Synology Nas questions before I buy

deadprez69

deadprez69

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Hi,

I am about to order a Synology NAS as part of a new home storage for my photo's, video and music (I already back up to an external HDD & will look to get a Blu Ray soon also)

I have read some very positive things about Synology and have narrowed it down to the Ds211 or the Ds211+. On Synology's website they describe the + model as small business so I am leaning towards the standard model.

Will I be missing out on any major features or will it mainly be performance for the extra money?

I am also unsure with which HDD's to choose. I have always had Western Digital but I see that quite a few people use Samsung. I was thinking either 1.5tb or 2tb mirrored would keep me going for a while.

Any advice from people who have more experience than me would be greatly appreciated. :thumbs:
 
I can't comment on the non + models but my 1010+ is blisteringly fast. Blows my old netgear readynas out of the water.

I use Samsung 2tb in mine, no issues here. Check your model doesn't have a specific list of supported drives.
 
I'm also very interested in the Synology DS211J - I hadn't realised there were + and non-+ versions! Will watch this thread with interest before committing to anything....

Edit: I'm learning more already - found this useful guide to the Synology naming system:

Those who are confused with the Synology product naming conventions can use this as a guide:

“+” series = performance range.
standard series (no digit) = mixture of performance and storage.
“j” series = entry level consumer, concerned about capacity but not performance.

DS = Diskstation
First Digit = number of bays
Second numbers = year for the release
Click to expand...
 
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I have the DS410 (not the J)

I use it wirelessley. It is attached to the router but I need to get it moved and attached to the PC as speed is pretty slow over wifi (same for any NAS I think)

Currently I have 2x 1Tb drives in a mirrored RAID array.

It is a fantastic device though. Being able to access images, video and music anywhere is amazing! You can also access all the data on your mobile too over 3G or wifi. Look out for the ipod/android applications

DS Audio, DS Photo+ and Synodroid.

With DS Audio you can access your whole music collection on the go.... (you won't be tied up to your 4Gb, 8Gb or 16Gb limits on your phones memory.

I still need to look at how I can make the server faster as I'm pretty new to this sort of stuff but it works very well and I should add that the web based software is a breeze to use.

One thing - Get yourself a free dynamic dns address
I use http://www.dyndns.com/index3.html

You can then redirect that address to your synology server to allow you to access anywhere
 
Thanks for the replies,

It was your posts neil_g that pointed me towards synology after initially looking at the Drobo range. I am going to have to see if I can stretch to the + model.

I just need to decide of HDD size to get. The Samsung SpinPoint F4 EcoGreen 2TB I really wanted to get isn't on the officially supported list so probably wont risk it.

I might just go for 2 x 1TB for now and then look again when I am running out of space when there should be bigger drives at cheaper prices.

Out of interest EOS_JD what available space do you get from 2 x 1TB drives?

Thanks :thumbs:
 
neil_g said:
I can't comment on the non + models but my 1010+ is blisteringly fast. Blows my old netgear readynas out of the water.
Click to expand...

That's the five bay one with the drives upright rather than flat as in the DS410/411+? Given the speeds it appears capable of delivering you presumably need gigabit ethernet to take full advantage of it?

Been seriously considering a synology NAS for both storage and to replace my old debian box running IMAP / SMTP / SSH / HTTP and MySQL services.
 
deadprez69 said:
Thanks for the replies,

It was your posts neil_g that pointed me towards synology after initially looking at the Drobo range. I am going to have to see if I can stretch to the + model.

I just need to decide of HDD size to get. The Samsung SpinPoint F4 EcoGreen 2TB I really wanted to get isn't on the officially supported list so probably wont risk it.

I might just go for 2 x 1TB for now and then look again when I am running out of space when there should be bigger drives at cheaper prices.

Out of interest EOS_JD what available space do you get from 2 x 1TB drives?

Thanks :thumbs:
Click to expand...

have a look at their wiki pages, the user community publishes updated lists of compatible hardware :)
 
onomatopoeia said:
That's the five bay one with the drives upright rather than flat as in the DS410/411+? Given the speeds it appears capable of delivering you presumably need gigabit ethernet to take full advantage of it?

Been seriously considering a synology NAS for both storage and to replace my old debian box running IMAP / SMTP / SSH / HTTP and MySQL services.
Click to expand...

yup the 5 bay unit. i always run gigabit (apart from a 200mbps homeplug link to my HTPC) and in fact the DS1010+ has dual gigabit in fact if you have a switch able to handle teamed connections.

i would not hesitate to recommend synology boxes, at some point i need to look at getting the expansion to the 1010+ that allows a further 5 bay unit connected to the main via esata.
 
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deadprez69 said:
Thanks for the replies,

It was your posts neil_g that pointed me towards synology after initially looking at the Drobo range. I am going to have to see if I can stretch to the + model.

I just need to decide of HDD size to get. The Samsung SpinPoint F4 EcoGreen 2TB I really wanted to get isn't on the officially supported list so probably wont risk it.

I might just go for 2 x 1TB for now and then look again when I am running out of space when there should be bigger drives at cheaper prices.

Out of interest EOS_JD what available space do you get from 2 x 1TB drives?

Thanks :thumbs:
Click to expand...

Mirrored so about 913Gb
 
Is that not just normal for any formatted drive?

Edit - Disk size 931Gb - Disk Capacity 913Gb!
 
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Ordered this morning! synology ds211+ & 2 x samsung 1tb.

Thanks guys for your help, I will no doubt need more help tommorrow.
 
Can't go wrong with Synology. You see quite a few posts saying people have bought other brands and been let down by software etc. I think if you just want a bog standard NAS it's not so important, but Synology seem top of the game in giving you other apps such as Squeezeboxserver, Torrents etc. These can be achieved on other devices but Synology just seem to always be there taking care of it. Obviously there are issues, some people are not happy, but you can't often say you would have done any better with other brands...not at these consumer prices anyway.

The j range is crippled on memory and processor speed. I get the impression that slows things handling lots of small files such as photos and music files. Just a matter of how much you are in a rush. Many home consumers are happy with the J but reviews suggest that the doubling of ram usually 128 to 256, or in some cases 256 to 512 makes quite a difference with an accompanying upgraded processor. You probably would have been happy with a standard model rather than the + but speed helps and especially if you get to 4TB.

For people who cannot afford the Synology the Netgear Readynas and Qnap ranges are also considered good and well supported. There is a bargain LG 2 bay NAS at Dabs right now, great as a NAs but not so good if you want it to do other things.

The Synology's rarely seem to come up at a keen price and are the most expensive compared to all the other makes in hardare per £, but make up for it in reliability and support. Anyone after a 4TB NAS at a good price consider the Seagate BlackArmor 22o at E-buyer - sub £250 but it's not in the same league as the 3 brands I mentioned earlier.
 
psybear said:
Who did you order from?
Click to expand...

I ordered it from Dabs. I made an error paying for next day delivery thinking it would arrive today but no sign of it!
 
blackcloud - wouldnt touch readynas with a bargepole now on a performance basis.

deadprez69 said:
I ordered it from Dabs. I made an error paying for next day delivery thinking it would arrive today but no sign of it!
Click to expand...

that'll be next working day, i dont think anyone is back at work now until tues so you should get it weds i would have thought :)
 
You are likely right, but they do seem to have a good following for home users.
 
"£10 off Synology DiskStation NAS Enclosure in the dabs.com January Sale!"

to be fair thats a measly discount and i read it as 10%.. not that that would have been much better lol
 
My NAS and hard drives arrived yesterday :clap:

I didnt get much chance to play last night as I was watching the football.

I did manage to get it set up, installed and I created a new volume and used the standard Synology Hybrid Raid.

Have I made an error already? I read on another forum that I should only use this if the drives are different sizes & Raid 1 will be slightly quicker.

Thanks
 
Now you say that I think I did the same and didn't know what was better! I couldn't find much info on the synology raid so i set mine up as RAID1. I thought I'd done RAID5 but remember I think it needs 3 drives so I did RAID1 instead.

Not sure it will make a big difference :)
 
Had a chance yesterday to have another go at setting up the Nas. I changed it to Raid 1 & it didn't take to long.

I have copied some files over by uploading them via the synology software which seems to have worked.

Can I just ask about how you guys use your Nas?, do you upload via the software or can you map the drive so it works just like your other drives?
It just feels very different using the web browser software eg. you don't get thumbnails

Sorry for all the questions but I don't get much time to do much reading &testing to learn how to set it up as I have a 1 year old son who doesn't understand that it very important that I do this right.

Thanks
 
deadprez69 said:
Had a chance yesterday to have another go at setting up the Nas. I changed it to Raid 1 & it didn't take to long.

I have copied some files over by uploading them via the synology software which seems to have worked.

Can I just ask about how you guys use your Nas?, do you upload via the software or can you map the drive so it works just like your other drives?
It just feels very different using the web browser software eg. you don't get thumbnails

Sorry for all the questions but I don't get much time to do much reading &testing to learn how to set it up as I have a 1 year old son who doesn't understand that it very important that I do this right.

Thanks
Click to expand...

I have mine set up with the drives mapped but actually use both ways to transfer data. Just depends what I'm doing at the time.
 
neil_g said:
I create different shares in the web app then map them in windows
Click to expand...

I spent last night setting up folders and share permissions & I think that I get it :)

One more question though sorry, Can you map the whole dikstation as a drive? I used to have an internal drive mapped called "data" and then within that a folder stucture Photos, music, video etc. I created the same folders in the diskstation but it will only let me map individual folders. Is the solution to create a folder called "Data" and create folders within it.

Thanks :thumbs:
 
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