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Basic NAS enclosure?

T

thedon1

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jun 26, 2010
529
73
I want to make an NAS solution and was thinking of getting one that I could use as a backup for 2 computers in the house (iMac and Macbook) and also use it to store and stream music and videos.

I was thinking of buying an NAS enclosure and putting 2 hard drives in there and then connecting it to my wireless router.

Is it that simple? What enclosure would be best for this? I've seen ones with processors and operating systems etc, these seem above my needs. What would be best for this situation?

Thanks
 
thedon1 said:
Is it that simple? What enclosure would be best for this? I've seen ones with processors and operating systems etc, these seem above my needs. What would be best for this situation?
Click to expand...

A NAS has processors and OS's because that's how you connect to a network. Something more simple like a USB drive costs less because it connects to a computer which has its own IP and OS, and the USB drive simply mounts as a volume.

What type of NAS are you looking for? RAID? JBOD? Remote access? Web server? There's a lot out there, depending on what you want it to do.
 
To be honest I don't know which type I need. I don't think RAID is right for my situation but i'm not too sure.

What would you recommend? I just need to backup my macs and stream to my HTPC and Xbox 360. I don't need remote access or anything like that.
 
I can spend up to around £200.

I was thinking of just getting a time capsule and formatting the drive so 1TB would be used for backups and the other 1TB would be used for Movies and Music. I was told this was not a good idea and it would be best to have a separate drive for each purpose.

Is this bad advice? Sorry I don't have much experience with this, thanks for your help.
 
thedon1 said:
I can spend up to around £200.

I was thinking of just getting a time capsule and formatting the drive so 1TB would be used for backups and the other 1TB would be used for Movies and Music. I was told this was not a good idea and it would be best to have a separate drive for each purpose.

Is this bad advice? Sorry I don't have much experience with this, thanks for your help.
Click to expand...

Nothing wrong with putting both on a single NAS. File servers - and you should definitely think of a NAS as being just that - routinely serve up all sorts of files and applications.

Your budget is enough to get you a low-end to middle-of-the-road unit. I agree with balamw, unless you need the additional functionality of a Time Capsule I wouldn't get one (they're expensive and some people have had issues with longevity). I use a Buffalo Linkstation Pro Duo (2 x 1 Tb, RAID 1), I've read good things about Iomega, Western Digital, and Seagate. Many people seem to like LaCie but I don't have any experience with them. Any basic unit without the bells and whistles will probably suit your needs.

Keep in mind that a NAS does boot up and run an OS like a computer, so check to make sure the one you get is compatible with your computer(s), meaning Mac or Windows. Good luck!
 
The Synology DS110j seems like it would do the job.
Can it use Time Machine or does Snow leopard require a hack or something?

I assume it needs to be connected to my router via Ethernet?
 
thedon1 said:
The Synology DS110j seems like it would do the job.
Can it use Time Machine or does Snow leopard require a hack or something?

I assume it needs to be connected to my router via Ethernet?
Click to expand...

Any drive that can be formatted to HFS+ will work with Time Machine.

Typically a NAS is connected via ethernet to a router, although I've heard of wireless NAS boxes.
 
Tomorrow said:
Any drive that can be formatted to HFS+ will work with Time Machine.

Typically a NAS is connected via ethernet to a router, although I've heard of wireless NAS boxes.
Click to expand...

Several non HFS+ systems use a sparsebundle image to get around that. My mediasmart ex490 running Windows Home server for example.

If you want any kind of performance, hook up the NAS via a wired connection. Otherwise your max throughput will be limited to only half your wireless bandwidth. Half from the device to the router and then half from the router to the NAS.

B
 
thedon1 said:
The Synology DS110j seems like it would do the job.
Can it use Time Machine or does Snow leopard require a hack or something?

I assume it needs to be connected to my router via Ethernet?
Click to expand...

Synology NAS boxes support Time Machine perfectly fine. No hacks, just enable it in the software.

Yes, connect via ethernet.
 
Sorry to highjack this thread but I have a similar question
Like the OP I don't know much about NAS and drive enclosure solutions

budget is about 500$ CDN

I need something with expandability
backup iMac and macbook pro with time machine
all my media will be stored on the NAS
I will also stream to my xbox
airplay support would be nice
I'd like to be able to download content on the nas rather then having a computer open.

I was looking at the synology DS1511+ what do you think?

I hope I've covered everything.
 
The DS1511 is about $900 CDN without drives, somewhat over your $500 budget.

Try a DS211j and a drive or two. Unless your XBOX is DNLA compliant or you're hacking it I doubt it'll playback from any NAS.

PS most of the Synology NAS's can be AirPlay clients *requires a USB to audio adapter.
 
Last edited:
According to this article it should work unless I'm reading it wrong.

Budget aside, I already have three HDD which I plan on using and I thought that a 4-bay enclosure would limit me right seeing as the maximum I could put is 9tb. (I currently have three 2tb drives) I like that I could add other NAS system to the DS1511+.

I've seen the DS1511+ for about 500-600$
 
Can anyone recommend any good internal drives, around 1TB, for an NAS? Or, at least what maker?

I just purchased a Synology DS212j.
 
I personally use a Drobo at home and consider it one of my best investments. I spent around $350 for mine, so based on the posts here it is above budget for some and below for others. Depends on what you're looking for. Ultimate expandability and can be used with Time Machine if so desired. It's considered Beyond RAID technology and it is definitely that. Drives are hot swappable too so that helps with the ability to expand in the future that was mentioned. I run mine with a 3 TB, two 2 TB, and one 1TB drive in it. Will soon be replacing the 1 TB with a second 3 TB drive though. :cool:
 
newappleboy said:
I personally use a Drobo at home and consider it one of my best investments. I spent around $350 for mine, so based on the posts here it is above budget for some and below for others. Depends on what you're looking for. Ultimate expandability and can be used with Time Machine if so desired. It's considered Beyond RAID technology and it is definitely that. Drives are hot swappable too so that helps with the ability to expand in the future that was mentioned. I run mine with a 3 TB, two 2 TB, and one 1TB drive in it. Will soon be replacing the 1 TB with a second 3 TB drive though. :cool:
Click to expand...
Will it do everything mentioned below?

AppleDApp said:
I need something with expandability
backup iMac and macbook pro with time machine
all my media will be stored on the NAS
I will also stream to my xbox
airplay support would be nice
I'd like to be able to download content on the nas rather then having a computer open.

I was looking at the synology DS1511+ what do you think?

I hope I've covered everything.
Click to expand...
 
AppleDApp said:
Will it do everything mentioned below?
Click to expand...

It will do the first three easily, not sure about the fourth, the fifth depends on how you have your video content setup and where it would be streaming from (iTunes?), and the sixth it won't. It's basically a very smart enclosure, but it still needs to the computer it's connected to in order to access the storage unless you've set it up elsewhere (some models have ethernet abilities, some only USB and Firewire).
 
Drobo's are really, really SLOW :(
Painfully so and use a proprietary storage file format.
 
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