Kitz ADSL Broadband Information
adsl spacer  
Support this site
Home Broadband ISPs Tech Routers Wiki Forum
 
     
   Compare ISP   Rate your ISP
   Glossary   Glossary
 
Please login or register.

Login with username, password and session length
Advanced search  

News:

Author Topic: considering NAS to replace external USB3 drives  (Read 6028 times)

chenks

  • Kitizen
  • ****
  • Posts: 1106
considering NAS to replace external USB3 drives
« on: June 19, 2018, 08:33:46 AM »

so at the moment i have an Windows 10 Pro system that is essentially running as a server.
it has 1 x 4TB and 1 x 3TB USB3 external drives connected as the primary file storage (M.2 SSD as boot/OS), server connected via gigabit ethernet.

both drives are now each below 1TB free and i'm in the thinking stage of what to do next.
i could just stick another USB3 drive on, but that becomes messy with mutiple external drives all needing their own power etc etc
i could replace one of the drive with a bigger capacity USB3 drive, possible but is just a "sticking plaster" solution.

what i've been thinking about is a NAS, maybe a 3 or 4 drive version in RAID so that i've got some recovery options should a drive go bang (currently i don't).

the synology range looks good.
i don't want to spend stupid money.
the NAS would need to be very quiet as it's location is in a main room.
the only issue i can see with a NAS is that would be much slower than a USB3 connection with best case scenario from a NAS being around 120-130Mbps

any thoughts?
Logged

broadstairs

  • Kitizen
  • ****
  • Posts: 3697
Re: considering NAS to replace external USB3 drives
« Reply #1 on: June 19, 2018, 09:21:55 AM »

Personally I have never considered a NAS as anything other than a backup device, or possibly an archive device for stuff accessed very infrequently. I presume your main PC is a laptop or similar. This is where a tower system comes in as although USB3 is not bad for access internal drives connected via SATA are the fastest and in a tower multiple drives can usually be fitted, I have 6 drives in my tower with extra space if I need it, I dont currently have anything as a RAID array but obviously could if required. If the NAS is to be used for stuff to be served by the server it will slow it down. Just my thoughts on this.

Stuart
Logged
ISP:Vodafone Router:Vodafone Wi-Fi hub FTTP

Chrysalis

  • Content Team
  • Addicted Kitizen
  • *
  • Posts: 7382
  • VM Gig1 - AAISP L2TP
Re: considering NAS to replace external USB3 drives
« Reply #2 on: June 19, 2018, 09:25:49 AM »

I have looked into NAS in the past, my main issue has been that the devices themselves simply put seem very bad value for money.  I think a 2 bay NAS is way too restrictive.  4 bay would be the absolute minimum I would consider, also my personal choice it would need to be compatible with FreeNAS to use the best consumer filesystem ZFS.

I actually think it can be cheaper to just build a low powered cheap PC and put FreeNAS on it, the main downside been it will need more space to put somewhere.

But even smaller cases like this can have 6 bays

https://www.scan.co.uk/products/fractal-design-node-304-black-mini-itx-case-with-usb-30-w-o-psu-(std-atx)

Can get a £40 cpu, sub £100 board with 6 sata ports, the problem been the ripoff DDR3/4 pricing which will sky rocket the cost.  But I would still rather do this then buy a branded NAS unit.  With ZFS you would ideally want 8 gig of ram as a starting point, but if you had to would be able to get by with 4 gig.

--edit--

Like Stuart most of my storage is in my main PC it has 8 drive bays and I have 5 HDD's in my PC at the moment.
Logged

chenks

  • Kitizen
  • ****
  • Posts: 1106
Re: considering NAS to replace external USB3 drives
« Reply #3 on: June 19, 2018, 09:35:41 AM »

to explain the use case here.

we have no desktop PCs in the house at all. it's either laptops or mobile devices.
the only "desktop" system is the windows 10 pro "server" which is in Intel NUC running in headless mode. it runs Plex, Radarr, Sonarr, Sabnzbd, Transmission, Jackett, and numerous other services. as it's a NUC there is zero internal space, and i like it that way.
the primary purpose of the server is to serve media content to the various plex clients.

building another PC is not an option i'd want to go down. it would either be NAS or more USB external drives.
also, FreeNAS is not something i'd ever want to use. i'm sure it's pretty good and once you know it inside out it works a treat, but i've also heard (and seen) some horror stories with it too - not my bag and not something i want to get involved in.
Logged

Chrysalis

  • Content Team
  • Addicted Kitizen
  • *
  • Posts: 7382
  • VM Gig1 - AAISP L2TP
Re: considering NAS to replace external USB3 drives
« Reply #4 on: June 19, 2018, 11:18:40 AM »

You could find horror stories for just about everything to be honest if you look.  Going with a vendor lock in solution is a bad idea tho, if the vendor unit fails you risk losing your data unless you buy something else from the same vendor.

You probably need to wait for someone else to reply, since I cannot find myself to recommend any NAS units.

I did find a sub £100 one on amazon with 4 bays, but there has to be catch at that price, just no idea what it is.
Logged

chenks

  • Kitizen
  • ****
  • Posts: 1106
Re: considering NAS to replace external USB3 drives
« Reply #5 on: June 19, 2018, 11:24:01 AM »

You could find horror stories for just about everything to be honest if you look.  Going with a vendor lock in solution is a bad idea tho, if the vendor unit fails you risk losing your data unless you buy something else from the same vendor.

indeed, but i know less than zero about FreeNAS, so a horror story when you know zero is enough to keep me away from it, especially when it comes to data storage.

with a vendor unit you have a level of support you can access, and yes i know FreeNAS wil have that too but i suspect that is more "community" based.

FreeNAS, though, is just not something i want to jump in to.
Logged

parkdale

  • Reg Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 597
Re: considering NAS to replace external USB3 drives
« Reply #6 on: June 19, 2018, 11:35:50 AM »

If you're only after more space, these are good value, and fairly robust units.
A friend of mine uses one as a temporary store for his Go-Pro captures before editing on his work station, using the Esata port.
If the disk goes bad (he's uses the built in mirror, you just chuck another in job done.
https://www.scan.co.uk/products/4-bay-icy-box-ib-3640su3-external-jbod-system-for-35-sata-hdds-with-usb-30-and-esata-host

Really it's just a bigger USB storage device
Logged
Vodafone FTTC ECI cab 40/10Mb connection / Fritz!box7590

chenks

  • Kitizen
  • ****
  • Posts: 1106
Re: considering NAS to replace external USB3 drives
« Reply #7 on: June 19, 2018, 12:06:34 PM »

interesting, so it's essentially just a 4 bay USB external enclosure?
i says "Silent operation by thermal controlled fan" but that's a failrly big fan on the back of it.
Logged

Ronski

  • Helpful
  • Kitizen
  • *
  • Posts: 4300
Re: considering NAS to replace external USB3 drives
« Reply #8 on: June 19, 2018, 01:04:50 PM »

Bigger fans normally run more slowly and therefore quieter.

Currently have 10 bays in my server with space for 5 more, but as drives have got bigger I'm not using all the bays/space I have available now.

That icy box looks interesting, need something to put down my brother's house for off site back.
Logged
Formerly restrained by ECI and ali,  now surfing along at 390/36  ;D

chenks

  • Kitizen
  • ****
  • Posts: 1106
Re: considering NAS to replace external USB3 drives
« Reply #9 on: June 19, 2018, 01:13:08 PM »

no raid though, so doesn't really offer any redundancy.
Logged

Ronski

  • Helpful
  • Kitizen
  • *
  • Posts: 4300
Re: considering NAS to replace external USB3 drives
« Reply #10 on: June 19, 2018, 01:15:48 PM »

Just been reading some reviews on Amazon, apparently the fan is pretty noisey, but can be easily replaced but obviously could well affect warranty.

For redundancy you could use Drivepool, it's what I use on my server.
https://stablebit.com/DrivePool

https://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://www.amazon.co.uk/RaidSonic-ICY-BOX-IB-3640SU3-drive/product-reviews/B009DH5Q2S&ved=2ahUKEwixw_Wm2N_bAhXqLsAKHXepAeIQFjACegQIARAB&usg=AOvVaw38zXi7QN7rUD_uD165LC9A
Logged
Formerly restrained by ECI and ali,  now surfing along at 390/36  ;D

parkdale

  • Reg Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 597
Re: considering NAS to replace external USB3 drives
« Reply #11 on: June 19, 2018, 01:41:38 PM »

There are raid versions, but the price is climbing up to the point where I would be looking for 100/1000 ethernet connection as well.
This below is the Raid version of same....
https://www.scan.co.uk/products/4-bay-icy-box-ib-rd3640su3-external-raid-system-for-35-sata-hdd-with-usb-30-plus-esata-host

The primary reason the first unit was used in my friends setup was because we lost a disk containing all the Raw and edited GoPro video ouch :'(
I managed to restore (From the damaged disk) 90% of his work, but the lesson was learnt..... :(

We used WD red drives as there optimized for raid setups, and run cooler.

And because this unit uses a standard Linux file system you can mount them in a Linux environment to recover any data..

He also uses a Drobo 5 disk raid for all his edited footage https://www.scan.co.uk/products/5-bay-drobo-drds5a31-5n2-desktop-nas-enclosure-2x-gigabit-ports
« Last Edit: June 19, 2018, 01:47:59 PM by parkdale »
Logged
Vodafone FTTC ECI cab 40/10Mb connection / Fritz!box7590

Ronski

  • Helpful
  • Kitizen
  • *
  • Posts: 4300
Re: considering NAS to replace external USB3 drives
« Reply #12 on: June 19, 2018, 03:44:29 PM »

I used to use raid in my server, but Stablebit Drive Pool is so much easier,  and you can still read the files on a single disc as it uses NTFS if need be, also any size disks can be used.
Logged
Formerly restrained by ECI and ali,  now surfing along at 390/36  ;D
 

anything