NAS Storage - Recomendation?

K

kring

Limp Gawd
Joined
Aug 27, 2004
Messages
165
I'm looking to get a NAS unit without going overboard. I need atleast 1TB of storage, but would like to have the ability to expand to a second TB of storage in the near future.

I see the Thecus & D-Link, WD World Book units... does anyone recommend one of these or a different unit. I do like the idea of being able to access some file via the Internet but I'll primarily be accessing the storage from within my home network. If it could stream to an xbox360 or to my windows Media Center that's a plus too.

Do any of the units allow for connection via USB so I could copy the initial TB of data?
 
If you're only doing simple stuff (like a file server), I'd recommend the Thecus N5200 -- I have it. I would love to give out recommendations for more complicated functions, but the truth is, I don't use them, so I can't tell you how reliably they work. With the Thecus, the more of a linux hacker you are, the better off you will be when doing more than just the basics. None of the other NAS systems seem to be 5-drive, so the Thecus is a definite win for a RAID 5 setup.
 
You could use Freenas if you've have an old computer lying around or can find one.
http://www.freenas.org/

I've got it running an old machine with an AMD K7 500 MHz and 128 MB of RAM. I added gigabit ethernet card and a SATA controller for $40. It's really easy to set up, gives you RAID-5, and you can expand as much as you want.
 
I have two of the QNAP's. Wonderful stuff....
 
All consumer grade ready made NAS boxes (HP Mediasmart) included offers terrible performance across the board.

If you invest in some cheap hardware or use a machine laying around as your NAS box, the performance will be far superior as long you are using a decent hardware RAID controller.
 
I get 30 MB/s reads and writes on my NAS box, so I wouldn't exactly call that terrible. It's not gigabit, but you'll be hard pressed to build a machine that does much better on a consistent basis.
 
Cyrilix said:
I get 30 MB/s reads and writes on my NAS box, so I wouldn't exactly call that terrible. It's not gigabit, but you'll be hard pressed to build a machine that does much better on a consistent basis.
Click to expand...

30mb/s on gigabit network is pretty slow, my FreeNas setup can fully saturate gigabit connection, I get ~60mb/s when doing transfers to single drive and over 90mb/s when transfering files between raid arrays.

It's not that hard to build fast nas, just use quality nics like intel, good switch, enable jumbo frames and you will be zooming along at gigabit speeds
 
Interesting, however, all the benchmarks I've seen with DIY NAS boxes don't fully saturate a gigabit connection like you say (which should be something between 100-125 MB/s). At best, I've seen 50, which is a reasonably good improvement, but in my opinion, doesn't really solve any problems or make it significantly better. I'm not doubting your own tests, but I'm not seeing any of the kind of results you talk about either. Any kind of link to a comparison between DIY and non-DIY where we can see that kind of difference would be welcome.
 
there is few ppl that run more complex diy nas boxes that achieve high transfer rates, ill try to dig up those threads; however, in order to get anything above 50-60mb/s you need raid on both sides of the connection
 
axan said:
30mb/s on gigabit network is pretty slow, my FreeNas setup can fully saturate gigabit connection, I get ~60mb/s when doing transfers to single drive and over 90mb/s when transfering files between raid arrays.

It's not that hard to build fast nas, just use quality nics like intel, good switch, enable jumbo frames and you will be zooming along at gigabit speeds
Click to expand...


I get around 60~70MB/s read/write speed for my NAS setup under my signature. You will NEVER achieve the full Gigabit speed under any circumstance even with jumbo frames enabled. That is the limit of Gigabit network and if you want faster speed, fibre or have two Gigabit connection linked together.

Also, to achieve our speed, a hardware RAID controller is a must.
 
wasserkool said:
I get around 60~70MB/s read/write speed for my NAS setup under my signature. You will NEVER achieve the full Gigabit speed under any circumstance even with jumbo frames enabled. That is the limit of Gigabit network and if you want faster speed, fibre or have two Gigabit connection linked together.

Also, to achieve our speed, a hardware RAID controller is a must.
Click to expand...

http://itmyway.net/H/over90mbs.jpg
When i transfer stuff from my raid 10 to my raid5 on freenas i regularly get ~90MB/s
 
Just an update to my last post, I now get 35-40 MB/s transfer speeds as of Vista SP1, which has really impressed me with improved network transfer performance. Needless to say, I'm quite happy about that and hope that in the future, there may be even more performance improvements. :)
 
thanks for info everyone, I ended up going with the D-Link DNS-323 because of it's relatively inexpensive cost plus there seems to be a nice suite of hacks to enhance the box, particularly the scrip that syncs one hard drive to the other nightly, which is a much safer backup solution then mirroring. Plus it lets you use the added capacity of the second drive of what remains after sync.

And I figure now instead getting a 4 bay unit that has potential for expansing, I should just get the 2-bay and then buy another 2-bay at a later date.

I paired it with two WD 750GB drives.

I do have 5 extra systems laying about but one of the main point of going with the NAS is lower power consumption, noise, and small footprint.
 
how is your DNS-323 running?

Why did you think it was a bad idea to have the drives mirroring all the time?
 
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