• Some users have recently had their accounts hijacked. It seems that the now defunct EVGA forums might have compromised your password there and seems many are using the same PW here. We would suggest you UPDATE YOUR PASSWORD and TURN ON 2FA for your account here to further secure it. None of the compromised accounts had 2FA turned on.
    Once you have enabled 2FA, your account will be updated soon to show a badge, letting other members know that you use 2FA to protect your account. This should be beneficial for everyone that uses FSFT.

NAS Decisions

L

lazimutha

n00b
Joined
Jul 29, 2013
Messages
61
Am a first time NAS buyer. After some reading, have settled on Synology. I've also read a lot on ZFS, which is compelling, but I really want a small enclosure and I don't have any old computer parts to recycle. So plan is to just run a lot of checksums to make sure everything is ok.

I've been thinking about a few factors:
1. Whether I need a 4 bay NAS. I currently have 2-3TB so a 2-bay NAS should be enough, but I don't want to run out of space and although I know a NAS isn't a backup, I want to have redundancy too. Then again, the 2-bay DS214SE is really cheap. Am I being stupid to think about redundancy in a NAS? Perhaps just use 2 HDDs and back up as necessary. I dunno.

2. I have a couple of 1TB HDDs that I also want to make use of. Assuming I get a 4 bay NAS, my current plan is to get 3 3TB WD Reds and then use RAID 5. Then add one of the 1TB HDD as a separate drive. Unless I buy 2 3TB Reds and then use my current 2 1TB WD Blacks. I can then use the synology RAID. Problem then is it doesn't seem like I can switch to RAID6 if I do upgrade on my HDDs.

3. I am not exactly sure what the difference is between a lot of these models. Most of it centres on CPU. I am planning to use encryption on some of the folders, but the media stuff I was going to leave unencrypted. Does a higher spec CPU make that much of a difference? Apart from encryption, how can I take advantage of a faster CPU?

4. Just thinking about the DS411slim and the DS414. The slim version is quite nice, although 3.5HDD would be cheaper. Is there any difference in reliability between 2.5 and 3.5in HDD?

Sorry for my rambling. Have been thinking about this for a while and have still not gotten very far. :confused: Would appreciate any advice. Thanks.
 
If you are looking at a 4 bay NAS. Then you should not worry about RAID6 at all. I would not use that until you have 6 drives.

I currently have 2-3TB so a 2-bay NAS should be enough, but I don't want to run out of space and although I know a NAS isn't a backup
Click to expand...

Maybe 2 or 3 4TB external drives would be better. And you would be able to have a backup.
 
I have a 4 bay qnap nas and its pretty decent. The only thing is i don't really want to go above 5TB on it because RAID 5 isn't that safe on large volumes.
 
drescherjm said:
If you are looking at a 4 bay NAS. Then you should not worry about RAID6 at all. I would not use that until you have 6 drives.

Maybe 2 or 3 4TB external drives would be better. And you would be able to have a backup.
Click to expand...

Sorry, mistake on my behalf. I meant RAID 5. I wasn't really sure about the 4TB drives as they are more recent and given the problems the 3TB Reds had when they first came out, thought it may be better to wait and see how that goes. Also, read that rebuilding if a disc fails takes longer with bigger discs with risk of another drive failing. Low risk to be sure and not sure what the difference will be between 3-4 TB, but I don't need that space right now.
 
Jay_oasis said:
I have a 4 bay qnap nas and its pretty decent. The only thing is i don't really want to go above 5TB on it because RAID 5 isn't that safe on large volumes.
Click to expand...

Why do you say that? If I had 3 volumes of 3TB with RAID5, it would be 6TB of usable space. Do you think this is an issue?
 
Maybe you want raid10 or no raid at all. You did not mention what your dataset is (if it is mostly static or dynamic content) and how painful it would be if you lost all of your data.
 
Last edited:
lazimutha said:
Why do you say that? If I had 3 volumes of 3TB with RAID5, it would be 6TB of usable space. Do you think this is an issue?
Click to expand...

The rebuild time with a large RAID 5 array leaves you vulnerable for a long period. I wouldn't like to be rebuilding a 12TB Raid 5 after a disk failed, 6TB is probably ok but I'm not willing to risk it! :D

RAID 10 is also a no go as its expensive and the writes are slow, RAID 6 2 parity disks so thats no good either
 
Last edited:
drescherjm said:
Maybe you want raid10 or no raid at all. You did not mention what your dataset is (if it is mostly static or dynamic content) and how painful it would be if you lost all of your data.
Click to expand...

Most static content: media; photos; backup from primary computer etc. It would be very painful to lose my data. Particularly the photos. Media not so much, although I would have a heartsink feeling knowing I'm going to have to rip my dvds again. :eek:
 
Jay_oasis said:
The rebuild time with a large RAID 5 array leaves you vulnerable for a long period. I wouldn't like to be rebuilding a 12TB Raid 5 after a disk failed, 6TB is probably ok but I'm not willing to risk it! :D

RAID 10 is also a no go as its expensive and the writes are slow, RAID 6 2 parity disks so thats no good either
Click to expand...

Well, I'm not planning a large RAID 5 array. At least I don't think 3 3TB disks is a large array. I don't know how long it would take to rebuild to be honest, but I will also be making backups along the way so hopefully that will help with the risks.


Anyone know whether the synology has something to test new drives; a bit like badblocks? Thanks.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top