I have my movies, Time Machine and photos on a WD Duo in RAID 1 which I then back up to seperate portable USB drives. All connected to my iMac. All works well but I would like a neater solution and I am thinking about a 4 bay NAS, for example as a cost effective solution and run it as a JBOD with

Drive 0 for Movies and Photos,
Drive 1 as backup for 0
Drive 2 for other stuff like time machine and files
Drive 3 as backup for that

Or a 2 bay and use my external usb drives as backup

So the intention would be to then connect it to my wired intranet in my house and run Plex as I do now from my Fire Cube 4k. I assume I would need to install the Plex server from the app list on the NAS. I dont think I need a RAID anymore for simple file storage and access or do I ? Backing up via Carbon Copy Cloner is my software of choice. This will free up my iMac a bit as it needs to be always on for my current DAS although it more than copes and if I ever need to transcode the processor will cope being an i7 4 core 8 threads. My movie files are 1080p and I stream to a 4K TV with the benefit of upscaling at the TV.

Am I looking at this the right way ? I don’t have any files that I use a lot other than movies and the advantage of a NAS would be always available on the intranet so maybe I’m swapping a DAS for a NAS. Its doing the same thing ? And I’m not a heavy user. So long story short. Should I go 2 or 4 bay NAS and which one ? Or even just stick with what I do now


As always, many thanks

Gary

Hi I just ordered a refurbished Qnap tvs-672n and I ordered 3 exos 12tb (I will order one more) also I need to order 2 nvme for cache. I'm not sure if I'm doing well cause I don't understand about these things and I'm just reading around and watching some YouTube videos as yours. I thought probably enterprise hdds would be better than the regular Ironwolf. Do you think the nvme Sabrent Rocket 2tb would be ok? Also a friend will replace the i3 processor with a i7 8700t. Also I would like to know why I would need to use the 5gb on my computer. Thanks! Luis

Im looking for a nas with at least 8 bays, which I can use primarily for general file storage. I would ideally like the option of installing some ssd internally to use as flash cache. I have no issue with buying an older model of NAS say from 2018 onwards as long as this still comes with full warranty, in fact that would probably be my preference with an eye on cost reduction.

I have drives so looking for bare bones.

This will quite often but intermittently be used for hosting VM disk files and will require NFS and iSCSI connectivity.

Lastly and leastly, there may be times when I want DLNA (but not transcoding) for streaming 4k movies down to the main TV in the house.

Hi,
I am looking for NAS that has ease of use with good compatibility across mobile, tablet, laptop access to a large music library.
Almost dedicated to audio with possible cctv capability. Looking to create a music setup that allows me to play through wired speakers in main room with wifi speakers around the house (so I can play lossless music files without losing the sound quality). Also good software that allows me to access away from home nice I've digitised my collection.
Flexible on budget if needed

I have a Ubiquiti network around the home with both Cat6a and Fiber connections in every room and in the server area where the rack is for the Ubiquiti equipment including the XG-16 Fiber router from Ubiquiti.

I see your review of the QNAP TVS-872XT and it looks great but I’d like something like that in a rack mount as I have the rack space for it and it would be a cleaner install. If push comes to shove I could just put this QNAP in the rack area on the floor but that seems to defeat the purpose of having a nice rack system.

I do not need Thunderbolt connections just 10GBE as both our offices are in separate rooms about 30-40 ft away from the rack server and I already have a 4-bay OWC ThunderBay on my desk.

Primary functionality will be to provide robust storage for our photos (about 2TB) and video (about 4 TB) as we want access to this data over our 10GBE LAN for editing, sharing, etc.

We also have an older Mac Tower with a 12TB drive attached (about 4 TB of movies on it) that is being used as our iTunes server for our Apple TV and it looks like this QNAP could also provide this functionality?

I would also like this to be used as a network backup destination for all our Macs so about 2-3 TB for this purpose too.

I also have about 4TB of data retention backup files on a local drive that could be placed on NAS as well for additional security.

Total drive capacity would need to be about 16TB now growing to perhaps 24-32TB over the coming years. Being able to easily add capacity as we grow is important rather than to have to rebuild everything.

I really don’t need any NAS software to run as iTunes server works fine for us and I already convert all our movies to MP4 (so no decoding on the fly with Plex, etc.)

Backups can run on each of the Macs to the server using Carbon Copy Cloner (no Time Machine...) to store data on the NAS.

I can also run backups from the NAS to a drive on my desk for offsite storage as well unless connecting a backup drive to the NAS would be smarter/faster/easier?

As the rack server is in a hallway closet and is almost silent, I don’t want a loud, roaring machine in there if I can help it. So, a quieter machine would be great.

Finally, perhaps not your field of expertise, I need a UPS to keep everything happy if/when the electricity drops.

The budget is not really there, just want the right equipment.

Really appreciate your thoughts on this. I’ve been reading your website for a while now and respect your expertise.

best, Art

Hi Gents,

Have you got any insights regarding the release date of DSM 7.0 and/or Synology Photos!?

Now that I have my DS920+ with all its HDDs, RAM and NVMe cache setup, I'm seriously thinking about taking the plunge and letting some AI like Photo Station 6 and Moments loose on my NAS to see what it can do to make my decades of photos and videos more user friendly. I’d never let this sort of thing take place in a cloud so having it secure locally is a comforting thought. If the Photos app isn’t coming anytime soon, can you suggest any other packages that would be comparable? If not, are there any procedures I should be aware of in using Photo Stn 6 and Moments?

Thanks again for your advice… very much appreciated!

Monty

Dear Nascompares,

Hope you are well. Could you please recommend a reliable but cheap IP WIFI camera to work with QNAP NAS apps like surveillance station etc? I just need a compatible camera, doesn't need to be HD or 4K. I need to buy like 3 of them to monitor my house and especially our new Corgi puppy while we do boring daily work in IT industry

I am planning to mount of of the cameras outside in a shed where I store wood, it will be safe from any rain or snow but temps will sure fall -15C during winter. Other cameras will be indoors.

All the best,
Maciek

I purchased my NAS 918+ and also purchased 2 WD10EFRX-68FYTNO drives to create RAID 1 using bays 1 & 2. Strictly wanted to mirror what my hard drive had on my computer in case of failure. Now I am purchasing a new desktop computer and thought I would expand on the storage of my NAS as I would now be backing up two desktop computers. When going to purchase two more of the WD Reds but a larger size than the 1 TB I now see all this info on SMR/CMR. Can I/Should I purchase SMR for the two new drives or MUST I purchase 2 of the CMR to put in to the other 2 bays. Thank you in advance for any assistance.

Greetings,
Through research, I have narrowed down my NAS search to the Synology 920. My question revolves around how it can be set up and operate on my Mesh System.

I have a TP Link Deco M5 system with two router points in my high rise condo. Because I sometimes participate in Home Swaps with others around Europe, I have also linked a Google Home Mesh system on top of this with access to guests. The TP Link system is closed and hidden.

Can I set up the Synology 920 into the back of one of my TP Link routers and have a secure and speedy system?

Thank you for your time and consideration.

Jim

Hi NASCompares:

Thanks for sharing so many information here.

I have been choosing which NAS I should buy for half year, but still have one big problem which I don't have any answer.

That is: QNAP or Synology or DIY? which one supports on-demand sync on Mac?

Originally, I was looking at DS620slim, due the compact design, but after some research, I realized that seems Synology system doesn't support on-demand sync on Mac (that feature is only available on Windows: https://www.synology.com/en-global/knowledgebase/DSM/tutorial/Collaboration/What_is_On-demand_Sync).

Then I tried to search with QNAP NAS, but I didn't find any confirmed articles on whether QNAP supports on-demand sync on Mac or not.

I even tried to search how to DIY a NAS, but looks it requires more effort to build the hardware system.

So do you have any information on "QNAP or Synology or DIY? which one supports on-demand sync on Mac? "

The on-demand sync on Mac is a desperate need for me to use a NAS, cause I have multiple Mac at home, both are just 256GB storage. I want to use on-demand sync to extend the storage, without losing the data transferring speed by switch to SMB network shared folder (which is just 150Mb/s on 1 Gigabit Ethernet).

There are some posts saying some 3rd-party softwares/plugins could potentially support such feature on Mac, but I didn't see any confirmed demo / solution.


Besides the on-demand sync, I prefer to compact size NAS for home use. I like the DS620slim design, but not sure about Synology on on-demand sync for Mac. For the post below, looks even on DSM 7.0, it won't be available from Mac?

https://nascompares.com/2020/05/01/synology-2020-qa-with-taiwan-hq-your-questions-answered/


No sure about QNAP as well, but on compact size NAS, they used to produce TS-453S Pro and TS-853S, which was 2.5 inch size NAS, but looks those models are discounted already.

https://www.qnap.com/en/news/2014/qnap-introduces-high-performance-2-5-ssd-nas-models-ts-451s-ts-453s-pro-and-ts-853s-pro


Appreciate you could help me on my decision.

Thanks