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My wife asked me what I wanted for my birthday (16 june), so I had to think and finally came up with the QNAP-201 + 2*750gig disks. Via the Price Comparison at Tweakers I find a price of €359 at mobile-harddisk.nl. The SATA II Harddisk of 750 gig is €269. So in total the price would be € 897. And probably incl. shipping somewhat like €910. So we then have 750 gig storage for our photo’s, music, development, VMWare images and other backups.
Some points on why I choose this one:
- PC Active recently compared dozens of these devices and this one came out best
- Simple replacement of HD’s, hot swappable
- Easy to use via a simple GUI
- Gigabit LAN supports Jumbo Frame ultra speedy bandwidth
- Multi-protocol system support
- RAID 1 for 24 hours, 7 days a week non-stop service and easy maintenance.
- Easy File Sharing via FTP (anonymous)
- Works normally via IP (I have another SAN solution here which does not)
- Very easy backup and restore to e.g. my laptops
- Powerful embedded server management e.g. user access rights, logging, etc…
- It has downloadstation e.g. for redirecting bittorent downloads, FTP/HTTP download, UPnP NAT port forwarding,
- It has a built-in online photalbum
- It has 24 months guarantee
- QGet, Window-based remote P2P download management software
- iTunes Server, internet radio
- A Network Recycle Bin, also handy
- Obviously a File Server
- Network Printer Sharing via USB
- A Build in webserver (php/sqllite)
But… only the last option is where I am doubting about right now… Since recently (while I read through the MobileForum.nl) Synology also brought us some new devices which support php and mysql. And MySql is obviously very handy also since so many open source applications run on mysql. Also the internet forums tend to talk more about the Synology devices than the QNAP, I don’t know if that’s a factor but it seems there is a more active community around the Synology devices. Also the support forum of Synology looks very handy.
The Synology CS-407 is € 569. I would then take 4*750 harddisks bringing the total on harddisk cost on about €1500. Obviously I would then have twice the space. However if I look at the gig per Euro for Harddisks, the 500 gig ones tend to give the most gig per Euro:
| 250 gig | € 79 | 3.2 gig per Euro |
| 320 gig | € 89 | 3.6 gig per Euro |
| 500 gig | € 119 | 4.2 gig per Euro |
| 750 gig | € 269 | 2.7 gig per Euro |
So If I would just buy 4*500 gig disks that would be € 476 euro for 1 tera of storage (and 1 tera extra in raid 1 configuration). Bringing the total to € 1045. So it would be somewhat more expensive but I would have 500 gig more diskspace (250 gig in Raid 1).
While surfing I see that Wifisounds offers the combo for €999. They als install slimserver 6.5 along with it (I assume 6.5.2). But that’s not really functionality we will use in our household, most of my music I play from my KISS 80gig player anyhow, besides that I would have to pay $299 for the squeezebox, however it is a nice gadget…. playing music via wifi everywhere… hmmm…. uhm let’s first focus on the SAN!
Then there would be also the choice between the CS407e and the CS407. The CS407 uses better components and is somewhat faster, but more expensive ofcourse. When I review the graphs I would definitely go for the CS407.
Hmmm… does anyone has experience in this? Right now I think I would go for the Synology CS-4 with 4 times 500 gig but I do read on issues with the power supply when using 4*500gig drives in relation to the new firmware 462. It seems that the default powersupply of 80watt is not enough and should be replaced by a 110watt powersupply. Hmm… that makes me doubt again. So if I buy it I should request a 110watt powersupply to be installed by default I think. But to doublecheck I posted the same question in the Synology forum itself.
update: I have checked around, discussed it at home and decided Im buying the Synology DS-207 with 2 times 500mb for € 547,-. Basically that’s a nicer budget for a birthday present than €999; so let’s see how fast the 500mb is full!
update 2: I change my mind again. I think the Synology 407 is the best product in the price category I am aiming for. I ordered the Synology 407 on the “mobile harddisk solutions” internetshop for €569 since they are also referenced on the Synology site. For the Harddisks I really spent some time reading up on the Internet and decided I’d go for the Western Digital Raid Edition 500mb HD’s. I read there was some confusion between the difference on the YS and the ABYS version but decided to buy the ABYS version with MNM computers for €124, I hope I did the right decision on going for the ABYS version versus the YS version (besides it was €20 cheaper).
In total I paid for my new SAN: 574 (CS407 incl. shipping) + €508 (4 times ABYS5000 €125 incl. shipping) making the total: € 1016. You could do cheaper if you would go for the special offer at Digita: the CS407+4 Samsing disks for € 969. But I really wanted the WD RE Harddisks.
Dear Sir,
CS407 and CS407e are shipped with 100W power supply, so you don’t worry about the power issue. I’m not sure what you have read about firmware 462, but so far we haven’t receive any issue reporting from CS407/e users. What we have are CS-406/e shipped with 80W power. In brief, don’t worry about CS407/e.
Great, thanks! Then I’m going to order one!
I don’t recommend Synology’s NAS. It is always in slow speed but they claim several times higher than the actual performance.
I had one QNAP TS-201 running for several months, it is stable and with lots of server functions. The best thing is the backup software (provided with the product) which is very useful, I can back up my Windows PCs. It supports scheduled and auto-sync backup, all the changes of files on PCs will be monitored and be backed to NAS in real-time.
Hmm… you make me doubt again
What about a cheap full desktop with a AMD processor for about 250 euros (Gistron) then install Linux and put 4 x a harddisk of 500 GB in for 4 x 120 euros ( WD ) total cost for 2 Tb 710 euros
If you have full knowledge on both hardware and software installation especially on Linux OS, then it is good to assemble a PC server by yourself. If you are not a expert and want to save effort and time, to buy a NAS is a good choice and also a quick solution.
You can have these application server features (FTP, File, Backup, UPnP/DLNA, photo albums,…)once on one-box easily.
Another thinking is you can save some money on the electricity expense, the power consumption of embedded NAS is much lower compare with a PC.
I did some more research, got a reference here: http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/component/option,com_nas/Itemid,190/
Then I finally made my decision:
4 * Western Digital Caviar RE 500GB S-ATA II 16MB
1 * CS407
Andre: I decided long ago that I didnt want another server in my house. I just wanted a simple box that I could plug in and move along. I like the hot swappable thing and the simpleness. Besides that the low powerconsumption is also something I’m attracted to.
Ron: thank you for you tips!
Edward,
What is the file format on your NAS ? and what’s the OS ? I bought a freecom NAS 400 Gb with Linux as OS and Fat32 as format so all is accesable by Windows and Mac and Linux. However how to deal with file > 4Gb ? Was wondering if you hacked the OS to put on the last ntfsmount 2.0 to get read and write access to ntfs or formatted all to ext2 or ext3 and lost USB support like that.
Andre all your Questions are answered here: http://www.synology.com/enu/forum/