity. 

 

The second setup costs $1150

it would use this NAS: https://www.amazon.com/Synology-DS420j-Diskless-4-Bay-DDR4/dp/B083HJY9T8/

And 4 of these drives set up in a RAID 5https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07DYLFYQM?tag=pcpapi-20&linkCode=ogi&th=1&psc=1

That's 30 TB total, since 1 of 4 drives is for parity in RAID 5. I believe.

 

I am leaning towards the second option, since it would cost a lot less. But, I plan for this to be my vault for as long as it will survive. I will make backups of important data, but for the most part things on this NAS will only be on this NAS. For example, I keep all my photos in Google Photos, so losing the versions stored on the NAS would not be the worst thing ever, but my 4K videos are only 1080p in Google Photos. My photos are 16 MP instead of 24 or whatever. So, I prefer my NAS to be reliable and last, ideally, a decade or longer before I need to replace the drives. If the first setup is really a lot more sturdy and reliable then I am willing to spend the extra money. 

 

Alternatively if someone can propose changes to either setup, I am open to that as well. I don't need 30 TB today, I'd say my minimum is 8 TB. But GB/$ these 6 and 10 TB drives are pretty good right now, so I picked them.

 

Also, the cheaper drive will function as a fancy external drive for now, since it only has 1 ethernet port and I would need 2 to use it as a true NAS, since my home network is too slow to keep my computer connected to it at all times. But I am OK with that compromise if RAID 5 and the HDDs I picked are good enough to last a long time. It would save me $800...

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You can expand those nases easily, so You can start with 2 10tb drives, and add more later on.

 

Id go big hdds, so they you can expand later, and cost per tb is about the same.

 

11 minutes ago, Invincible Sugar said:

I would need 2 to use it as a true NAS

Is this about the eariler network? You can do other fancythings with your network if you want.

 

You could also just add more drives to your pc if you don't need multiple to access it.

 

also you can shuck external drives for much cheaper storage, like sub 200 dollar 12tb drives on sale.

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1 minute ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

You can expand those nases easily, so You can start with 2 10tb drives, and add more later on.

 

Id go big hdds, so they you can expand later, and cost per tb is about the same.

 

Is this about the eariler network? You can do other fancythings with your network if you want.

 

You could also just add more drives to your pc if you don't need multiple to access it.

It doesn't need to be a NAS, but I prefer it because I can grab and go a lot faster in case of a fire or other emergency, vs my desktop with literally about 35 different things plugged into it. 8 monitors, 15+ USB devices, and more...

 

Plus with a NAS I can easily use it with more than 1 PC if I ever want to.

 

Does RAID 5/6 play nicely with adding more drives? I thought striping data meant rebuilding the array each time you did that.

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1 minute ago, Invincible Sugar said:

It doesn't need to be a NAS, but I prefer it because I can grab and go a lot faster in case of a fire or other emergency, vs my desktop with literally about 35 different things plugged into it. 8 monitors, 15+ USB devices, and more...

You probably want a offsite backup then if thats a issue.

 

Also you can get a das, basically a nas, but usb or simmilar only

 

2 minutes ago, Invincible Sugar said:

Plus with a NAS I can easily use it with more than 1 PC if I ever want to.

You can also easily share drives over the network in basically any os, just like a premade nas

 

2 minutes ago, Invincible Sugar said:

Does RAID 5/6 play nicely with adding more drives? I thought striping data meant rebuilding the array each time you did that.

The synologys make it super easy, and let you mix capacities aswell.

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1 minute ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

You probably want a offsite backup then if thats a issue.

 

Also you can get a das, basically a nas, but usb or simmilar only

 

You can also easily share drives over the network in basically any os, just like a premade nas

 

The synologys make it super easy, and let you mix capacities aswell.

No way in hell I can do off site with my <1 Mbps upload speed. My home internet is DSL, literally modern dial up.

 

Ohhh! That sounds interesting! I'll look that up.

Ok, maybe that would be better!

 

Great! Ty!

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Just now, Invincible Sugar said:

No way in hell I can do off site with my <1 Mbps upload speed. My home internet is DSL, literally modern dial up.

YOu don't have to do offsite backups over internet, just rotate external hdds. A nas is not a backup, the whole unit can fail and not be able to retrive any data

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1 minute ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

YOu don't have to do offsite backups over internet, just rotate external hdds. A nas is not a backup, the whole unit can fail and not be able to retrive any data

Most of what I plan to store will have a backup on Google Drive, Fiverr, or Discord. But it would be a PITA to re-download everything if it fails.

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15 minutes ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

YOu don't have to do offsite backups over internet, just rotate external hdds. A nas is not a backup, the whole unit can fail and not be able to retrive any data

What about this?
https://www.amazon.com/TerraMaster-External-Enclosure-Support-Diskless/dp/B005IOLBT2/

+ 5 of these, in RAID 5: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07DYLFYQM

 

That would cost $1350 for 40 TB if my math is right, able to withstand 1 drive failure.

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12 minutes ago, Invincible Sugar said:

What about this?
https://www.amazon.com/TerraMaster-External-Enclosure-Support-Diskless/dp/B005IOLBT2/

+ 5 of these, in RAID 5: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07DYLFYQM

 

That would cost $1350 for 40 TB if my math is right, able to withstand 1 drive failure.

Or if you want a cheaper 10tb drive https://www.amazon.com/10TB-Elements-Desktop-Drive-WDBWLG0100HBK-NESN/dp/B07G3QMPB5/ref=sr_1_4?crid=S5G9K5TOZPMX&dchild=1&keywords=10tb+external+hard+drive&qid=1592892524&s=electronics&sprefix=10tb+ex%2Celectronics%2C274&sr=1-4

 

Bu tthat will work fine. Id probably spend the bit extra for a nas though, there better to work with, esp if you want to share it easily.

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8 minutes ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

Or if you want a cheaper 10tb drive https://www.amazon.com/10TB-Elements-Desktop-Drive-WDBWLG0100HBK-NESN/dp/B07G3QMPB5/ref=sr_1_4?crid=S5G9K5TOZPMX&dchild=1&keywords=10tb+external+hard+drive&qid=1592892524&s=electronics&sprefix=10tb+ex%2Celectronics%2C274&sr=1-4

 

Bu tthat will work fine. Id probably spend the bit extra for a nas though, there better to work with, esp if you want to share it easily.

I could probably just buy two of these and run them in raid 1 but then my pc is managing that raid, would I be able to rebuild it on a different pc?

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Just now, Invincible Sugar said:

I could probably just buy two of these and run them in raid 1 but then my pc is managing that raid, would I be able to rebuild it on a different pc?

you can take the drives out of the case and use them in the nas like any other hdd.

 

But with software raid it is normally easy to move to anouther system. But if you have 2 drives, do backups, not raid.

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1 minute ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

you can take the drives out of the case and use them in the nas like any other hdd.

 

But with software raid it is normally easy to move to anouther system. But if you have 2 drives, do backups, not raid.

I see, so buy 4 of those just for the HDDs inside, then a more basic 4 bay NAS. That could work!

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Just now, Invincible Sugar said:

I see, so buy 4 of those just for the HDDs inside, then a more basic 4 bay NAS. That could work!

thats what id do. Or if you don't need all the space now, but 2 or 3, and get more later

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One of the great things about the Synology units are the OS and applications available for them. Lots of options, very easy to use. 

However the spec's of the processor and RAM play a big difference in just how much you would be able to take advantage of extra functionality.


The two units are quite different, especially when it comes to RAM. The 4 bay only having 1gb total, whereas the 8 bay comes with 4gb and can be expanded to 8gb. 

With the larger unit you get dual 1gb Ethernet and dual 10gb ethernet. Both supporting link aggregation. Now dual 10gb is going to be useless for you, but dual 1gb is likely to be handy as more 2.5gb and 5gb NIC's get built into motherboards and other devices. Either way, it is something to consider for future proofing, as you can think of a NAS as a longer term investment. 

 

I have two Synology NAS units, a 416j (similar to your lower price unit) and a 918+. I decked out the 918+ and the performance difference between them is huge. The 918+ is running my plex server and handles multiple streams easily. With the 416j it took a long time for the list of media to even show. 

 

Some food for thought. 

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I not sure if this is where to put this 

I am looking at a server too 

Just so I can have movies for one tv down stairs and one upstairs 

With the same video library 

But we only have

10 mbps network 

Help please!!!

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