I am looking to purchase a new desktop and plan to use it for numerous things, especially VMware, VIrtual Box, JAVA, LINUX, WINDOWS, UBUNTU, HYPER_V, etc. for Cyber Competitions with my student. What are the minimum/maximum requirements regarding speed, data storage, etc.

Hi. Need advice on which NAS to get for my home. Main purpose is for backups for my 3xWindows Laptops, 1xiMac, 1x iPad, 5xAndroid devices.
Thinking to hook the NAS to my TP-Link Deco M9 Pro Mesh with an ethernet cable.

Would also hope the NAS can be a cloud-like solution to replace MS Onedrive, Google Drive and Google Photos.

Initial plan is to do a 4-bay Raid 5 config.
Which Qnap or Synology model should I consider? Budget is important over features.

Last thing, do I need NAS grade drives like IronWolfs or normal Barracudas are sufficient?

Thanks a million!

Hello, I have seen a few of your videos on YouTube that are great.
I'm looking to set up a new NAS. And have 2 questions about future upgrade options and performance.

I'm going for a 4 bay Synology DS920+
I'm also set on 4 x 4TB IronWolf Drives
I'm looking at a 2 disk fail tolerance with RAID 6 or Synology SHR-2 giving me 8TB usable space.

Will using SHR-2 with 4 identical drives give me the same speed performance as RAID 6? is it only when using different drives together you see a performance drop when using SHR-2?

If I go with RAID 6 can later upgrade the drives to say 4 x 8TB Drives, replacing 1 Drive every 6 months in the expectation of after all 4 bays are populated with the 8TB drives I can increase my usable space to 16TB?

Thanks.

Hi,

long time viewer of your channel. I run an 8 bay Synology with 60tb (30tb used) at my home.
However i like to keep my media on my boat as well for watching plex on a weekend.

I'm currently using an i5 NUC with 2 usb hard disks which looks a mess and is not ideal.

My biggest issue when choosing a NAS is finding one that has a low power consumption (as this has to run off batteries, with no shore power only solar and alternator for charging) and one that can handle plex ok with maybe 1 transcode sometimes necessary for 480p mpeg files.

I have just discovered the Asustor Lockerstor 2 which seems to use less power than my current NUC setup. Would my best option be this model with 2 18/20tb drives?

Thank you.

Hey Rob

Fantastic YouTube series and website you have here

This is my first venture into the NAS world

Looking to set up for a time machine instead of a usb HDD. windows backups, sharing files remotely and at home between all manor devices. The additional benefit of hosting a surveillance system that can be remotely accessed by IP cameras is an added bonus I’d like to use.

After reading and watching loads of your review, and of other sources. I’m a little confused on a matter.

If I get myself a Synology (for its high rated surveullaince) NAS unpopulated, could I fill it with two NAS HDD’s in RAID1, for all uses except surveillance, and a third Surveillance specific HDD running in isolation?

Many thanks

Synology HAT5300 Hard Drives - Worth Your Data?
When Synology first announced that it was entering the hard drive market, I think it would be fair to say that reactions were mixed. On the face of it,

Discuss: Synology NAS HAT5300 HDD Performance - Single Drive Test <br><iframe width='560' height='315' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/fG4T12JmmpA' frameborder='0' allow='accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture' allowfullscreen></iframe>

Synology equipment used and existing setup.

Ds720+, 6GB ram, 2 SSD’s, 250GB, input/output cashing
Volume 1
2, 8TB drives
Raid SHR
File system Btrfs
About 90% capacity left.

DX517-1,
Volume 2
3, 8TB drives
Raid SHR
File system Btrfs
About 23% capacity left.

Internet equipment: Internet service provided modem/router.
Connections: Smart T.V., Synology NAS and Desktop computer.

PLEX Media software installed on NAS.
Desk top computer, Windows 10 PRO, 64 bit.

So far everything is working for watching media from the NAS to the smart T.V.
I can also my smart phone over WIFI. I have been unable to get the smart phone to connect over internet.

Questions:
1. Do you have a video that shows both, set up for Synology DNS and PLEX server that is needed for smart phone connection over internet?
2. I will be replacing my generic NAS hard drives with the Synology drives. I am thinking of replacing one drive at a time so that the system will restore the data.
Starting with the DS720+ drives first. Is there a better (faster) way to do this?
I like the idea of customized firmware for their equipment, plus the 5-year warranty is why I’m replacing them.
3. Most videos that I have seen for setting up PLEX contain just enough information to get started. Do you have any that takes the set up beyond basics?

I have 2tb hdd on hp tower. But it runs very slow.
I ve been looking to change hard drive to SSD but which one works better and longer?
Some basic softwares and picture and videos Storage needed.
Thank you in advance

Thank you so much for your fantastic review of the DVA 3221. It is by far the best review of its capabilities I have found. I have a DS920+ and started using surveillance station with three 6GB WD Red drives in RAID 5. I liked the interface and setup but playing anything back was a very slow process and I even switched to blue iris software for a while because of it. I upgraded the RAM and added two NVME drives but it was still painfully slow. I’m going to buy this DVA3221 through your link and upgrade the RAM but I’m trying to decide if I get the Synology SSDs or just buy similar WD Red drives. Cost isn’t much of a consideration. Will it make a big difference in playback/scrubbing to have SSDs?