First Time NAS Selection/Build Help!

[dskissel]

HI everyone, to start off this is my first time working with or thinking about building a NAS. In the next couple of days I need to put together a NAS with a strict budget cap of $2000 to be able to order before Christmas. I need all the help  I can get with this whether you can just suggest parts or a build, or reviews or suggestions for a product that would complete my needs. Currently I am looking at a pre-built synology kit (https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1344868-REG/synology_ds1817_8_bay_diskstation_nas.html) and 4 Seagate Ironwolf 8TB NAS hard drives (https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822179003).

 

Budget - Strict $2000 usd

 

Usage - This will be used in a media creation business that works with Premiere Pro, After Effects, Maya, and ProTools primarily. It will be transferring and storing large data files (i.e. 4k video files). I am unsure if I should build my own or if I should purchase a system already built where you just add the drives.

 

Known requirements - I know that I would like to have at least four 8tb drives running in RAID 5. I would also like the ability for this to be expanded in the future as well. I know that with the Synology system linked above, I can upgrade to two more 5 drive enclosures for a total of 18 drives as well as upgrade to 8gb of ram. Finally cloud access is a requirement for this NAS as it would need to be accessed anywhere to be able to be used as a replacement for google drive. This is for my company that currently has three employees. Finally, more perks of the Synology system linked above are the two 10Gb Ethernet ports that come pre-installed which eliminates the need for us to purchase a network switch which would help our budget greatly.

 

Other Notes - I do not remember where to go for this, but as a college student I am fairly sure that I can get Windows Server for free if building my own NAS is the way to go.

 

Thank you for all of your help!

 

Finally, I am unsure if this post belongs in the Servers and NAS forum or the build planning forum, hopefully the admins can help with that  

[TonyStark]

Have a look at FreeNAS, both the ready solutions and the custom built. If you decide to build your own, assuming you have the hardware, OR find it in a very reasonable price, I'd max out the memory the motherboard could get and most certainly it MUST be ECC RAM. regarding the hard drives I'd recommend WD RE, WD NAS or seagate Ironwolf. Please keep in mind that you may reach or even pass the budget, depending on RAM cost which is pretty high this time around. An Intel i3 or an i5 with ECC ram is suited perfectly for the job. I would not build a FreeNAS with an AMD cpu as it may be supported but not recommended by the development team.

Also a NIC with 2 or 4 ports for Link aggregation if you want to concurrently read/write from more than one machine to andfrom the NAS is recommended.

[KarsusTG]

You can get server 2012 and 2016 through the microsoft imagine program if you are a student.  It used to be called "Dreamspark" I believe.  

 

https://imagine.microsoft.com/en-us

 

[NelizMastr]

If you have limited knowledge and need an easy reliable solution, prebuilts are the way to go. I only know Synology in that regard, though. Avoid the J models if you need performance. The best performer is the plus (+) series. Get one as new as possible.

 

On the model you linked, you can no doubt push a lot of data. 

 

$850 for the NAS leaves $1150 for drives. Considering the less than great reliability on the larger Ironwolf drives so far, and the WD Reds being too expensive, consider the HGST Ultrastars.

 

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?item=9SIA4RE4UR1462

 

Great reliability, and better performance due to the 7200RPM. These drives can take a beating and they're cheaper too. You could even consider a RAID5 with hot spare within budget. (3 data, 1 parity, 1 hot spare) = 24TB usable.

 

[Pixel5]

as you said the synology has everything you need and a pre built NAS is the way to go if you have no real experience with this.

 

one note regarding the cloud access, this is easily done with a Synology NAS but obviously your own internet connection will be the limit how fast people can transfer files to outside the network.