The classical question: Which network storage to buy?

[Ramboost]

Hi

I am looking for some centralized network storage to be shared between 4 PC's/laptops at home. The data to be stored is everything from documents, pictures, music and movies. I made a mistake and bought a Netgear SC101, and soon discovered that thsi has nothing to do with usable network storage

So now I am looking for something to replace the SC101, and I am willing to pay more to get the right box.

I have slowly been falling in love with the Synology DS207. But reading some of the good reviews on MPCClub I am not sure anymore in which device to go for.

Need-to-have:
- 2 harddisks in order to use mirroring for backup purposes
- Gigabit RJ45 connection
- Low power consuption (as the device will be on 24/7)
- Low noise
- Standardized connection (SMB/FTP etc.)
- Reasonable speed

Nice-to-have:
- Download manager (e.g. bit-torrent)
- Streaming media server
- Web-based file manager (so I can access all my data from the Internet)
- iTunes server
- USB Print server

As far as I can see, the DS207 covers all these aspects. Do anyone have some experiences with the DS207? Furter, I do not want to buy the cat-in-the-sack again (as with the SC101), so one thing is how the specs looks like antother thing is how it acts in real life. Therefore, any experiences is most welcome.

The QNAP 201 and the Snazio Tera NAS is also looking very interesting indeed......hmmmmmm, hard choice.

Please, any help in making the rigth choice would be most welcome.

Ramboost

[Hi-Jack]

Here I go again... The right storage can only be found depdning on your
needs and budget so I would say, don't go to fast for a dual disk option to
have data backup safety as it will cost you 50 disk space...

You would invest 250 on the device and about 300 on 2 hard drives of
750GB to end up with a slim 750GB space unable to expand... (or 1GB if
you take 2 1 GB files but that would be silly to reach 1TB space)

Ask yourself: Is 750GB enough today? Is it enough for the coming 1 or 2 years with HD files popping up of 4gb and higher, DVD ISO backups?
You could have spend over €500 to gain a couple months...

Now the other way...
Imagine a Infrant ReadyNAS NV+ costs €750. You buy 2 hard drives of 750GB along and can start in the way you wanted to start with the Synology.
Now if you need expansion, all you need to do is add a 750GB hard drives or a 4th and you will have expanded from 750GB to 2TB for an additional €300 and a bit...

If you buy a new NAS server at the time you need expansion, it will be over time a bigger investment so way your options before deciding. Both Synology and infrant come highly recommended by MPC as they are very good products where the main differences are:

Synology: Limited to 2 disks (unless pickung CS-407), less Quality hardware, torrent downloads possible
Infrant: Design, Quality, Media Integration very well done, up to 2TB in raid 5 (or even 3TB with 1GB HDD's...

The questions is mainly about budget and needs as you see...
You could get the CS-407 which is 4 disk based for about 150 euro cheaper
than the infrant but considering the X-Raid, the removeable drive cages
and hot swap (easy accessibe) the Infrant is a better device. So again,
budget question or not?

As for the SC101, it's a SAN and not NAS device :-)
Big difference :-)

For performance, the ReadyNAS is more performant if tweaked...

PS: We will soon review the Thecus N5200Pro too :-)

Hope that helps...
Enjoy

[Ramboost]

Thanks for the feedback. I have also been very busy reading your reviews. Very helpful indeed.

I am unfortunately fully aware of the limitations of the SC101 and it is only due to my lack of research before I bought it. So this time I want to be sure that I buy a quality product with the right functionality.

The primary thing I want to avoid is to buy a product that delivers on paper but not in the real world. For instance, I also accidently bought a KiSS VR-558 some time ago, which has many flaws that you cannot read about in the specifications (but with a bit of lurking in these forums, kind of warns you). So hearing that Synology is highly recommended by MPC is comforting.

The Synology DS-207 is within a price range that I can sell to my wife, as my HD usage is not increasing that rapidly (I do not store movies after I have seen them). I "just" want some central storage that is simple to use and delivers acceptabe performance.......and all the nice extra features is just an extra plus :D

Any dates on the Thecus review?

Best regards
Ramboost

[bleemio]

Anyone have any opinions on how the Qnap TS-209 stacks up against Synology and Infrant?

Thanks!

[Matr1x]

The Synology DS-207 is within a price range that I can sell to my wife...
This really made me smile :D (mainly because I recognize your situation :wink:)

[Hi-Jack]

Anyone have any opinions on how the Qnap TS-209 stacks up against Synology and Infrant?

Thanks!

Qnap is certainly not bad at all but Syno has better abilities and options in
general for use as media server. Especially the add ons, telnet access and
such are valuable for that...