You need to understand the function of RAID.
RAID0 means no redundancy, it's striped for only 1 purpose: speed, either 1 HDD spoilt and you lose all data.
RAID1 is mirroring, means every HDD is a direct mirror of the 1st HDD.
I believe there's another configuration called JBOD which set all HDD as 1 volume so you use it like 1 HDD, you lost data of the HDD that spoilt though I'm not too sure if function like RAID0.

Google is your friend.

1) Yes, DDNS is needed if you're having dynamic IP.
No, you won't need to pay for free account but some restriction apply.
a) You will receive account re-activation every month if inactive or IP never change.
b) Not able to use paid domain means you get stuck with limited amount of choice of domain.
I personally use No-IP

2) What's your network speed? It affects how fast can you backup your data to your NAS, preferred gigabit network capable hardware.
You can always use something like Cobian Backup of which can schedule your backup, and perform sleep, shut-down your PC when it's done. Or if your data is used daily and only needs single backup copy, you can always opt for incremental/differential backup for quick backup of your updated data only so you won't waste time updating every single data in the PC.

3) Different folder for best organization, so you know which backup belong to which PC, etc.

This post has been edited by wildwestgoh: Sep 4 2013, 05:06 PM

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.

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?

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.

https://forum.lowyat.net/index.php?showtopi...30797&hl=ds213j
RM690...
Ok, possibly just my opinion but kinda expensive, haha...
Not being offence but DIY still kinda feels cheaper...

DLink is a good choice, for a start...

Old PC? Power sucking? LOL, my 24/7 torrenting box is not even more than 30W, DIY PC with the below specs:
Core 2 Duo E8400 @ 1.6GHz, 0.95V
1x 2GB RAM
1x 500GB HDD
3x 2TB HDD
Unknown brand PSU
2x 120mm fan @ 5v mod
CM Elite 310 (M-ATX)
Oh no, PC nowadays is great at power management, not the Pentium 4 era.
Future plan is Bitfenix m-ITX case, mainboard though is a pain to find.

May not be anyone cup of tea for DIY, troublesome on the first time setup.

Oh... good info, didn't know Android uses UPNP to stream, kinda stupid to force the NAS to work harder, read directly using SMB is a better choice I think, just like using the ES File Explorer.
Can you now seek the movie without pause too much? (Jump chapters, forward)
You using Gbps LAN right?
DNS-327L uses some very low-end embedded CPU (Marvell Armada 300: http://www.marvell.com/embedded-processors/armada-300/)

How much you bought your N36L? Within RM600?
What's the PSU size? Is it the non-standard size that's used in some shuttle chassis?

I am planning for future (if board still available) on DIY Mini-ITX 4~6 HDDs NAS with below specs:
ASROCK E35LM1 Mini-ITX [RM 190]
Bitfenix Phenom Mini-ITX [RM 279]
1x 4GB RAM [RM 120]
FSP 500W PSU [RM 150]
Total [RM 739]

If the HP N36L is RM600 and below then DIY project is not value any more, what do you all say?
In my case, I'll probably break the RM 800 barrier as I'm living in the East so postage fees is another issue to be considered.
But I do think the above performance will beat the HP N36L, but lack the ease of installing HDD and the size of the chassis will probably turn off some.

Wow, such a waste, mind sell me cheap cheap?
Maybe we can discuss this further in PM.

Anyway, regards the Microserver, can the DVD-ROM be made into another drive bay? (Use normal SATA HDD/SSD)
If not mistaken the drive bay still retain the 5.25" for N54L, the latest Gen8 seems to use the slim DVD drive, saw it at HP website.

Is that DVD-ROM or the Microserver?
Don't think you'll let go the Microserver at this price?


Yeah, even in Kuching, Sarawak here, the only good retail shop with latest variety is PC Image, and that's the price is also goat dang high; RM450 for Dlink 327L, and only that model available. Saw the Qnap/Synology 4-bay at PC City and it was cut-throat RM3k+ if not mistaken, few hundred RM different, sigh, obviously this run-down town will never get fair price treatment (shipment expensive la, bla bla bla...)

This post has been edited by wildwestgoh: Jan 8 2014, 10:51 AM

Found one article with details on how to get the Synology DSM into a PC (Microserver).
Interesting but very troublesome overall for the first time setup.

Click here

This post has been edited by wildwestgoh: Jan 8 2014, 04:07 PM

Best to get Synology as I doubt Windows will have easy access to Apple products (Apple is stingy after all).
Synology is easy to setup as long as you don't care about their other features than just storing files, user level access can be setup to prevent guest access (instant access).
I'm not a Synology user so I'm not so sure how many screens to get the NAS working, maybe some other sifus here can post their experience.

Where you bought your N40L from?
How much it cost?
What media you used to boot the DSM? USB pendrive?

Are you using swtich and is your switch 1Gbps capable? or
Are you connect crossover from your PC to your N40L?

Chances are you're connecting through a 100Mbps switch, bottleneck, buy a 1Gbps switch and your problem solved, probably can reach 60~90MB/s depending on your hard disk speed.

For cheapest and easiest way is to buy another Gbps switch and connect all your PC, NAS to it and another short interconnect to your router (ADSL WiFi router?) rather than spend another few hundred to get a router that has gigabit port, Gbps 5-port switch is cheap nowadays, TP-Link brand only cost RM50+? Well, depends on shops as well.
I still prefer wired over wireless if you need super stable transfer speed, the new AC is great but if you don't have good AC card on both end, it's pretty much useless, WiFi AC router cost more than RM300+ for a starter, the WiFi network card is not included yet.

Just change your switch, cheaper and less headache, for cheap layer-1 switch it's plug&play.
If you seriously needs 16-ports Gbps switch then it's much expensive, more than RM200+ (DLink brand), not so sure about TP-Link though.
8-port Gbps switch is around RM100 or less.
And about your "8mbps", is it MegaBytes? or Megabits? Huge difference there.

Cat5, erm... well Cat5e can sustain 1Gbps speed without any issue in my home's network, but I'm not so sure about huge office environment (more than 20 PCs).
For home network where there's less than 5 busy devices on a single network, it's fine to use just Cat5e with cheap layer-1 switch, no issue at all.

I'm using DLink 8-port Gbps switch, no issue on my end yet, been running months non-stop, the only bottleneck could be my hard disk, running without any RAID.
To maximize the huge files transfer speed in Windows network, you can actually set the Jumbo frame to 4K and above, but best to set a standard amount (4K or 8K, etc.) for all PC's network card for stability issue, it has been tested on my end here, from 60MB/s to 75MB/s, could be more depends on the hard disk speed again, can reach 90MB/s and above easily with really fast hard disk or SSD on both end.
For few PCs access a single device, that'll again depends on the hard disk accessibility speed, also it may depends on the services as well, priority queues stuff like that.
I have 2 PCs access a single file shares before, watching full HD movie on both sides without any issue, no lags at all, but if you going to seek the movie, probably will need to pause for few seconds (lag) instead of instantaneous seek.

ST1000DM003, that's the nearest model currently available from Seagate.

If your NAS couldn't even max out your previous 100Mbps switch then not worth the upgrade of switch and cable (Cat6)
What's your configuration of your NAS? Perhaps some gurus here can help you optimize the configuration and makes it transfer faster.
Transfer between PC always bottleneck by the hard disk speed, but it also can be affected the OS as well, going for Windows Server has actually increase the transfer rate much further (from Windows 7 to Windows Server 2008), ranging from 60MB/s max (peak for Windows 7) to 80MB/s max (peak for Windows Server 2008), but of course you're looking at spending more on the licenses.