What do Synology, QNAP, Dlink, Thecus and Asustor have in common, they are all Taiwanese-based companies that manufactures NAS. Nowadays the techonology behind NAS is just pretty much the same across the board due to the close competitiveness among these TW companies. From what I have seen on the forums, HW failure rates are almost the same among these manufacturers.

However the key difference is still user experience. Many end users prefer and swear by Synology's sleek GUI, hence Synology's popularity and price. As for me, as long as the NAS supports NFS and SMB/CIFS, I don't care how the GUI looks like as it will just be a box where I will throw all my data into from my Windows PC. I don't have the time to spend 8 hours everyday staring into a nice NAS GUI. So for me a Dlink-320L is as useful as a Synology DS-213SE which cost over twice as much just as a storage box on the network.

Since DSL-320L only have 2 slots, you are limited to RAID 0 or 1. RAID 1 offers HDD mirroring redundancy and protection from 1 HDD failure but doesn't protect your data from NAS HW failure. Stay away from RAID 0 as you run a great risk of loosing data if any HDD writing glitch, electrical glitch, HDD failure etc happens.

Go for Synology for the ease of setup, peace of mind and if you don't mind paying extra for all the bells and whistles. And if you are technologically inclined, build your own and you are more likely to end up with a more powerful box that does all the same things that Synology does at a cheaper price.

Both AV Green and Red are designed for 24/7 operations and comes with 3 years warranty. You can use either for RAID 1, however only Red is designed for RAID 5 & 6 setup and is generally more expensive.

Hmmm, I'm not sure you really need a NAS judging from your response above. NAS is essentially a server that holds and makes available all your data on the network for you. IMO if you just need a place to store/archive your data and only access them occasionally, then external HDDs may be the best fit and value solution. WD MyBook external HDDs are quite affortable and reliable.

This post has been edited by mrbob: Nov 15 2013, 10:43 AM

for backup only get those 4bays hotway usb box more than enough. got usb 3 and esata... pay more if u want FW

Thanks mrbob, Lurker and others for your suggestions.
I think I have a decision. Thanks again,

UPDATE:
I will go for mrbob recommendation for Phase 1.
Get the D-Link DNS302L and with a 3TB or 4TB WD HDD until next year.

I am not a video streaming person. I prefer top-notch video quality when watching series or movies.
I find the reliability to stream a consistent quality over WIFI and my basic router is a no-no.

While, I am getting a basic NAS for Storage. I also prefer additional features such as HTTP Download.

While for my Phase2 (3-4 years later), I think I will go for DIY as by next year, I may have a desktop laying around.
And since I am a Windows Phone user, I will likely to try Windows Server 2012.

Thanks everyone.

Another update:
Phase 1 put on hold and wait for DS214se released in Malaysia.

According to this link (Singapore), Synology is offering a budget 2-Bay Model and packed with its famous Synology software.
DS214se Retail Recommended Price is SGD267 about MYR650.

This post has been edited by weirdguy: Nov 16 2013, 11:45 PM

Imation releases Nexsan E-Series V that squeezes 240 Terabytes in 4U space while consuming less than one-third the power in typical arrays.



http://online.wsj.com/article/PR-CO-20131118-904157.html

Hi,
Want to ask about the WD-Red HDD for NAS.
I am buying Synology DS213J and do I really need WD-RED? or normal WD-Green will do?

I'm using green myself.
Red only provides longer warranty and also raid support i reckon.
Avg user like us wont really need that.

Best to get the Green series for CCTV, WDC AV-GP series is designed for CCTV purpose, good for 24/7 running, also 1-year more warranty than the normal Green series.

Actually Synology DS213J only have 2 slots which means you can only do RAID 0 or 1. Forget about RAID 0 as it is the most risky setup.

You can use any HDDs for RAID 1 (mirrored) WD Green AV is a good candidate as wwgoh has pointed out esp if you will be torrenting from your box.

WD Red is useful when you are building RAID 5, 6 etc which will need 3 HDDs and above.

So we can say that those WG Green AV are good candidates for a seedbox too?

Sifus, is the transfer rate like this healthy (PC to NAS)?



Am using DNS-327L + Asus RT-N56U.

This post has been edited by The Wonder: Dec 27 2013, 06:04 PM

Hi all, i'm new with NAS system. i bought a synology ds213j running RAID 1. Here's the question i hv:
1. how to setup 'remote access' ? my router is innacomm w400v6 (free frm TM when apply streamxy)
2. How to set the router configuration?

Green AV is good for single drives operations, means no RAID or whatever RAID equivalent for the drives.
But Mrbob point out that Green AV is good under RAID1 so you may start with that.

Is that a constant speed from your PC to your NAS (60MB/s+), looks pretty fast, what's your setup for your NAS? RAID0? RAID1?

Just got my DLINK 320L yesterday, with a new unit of 2TB HDD.
My old USB box storage box with 4 HDD seems to be failing...which is why i moved out one of the HDD+ the new HDD into the NAS.

Initial tests:
1) 2 HDD setup as RAID 1.
2) Transferring from my PC to NAS seems rather slow over Gigabit Network...about 20Mbps/s ++....after a while even less.
3) Playing from my Minix NEO X7, streaming big HD files will have a bit of lag occasionally. I noticed again, the throughput is not fast enough..only 20Mbps/s or less....if i stream from PC (with the USB 3.0 box attached), can goes up to 20MB/s-40 MB/s with no lag...sometimes, even hits 90Mbps/s!!!

arrghh...quite dissapointed by this NAS. Should have bought a new USB 3.0 box instead. Now maybe only use it as backup with mirroring.

Got one question...if the NAS dies, will i be able to read the HDD data? Previously i have tested RAID-1 on my PC...even if the RAID is gone, i can still read the data from the individual RAID-1 disk if i hook it back with out the RAID config.

This post has been edited by Matrix: Dec 28 2013, 02:29 PM

That is amazingly fast!!! Looks like local copy via USB 3.0!!!! I can barely hit 12MB/s when copying over to my DLiknk 320L....

From the review is stated 60MB+..

If i recall correctly, is known DLINK 320L writing speed is slow..

Reading also slow...

Glad that you says it's fast
Constant speed about 60-65MB/sec, RAID0. I even saw the thing hit about 74MB/sec (for about 30-40secs) before dropping back to 6x.

I was quite concerned about the speed when I looked at the 320L, and furthermore no USB3! That's how I ended up with 327L.

How much is the 327L??

RM 385 from Thundermatch, Low Yat.

OH!! RAID0!! No wonder.
Have you tried non-RAID before? Before you decided on RAID0, or RAID1 transfer speed?
Anyway I assume you have a huge backup around, RAID0 is only for speed, no redundancy to back it up in case a drive fail.