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NAS with Caviar Green Drives?

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macrumors 6502
Original poster
Jul 17, 2002
329
28
Hi all. Have a few NAS-related questions.

I'm quickly running out of room on my local iMac hard drive due to iTunes media and home office files, and have also bought a Mac Mini to use as an entertainment center hooked up wirelessly to my home network.

I was thinking about getting an NAS (http://www.dlink.com/products/?pid=DNS-323) with two 1.5 TB drives (Western Digital 1.5 TB Caviar Green SATA Intellipower 32 MB Cache Bulk/OEM Desktop Hard Drive WD15EADS) and was wondering if anybody has any experience with wither or both of these items. I was thinking of running RAID 1, to add a layer of protection, should a drive fail.

Are there better options in the same price points? On average, about how much electricity do NAS drives use (will my monthly bill skyrocket)?

My other questions was; how do I run my Time Machine backup to this thing? Would I partition part of it, say 500 GB, and setup a Time Machine backup to that? I'd only backup the iMac, since the Mac Mini system is purely an entertainment system, and doesn't contain any files, other than applications.

Any help would be greatly appreciated! Thanks.
 
I would get FireWire 800 external and hook it to iMac and then share it wirelessly so Mini can access it too. FireWire 800 is 10 times faster than NAS is so backups etc will be much quicker and you can still access it wirelessly from the Mini. Will also cost you less $
 
That option was where I began, but my biggest drawback was that I wouldn't be able to back that FireWire drive up. If it failed, I'd be stuck.

My local iMac drive is only 250GB.
 
Cursor said:
That option was where I began, but my biggest drawback is that I wouldn't be able to back that FireWire drive up. If it failed, I'd be stuck.

My local iMac drive is only 250GB.
Click to expand...

You can get FW800 enclosure with two HD bays with RAID 1 support. Better option would be two externals, that's what I use. First one is connected 24/7 via FireWire and the other one is only used once a week for cloning with CCC. If one of them fails, I still have the second one. If your iMac has 250GB, then you would be fine with two 320GB drives, they don't cost much
 
Hellhammer said:
You can get FW800 enclosure with two HD bays with RAID 1 support. Better option would be two externals, that's what I use. First one is connected 24/7 via FireWire and the other one is only used once a week for cloning with CCC. If one of them fails, I still have the second one. If your iMac has 250GB, then you would be fine with two 320GB drives, they don't cost much
Click to expand...

I get what you're saying. But, two 320 Gig redundant drives won't nearly be enough for expansion, though. That is why I wanted the 1TB-1.5TB redundant drives. I figure my iTunes library is already about 150GB and growing. And my graphic design business is just starting to ramp up and I'll need a lot of extra space for files. The 1-1.5TB FireWire externals are about the same cost, if not a bit more than the NAS with two 1.5TB drives through a combination of NewEgg and Amazon.
 
Cursor said:
I get what you're saying. But, two 320 Gig redundant drives won't nearly be enough for expansion, though. That is why I wanted the 1TB-1.5TB redundant drives. I figure my iTunes library is already about 150GB and growing. And my graphic design business is just starting to ramp up and I'll need a lot of extra space for files. The 1-1.5TB FireWire externals are about the same cost, if not a bit more than the NAS with two 1.5TB drives through a combination of NewEgg and Amazon.
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Well, even USB will be faster than NAS if it's used wirelessly. I don't really see what's the advantage of NAS in your case. FireWire 800 enclosure with dual HD bays costs about 100$, half of what the NAS would cost. You can set up RAID 1 with Disk Utility if you populate both bays.
 
Hellhammer said:
Well, even USB will be faster than NAS if it's used wirelessly. I don't really see what's the advantage of NAS in your case. FireWire 800 enclosure with dual HD bays costs about 100$, half of what the NAS would cost. You can set up RAID 1 with Disk Utility if you populate both bays.
Click to expand...

And since you can daisy-chain FW drives, buy an external fire-wire to use for (weekly, bi-weekly, whatever) backups of the RAID set. Remember, RAID helps you not lose data from a hardware failure NOT from human brain-farts (i.e. accidental deletions)
 
fhall1 said:
And since you can daisy-chain FW drives, buy an external fire-wire to use for (weekly, bi-weekly, whatever) backups of the RAID set. Remember, RAID helps you not lose data from a hardware failure NOT from human brain-farts (i.e. accidental deletions)
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That's what I said in post #4. RAID 1 is not a backup, you always have to backup RAID 1 array. Having two separate backups is the way to go IMO. Second one can even be USB to save some $.

I would get one FireWire 800 external, the capacity is up to you. Then get an USB external which is the same size as the FW800 one. Have the FW800 drive connected 24/7 but keep the USB drive unplugged and only use it once or twice a week to backup the other external. You can use Carbon Copy Cloner for example. Keeping it unpowered means longer lifespan and it may also save your data in case of fire or burglary.
 
OP, just a few suggestions. Check out the Synology brand 2-bay NAS systems. Great dev community for their products including iPhone apps.

Also the WD green 2TB models are on sale at dell.com for $99.99.

EDIT: those drives were on sale...sorry looks like it ended last week. :(

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Cursor said:
Alright, after a month or so of research, I've just about settled on this:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002BH3ZCU/ref=olp_product_details?ie=UTF8&me=&seller=

Anybody have any experience with this drive? I'd use it in RAID1 mode (duplicate drives) and hook it up to my iMac via FireWire800.

Thoughts?

Thanks!
Click to expand...

I also ended up with the same conclusions:

NAS-> pro-platform independent and streaming support; cons- slow and if the power unit fails then have to get similar power units usually from the same company (atleast tru for Drobo and Netgear).

USB-> pros- cheap per GB space; cons- slow for TB level backups

FW-> pros- very fast w/ FW800/1394b, hardware RAID1 support, daisy-chain w/ FW800; cons- relatively pricey, locked to certain manufacturers (G-safe, Lacie, etc.) for additional/replacement drives.

SO I am also still making up my mind. WD is perhaps a affordable option but their software has issues with Mac OS (what I heard from my brother). The other option is (if you are okay doing a little bit of work yourself) going for a FW hardware-RAID1 2bay enclosure and just adding in your own drives of choice (Hitachi for example). I am pondering on this and the manufacturers are SansDigital TOWERStor model TS2CT Or, Newertech Gaurdian Maximus.
 
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I had this dilemma about a year ago. I wanted at least 4 bays ofr 2tb harddrives, so my requirements were a little different. I was choosing between OWC FW800 enclosure for like ~$300, Qnap NAS for $450 and building my own server.

I eventually chose the Qnap because I figure the price difference in the FW800 enclosure warranted the extra features I got with a NAS. Then after being completely dissatisfied with the quality of the Qnap, I built my own server with 8bays for around $700.

The server is really what I should have done from the start, but again my requirements are a lot different than yours. You need to weigh the pros and cons and figure out a solution that fits perfectly in your use case.
 
reebzor said:
I had this dilemma about a year ago. I wanted at least 4 bays ofr 2tb harddrives, so my requirements were a little different. I was choosing between OWC FW800 enclosure for like ~$300, Qnap NAS for $450 and building my own server.

I eventually chose the Qnap because I figure the price difference in the FW800 enclosure warranted the extra features I got with a NAS. Then after being completely dissatisfied with the quality of the Qnap, I built my own server with 8bays for around $700.

The server is really what I should have done from the start, but again my requirements are a lot different than yours. You need to weigh the pros and cons and figure out a solution that fits perfectly in your use case.
Click to expand...
What OS are you using in your server.
 
zanax said:
I also ended up with the same conclusions:

NAS-> pro-platform independent and streaming support; cons- slow and if the power unit fails then have to get similar power units usually from the same company (atleast tru for Drobo and Netgear).

USB-> pros- cheap per GB space; cons- slow for TB level backups

FW-> pros- very fast w/ FW800/1394b, hardware RAID1 support, daisy-chain w/ FW800; cons- relatively pricey, locked to certain manufacturers (G-safe, Lacie, etc.) for additional/replacement drives.

SO I am also still making up my mind. WD is perhaps a affordable option but their software has issues with Mac OS (what I heard from my brother). The other option is (if you are okay doing a little bit of work yourself) going for a FW hardware-RAID1 2bay enclosure and just adding in your own drives of choice (Hitachi for example). I am pondering on this and the manufacturers are SansDigital TOWERStor model TS2CT Or, Newertech Gaurdian Maximus.
Click to expand...

If the power supply fails in anything, don't you have to go back to the same company to try and get a replacement?

Some NASes can be quite quick.

USB is just slow. It's not just slow for "TB level backups".

If you buy your own enclosure and put a drive in it, you won't be "locked to a certain manufacturer". If you buy pre-assembled units, USB would suffer the same issue of being locked to the manufacturers.
 
pastrychef said:
If the power supply fails in anything, don't you have to go back to the same company to try and get a replacement?

Some NASes can be quite quick.

USB is just slow. It's not just slow for "TB level backups".

If you buy your own enclosure and put a drive in it, you won't be "locked to a certain manufacturer". If you buy pre-assembled units, USB would suffer the same issue of being locked to the manufacturers.
Click to expand...

Yes, if independence from a particular manufacturer is important (as it is to me) then buying an enclosure makes more sense. I am thinking of getting an enclosure w/ hardware RAID support and adding my drives of choice. But the downside is usually the enclosures that are in the market do not support tool-free setups (not that I will be swapping out drives every week but it is good to have though).
 
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