Should I get a Drobo or Synology?

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NIZMOZ

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I like the raid features of Drobo and how easy it is to use, but not much App support it seems to be a bummer on it. My brother has owned a drobo since 2008 and has had no issues with it.

I have some drives laying around and can make use of them in a drive like the Drobo where you can mix drives. (6tb, 3tb, 2tb, 500gb) is what I have.

I also use CrashPlan to backup online and I heard it works with NAS devices, some even have Apps for it.

Would like some opinions from those who own these out there.

Thank you!
 
Currently I have a Synology (J series). I do love it, but make sure you know what you want to do going in. I made a snap decision and didn't do my homework. Now I'm limited by the hardware and wish I had bought one with more processing power.

If you want to run Plex, or any streamer for that matter. And have the Synology transcode directly at the NAS. Get one with a beefier processor! Can't stress this point enough!!! And good amount of memory.

Because I have a J series it is not powerful enough to transcode on the fly, leaving me to run plex server on my desktop if I want to transcode to my apple tv. So basically, I have my videos stored on the NAS, run Plex on desktop to stream to apple tv. Annoying to have to do that, especially since now I know if I would have just bought one with a better processor and memory could have done transcode directly from the NAS. (not having to go through my desktop at all)

Also I have the single ethernet port. I would have preferred one with dual ethernet ports for link aggregation.

And I do run CrashPlan, it is an app that someone has created via community. It is temperamental, because running CrashPlan on a Synology is not supported by CrashPlan. A user has created a program to help us link CrashPlan to the Synology products. Which is awesome when it works! But any OS updates to your NAS breaks the CrashPlan links. And you are stuck waiting for a fix (sometimes takes a while) Also you have to load Java 7 to run the app. Which is old and outdated. I'm currently looking into just using Amazon Glacier. there is an app for that in Synology world.

But the ability of CrashPlan to become a backup solution for others to your NAS is intoxicating. I have my parents and grand parents computers backing up directly to my nas via crashplan and my nas backing up to CrashPlan central, all w/out user intervention. It's freekin' awesome! When it works lol.

LMK if you have any other questions about Synology, the software is good. There are ton of apps if you want to turn it into a db server/mail server/file server. And the Synology Hybrid Raid type works fantastic.

-Jav
 
Do you think the DS1512+ from Synology would be an issue as you say? I did see another way of backing up with Crash Plan with a share in Windows that may work as well if the app doesn't. It's not supported of course by CrashPlan, but per what I read, it seems to work okay. Hmmm..decisions decisions....I like how easy Drobo looks to use, but Synology, I can't seem to find an answer if you can mix drives in them or not?
 
Synology has a lot more flexibility in their "OS". There's a ton of packages you can add, they have a lot of good app support, and some really useful browser extensions as well. I've got a 1511+ that's been online with zero problems for almost 6 years now. They keep updating the OS and adding functionality.

I would say a good NAS is an investment. I wouldn't recommend using just any old drives you have laying around. I'd invest in some NAS-specific or enterprise drives when you start, and you'll probably have trouble-free service for a loooong time.

If you're going to use a random collection of stuff, just slap it in an old case with an old MB and run FreeNAS instead. Far lower cost than buying a good consumer/business-grade NAS, and you'll get a lot of the same features once you learn the software.
 
No that product is awesome! Buy me one while your at it. LOL
Personally I have never mixed and matched hard drives when putting them in a NAS. You can do it, but your performance will suffer.

if you are going to run RAID sets, prolly a good idea to use the same hard drive models within one redundant set. (best practice)

also check your hard drives against the HCL
Compatibility | Synology Inc.

You should be fine as long as whatever drives you use are on the compatibility list for your disk station if you are going to use Synology Hybrid Raid

SHR sets up a RAID volume based on what level of redundancy you choose and how many drives you have installed.

You can use drives of different sizes without losing space on your largest drive. (as long as your two largest drives have matching sizes.)
 
I'd say that you should also checkout Asustor, avoid the J-series by Synology and drop Drobo.
 
I would look into Asustor products. They are cheaper than the 2 companies you mentioned. But they have some great hardware, interface is nice, and does just what the more expensive brands do.

I have been very very happy with mine. Easy set up and works well.

So compare and see what you find.
 
Asustor Products you mentioned. I was looking at them, and they don't support Hybrid Raids like the ones I mentioned. Also they are not cheaper, and around the same price for similar features.
 
At least in .eu they have quite a bit more powerful hardware at the same price as Asustor. Keep in mind that if you're going to mix HDDs sizes you can pretty much forget about redundancy in a sane manner at least.
 
I have a mix of Synology's, Qnap's and PC's running unRAID. I used to swear by the brand name NAS"s until I built a few unRAID boxes which are fantastic. Both have their pro's and cons, it really depends on what you want. The Drobos are proprietary, so if you pull a drive out of it, you can't just put it in another computer and read the data on it. They also have reportedly terrible tech support. I have only had one issue with Qnap when my raid took a dump and the NAS in question was years out of support, their tech support still helped me, remoted in and ran a repair on the RAID that fixed it up, I was impressed. Never had any issues with my Synology's. I really like unRAID for what it offers, its software RAID so its not as fast as hardware raid but I used it to back up my other NAS's. It offers dockers for things like sickbeard, couchpotato, SABnzb and a lot of other things. You can mix and match drives with it too.
 
I got a great deal on a pair of 413js off ebay. I don't run plex so I don't know about performance issues and I just use them for storage. They can do just fine for some basic network services too. They can replicate between the devices through the native software and I use some desktop apps for backup to the NAS.

Look at the synology apps to figure out what you will use and then buy the right hardware. Someone had a decent unit in the FS section recently.
 
Do not buy a Drobo if you want decent transfer speeds. I have a 3rd gen and attached to a Z77 board over usb 3.0 it's a good transfer when it breaks 15 MB/s. Same Toshiba 4TB drives in a QNAP 453mini have no issues reading and writing at 120 MB/s through a single gig nic. I back up my Plex server to the QNAP and even when you're just doing differentials it makes a huge difference in your backup window.
 
Guys, there is a synology on ebay that I have been watching and it only has a few hours left and only up to $100 bucks. It's a 1512+. Would this be a wise one to get used? I mean, is it power enough to do all the newer stuff with it or should I just get the 1515+? Any help right away would be great. Thanks!
 
It should work fine with your 6, 3 and 2TB drive you'll end up with 5TB usable in the SHR setup. Basically your 6TB will be protecting the data of both the 3TB and 2TB drive until you add more disk. It does support the latest version of DISM and should be supported for at least another year, obviously no warranty or anything though should it give up the ghost.

In terms of powerful enough, if it's just serving up files and you want to back it up with crashplan, you're not going to need much power. Do you want it to do other stuff though?
 
I was hoping to stream stuff to our TVs with Blu-Ray and DVDs. Put all our Discs away so we don't have to have them everywhere. Also, Cloud Storage and photo storage so I don't have to pay Smugmug every year. Also, eventually using it as a DVR for security cameras around the house. If I got this, I would save money and I could buy a couple new drives too.

ND40oz said:
It should work fine with your 6, 3 and 2TB drive you'll end up with 5TB usable in the SHR setup. Basically your 6TB will be protecting the data of both the 3TB and 2TB drive until you add more disk. It does support the latest version of DISM and should be supported for at least another year, obviously no warranty or anything though should it give up the ghost.

In terms of powerful enough, if it's just serving up files and you want to back it up with crashplan, you're not going to need much power. Do you want it to do other stuff though?
Click to expand...
 
Synology boxes are underpowered compared to similarly priced QNAPs for any sort of transcoding work. It really depends on what you're going to use to stream stuff and where you want the processing to take place, on the backend or by the devices attached to each TV.
 
I ordered my Synology 1515+ and have two WD Red 3TB drives froming in as well. I am going to move my replacement Seagate they are sending me (4tb) drive into it when I receive it. So I will have 2 3 tb drives and 1 4tb drive for now.
 
ND40oz said:
Synology boxes are underpowered compared to similarly priced QNAPs for any sort of transcoding work. It really depends on what you're going to use to stream stuff and where you want the processing to take place, on the backend or by the devices attached to each TV.
Click to expand...

Completely agree with this. QNAPs are more powerful, and have some features that Synology don't.
 
boss6021 said:
Completely agree with this. QNAPs are more powerful, and have some features that Synology don't.
Click to expand...

QNAPs also do not have features Synology have which is SHR which is important to me. I read online this version can handle what I requested okay as others use it for this. So we will see.
 
NIZMOZ said:
QNAPs also do not have features Synology have which is SHR which is important to me. I read online this version can handle what I requested okay as others use it for this. So we will see.
Click to expand...

Glad to hear you found a solution that should work.
 
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