A silent NAS

[MortusAntePortas]

Hello good people,

 

I am a novice to network storage and would like to ask for your help or input. 

 

I would like a get a NAS, preferably without breaking the bank, and I am a bit lost on what would work for me. My intended use case would be:

- Use it as a PLEX Server

- Store Media, especially HQ video for PLEX

- full back-up of my DVDs etc.

- Back-up of my live-system (I.e. personal photos, office documents, emails, other)

- I assume it will be idle for most of the day, so it should be energy efficient

- access is by up to four people in my household as well as by another four close family members via internet (would like to be additional remote backup for parents and siblings that are not that tech-savvy). Not more than four people should be accessing it at the same time, most likely just one at a time. 

 

Sounds pretty pedestrian so far and nothing a prebuilt NAS should struggle with.

However, I would like two more things that make it hard for me to find the right thing:

- reliability/ redundancy (I don't want to lose all data if a drive goes bad)

- it should be silent! The NAS will be in a room where concentrated work is being done and therefore should not be annoying (library sound levels are preferred). Unfortunately there is no other place to put it. 

 

So, people in the LTT forum, can you help me point into the right direction on what to get or where to look? Any recommendations?

 

EDIT: I don't have any drives and will basically be starting at zero! For storage, I am looking for 10TB of usable space, plus the option to expand. 

 

Thank you very much for your help and greetings,

 

MortusAntePortas

[CyberneticTitan]

Do you already have drives? How much storage are you looking for?

 

For pre-bult NAS, Synology and QNAP is your best bet.

[MortusAntePortas]

1 minute ago, CyberneticTitan said:

Do you already have drives? How much storage are you looking for?

 

For pre-bult NAS, Synology and QNAP is your best bet.

Wow, thanks for the quick answer! Unfortunately I will have to start a zero. No drives, no nothing. Storage? 10 TB plus, I assume.

[CyberneticTitan]

2 minutes ago, MortusAntePortas said:

Wow, thanks for the quick answer! Unfortunately I will have to start a zero. No drives, no nothing. Storage? 10 TB plus, I assume.

Are you willing to buy used hardware? (Not the drives ofc) How much is breaking the bank?

[MortusAntePortas]

Just now, CyberneticTitan said:

Are you willing to buy used hardware? (Not the drives ofc) How much is breaking the bank?

I am aware that drives will be a cost point, so I am willing to pay up if my needs for reliability and silentness can be met. I am willing to get used HW (indeed not the drives) if it does not impede performance or reliability. However, I am inexperienced in PC building (the deepest drive I did so far was swapping RAM and a video card back in Win 98- days) 

Breaking the bank would be EUR 1.000 all-in (that means start to finish, hardware and software). 

[Adaa]

26 minutes ago, MortusAntePortas said:

I am aware that drives will be a cost point, so I am willing to pay up if my needs for reliability and silentness can be met. I am willing to get used HW (indeed not the drives) if it does not impede performance or reliability. However, I am inexperienced in PC building (the deepest drive I did so far was swapping RAM and a video card back in Win 98- days) 

Breaking the bank would be EUR 1.000 all-in (that means start to finish, hardware and software). 

If you cant build your own, your best bet is a cheaper end synology or Qnap atom based models combined with the TB model nas hdd drives that you need.

that should be posible for around 1000USD unless US nas and hdd prices are higher than in the Nordics, and i highly doubt that.