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My Newbie Experience Getting Into NAS

Runaway Train said:
Using a Synology 224+ with Seagate Ironwolf drives. This combo was actually recommended by Amazon. No issues whatsoever. Don’t feel anything like locked in. It’s simple NAS setup that I can replace if I ever need to (or if there is a technological « great leap forward » that I feel compelled to take advantage of). For now it does the job.
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How do you find the sound of the NAS and drives? Is it in a server closet?
 
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Two drives only?! Should be negligible noise. The chassis cooling fan could likely make more noise. 🤣

NAS drives commonly use 5400 RPM (for lower power/heat) or 7200 RPM (for better performance), with higher RPMs like 10k/15k for enterprise, though network bottlenecks often limit real-world speed more than drive RPM for typical home/small business NAS. 5400 RPM drives offer quieter, cooler, more efficient storage, while 7200 RPM provides faster data access, especially for demanding tasks.

Seagate IronWolf NAS drives come in different speed tiers, with standard models often featuring
5900 RPM for efficiency in lower capacities, while higher-capacity and performance-focused IronWolf Pro drives typically run at a faster 7200 RPM, offering better throughput for heavy workloads, though some specific lower-end IronWolf drives also offer 7200 RPM for balanced performance.

Of course the cases are metal frame hung with plastic, no real sound insulation, Synology drive enclosures are
not specifically engineered for advanced noise mitigation; while some basic anti-vibration features might be included. The primary focus of the enclosure design is typically on cooling and airflow.
 
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DIY NAS is too complicated and don't trust myself in self-managing plus not sure if I can trust all these small companies long term. Same goes with the 'bigger' NAS brands, they're still not super well known.

Honestly just wish Apple TimeCapsule was just released again. It was a true plug/forget system. Plus it has the router which I still use to the day.

I am still not clear on what hardware setup to buy to replace the TimeCapsule. It doesn't seem there is a defacto go-to hardware setup to replace the backup + router functionality. Any options?
 
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ProbablyDylan said:
The learning curve is steep but not insurmountable. The thing about going DIY is that you're basically promoting yourself to Linux admin (and even if you already are one, in Unraid's case, those skills are not always immediately transferable).

I would only recommend DIY if the user has already ruled out commercially available off-the-shelf solutions. If nothing on the market or within the budget works, then yeah, you're kinda screwed and will probably have to build your own.
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I found trueNAS friendlier than Synology to be honest getting to learn it.

The beauty of TrueNAS and ZFS is the drives can be popped into any system that can have ZFS installed for recovery purposes if your NAS hardware goes belly up. ZFS also doesn't care what order or where the drives are plugged in, it will read the identifiers to set them up in the pool properly.
 
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MitzEclipse said:
I am still not clear on what hardware setup to buy to replace the TimeCapsule. It doesn't seem there is a defacto go-to hardware setup to replace the backup + router functionality. Any options?
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Some routers have a USB port, and it's my understanding an external USB drive can be plugged into that, and made accessible to devices that can use the router. Would that work for what you want it to do?
 
drrich2 said:
Some routers have a USB port, and it's my understanding an external USB drive can be plugged into that, and made accessible to devices that can use the router. Would that work for what you want it to do?
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That also makes sense if possible? Never looked into this. Not sure what router to get? I already have a Mesh Network so I don't need these routers with massive antennas.
What's the point of the NAS then if I can just plug an external drive - is it just redundancy with multiple drives?
 
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MitzEclipse said:
That also makes sense if possible? Never looked into this. Not sure what router to get? I already have a Mesh Network so I don't need these routers with massive antennas.
What's the point of the NAS then if I can just plug an external drive - is it just redundancy with multiple drives?
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USB is not as reliable of a connection. Could randomly disconnect, external factors could also affect it, like accidentally bumping into the shelf or whatever the router with the drive is on.

NAS offers much more refined control and functionality. If you have multiple drives, you can set them in a RAID which would protect from drive failure and would pool the drives together increasing writing and reading speeds.

my minimal understanding of the subject
 
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keksikuningas said:
USB is not as reliable of a connection. Could randomly disconnect, external factors could also affect it, like accidentally bumping into the shelf or whatever the router with the drive is on.

NAS offers much more refined control and functionality. If you have multiple drives, you can set them in a RAID which would protect from drive failure and would pool the drives together increasing writing and reading speeds.

my minimal understanding of the subject
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conclusions are correct.

NAS by definition is network attached storage. Hooking a drive up to a router that supports it would achieve the same result and that storage is considered ‘network attached’.

That said, a purpose built NAS will be much more performant and flexible. Embedded/off the shelf routers have limited processing power and memory limitations. Its primary function is routing, network address translation, firewalling and in alot of cases managing an embedded access point (WiFi).

So, while you can share a disk from some models, its more of a bullet point on a feature list vs a reason to buy, unless you only occasionally use it for documents and backups. If the router you have now serves your needs, you probably would better benefit from a low cost gigabit switch instead.

As far as replacing the time capsule, unfortunately nothing on the horizon exaxtly replicates a Time Machine. There are other ways to back uo your systems or important files to a NAS, but not with integration into MacOS.
 
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gericb said:
Two drives only?! Should be negligible noise. The chassis cooling fan could likely make more noise. 🤣
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Depends how you built your machine. I have multiple desktop machines in my office and the only one I can hear is the NAS due to the 5400 RPM drives in it.

I wouldn't call it loud, but it's certainly not SILENT either. It has 3 chassis fans plus a CPU fan, don't hear any of those.
 
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