sam9s NEXT NAS Project! powered by Synology DS413j!!

I am noob when it comes to NAS and wanted to know more about them, my main query is whether to go for a NAS or a HTPC. So what are the pro's and con's of each in real world applications and not just specs ?
 
Both carter to different needs, and how much you want to keep you needs separate.
An HTPC is targeted towards a PC for your Audio Video needs. How much elaborate you want to make it is up to you.

a NAS is a central storage device/system/PC for all your data needs. Data can be anything from audio, video files to documents, applications and softwares. All is centralized and can be accessed from any device in your network.

There are advantages of keeping things separate, like a separate HTPC and NAS, but it takes money, time and effort to get that happen.

On the other hand you can keep everything in one system (like an HTPC also Storage Device) and save money, time effort, but then things becomes cluttered, unorganized and resource hungry, making the system slow.

End result is up to you to decide ......

Regards
Sammy
 
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frank_dude_007 said:
I want a central storage for all my data but my situations and needs are a little different.
Can i PM you to ask for suggestions ?
Click to expand...

You can ask for suggestions here as well as all other can also benefit from the responses from members.
 
+1.

I recently put together a HTPC and bought a NAS (Synology DS212j). I am totally happy with my decision to keep them separate. I don't have to power-on my HTPC if I just need to access any file, play any media on another device in the house OR copy stuff over for sharing.
 
Excellent thread Sam. I've been using a Netgear ReadyNAS for many years, and am totally sold on the NAS solution.

We have two PCs at home for PC related stuff, as well as two smartphones,which also do some PC tasks like email. With media players and Squeezeboxes, I don't have the need for a full fledged computer to work as an HTPC/NAS-it would be over kill for me.. The Synology NAS units are supposed to be very good-if not better than many of the the Netgear units, from what I hear. I chose the ReadNAS since it comes preloaded with Slimserver software to access music using my SBs-though I guess I could easily have bought a Synology NAS and loaded it into it!
 
By slimserver software if you mean squeezebox server then, Synology also has a built in SBS in it. However I use a different solution to run SBS, but synology does have that.
 
sam9s said:
You can ask for suggestions here as well as all other can also benefit from the responses from members.
Click to expand...

Ok that sounds like a good idea
So heres my situation, my new house is under construction and i have already left a LAN cable in the basement as well as on the ground and first floors. I talked to a person who does networking work and he said that i can use one internet connection to run internet in the basement as well as on the 1st floor by connecting both the cables to a Modem and then attaching a router in the basement and another one on the 1st floor.
My main concern now is that my home theater which is in the basement which will have the HTPC/NAS will be used to download content and also to store it, i want to be able to access that content from the first floor too. I am really confused as to how to go about it and which be better for such functions and HTPC or NAS.
My playback requirements include HD and 3D blu-ray movies and the ability to play music.
 
A basic wired/wiress networked premises, consists of ...

1. A broadband Modem
2. Router
3. Switch
4. CAT 6 LAN cables

The Modem is connected to the router, which acts as your central network hub. All devices that would be under the home network will be connected to your router. It can be via cat 6 cables or wifi. If distances are long lan cable connection is preferred.

Now a typical router has 4-6 ports at the back. If for some reason you have more devices than 4-6 or you want to extent you connection, you usually go for a Switch or if the distance is tooo long a repeater..

Assuming your broadband connection is coming to your basement, you modem would be placed there. Place your router there as well. Connect you modem to your router, and then spread/connect your cat 6 cables from the back of your router to your HTPC/NAS at basement and any device on your ground and first floor.
cat 6 cables do not drop performance till around 100m so take that in to considerations.

Get a quality gbps router (linksys preferred) quality cat 6 cable 22-24 AWG. 3D BD Movies will be pretty bandwidth intensive.

Once all your devices are connected to the router they will belong to your local home network and would talk to each other.

Let me know if you need more details information.

Regards
Sammy
 
This is an excellent thread. Thank you for your insights, help and direction with these matters Sammy.
I am also a newbie and currently am focusing on indexing and archiving an extensive Western classical music digital collection. I also need to have a secure back up of the music files 9as two external WD drives have already failed on me. If I do go down the route of buying the 413j, I assume it will take for ever to copy the music and video files over to it (say 15 Tbs) via USB (even if 3.0)? It seems a bit of an over kill for a storage device, but I don't know of any other alternatives other than putting 5 WD Red 3 TB drives into my new-built PC (i5 Haswell). On a side note, I hope the 520W PSU should be sufficient for that?
I am debating which way to go as i don't need most of the bells and whistles of the full NAS. The one handy app is being able to access my music and movies over the internet globally, but i assume this functionality can be built into my PC at a later date.
 
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Staxxx said:
This is an excellent thread. Thank you for your insights, help and direction with these matters Sammy.
I am also a newbie and currently am focusing on indexing and archiving an extensive Western classical music digital collection. I also need to have a secure back up of the music files 9as two external WD drives have already failed on me. If I do go down the route of buying the 413j, I assume it will take for ever to copy the music and video files over to it (say 15 Tbs) via USB (even if 3.0)? It seems a bit of an over kill for a storage device, but I don't know of any other alternatives other than putting 5 WD Red 3 TB drives into my new-built PC (i5 Haswell). On a side note, I hope the 520W PSU should be sufficient for that?
I am debating which way to go as i don't need most of the bells and whistles of the full NAS. The one handy app is being able to access my music and movies over the internet globally, but i assume this functionality can be built into my PC at a later date.
Click to expand...

If you want to reuse your existing i5 PC then you can opt for windows based NAS options. I have used Flexraid but there are other options too like Freenas, etc . All you might need is parity based backup system and that too snapshot parity should be enough for you. Sam is the pioneer here in bringing this concept of parity to us.
 
Staxxx said:
This is an excellent thread. Thank you for your insights, help and direction with these matters Sammy.
I am also a newbie and currently am focusing on indexing and archiving an extensive Western classical music digital collection. I also need to have a secure back up of the music files 9as two external WD drives have already failed on me. If I do go down the route of buying the 413j, I assume it will take for ever to copy the music and video files over to it (say 15 Tbs) via USB (even if 3.0)? It seems a bit of an over kill for a storage device, but I don't know of any other alternatives other than putting 5 WD Red 3 TB drives into my new-built PC (i5 Haswell). On a side note, I hope the 520W PSU should be sufficient for that?
I am debating which way to go as i don't need most of the bells and whistles of the full NAS. The one handy app is being able to access my music and movies over the internet globally, but i assume this functionality can be built into my PC at a later date.
Click to expand...

I am speechless that you actually have 15 TBs of data. :eek:. And I thought with 5TB I am the boss .... :D

With so much of data it gives you even more reason to have a NAS to organize your data. Any way yes I agree it will take quite a lot of time to copy that much data to the NAS. More so since DS413j does not have a USB 3. But then you dont copy all data in one go, you do it in phases.

Plus with 15 TB and assuming you put 4x4TB in to DS413j you will almost consume all of you r space. (I wonder how you currently have managed to keep so much of data) and there would not be much left for a backup, unless you opt for a 4 drive external enclosure and connect it with synology.

I agree synology NAS is kind of an over kill for juat as a storage devide as it does much much more than that, but I would take this as its most positive selling point. You dont need any separate media server, file server, music server, web server, database server, download manager, torrent client ...... you name it everythig is inbuilt. With security, solid backup solution and extremely low power consumption it is a worthy product when it come to NAS.

Else you can always use your desktop as well to act as a NAS, though not as comprehensive as a dedicated NAS as synology or Netgear, it still would server the purpose. As haisaikat mentioned correctly, you can use windows essentials 2012 to make it a home NAS server or use Flexiraid.
But for me a NAS is a device taht is almost always on, so taht I can have access to my data 24x7 all across the globe, for that a desktop is not suited, because of power consumption, fan noise, agronomic, portability lot of factors, though Power consumption is major one. Imagin a 520W PSU running 24x7.

Anyway measure your needs, requirements and decide ...

Regards
Sammy
 
thanks for the explanation, thanks to you and a little bit of googling i figured out how to go about it and i think now i understand it. :)
 
Yes, it is a lot of data, but also partly because of the uncompressed format I use in the music server which takes up a lot of space with null bites (WAV64). The back up is in various formats depending on whether I initially bought it in FLAC, ALAC or WAV etc. I rip in WAV and don't download music that is free which I don't know the source of. I am very particular about maintaining the quality of the music files and indexing. I have received some music from friends (and recently a chunk from a generous FM - thanks!) but am very tough on culling these for the sake of the quality of the collection.

I went the interim route and bought three WD 3 TB red caviar discs for my desktop yesterday. I thought this would let me, at some future stage, remove the internal drives from the desktop and put them into a NAS enclosure when I am ready.

I have most of it on external hard drives (4 x 3 TB - WD My Books, one Samsung, 4 x 2 TB - WD Passport portable, Samsung and Lacie, 1 x 1TB Samsung portable, 1 x 500gb - Lacie, as well as 2 x 2TB internal in the music server (WD green), and 3 x 3Tb internal in the pc (WD Red) - all dedicated to my music files and one back up set. The row of them is daunting as they are all separate and I need to work on making the composer list seamless as yet. Bach, for example shows up on three drives. Hence my intermittent cries for help on this forum.

As it is specifically Western classical music for the most part (save 2 x 2TB for Jazz and Other - Pop, Rock, World, Samplers, Test discs etc.), I am quite organized by now on how I want the filing system to look. My next effort will be to work with someone (who wishes to work on this as a passion or hobby) on developing a cross-referencing database, replete with metadata and artwork, for this music. I have not yet come across a satisfactory interface as yet although the information (in varying levels of reliability) is available. I think there is a lot of money to be made by someone if they can standardize this in the future.
 
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I have a similar problem with some of my ripped music, almost 95% is in flac, but some compressed stuff sneaked past. Need to isolate and eliminate it, though it is a bit of a job.
 
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