Need some advice … I am trying to find a way to backup all my current / furfure systems … Currently I have a Windows 11 , Windows 10 , and a Truenas computer …
Right now my Windows computers backup to a 2 day Synology and the TrueNas backups to some USB drives I had laying around …
What I am trying to plan is a single box that will back everything that I can grab and run if my place ever catches on fire or something happens …
My plan was to get a Synology DS1621+ and have everything back up to that … But with the cost of it I am wondering if building something might be cheaper … I saw a video about that Jonsbo N3 Mini …
I already have hard drives I can use just need a case and the cast of the parts … Trying to keep it same and compact … So thought I would ask here for advice and see if anyone got back to me …
How much data are we talking about? 1TB? 8TB? 100TB?
How important is this stuff? Will your livelihood depend on it? In that case the 3-2-1 rule should be followed (at least 3 backups, at least 2 on different media, at least 1 off-site).
Is there a way to compress, scale down or otherwise “tier” the importance of data? Some data maybe have a shelf life, like for instance your 2010 tax papers may no longer be important to keep around maybe?
How hot does the NAS need to be? Are you working on this data daily and need a sync, or is it more of a put-it-in-the-archives-and-forget-about-it thing?
I am only asking, because a 16TB 2 bay NAS solution is plenty for many, but it is hard to advise without more details here.
for the information … I will look into those , but think that is going to be way out of my price range … I am hoping / planning on reusing some WD Red’s that I have … so that cost of that Asustor box is going to be the same as a 6 or 8 bay Synology than I am not saving any money …
You could look at the Odroid HC4… If it’s going to be a small emergency carry box(2 hdd). But the price is not low. https://www.hardkernel.com/shop/odroid-hc4-p-kit/
The cheapest thing will be to put something together yourself.
Yeah that is why I was looking at that N3 from Jonsbo … because its got 8 hard drive slots and its not that big and the cost isn’t to bad and might be cheaper than getting a Synology …
Only trouble with the N3 is I don’t know of any ITX board with 8 sata ports or two pcie slots …
But there are also different combinations, a loose, more or less precise list of mini-itx with at least one m.2, pcie, and sometimes 4 sata, some have different numbers, but you have to check it yourself…
Thanks Tim for the information … Also wanted to thank you for your time and help … Out of all the other fourms I have posted on … you have been the only one to send me advice and help point me in the right direction …
I just hope that going this way is the right idea and will be cheaper than having to pay $1k for a synology with 6 to 8 drives bays …
So let me ask you this … if you were building one what would you run for an OS ? windows ? or Truenas ?
The goal is make a backup box to where I can back everything up into one spot … Thanks again …
This depends mostly on what your capacity needs are, a Flashstor 6 bay cost $449 and 4 TB drives cost $135-$180 depending on how picky you are. Let us assume price of $180, then this is the capacity table:
No. of drives
Price
Raw
Mirrored
RAID5
RAID6
1
$180
4TB
-
-
-
2
$360
8TB
4TB
-
-
3
$540
12TB
-
8TB
-
4
$720
16TB
8TB
12TB
8TB
5
$900
20TB
-
16TB
12TB
6
$1080
24TB
12TB
20TB
16TB
So less than $1600 for a 24TB portable NAS, or $810 for a mirrored 4TB that can then be upgraded to a much bigger capacity later on.
Building a Mech NAS in a DIY has something like this for comparison:
If you only need 4TB mirrored capacity the Flashstor is a really competitive option to start with. If you need more like 100TB the jonsbo build outlined above is better.
For the break down and all the information … I am not sure what info you need … but if this helps … my current TrueNas media server has about 20tb of stoarge and I am currently using around 9tb of it … then my two windows computers are about 1tb between the two …
So I need a base backup that has atleast 10tb with room to grow …
I have a Truenas Mini R that is going to replace my current Truenas box … So planned on taking the 6 x 6tb drives I have now out of my current box and use them for what will be the new backup box … and before someone says anything I didn’t buy the Mini R I to my surprise won the give away they were running a couple of months ago …
I was just thinking it should be TrueNas as well seeing how if I am going to be running a Truenas file / media server then it would be easy to just setup replication jobs to do the backups … I think …
I am still very new to Truenas so still learning … I have been a windows guy for over 30 years now …
I will just have to make like an smb share and use some 3rd party program to backup my windows computers as I hate windows backup …
Thanks, that helps a lot. So, if I understand this correctly, you would like to basically add more capacity to your NAS, and have it be portable enough that in case of emergency you would like to be able to take it and just go, losing perhaps the last 100GB or so not yet synced, and this new solution should ideally cost less than $1k, but you could reach above if required?
Then, here is a slightly revised build that allows for 16TB mirrored for now plus your 6x6TB array. Drives included in price.
Given your low current demands though, a case can be made for the Flashstor, given that 8TB and 16TB m.2 drives will start dropping in price soon. By 2026-2027 sometime, a 16TB m.2 will cost roughly $250, which is about the same as a 16TB HDD today. Bulk HDD storage is going out of fashion quite fast. That said, it is not yet obsolete.
However, the $799 12 Bay Flashstor Pro + 4x4TB of NVMe drives + new RAM would bring the total cost to around $1600 and only provide 12TB of usable redundant storage. Plenty of room to grow the following years though.
Yeah I know HD’s are starting to go the way of the dodo bird … but seeing how I will have 6 x 6tb WD Red’s once I get the Mini R working and everything moved over to it … Figured might as well use them for backups …
I do like the size and compact of the Flashstor … sadly it’s just way out of my price range and currently I have no really good solid backups … My 2 bay Synology that backups up my windows computers is flaky and I have two usb ext hard drives for my current Truenas box which kind of works …
One thing to think about is with doing Jonsbo N3 setup , is that down the road I can always swap out the HD’s for M.2 drives with the 2.5 cards that let you do that … So wouldn’t be a total lose and yeah you would lose a little preform by using the adapter card , but not much …
If I could afford it , I would just build anything and then have it replicate offsite to backblaze or someone … but trying to backup 10TB worth of data to cloud I cant afford the monthly bill …
So hence why I am trying to find something else that will work and just be local … Only thing I would add to your build is would be nice to have a 10gb network card for future networking upgrades …
Yeah, I understand. Price is always a factor in these things, and m.2 SSD NAS is at the point where infrastructure is cheaper than HDDs now, so while buying drives + NAS the m.2 setup can actually be as cheap as, if not cheaper, than HDDs. Despite HDDs being $15/TB and SSDs being $35/TB right now.
Personally I think Flashstor for what you get is an amazing deal, 6 bays and <30W power draw for $449 that is a steal, 12 bays and <50W for $800 is an even bigger steal, and there are a lot less things that can go wrong with the Flashstor as opposed to a HDD NAS to boot.
Now, is it prime time for the Flashstor, not yet, still need SSDs to go below $15-$20 / TB first.
I would just go with SATA 2.5" SSDs directly for that, interfaces will still be SATA so no real point in throwing in NVMe m.2 in there in that case. It will not save you any space in either case and the 2.5" market is already going lower in price than the m.2 market.
Yeah, you have basically two upgrades, either a low end discrete GPU like the RX 7600 or RTX 3050 for video decoding, or a 10 GbE. My builds are not end all be all but an anchor point for further discussion, if you are happy with that spec though go for it
If I wanted to get that Flashstor device I would close to 2K + … the device itself and then 12 drives in order to get enough storage to cover what I currently have and give me some room to grow …
At that price I might as well get some crazy 12 bay Synology or just get the 6 or 8 bay one I was looking at it … As its cheaper …
Yeah that is true … if I go with the N3 I could just over time switch out the WD Red’s that I have with some type of Kioxia ssd …
this box is just for backups only , so don’t need a video card for decoding or anything like that … that is why I was thinking the 10gb nic so it would keep up with trying to backup the Truenas box , and windows machines …
Just because you buy a 12 bay does not mean you must get all SSDs at once, starting with four 4TB drives give you 12TB of redundant storage and then you buy more as required. 8TB is slowly sliding downwards and could go as low as $300 or even lower before end of next year. 16 TB is going to follow that trend. Buying that now though, for both NAS and drives… Yes, we are looking at roughly $1500 and yes, that is a lot of money.
I can fully understand you still wanting to stick with HDDs though, and there is nothing wrong with that. Both are good options, one looks more to the future and saves more money in the long run while the other save money now, but at the risk of capacity outstripping bandwidth.
Yeah I do see where you are coming from with the Flashsor … but sadly its just out of my price range and will be for some time …
That is why I was trying to use hardware I already have to try to keep the cost down …
Only thing someone said was if I was going to build something try to use a Micro ATX board instead of a ITX board as it will give me more options … But I haven’t looked into that yet as I would think it would make the case bigger and less easy to grab and run so to speak …
