Thinking of getting a Synology NAS for data storage.

[Lebon14]

Hi.

I'm a data hoarder. For the longest time, I've been slowly increasing my disk space in my PC. Currently, I'm sitting at 3×4 TB. One of them is dedicated to music and has 850 GB left on it. I have another one with lots of misc files, backups, souvenirs, etc. That's ~1.75TB. Say, I have 5TB of data right off the bat to transfer to the NAS I want to save for.

 

I just got a nice Asus RT-AX86U for that sweet 2.5Gbit LAN port that I connected directly into my PC's 2.5Gbit port. It's also able to do port aggregation to get 2Gbit. So, on that side, I'm ready.

 

My first though was to get a 4-bay (Synology DS418) or 5-bay (Synology DS1520+) or even 6-bay (DS1621xs+).
I wanted to get at least 4 12 to 16TB Western Digital Red or Gold drives. I thought of the 6-bay because I could buy 4 drives and leave 2 empty for future expansion. I really like how Synology's Raid tech is working: you don't need to have matching capacity and speed drive at all. That's part of the appeal for me. Talking of RAID configuration, for 4 drives I was thinking half-half: So 24TB for use and 24TB parity (example). If 5-bay, 3 for use, 2 for parity.

 

I also don't want to do a NAS myself.

I'll be saving toward the suggestions I get.

 

So, shoot me with your best shot.

 

I AM CANADIAN

 

Thanks!

[Electronics Wizardy]

8 minutes ago, Lebon14 said:

Talking of RAID configuration, for 4 drives I was thinking half-half: So 24TB for use and 24TB parity (example). If 5-bay, 3 for use, 2 for parity.

Id probalby go raid 5 here, then spend the extra on backups, dual drive failures are pretty rare with these small arrays.

 

Id probalby go with the 4-5 bay. You can add the expansion bay if you need more storage

 

There overall pretty solid units, Ive used a good amount in the past for backups and other uses.

 

8 minutes ago, Lebon14 said:

LAN port that I connected directly into my PC's 2.5Gbit port. It's also able to do port aggregation to get 2Gbit.

Don't do aggreggation, it won't help you here, if you want faster speeds without a 2.5/10gbe port, id just go with smb3 multichannel.

[Lebon14]

3 minutes ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

Id probalby go raid 5 here, then spend the extra on backups, dual drive failures are pretty rare with these small arrays.

 

Id probalby go with the 4-5 bay. You can add the expansion bay if you need more storage

 

There overall pretty solid units, Ive used a good amount in the past for backups and other uses.

I'd use Synology SHR technology instead of the classic Raid 5. Like I said, it'll allow me to add drives in the future. Especially if I go with a 5-bay.

 

9 minutes ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

Don't do aggreggation, it won't help you here, if you want faster speeds without a 2.5/10gbe port, id just go with smb3 multichannel.

SMB3 Multichannel? What the heck is that? I got 2.5gbit LAN so I could use it. Why is port aggregation not good? The max bandwith I'm going to get is 250 MB/s, no matter what.

[Electronics Wizardy]

45 minutes ago, Lebon14 said:

I'd use Synology SHR technology instead of the classic Raid 5. Like I said, it'll allow me to add drives in the future. Especially if I go with a 5-bay.

 

SMB3 Multichannel? What the heck is that? I got 2.5gbit LAN so I could use it. Why is port aggregation not good? The max bandwith I'm going to get is 250 MB/s, no matter what.

Yea Id run the single parity shr here.

 

SMB3 multichannel lets you use multiple network connections to increase file copy speed, works much better than port aggregation as port aggregation only work with multiple clients in your use case.

 

Id probably suggest getting the DS1621+ here as it has 10gbe, and then getting a 10gbe switch and a 10gbe nic on your pc for the higher speeds. Since your router only has one 2.5gbe port you basically need a swtich for faster copy speeds, the 2.5gbe port is kinda just marketing bs here.

[Lebon14]

1 hour ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

Id probably suggest getting the DS1621+ here as it has 10gbe, and then getting a 10gbe switch and a 10gbe nic on your pc for the higher speeds. Since your router only has one 2.5gbe port you basically need a swtich for faster copy speeds, the 2.5gbe port is kinda just marketing bs here.

There's literally 4 concurrent client on my router right now:
- My PC (Gigabyte Aorus Master, Ryzen 9 5900X, RTX 3070 Ti, etc.)
- My mom's laptop (coz of her laptop, I have to turn off 160Mhz band; ie. legacy mode)
- My smartphone (Pixel 4a)

- Nintendo Switch

 

I don't need another network device, even a 4-port one. I've checked the price a bit and that's another 300$+. Even when I'm going to move in with my grand-mother with my mom next spring, I'll be only adding 4 wifi devices (A PC, 2 iPads and another smartphone). Heck, the only thing that'll be wired is my PC and the NAS. I don't see the need to buy another expensive device to just connect 3 devices to it. It feels redundant. In my head, I just can't justify it.

 

1 hour ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

SMB3 multichannel lets you use multiple network connections to increase file copy speed, works much better than port aggregation as port aggregation only work with multiple clients in your use case.

 

Oh, gotcha.

 

But, if I get the DS1621+, I can just get a 10gbit NIC for future-proofing (I might not need a 10gbit router / switch right now but who knows later?) and a small nvme drive for cache and I'd be good to go.

 

EDIT: Checked 10gbit NICs prices. Never mind. Still way too expansive. 2.5gbit NICs, for the few there are, seems way more affordable.

[Electronics Wizardy]

3 minutes ago, Lebon14 said:

There's literally 4 concurrent client on my router right now:
- My PC (Gigabyte Aorus Master, Ryzen 9 5900X, RTX 3070 Ti, etc.)
- My mom's laptop (coz of her laptop, I have to turn off 160Mhz band; ie. legacy mode)
- My smartphone (Pixel 4a)

- Nintendo Switch

 

I don't need another network device, even a 4-port one. I've checked the price a bit and that's another 300$+. Even when I'm going to move in with my grand-mother with my mom next spring, I'll be only adding 4 wifi devices (A PC, 2 iPads and another smartphone). Heck, the only thing that'll be wired is my PC and the NAS. I don't see the need to buy another expensive device to just connect 3 devices to it. It feels redundant. In my head, I just can't justify it.

If you want those 2.5gbe speeds your gonna need to add a switch, as your router can't do this on its own. Since 2.5gbe/10gbe swiches are pretty cheap now, id get that so you get much faster copy speeds.

 

4 minutes ago, Lebon14 said:

But, if I get the DS1621+, I can just get a 10gbit NIC for future-proofing (I might not need a 10gbit router / switch right now but who knows later?) and a small nvme drive for cache and I'd be good to go.

Id skip the cache, probably won't help with your workload.

[Lebon14]

5 minutes ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

Since 2.5gbe/10gbe swiches are pretty cheap now, id get that so you get much faster copy speeds.

Do you consider 500$+ cheap?! Dang man... It's really hard to believe that my router can't pull------- wait....  oh.... I need 2 2.5gbit. ports *facepalm* unless I go the SMB3 route. I never set that up before. Oooh boy.

 

EDIT:

6 minutes ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

Id skip the cache, probably won't help with your workload.

OK then.

[Electronics Wizardy]

2 minutes ago, Lebon14 said:

Do you consider 500$+ cheap?! Dang man... It's really hard to believe that my router can't pull------- wait....  oh.... I need 2 2.5gbit. ports *facepalm* unless I go the SMB3 route. I never set that up before. Oooh boy.

 

Well you cn get 2.5gbe and 10gbe switches for about $100, so prices are cheaper.

 

Your router also only has one 2.5gbe port, so you can only copy files to your nas at 1gbe. Id really just get the switch for faster speeds.

[Lebon14]

1 minute ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

Well you cn get 2.5gbe and 10gbe switches for about $100, so prices are cheaper.

Got any suggestions? With links if possible (need to link to a canadian site)

[Electronics Wizardy]

Just now, Lebon14 said:

Got any suggestions? With links if possible (need to link to a canadian site)

How about this guy.https://www.amazon.ca/QNAP-QSW-1105-5T-US-5-Port-Unmanaged-2-5GbE/dp/B08F9ZL9LY/ref=sr_1_2?dchild=1&keywords=2.5gbe+switch&qid=1634953103&sr=8-2

 

Or just run a direct 2.5gbe link between the nas and your pc. 

[Lebon14]

1 minute ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

Or just run a direct 2.5gbe link between the nas and your pc.

Now, that's a good idea. I'd only need to add it a 2.5gbit network card to the NAS and I'd be good to go. That's a plug and play solution right?

 

Also, quick question. If I connect a single gigabit connection from the NAS to the router as well, can other people on the network can access the NAS as well?

[Electronics Wizardy]

2 minutes ago, Lebon14 said:

Now, that's a good idea. I'd only need to add it a 2.5gbit network card to the NAS and I'd be good to go. That's a plug and play solution right?

Thats why I suggested the 1621+, the 0gbe port can run at 2.5gbe, and is nice if you upgrade to 10gbe later on.

 

2 minutes ago, Lebon14 said:

Also, quick question. If I connect a single gigabit connection from the NAS to the router as well, can other people on the network can access the NAS as well?

Yup you can do that.

[Lebon14]

7 minutes ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

Thats why I suggested the 1621+, the 0gbe port can run at 2.5gbe, and is nice if you upgrade to 10gbe later on.

I checked and it's only the 1621xs+ that has a 10gb port by default, not the regular 1621+. 1621+ has 4× 1gbit ports and an extension slot.

 

Still, thanks for the info.

[SamucaFO]

On 10/22/2021 at 10:56 PM, Lebon14 said:

I checked and it's only the 1621xs+ that has a 10gb port by default, not the regular 1621+. 1621+ has 4× 1gbit ports and an extension slot.

 

Still, thanks for the info.

The 1621+ NAS only has a 8x pci-e 3.0 expansion slot that supports 10gbe or 2x 10gbe card, 10gbe card isn't native on this NAS. It only has 4x 1gigabit ports onboard.