Questions about NAS

[PowerPCFan]

1. Can I use an old OptiPlex that I got for free as a NAS? Unsure of the specs but probably 2nd, 3rd, 4th gen intel

2. What RAID configuration should I use if I get 2x 4TB hard drives? RAID 1? 

3. How risky is RAID 0? 

 

[Dablooe]

As long as it has a network port and 8 gb of ram you could if you installed hard drives and installed Truenas core (which is free).

I would personally go for RAID 1 because it copies data over to another drive. Also you can only run RAID 1 and RAID 0 on two hard drives.

RAID 0 will be very risky if:

1. You have a lot of important files (or photos)

2. If your hard drives are at the end of their life

3. If you do not want to worry about disks too much

[johnt]

RAID0 is a terrible idea for NAS. Typically you’re supposed to use RAID1 for two drives and 5 or 6 as you add more drives. But things slow down as the number of drives increase with 5 or 6. You could technically use two sets of RAID1 and then use RAID0 to connect them together. That would require four drives but it would provide redundancy and a speed improvement. Although you’re tying a lot of drives to one type of system. 
 

I prefer using volume mirroring in the pro versions of windows with two drives. Nobody seems to recommend windows for nas or server but I don’t understand why. The compatibility is out of the world. 

[PowerPCFan]

42 minutes ago, Dablooe said:

As long as it has a network port and 8 gb of ram you could if you installed hard drives and installed Truenas core (which is free).

I would personally go for RAID 1 because it copies data over to another drive. Also you can only run RAID 1 and RAID 0 on two hard drives.

RAID 0 will be very risky if:

1. You have a lot of important files (or photos)

2. If your hard drives are at the end of their life

3. If you do not want to worry about disks too much

I'll probably do Raid 1. Good choice? 

 

Also would some regular wd blue drives work? Or do I need special NAS drives? 

[PowerPCFan]

11 minutes ago, johnt said:

RAID0 is a terrible idea for NAS. Typically you’re supposed to use RAID1 for two drives and 5 or 6 as you add more drives. But things slow down as the number of drives increase with 5 or 6. You could technically use two sets of RAID1 and then use RAID0 to connect them together. That would require four drives but it would provide redundancy and a speed improvement. Although you’re tying a lot of drives to one type of system. 
 

I prefer using volume mirroring in the pro versions of windows with two drives. Nobody seems to recommend windows for nas or server but I don’t understand why. The compatibility is out of the world. 

If I use Windows will I be able to connect to the NAS with a Mac? I have PCs and Macs

[Kilrah]

Yes SMB / Windows file sharing works with everything.

[johnt]

Yes windows and Mac devices play nicely over LAN. Time Machine takes a little more work but it’s not intuitive on a synology either.

 

I have several folder shares on my nas/server and I can connect to them using Files or Finder, depending on the device.

 

WD blues work just fine in raid1 mode or disk mirroring. It’s ideal if they are the same capacity. You can get into discussions with people about how purple and red drives are better for nas, 24/7 operation, vibration, blah blah blah. It’s all true but for home use in a PC, two blues will serve you well. People forget all we had was spinning drives in a system without issues for like two decades.

[shoutingsteve]

On 3/31/2024 at 11:25 AM, johnt said:

But things slow down as the number of drives increase with 5 or 6.

I've never heard this.  can anyone explain WHY things slow down with more drives in these configurations?

[johnt]

1 hour ago, shoutingsteve said:

I've never heard this.  can anyone explain WHY things slow down with more drives in these configurations?

The parity information has to be written to other disks, which slows down the write performance. I feel like you haven’t heard this because you haven’t researched it before 

[shoutingsteve]

On 4/1/2024 at 5:34 PM, johnt said:

The parity information has to be written to other disks, which slows down the write performance. I feel like you haven’t heard this because you haven’t researched it before 

Oh, I thought you meant the concept of the raid is slower; like how 1 is slower than 0 in it's very nature, not that it is slower because of the shortcomings of the controller.