Looking for a NAS

[Gispah]

Hello guys,

I'm looking for a good NAS to put some 4K HDR MKV and to watch it on my SAMSUNG TV (without plex if it's possible I have already done it with my computer) and with only 2 or 3 bays.

I already look after some NAS but I don't know anything about NAS servers. I have seen the ds218+ and ds218play but I don't know the difference betwen the two of them.

Thanks for your help!

EDIT : And a NAS with which I could access to some documents online and have several clients (2 or 3) using NAS files.

[Hairless Monkey]

I use a DS216J along with an HTPC with Kodi (BlackBox in my sig) hooked up to my TV. If you don't need transcoding (and aren't using plex) then the "J" models will do fine for you. The + and the play models each can do transcoding, and are correspondingly more expensive.

 

This might be the right option for you:

 

https://www.synology.com/en-us/products/DS220j

[Gispah]

17 hours ago, HairlessMonkeyBoy said:

I use a DS216J along with an HTPC with Kodi (BlackBox in my sig) hooked up to my TV. If you don't need transcoding (and aren't using plex) then the "J" models will do fine for you. The + and the play models each can do transcoding, and are correspondingly more expensive.

 

This might be the right option for you:

 

https://www.synology.com/en-us/products/DS220j

Thanks for your reply!

And with this one can I do online cloud (only for documents not big files)?

EDIT : When you say transcoding, it's only for plex or kodi ?

Edited December 31, 2020 by Gispah

[Hairless Monkey]

2 minutes ago, Gispah said:

EDIT : When you say transcoding, it's only for plex or kodi ?

Plex can take advantage of transcoding capability, but does not require it.

 

Kodi has no transcoding functionality.

 

3 minutes ago, Gispah said:

And with this one can I do online cloud (only for documents not big files)?

If by that you mean that you want to have access to your files(big or small) over the internet, then yes. It can do that.

[Gispah]

Just now, HairlessMonkeyBoy said:

Plex can take advantage of transcoding capability, but does not require it.

 

Kodi has no transcoding functionality.

 

If by that you mean that you want to have access to your files(big or small) over the internet, then yes. It can do that.

Oh ok, but what's the difference between the DS220J, DS220+, DS218play and the DS218?

Is the ram that important, and what about the CPU and the SSD Cache is it really necessary?

And also will one of those not lag if there are several clients accessing to several different types of files?

Sorry to ask that many questions. I don't know anything about NAS servers and I would love to know more about those before buying anything.

[Hairless Monkey]

1 minute ago, Gispah said:

Oh ok, but what's the difference between the DS220J, DS220+, DS218play and the DS218?

They differ by feature set, internal components, and external ports. For a simple file/media server on a 1 Gb network you don't need anything fancy.

3 minutes ago, Gispah said:

Is the ram that important

Mine has 512MB and I have not had an issue. I keep the number of DSM apps running to a minimum.

4 minutes ago, Gispah said:

SSD Cache is it really necessary?

No, not for a simple file server on a 1Gb network. The HDDs in my NAS are faster than my network anyway.

5 minutes ago, Gispah said:

And also will one of those not lag if there are several clients accessing to several different types of files?

Is this for a small business? If you can describe how it will be used in more detail, I can better help you. It'll preform fine if for instance you and the kids are both trying to watch a 4k movie off of it at the same time.

[Gispah]

3 minutes ago, HairlessMonkeyBoy said:

Is this for a small business? If you can describe how it will be used in more detail, I can better help you. It'll preform fine if for instance you and the kids are both trying to watch a 4k movie off of it at the same time.

Well, yes it's for several people watching 4K movie at the same time with someone else on the cloud accessing to documents.

EDIT : There is no need to have transcoding NAS to watch 4K movie on VLC or on a SAMSUNG TV or even on a iPhone? The client can transcode the movie without problems ?

Edited December 31, 2020 by Gispah

[Hairless Monkey]

4 minutes ago, Gispah said:

Well, yes it's for several people watching 4K movie at the same time with someone else on the cloud accessing to documents.

Then the J will do fine.

4 minutes ago, Gispah said:

There is no need to have transcoding NAS to watch 4K movie on VLC or on a SAMSUNG TV or even on a iPhone? The client can transcode the movie without problems ?

There's kind of a lot to it. 4K video might be encoded with H264(AVC) or H265(HEVC) or VP9 in the case of Youtube, and they might be 8-bit or 10-bit color etc. whether or not a particular device will play a video file without problems depends entirely on that devices support for the format that is used to encode the video. I'd say anything that was made since ~2017 should be able to handle even the most advanced codecs that you might encounter. Real-time transcoding is used to reduce the bitrate, or improve compatibility with older devices at the expense of quality.

[Gispah]

2 minutes ago, HairlessMonkeyBoy said:

There's kind of a lot to it. 4K video might be encoded with H264(AVC) or H265(HEVC) or VP9 in the case of Youtube, and they might be 8-bit or 10-bit color etc. whether or not a particular device will play a video file without problems depends entirely on that devices support for the format that is used to encode the video. I'd say anything that was made since ~2017 should be able to handle even the most advanced codecs that you might encounter. Real-time transcoding is used to reduce the bitrate, or improve compatibility with older devices at the expense of quality.

Ok so if I watch a recent 4K movie which is encoded in H.265 with 10-bit color with HDR on 4K Samsung TV there will be no problem ?

And what about if I watch at the same time another movie encoded in H.265 with 10-bit color with HDR but on a 1080p PC but with VLC, can it do it fine or will it be laggy ?

[Hairless Monkey]

4 minutes ago, Gispah said:

Ok so if I watch a recent 4K movie which is encoded in H.265 with 10-bit color with HDR on 4K Samsung TV there will be no problem ?

You'll have to look that up to find out. If it's a newish TV I'd be surprised if it didn't support it.

5 minutes ago, Gispah said:

And what about if I watch at the same time another movie encoded in H.265 with 10-bit color with HDR but on a 1080p PC but with VLC, can it do it fine or will it be laggy ?

If both the PC and the TV support the format, the NAS will serve the files no problem. The movies might be up to 100Mbps each which is well within the capacity of a 1Gb network.

[Gispah]

4 minutes ago, HairlessMonkeyBoy said:

You'll have to look that up to find out. If it's a newish TV I'd be surprised if it didn't support it.

I have already watched H.265 4K HDR movies on both my tv and PC without issues. 

 

4 minutes ago, HairlessMonkeyBoy said:

If both the PC and the TV support the format, the NAS will serve the files no problem. The movies might be up to 100Mbps each which is well within the capacity of a 1Gb network.

So it would need a 2.5Gb or 10Gb network card ?

[Hairless Monkey]

2 minutes ago, Gispah said:

I have already watched H.265 4K HDR movies on both my tv and PC without issues. 

 

So it would need a 2.5Gb or 10Gb network card ?

Then you're good to go.

2 minutes ago, Gispah said:

So it would need a 2.5Gb or 10Gb network card ?

I think you read that wrong.

[Gispah]

1 minute ago, HairlessMonkeyBoy said:

I think you read that wrong.

Oh sorry, then it's good for the DS220J. And for the HDD which one should I choose ? I have seen the IronWolf and the IronWolf Pro but I don't know the difference between them.

[Hairless Monkey]

20 minutes ago, Gispah said:

Oh sorry, then it's good for the DS220J. And for the HDD which one should I choose ? I have seen the IronWolf and the IronWolf Pro but I don't know the difference between them.

Any NAS-rated drive will be good, just watch out for SMR drives. Opt for CMR. The pro versions have higher endurance, but are not necessary for this application.

[Gispah]

Just now, HairlessMonkeyBoy said:

Any NAS-rated drive will be good, just watch out for SMR drives. Opt for CMR. The pro versions have higher endurance, but are not necessary for this application.

So the Western Digital Red or the Seagate IronWolf are good ?

[Hairless Monkey]

7 minutes ago, Gispah said:

So the Western Digital Red or the Seagate IronWolf are good ?

Yup!

 

What capacity are you looking for? Out of curiosity I sorted by price/GB and it looks like the 14TB and 16TB Seagate EXOS drives are a really great deal. They should hold up well in a NAS, but it looks like they might be a bit more noisy. 

 

https://pcpartpicker.com/products/internal-hard-drive/#sort=ppgb&page=1

[Gispah]

2 minutes ago, HairlessMonkeyBoy said:

Yup!

 

What capacity are you looking for? Out of curiosity I sorted by price/GB and it looks like the 14TB and 16TB Seagate EXOS drives are a really great deal. They should hold up well in a NAS, but it looks like they might be a bit more noisy. 

 

https://pcpartpicker.com/products/internal-hard-drive/#sort=ppgb&page=1

I don't know yet what capacity I will take.

EDIT : Is there a max storage capacity for the DS220J ? I think I will go for 24TB of capacity.

Edited December 31, 2020 by Gispah

[Hairless Monkey]

7 minutes ago, Gispah said:

I don't know yet what capacity I will take.

EDIT : Is there a max storage capacity for the DS220J ? I think I will go for 24TB of capacity.

Looks like up to 16TB

 

https://www.synology.com/en-us/compatibility?search_by=products&model=DS220j&category=hdds_no_ssd_trim&filter_size=16TB&p=1

 

Will you be using redundancy to help prevent data loss?

[Gispah]

Just now, HairlessMonkeyBoy said:

Looks like up to 16TB

 

https://www.synology.com/en-us/compatibility?search_by=products&model=DS220j&category=hdds_no_ssd_trim&filter_size=16TB&p=1

It's up to 2x16TB or a total of 16TB ? 

 

Just now, HairlessMonkeyBoy said:

Will you be using redundancy to help prevent data loss?

Redundancy ? Are you talking about backup ? If it is, yes I will do it I think but only for the documents and photos not for the movies.

[Hairless Monkey]

1 minute ago, Gispah said:

It's up to 2x16TB or a total of 16TB ?

2X 16TB for a total of 32TB. But the newish 18TB drives will probably work, they just may not have been added to the list yet.

3 minutes ago, Gispah said:

Redundancy ? Are you talking about backup ? If it is, yes I will do it I think but only for the documents and photos not for the movies.

Talking about RAID. Sounds like you have a good plan.

[Gispah]

2 minutes ago, HairlessMonkeyBoy said:

Talking about RAID. Sounds like you have a good plan.

Well I have some questions about RAID. How does it works, do I need it ? And can I do backup of some folders only on a external HDD plugged in with USB 3.0 ?

And about the NAS do we need to turn it off or let it ON all the time ?

[Hairless Monkey]

3 minutes ago, Gispah said:

Well I have some questions about RAID. How does it works, do I need it ?

Well, there's a lot to it...

 

https://www.synology.com/en-us/knowledgebase/DSM/tutorial/Storage/What_is_Synology_Hybrid_RAID_SHR

 

But no, you do not need it.

 

4 minutes ago, Gispah said:

And can I do backup of some folders only on a external HDD plugged in with USB 3.0 ?

Yup, you should be able to do this manually or set it up to backup automatically(i think).

5 minutes ago, Gispah said:

And about the NAS do we need to turn it off or let it ON all the time ?

No. It will go to sleep when not in use, so you can leave it on. I reboot mine once a week, but you don't have to.

[Gispah]

1 minute ago, HairlessMonkeyBoy said:

Well, there's a lot to it...

 

https://www.synology.com/en-us/knowledgebase/DSM/tutorial/Storage/What_is_Synology_Hybrid_RAID_SHR

 

But no, you do not need it.

 

Yup, you should be able to do this manually or set it up to backup automatically(i think).

No. It will go to sleep when not in use, so you can leave it on. I reboot mine once a week, but you don't have to.

I have a last question about the HDD is there any big differences with 5400RPM HDD and the 7200RPM HDD ?

[Hairless Monkey]

Just now, Gispah said:

I have a last question about the HDD is there any big differences with 5400RPM HDD and the 7200RPM HDD ?

Not for this purpose. The limit to your transfer speed will be the network, not the HDDs. 5400RPM might be a bit quieter, but some of Western Digitals "5400 RPM class" drives are actually 7200 RPM under the hood.  No clue why they do that...

[Gispah]

6 minutes ago, HairlessMonkeyBoy said:

Not for this purpose. The limit to your transfer speed will be the network, not the HDDs. 5400RPM might be a bit quieter, but some of Western Digitals "5400 RPM class" drives are actually 7200 RPM under the hood.  No clue why they do that...

Ok well thank you very much for your help !