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Synology NAS vs. Router + USB jbod enclosure?

U

unhap

Limp Gawd
Joined
Sep 13, 2010
Messages
422
So I am trying to decide how I want to proceed with my setup. I have 4, 2TB harddrives sitting here that I want to share to my network.

I have a HTPC mini box that is attached to my TV that currently runs xbmc, etc.

My setup is a Wifi G router with no real way to do wired networking...my HTPC has shitty wifi N (only gets 30mbps throughput on an N network) but I have never had problems streaming content to the raspberry pi I have upstairs.

I am trying to decide if I should get a synology ds 1512+ (5 bay NAS) or whether I should buy a asus ac55u and hook a JBOD sata enclosure to it. I'm concerned the synology is overkill for what I need.

I want whatever I connect to be able to exist as one big folder on the network -- I dont want multiple drives. Will I be able to mount a JBOD array onto the asus router and share it all as one drive? Or will it separate out?

I don't really care about parity/backup. If a drive fails it wont be the end of the world. I've heard that with JBOD you only lose the data on the lost disc as well.

I guess the main thing here is cost. The synology was about $600 and if I have to buy an AC router to go with it anyway thats another $130-$200. If I just do the router and mount the shared drives there that is only $100 for the enclosure.

Another thing -- does anyone own an ac1750 router? It would seem to me that there are almost zero 1750 wifi adapters available for purchase. The only one I could find was an asus PCIe card ($100) and the next fastest are ac1200 usb adapters. No usb 1750 adapters at all.

Anyway...can anyone share their experience with this sort of stuff?
 
I was considering doing this and from what I have read is that USB performance on routers is poor. Unfortunately I do not know real world performance results of new USB 3.0 routers with stock/custom firmwares and how they handle multiple drives is completely unknown, your best bet is to attempt to mail manufacturers.
I have have a Sans Digital 5 Bay port multiplier (e-sata only), but am unsure of what you are referring to as a JBOD enclosure, but if it is e-sata only then its going to be a pain and the device it's hooked up to will need port multiplier support.
For myself since I am 'stuck' with esata only, I am tempted to get a esata to USB 3.0 adapter that has port multiplier support ($30) and hooking it up to Android device that has usb support and then running linux on it and hopefully sharing that to other devices.
 
Well that's my problem I have never played with enclosures so I don't really know what to even expect.

I am assuming the way it works is that a 4 bay enclosure, for example, plugs into USB and then either a) you see 4 separate drives b) you see one big drive.

If it is the one big drive I imagine it would be pretty easy to share this over the router. That said - I think only a few routers have usb 3.0 ports and only ONE ac router.
 
JBOD enclosures/Port Multipliers will just show up however many disks you have individually through eSATA, it should be the same for USB, unless you do something like RAID5 which loses the space of the largest drive and pools them or you have some more fancy dedicated enclosure which somehow does drive pooling without RAID or you use a software solution for drive pooling after they are seen in Windows/Linux.

I will attempt to benchmark one of the old Android HDMI sticks with an A10 processor and see how speeds are when connected through USB2.0 and 100M LAN
 
>JBOD enclosures/Port Multipliers will just show up however many disks you have individually through eSATA, it should be the same for USB

Can you not then do something along the lines of mounting that whole collection of drives as one drive or logical volume from within the Win 7 or the router interface?

Would something capable of BIG be able to have it show up as one large disc?

Or would you need a true raid device.
 
FWIW, I am no NAS expert - but I recently installed a Synology 1513+ w/5 x 4TB Seagate HDD, and I could barely believe how simple it was to set up a a RAID 5 Volume. I stuck it in the basement, and mostly just forget about it.
Honestly, it was a pleasant surprise that it was so easy, and a refreshing change from the usual hassles setting up a new class of device for the first time.
Synology solutions are not free, but my experience sure was simple.
 
tombew said:
FWIW, I am no NAS expert - but I recently installed a Synology 1513+ w/5 x 4TB Seagate HDD, and I could barely believe how simple it was to set up a a RAID 5 Volume. I stuck it in the basement, and mostly just forget about it.
Honestly, it was a pleasant surprise that it was so easy, and a refreshing change from the usual hassles setting up a new class of device for the first time.
Synology solutions are not free, but my experience sure was simple.
Click to expand...

What kind of performance are you getting from that setup?
My NetGear ReadNas DUO left a really bad taste in my mouth as far as performance of transfer and TERRIBLE latency...


I`m debating going that route to separate my backup system from my media system.
 
Gigabit network - router + cheap switch
non SSD source drive
10,101,157 kb file (>10Gb) = 3:49

I don't know what to use for fuller test for networked NAS - suggestions - Win7?
 
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