What are /r/HomeNAS's favorite Products & Services?

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Currently the DS918+ is $575, but there's a 15% off site-wide coupon.

https://www.rakuten.com/shop/thekeykey/product/207030/

Recently I had a similar decision to yours (I ended up buying the ds1517). I'll share my thoughts which might have some value.

I couldn't rationalize buying new 2tb NAS drives for what would be 8 TB after using raid (5x2). So I ended up deciding to use some old drives I had sitting around. I wanted to see how it worked and whether I'd have the poor performance that some complain about. I ended up putting in some old 2tb drives I had sitting around the house. I'm really happy with the performance, and how easy it is easy to use.

Back to your case, you're not getting much storage. If you use SHR1 you'll have 6tb of storage with 4 times 2tb. If you decide you need 8tb you'll have to buy 2 4tb drives, to get 2 additional terabytes or 8 total.

If you instead buy 3x3tb drives you'd have 6tb with SHR1 (same as 4x2) but the next 3tb drive you buy would give you 9tb of storage and you wouldn't have any drives to resell or repurpose. So ponder the upgrade path, and decide what's cheaper for your circumstances long term.

https://www.synology.com/en-us/support/RAID_calculator

A bit higher than your budget, but the Asustor AS5202T has been working well for me. (I am in no ways an expert on this however).

If shelf/storage space is the issue, then a NAS might help. There are NAS devices that sit on a shelf (like this), but they tend to cap out at 4-5 drives. There also are rackmount NAS devices (that go in a standard-size network rack) which can have anywhere from 4 drives on up (they start getting real expensive over 8 drives though).

There are a few different things to bear in mind with NAS devices.

1. If you buy 4 drives, but have the devices set up as "RAID 5", you only have 3 drives worth of space. You're always buying more space than you're using. [Here](/r/HomeNetworking/comments/gdzu65/is_there_an_absolute_beginners_guide_to_setting/fpkmp6m/) is a link to an old comment of mine explaining what the different RAID levels are and what they mean.
2. A NAS with RAID is NOT a backup. It's one copy of your files in one location. If it burns in a fire or gets hit by lightning, it's gone. You will want to have at least one copy of the data on the NAS somewhere else (like a safe deposit box). Anyway, it needs to be not in the same building as the NAS.

I used this thing. This one only gets you four SATA ports, but there are other models that'll get you more. I chose this one because of the price and I didn't want the card to add any sort of hardware RAID. I wanted to just add more ports and pass the disks to FreeNAS for RAID.

I believe Dell makes two kinds of OptiPlex's. Small form factor and Large form factor. Mine was the LFF. I'm not sure about the differences in motherboards between the two.

If I recall correctly, I put this card into the 1 PCIe 16 slot, leaving (2?) more available PCIe ports.

if your going with a 7400 why dont you go with xeon instead is cheaper and has a lot of compute E5-2690 , if you go to aliexpress you can find much more, you can even find dual socket board for cheap.

you will probably earn more from cores than from speed.

What I stated is what I would do, you can do yours anyway that fits you, I don't think there's a one-size fits all.

My "NAS" is a Windows based box. FreeNAS and other NAS software did not fit my needs.

The model I bought was this one:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B06XKWNJSB/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Don't forget to clip the coupon before adding it to your cart!

Note: I'm not endorsing Yotta nor am I getting paid for it, that's just a link I grabbed from my purchase history from Amazon.

> LSI HBA

Sorry, very new to this -- Is this just a SATA expansion card? I have room for 8 bays naturally on my case, and I did actually buy a regular SATA expansion card. This is what I got: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08L7W8QFT/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o08_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

It's still in the return window, should I get something else?

Any time you involve multiple devices, you will be happy to have a NAS setup.

If you can afford it, it might be best to find a NAS that you can upgrade later and can run r/Plex. This TerraMaster is $160 but needs drives. It can stream 1080p pretty well to any device in your home. Purchasing a Plex pass you can stream remotely.

By upgrade I mean adding more storage, adding a second drive for RAID redundancy, or upgrading RAM.

Np. DDoS attacks on http can be mitigated using a tool like CrowdSec and the base http scenarios. That would work for Nextcloud.

> when my internet is down I can't use the NAS. My Wi-Fi can be up and running, but if the NAS can't talk to the internet

Are you sure thats not because of the ISP router? I had exactly that issue on my VirginMedia supplied Superhub 3. When my internet went down at the ISP end the router killed the switch on it and wouldnt pass through any local traffic between pcs, nas or tv either until it was done reconnecting to the internet.

Fixed it by installing a cheap unmanaged 8 port switch and its worked perfectly ever since. Now my local network stays stable as all the network is plugged into it and the ISP router can reboot as much as it likes without interfering with anything else.

How about something like this? Plug it into the NAS, and it connects to the wifi in your house. It'll work well enough for most things.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B018YPWORE/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apan_glt_fabc_32HPZ45H2ERGZER4Z5JF?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1

It's really a matter of if your setup does support the formats and options that are being used. For instance, I run with a Plex client on my TCL 605p Smart TV and my Plex Media Server is operating on a Raspberry Pi 3 Model B (certainly weaker than your setup), and for the most part, everything is fine with only the audio stream getting transcoded because the format used in my videos is incompatible, but the Pi can at least handle AAC->AC3. The only time where the video stream tries to get transcoded is when I try to play a video with a incompatible subtitle enabled as it has to "burn" the subtitle into the video in real time, so it is practically stuck in a buffering loop until I either disable the video's subtitles, or enable a subtitle that's actually supported by my TV, like SRT.

One way to check if your setup is trying to do a full transcode with videos is while your server is streaming a video, access your Plex account (I go through plex.tv in a browser on my laptop), check Activity in the top-right corner, select what is playing, and hover the cursor over the thumbnail. Also check under Web Client settings (left side) to see if you have things like Direct Play and Direct Stream enabled (you may need to "show advance" options to find them).

Roon is easily the best "plex-esque" type music experience I've found.

It's a little pricey at $12/month (cheaper if you pay annually), but that's a big improvement from a few years back when they only offered annual plans with no month-to-month option.

Some damn nice features too.

As I understand this is what you are looking for https://nordvpn.com/tutorials/synology-nas/openvpn/. I know that there is a possibility to do so just don't know how exactly. Nord has many tutorials I used them when setting up my router, so you should look it up in their page or maybe contact customer support or something.

Thanks! Just finished the transfer. Although I was never able to get an rsync command to start a transfer I was able to find a very old GUI someone made that worked ok.

http://www.opbyte.it/grsync/

I'm using Syncthing for this purpose. It's under develoment, not a with a release every two weeks like it's said on the homepage, but more like a release every month.
It's methodology is not server/client, but rather P2P, every device sees every other device sharing the same folder.

Others would suggest Seafile.

I put my NAS in a drawer and installed two massive, silent PC fans to the back of the cabinet. The drawer also houses my security camera hub, Pi-hole, and misc tech. It was more for aesthetics but also helps with sound.

If you can access the shell of the NAS, you might try sound dampening panels they use for cars: https://www.amazon.com/Noico-Deadening-Automotive-Insulation-Dampening/dp/B07QY1X35P/

Simple, buy one like this from your local tech supplier

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Sabrent-External-Lay-Flat-Docking-Station/dp/B00LS5NFQ2/ref=sr_1_19?dchild=1&keywords=hdd%2Busb%2Bcaddy%2B3.5&qid=1620675241&sr=8-19&th=1

pop it in, do the usbing, detech till next time. Shuckers may even have a spare caddy for free/postage but that above is the consumer version.

You can get external USB HDD enclosures. Just make sure it is rated for the size of your HDD. Higher capacity drives need more expensive enclosures. Also physical size is important. Don't get an SSD enclosure for a HDD.

It sounds like you want something like this

I went with QNAP. I don't know that they're any better or cheaper, just a different brand. I looked into building my own for a bit and ultimately decided that I wouldn't really save much money unless I sacrificed features.

The pi doesn't have 8 SATA ports so that's not really an option for you.

I got one of these:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08FB5LBJP/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

4 of the bays are 2.5in of course, but 8 bays of 3.5in are kind of hard to come by without spending some money. They have this, if you want a point of comparison against whatever Synology one you're looking at:

https://www.amazon.com/QNAP-TS-832PX-4G-High-Capacity-10GbE-2-5GbE/dp/B08P42JR89

My review of the QNAP experience is:

It's been fine. No major complaints. The software it comes with is actually quite nice. The one I have is ARM based. The Intel ones are supposed to be better at transcoding. I just use it for file storage so I haven't needed transcoding. I will say that scrubbing a video can be an exercise in madness. Just playing a video works fine though. It's probably worth going for an Intel based NAS if you're mainly dealing with video content, especially for transcoding.

Buy these and shuck them: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07D5V2ZXD/

Instructions: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xekv2Y2mmfQ

Stuffs to remind you:

1. Warranty is def in grey-area. From US law you cannot be denied for warranty even if you disassembled the drives as long as you keep the plastic shell and able to re-assemble back. Even then, the warranty period of these external drives are tend to be shorter than "NAS" branded drives.

2. Make sure buy from Amazon (a.k.a "Sold by Amazon.com") not from 3rd party seller.

3. A lot of people abuse Amazon return policy by putting the old drive into the shell and return it for free drive. Make sure check whether you got a new drive by connect it into the computer before you shuck them.

Finally, as I said, 2-Bay NAS is less expensive than 4-Bay NAS, but when you ever upgrade you will probably have to replace the whole NAS box because basically 2-Bay NAS is limited by the size of a single hard drive. At least 4-Bay NAS gives you more options. Ideally 5-Bay or 8-Bay are better but I guess that would be out of your budget.

Just buy the regular 3pin 12v fan and use the included Low-Noise Adaptors and then just plug the 3pin into what 2pin you have. Just use the red and black. If thats a little daunting then buy a 3 to 2 pin adapter.

https://www.amazon.com/CRJ-2-Pin-Female-Adapter-2-Pack/dp/B083CRN5L6/ref=sr_1_3?dchild=1&keywords=3+pin+to+2+pin+fan+adapter&qid=1613198911&sr=8-3

I used to get this advice in the past and always hated hearing it, and now I'm the one giving it: Linux is your friend. Haha for reals, either make a virtual machine or install it on your new NAS and start experimenting with it.

I avoided Linux until I went to a Linux+ course for a week. I still reference the book all the time:CompTIA Linux+ Study Guide. I'm still a noob for sure. BUT with my basic understanding, I have a Debian server running on a tiny little NUC (Gigabyte's version) that acts as a file server, cloud server, and plex server. If you get the basics down, take notes, and just have fun tinkering, then you'll have it down in no time.

If you still want to avoid linux command line, you could always do something like FreeNAS one of the other NAS OS's out there. The FreeNAS community tends to push enterprise-grade hardware, which I personally don't think is necessary for your sort of home use.

Oh, and side note. I'm building a new NAS at the moment. My goal is low power, quiet, and cheap as hell. So far I've gotten an i3-8100 used from a local website, and the motherboard for 60 bucks off ebay. You could try and build a NAS from used hardware if you don't already have the hardware to build one.

You will most likely have to open them. There are nas like this that can handle 2,5" hdd. I am not saying you have to buy the one of my link, I just quickly checked on amazon. But this is probably the type of product you are looking for.

you're not getting any redundancy that way. just saying.

I just found an insane deal on Amazon - https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B07S5HZBWG 4x4TB in raid 5 gets you 12TB and 1 whole drive could die with no data loss. I think i'll go raid 10 this time around. so ~8GB storage and 1+ drive redundancy

thanks for getting back to me and good luck!

Not sure about NAS with wifi capabilities but you could either get a wifi extender (something like https://www.amazon.com/-/es/TP-Link-AC1750-inteligente-enrutadores-inal%C3%A1mbricos/dp/B0195Y0A42/) or the same thing over PLC, which I have not used before, but might be faster than wifi...

Either way, you connect your nas to the adapter/extender with an ethernet cable and the nas does not know it will be using wifi or plc. Should work, not sure about stability or transfer speeds though.

Oops, I meant ES File *Manager*

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.File.Manager.Filemanager&hl=en_US

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DS File might technically allow remote access if I create a QuickConnect ID, which I have chosen to delay doing thus far. However I'm thinking it won't be as conducive to browsing and displaying photos in slideshows and the like in the way a dedicated photo viewer app like DS Photo would.

you most certainly can, i'm running my own NAS on a worst computer running OMV5 and the space is on an USB drive, and for my use is good enough, this year i'm going to upgrade more space and turning to 10Gb ethernet and sata raid, but i'm using it for almost 2 years with no problem so far.

you need to address some pointers in my opinion they are in order of importance.

0 - what will you used it for.

1 - type off data you are storing if its important i would advise building some kind off raid/backup and in that case you need to see if the case has enough space for additional drives.

2 - access speed

you can easily buy an adapter from icy dock to turn your 5.25 bay into 6 2.5 since the board as 6 sata ports your good, i'm saying 6 but they have one with 4 if you think is enough.

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ps: i know 3.5" as better drives but in a case you don't have the space its an alternative

I’ve been running openmediavault for a while now and I want to move to a commercial product in the near future.

I’m looking for a NAS in the same price range as you and keep coming back to the QNAP 431P because it is a 4bay device and the reviews are better than most.

QNAP TS-431P-US 4-Bay Personal Cloud NAS, ARM Cortex A15 1.7GHzDual Core, 1GB RAM https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01N2K147Q/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_aGm7Cb3Q28SVW

Most people suggest going with synology or QNAP due to the OS but for $250-300 it’s hard to find a synology 4 bay device.

You could get a cheap Synology or QNAP if you are concerned about the power draw. Also theyre smaller.

https://www.amazon.com/Synology-bay-DiskStation-DS218j-Diskless/dp/B076G6YKWZ/ref=sr_1_4?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1528947321&sr=1-4&keywords=synology

This one is only ~17W.

Well, [sound of crickets] it looks like I've narrowed it down to this box:
Synology DS216+II NAS DiskStation
Once I get it & before I put drives in, I'm upgrading the ram.
Now I'm trying to figure out what size drives to get for it..