02-28-2020, 03:37 PM
Hi Robbie,
I wanted to drop you a not to ask you your opinion on which NAS I should buy. Thanks to you excellent youtube videos, I’ve narrowed it down to either the Qnap TS-h973AX or the TS-673A. Before, I also had the Qnap ts-453D on the list, but decided against it because the other two are more powerful.
My use case: I own a small business, only three employees, but I want to future proof my purchase. Up to now I used an unRaid system which is not bad, but the hardware is getting a bit old so now I want to buy something new, something that just works without too much tinkering. In the office it's getting used mostly for serving office files and backup, in the home my movie and music collection is also on it.
I’ve recently upgraded all the desktops to 2.5 Gbe, so that’s a factor for me. 10 Gbe seems overkill for my needs (for now). A bit too pricey also I reckon. My network is a full Ubiquiti Unifi system, so since they don’t have 2.5 Gbe switches, I’m going to use a simple Qnap QSW-1105-5T until they do.
Now, because I want to future proof my purchase, I think the TS-673A is probably the better choice because it has dual PCIe slots and the TS-h973AX does not. Granted, the TS-h973AX has 10 Gbe, but as said, no need for that just yet. Which one of the two would you recommend? I probably will end up putting two NVMe's in it for cache too, but I hear there's no point in buying the fastest ones around because the interface can't keep up. Which NmMe SSD's would you recommend for cache then?
I also want to ask you something about QTS vs. QuTS Hero. I have no experience with ZFS, but have been following up on it for years. It seems to me like the obvious choice About the only downside I can see is that it doesn’t allow for expansion of a ZFS RAID array, like QTS does. But from what I’ve read, it is faster, more robust and comes with tons more features. Would you consider doing a comparison between the two, especially now you’ve got that 64GB of memory handy?
The way I’m thinking of setting the new NAS up, is buying three 8TB drives (probably Ironwolf or HGST, 7200rpm – will look out not getting stuck with SMR models) in a RAID5/RAIDZ1. Is that smart? I’ve read some arguments saying never to used RAIDZ1, only RAIDZ2, but that would cost me another drive. Besides, I will use Pro/enterprise disks, so the chance of drive failure should be lower anyway ?
Another reason I want to do a RAIDZ1 with 3 drives is because that leaves me with three empty bays, in which I can install 3 new bigger drives for an additional ZFS pool once the need arises. You know, future proofing and all. Is that a good idea or would it be better for me to pursue a different path?
With the Qnap software, does it so regular disk scrubs automatically or do you need to do that yourself every so often?
Well, that's it for my questions. Just another thing I’ve always wondered : why do you have difference channels? I mean, Span.com and NASCompares, they both serve the same purpose, no? Doesn’t matter much too because I check them both, but I was just wondering.
Cheers,
Bart
I wanted to drop you a not to ask you your opinion on which NAS I should buy. Thanks to you excellent youtube videos, I’ve narrowed it down to either the Qnap TS-h973AX or the TS-673A. Before, I also had the Qnap ts-453D on the list, but decided against it because the other two are more powerful.
My use case: I own a small business, only three employees, but I want to future proof my purchase. Up to now I used an unRaid system which is not bad, but the hardware is getting a bit old so now I want to buy something new, something that just works without too much tinkering. In the office it's getting used mostly for serving office files and backup, in the home my movie and music collection is also on it.
I’ve recently upgraded all the desktops to 2.5 Gbe, so that’s a factor for me. 10 Gbe seems overkill for my needs (for now). A bit too pricey also I reckon. My network is a full Ubiquiti Unifi system, so since they don’t have 2.5 Gbe switches, I’m going to use a simple Qnap QSW-1105-5T until they do.
Now, because I want to future proof my purchase, I think the TS-673A is probably the better choice because it has dual PCIe slots and the TS-h973AX does not. Granted, the TS-h973AX has 10 Gbe, but as said, no need for that just yet. Which one of the two would you recommend? I probably will end up putting two NVMe's in it for cache too, but I hear there's no point in buying the fastest ones around because the interface can't keep up. Which NmMe SSD's would you recommend for cache then?
I also want to ask you something about QTS vs. QuTS Hero. I have no experience with ZFS, but have been following up on it for years. It seems to me like the obvious choice About the only downside I can see is that it doesn’t allow for expansion of a ZFS RAID array, like QTS does. But from what I’ve read, it is faster, more robust and comes with tons more features. Would you consider doing a comparison between the two, especially now you’ve got that 64GB of memory handy?
The way I’m thinking of setting the new NAS up, is buying three 8TB drives (probably Ironwolf or HGST, 7200rpm – will look out not getting stuck with SMR models) in a RAID5/RAIDZ1. Is that smart? I’ve read some arguments saying never to used RAIDZ1, only RAIDZ2, but that would cost me another drive. Besides, I will use Pro/enterprise disks, so the chance of drive failure should be lower anyway ?
Another reason I want to do a RAIDZ1 with 3 drives is because that leaves me with three empty bays, in which I can install 3 new bigger drives for an additional ZFS pool once the need arises. You know, future proofing and all. Is that a good idea or would it be better for me to pursue a different path?
With the Qnap software, does it so regular disk scrubs automatically or do you need to do that yourself every so often?
Well, that's it for my questions. Just another thing I’ve always wondered : why do you have difference channels? I mean, Span.com and NASCompares, they both serve the same purpose, no? Doesn’t matter much too because I check them both, but I was just wondering.
Cheers,
Bart
