QNAP TS-231P-US 2-bay Personal Cloud NAS for $150 or something else?

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod...LC-_-na-_-na-_-na&Item=N82E16822107532&cm_sp=

I've got a couple matching 5TB drives. One is in an external enclosure I hung off my router for a cheap NAS. But transfer rates are slow (10-20MB) and my wife says it's worthless for viewing her photographs because it's takes a few seconds to pull up each photo.

It'd be nice to have an actual NAS and probably just use RAID 1.

I was looking at the TS-431P, but realistically I probably don't need RAID 5 - with current disk prices espcially - it'd end up just costing more money for space I probably wouldn't use. 5TB is sufficient for what I'm doing probably for the next few years.

That QNAP deal at Newegg a good deal or should I be looking at something else?

May I ask what the main purpose is? Do you plan to have a streaming service run off of it (like Plex) or is it just for storing extra files externally?

If you have the time, I am a fan of building a storage server separately and getting more bang for your buck. If you have an old PC laying around you could use that as a basis, or build something from scratch.
There are many embedded boards that could house what you are looking for very well.

Something like THIS along with perhaps a dedicated RAID card like a PERC card off of ebay and you have a much more capable machine.

Otherwise, if you just want faster transfer rates and the drive and setup you have now is fine, look at getting a different enclosure to hook up the drive differently. Are you hooked up by USB? From the sound of I would guess you are hooked up by USB2. If you can find a USB3 connection, it would probably solve your issue. Are you connected to a laptop or a desktop? If it is a desktop and you don't have any USB3 ports, you can get an add-in card to add the USB3 ports and an enclosure for your drive to utilize the connection for probably less than $50.

Perhaps a little more details about your current setup and we can more accurately provide the most effective solution for the money.

Happy Thanksgiving!!
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I’ve got four desktop PCs around the house and yeah I could set up a share on one of them, but something about a dedicated NAS seems nice. (3 mining, one gaming)

I don’t know why what I’m using is so slow but it is

It’s an ASUS AC3100 Router with a 5TB USB 3.0 external drive hung off it. It’s in the USB 3.0 port, and I know the drive is full speed (say 100+MB per sec) speed when attached directly to a computer.

Come to think of it - it does seem more like USB 2.0 speeds. I’ll verify it is actually a USB 3.0 connector the drive is plugged into on the Asus router.

Yeah. Just simple file sharing mostly for pictures, and home camcorder movies of the family. Network based access on occasion would be nice if out of town on travel to relatives to share pictures. I know there are a million ways to do this including one drive and google drive and drop box. I use team viewer on my PCs, but just keeping it simple for family the NAS seems pretty much like a “easy button”.

The real time rebuild and light failure indicators make it easy to fix if there’s a problem too — so much so that my non techie wife could handle it if I’m not around. I’ve used RAID on consumer motherboards before - it’s kludgey and I’m not a fan. I was a server administrator for a couple years and we used HP MSAs for small stuff 10TB or less at the time and while they are nice — they are vast overkill for what I need- both in price and function. One of these little ecobox QNAP or Synology boxes seems to be more what I’m looking for and probably the direction I’m heading. I just haven’t had hands on them before. I bought a 4 drive buffalo unit once a decade ago. It was an absolute turd. I resold it pretty quickly. I’ve shared my computers archive drive, but if it’s offline when my wife wants it then she’ll always say it doesn’t work even if it works 99% of the rest of the time. I used the external off the router the last few years, but it is rather slow in current setup - hence the post.

I totally get it. I have a server that I build for Plex, file sharing, web hosting, and remote access. I planned to build a VPN with my brother, since we are blessed with gigabit internet for $70/month and we both ave servers. We were going to provide offsite backups for each other, but that hasn't happened. My server hasn't been on in over 6 months.
I totally get what you are saying. I have eyed the NAS' myself. I have a couple of Hitachi Enterprise 4TB HDD"s laying around that I wanted to put in a NAS, but I can't find one I like for a price I am willing to pay.

Seeing as you are/were a sys admin, I hope none of this comes across rude or inconsiderate, but have you looked to see if there is a firmware update for the router? I often forget or overlook the obvious myself. I too am a sys admin and have a gift for over complicating things at times.

Perhaps another scenario available to you, is building a pfSense router and turning your current router into an AP. It would make your wireless more responsive and I bet it would solve your transfer speeds as well.

Decisions, eh?
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