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I want a NAS that can do this...Suggestions?

M

marc11

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Mar 30, 2011
1,618
5
NY USA
I am considering the Synology 413j but if there are better suggestions at a lower price please let me know.

Criteria:
iTunes library - 600 GB
Ripped media library - 300 GB
Home movie library - 200 GB
Time Machine back ups for two Macbooks - Need 500 GB each

I currently have a bunch of 2.5" hard drives and stand alone hard drives I want to use; specifically:

Internal 2.5" drives:
750 GB 7200 RPM drive
1 TB drive
2x500 gb drives

External Drives:
1 TB WD Mybook
2 TB WD Mybook Studio raid option
2x1TB WD Passport drives

My idea is to reuse as much of the drives I have as I can. So in the NAS I would like to put the itunes and home/ripped media, I would need a total of 1.1 TB plus room to grow. I have use the 1 TB for iTunes and the 750 GB for my home media.

I wanted to then stick the two 500 GB drives in there for Time Machine and connect the four external drives to USB ports for back up cloning of the NAS drives.

Of course there are a ton of ways to change this configuration around, even using a 2 bay NAS and using more USB connected devices.

But what does anyone think, am I on the right track with the Synology or are there better options? Perhaps a refurb mini running ML server with the USB drives attached is better overall?
 
Last edited:
blueroom said:
That Synology NAS is a good choice.
http://jmichelmetz.wordpress.com/2012/06/26/cagematch-synology-vs-drobo/
Click to expand...

Through my research it seems to be a solid choice. What I like most about it is that it allows me to use my current 2.5" drives now, but upgrade to larger capacity 3.5" drives as my space needs change. It also will back up to attached USB storage which would be key to having a redundant set up. It is a bit expensive and I am still debating it over a used Mac Mini to be honest.
 
I started off with a NAS trying to fumble between different lower sized drives, ended up saying balls to it and bought larger storage drives, which has now future proofed me for a good few years and created far less hassle managing it all.

I weighed up how much time I spent juggling the storage and external units I had compared that to the price of a couple of 3TB hard drives and the cost of the 3TB hard drives won out.

Now I have 4 x 3TB drives in a Synology DS411J (earlier version of what you're looking at), using their hybrid RAID setup and no need to mess about with other means of storage. Sure, I've got an external hard drive I keep about, but its rarely used now that I have this.

Simplified my storage requirements no end and meant I didn't have so many storage units floating about that I had to find homes for and remember what was on what.

Can't speak highly enough about the Synology NAS solution. Superb.
 
DavoteK said:
I started off with a NAS trying to fumble between different lower sized drives, ended up saying balls to it and bought larger storage drives, which has now future proofed me for a good few years and created far less hassle managing it all.

I weighed up how much time I spent juggling the storage and external units I had compared that to the price of a couple of 3TB hard drives and the cost of the 3TB hard drives won out.

Now I have 4 x 3TB drives in a Synology DS411J (earlier version of what you're looking at), using their hybrid RAID setup and no need to mess about with other means of storage. Sure, I've got an external hard drive I keep about, but its rarely used now that I have this.

Simplified my storage requirements no end and meant I didn't have so many storage units floating about that I had to find homes for and remember what was on what.

Can't speak highly enough about the Synology NAS solution. Superb.
Click to expand...

Good for you. I can never for the life of me understand why folks want to scratch around and try to avoid spending funds on a decent storage solution. If data is important, then spend what you need - after all usually they have already bought a high quality PC (a Mac of some sort). Drives also have a resale value. I usually manage to get 30+% of the cost back on resale.
 
Trying to use 500gb drives in the NAS will limit your options. Better to outfit the NAS with new drives and use the externals for offsite backup.
 
glenthompson said:
Trying to use 500gb drives in the NAS will limit your options. Better to outfit the NAS with new drives and use the externals for offsite backup.
Click to expand...

Why? Am I forced to raid with the NAS can't I set each disk as its own volume?
 
My 2 cents:

- Keep your WD Passport USB attached to your macbooks for Time Machine. TM is not officially supported on NAS and is not reliable enough IMHO.

- Put your internal drives in your NAS, each as its own volume, no RAID involved, especially with drives of various sizes.

- Use your WD books as USB Backup for the NAS. The Synology OS has a very simple and reliable tool for external backup.

That way you will have 2,75 To of storage space with total backup. In addition, you should look at Amazon S3 + Glacier for off-site backup. It costs me around 1$/month for 100 GB.
 
monsieurpaul said:
My 2 cents:

- Keep your WD Passport USB attached to your macbooks for Time Machine. TM is not officially supported on NAS and is not reliable enough IMHO.

- Put your internal drives in your NAS, each as its own volume, no RAID involved, especially with drives of various sizes.

- Use your WD books as USB Backup for the NAS. The Synology OS has a very simple and reliable tool for external backup.

That way you will have 2,75 To of storage space with total backup. In addition, you should look at Amazon S3 + Glacier for off-site backup. It costs me around 1$/month for 100 GB.
Click to expand...

You pretty much nailed my plan. I am going to buy the 413j this weekend. I will look into an off site back up. I use back blaze now but I do not back up my media with them and I do not think they support has drives.
 
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