Advice needed Thinking of getting a NAS

R4pture_2

Hi I am looking for some advice and suggestions from some technically minded people let me start with some background info .
I have in the house 2 iphones, 2 laptops, 3 pcs. and I will have an Xbox at some point soon

MY aim is to get a central storage device where I can access everything on it from each of the devices mentioned also write to it and possibly limit access to it depending on the user. I also want two exact copies of the data on seperate HDDs in case one dies

I am looking for something that can do the following
!! EASY FOR A COMPLETE NOVICE TO USE and set up!!
Stream music to all of my computers. One database of music so to speak.
The ability to stream multimedia to an xBox other devices or TVs
A place to back up all of my files. Like an external hard drive. That will show up in 'My Computer'
Possibly something that I can retrive files from an external location and/or upload to the NAS from an external location.
To be as quiet and power efficient as possible
Data protection.
FILE SERVER & STORAGE.
MEDIA SERVER
The ability to limit access to certain areas or creat user accounts
RAID - the type that writes the same info to 2 drives ie a complete copy
2- 4 hot swappable bays
a system that is not restricted in the size of disk drive it can contain
printer server
USB slots
BIT TORRENT
to be able to acces from every pc / laptop / TV etc in the house.
as fast as possible. I will need to access samples for my music production.

John_Gray

R4pture wrote: »

I am looking for something that can do the following
!! EASY FOR A COMPLETE NOVICE TO USE and set up!!

I would say you've just come to the first show-stopper...

closed

drobo, or if you want to save some money, use one of the pc's you already have, with a usb drive for backup. Don't rely on raid, it's not a backup, one mistake or worm, both copies are gone.

R4pture_2

ok I will change that to easy as possible to set up. lol. I say a complete novice but I do have some knowledge. I just know nothing about networking so I thought Id go with the easiest option possible

Larnsky

I have a Netgear Stora which would probably meet most of your requirements. I got it because it did most of the things I wanted and was relatively cheap, for a novice I think it is great but being more technically minded I regret not going to it's bigger brother or something similar as the stora wraps a lot of the functionality up in a pretty user interface..... It would be worth you looking at it though.

hc25036

I was in a similar position to you, started with Belkin (disc failed), then a Netgear (just stopped working) and stumbled on Synology and would recommend them to anyone. The main advantage is that they have a terrific support site and update the software (which is easy to use) regularly to add new features or fix any problems. Have a look at the site - in fact I have just upgraded to a DS409 and have a DS209 about to go on E-bay......

R4pture_2

Thank you all so far. Any further suggestions?

Richie-from-the-Boro

Different people have different reasons for using NAS, out of the dozen or so primary disciplines NAS provides all makers products have differing outcomes. Tom's provides ' benchies ' for these area's, you may want to have a look and decide which type of services you need first, then decide which box to go for.

Chimpofdoom

It's an endless hunt for the perfect NAS.

I've been looking for a NAS to serve an iMac/macbook/iphone/xbox
and basically the long list of requirements that you've listed.

I was considering a drobo, but after reading a lot of reports on failures and the cost of the drobo FS... i've reconsidered this.

Currently looking at http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B000VKJEBK/ref=s9_simh_gw_p147_d2_i1?pf_rd_m=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE&pf_rd_s=center-2&pf_rd_r=0DSN0YDWGZRXYMDYDJQ0&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=467128533&pf_rd_i=468294

[Deleted User]

At that price you might as well buy a cheap Intel Atom net-top and hook up a RAID card to it.

Whack a copy of Windows Home Server on, and you can do everything you've said and more, and easily (as its just a Windows computer).

I paid probably £200 for my complete Server hardware, then an additional £250 on hard drives and finally £50 on a WHS license. All users have ID's/Passwords, over night backup occurs of all computers on the network, and a seperate hard drive backs the server itself up.

frivolous_fay

Hi guys,

A 1TB NAS is on my Christmas shopping list and as such I'm not terribly familiar with them.

I see this has positive reviews:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/QNAP-TS-210-Turbo-Server-iSCSI/dp/B002SD71FO/ref=sr_1_1?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1291815782&sr=1-1

But no mention of size - do you have to buy drives for it separately?

TIA