I am looking to either replace my current server with a Synology or QNAP NAS or upgrade my current hardware.
My current server specs are:
CPU: AMD FM1 A8-3850k
Motherboard: ECS A75F-M2
RAM: 8GB DDR3 1600
Case: Fractal 2000
PSU: Seasonic Focus Gold 550W
4 HDDs, 1 SSD.
I am considering a Synology 918+
Whats your intended use? Synology is not a bad way to go. I have a 216j and love the little thing but if I was looking for more hardcore features I would definitely go with a roll your own solution.
How are the headphones BTW?
There are issues with both, but Synology has a better track record than QNAP. QNAP “RAID” is still just MD and LVM.
IMO, FreeNAS is the superior solution if you have the expertise to use it.
Do you mind expanding on that a little? I’m not well versed in any issues with synology.
Here’s a Synology issue I remember from last year. There was something defective about the hardware in the DS1815+.
https://forum.synology.com/enu/viewtopic.php?t=128631
And here’s an email I received from QNAP also last year.
Edit
To be clear, I do recommend Synology to people who have limited technical knowledge, and so far, I’ve never regretted it.
Years ago, I took on a client who had a QNAP and I made the call to get a second one because they were already used to it. I 100% regret that decision. Basic file sharing would randomly shit itself, turning on snapshots corrupted an entire filesystem… It’s improved since the last major update, but it was a nightmare for a while.
I cant speak for QNAP as I have never used any of their stuff but from what I can tell the synology stuff is pretty solid on the software end. We have an older 412+ at work thats also a work horse. Originally when I got my 216j I was looking for a super low power nas. At full bore the thing sips power compared to a low power PC alternative and also has nice standby features when not in use.
If I wanted something more powerful with a nicer feature set though, I would not hesitate going the freenas route.
Both QNAP and Synology are very widely used and any major issues are abberations.
I’ve used a cheap Synology DS413j for 6 years now. All it does is serve files over SMB, and it does a great job. Every so often a drive dies, it sends me an alert email, I buy a new one and slot it in and it repairs itself. It’s hands-off, just works.
If you want to do anything in addition to fileserving the hardware does get quite expensive though.
This. Even if you are an expert, there is something to be said about ease of use. I couldnt have put it better.
Yes, exactly. I rely on my NAS, if it goes down that would be a huge pain in the ass for me. I don’t want to maintain it, or fix it, it isn’t a toy.
A agree for Synology, but I think QNAP has had some major issues over the years. It was a while ago now, but at one time, saving Adobe documents to a QNAP would immediately corrupt them. And that silent data corruption issue applied to lots of models and was latent for years.
I think relying on MD for anything larger than a few drives is inherently a bad idea when you have ZFS* and BTRFS available. I believe Synology is 100% BTRFS now (with legacy options still available). QNAP will sell you a 24-bay NAS and have you plug in up to 6 more 4U disk shelves, all running MD/LVM!
I had a very persistent issue across multiple QNAP models where the Netatalk database files would become corrupted periodically and need to be deleted via CLI. Of course, this would occur in the middle of the work day and everyone would get kicked off the share. Used to get calls about that multiple times a week. QNAP support was no help. Eventually, it was fixed in a major update. Compare that to Synology which implemented it’s own database backend and search to Netatalk to ensure that it works smoothly.
It’s possible that my QNAP headaches were all exclusive to Netatalk shares, so maybe it’s always been a reliable SMB server. I just can’t recommend it after my experience.
* Apparently, QNAP has started selling high-end ZFS/FreeBSD boxes… most of their lineup is still Linux/MD/LVM though.
Newer non-“j” Synology devices all support btrfs, yeah. Its advantages are clear, but note Synology didn’t use mdraid by default, they have their own solution. Calling mdraid a bad idea is hyperbolic; both it and Synology’s hybrid raid are inferior technology but they do work fine.
I wasn’t aware of that persistent data corruption in QNAP, that is pretty disheartening. Glad I went with Synology so many years ago!
I currently run Sonarr, SABnzbd, Emby, and connect my Kodi machines to it over SFTP.
I’m also looking at it from a cost perspective. Which would cost less? Bang for buck. I also would be interested in running a WebDAV server.
My current setup is a LVM2 / EXT4 run.
At some scale it becomes a bad idea. I recommend against it after 3 or 4 drives, but yeah you could use it with more and probably be fine. A stack of 4U shelves all handled by MD is crazy to me though.
Cost wise roll your own is cheaper AFAIK. When you buy a synology you’re buying DSM as well as the hardware and brand. FreeNAS is well… free. Dont get me wrong, DSM is nice and well worth it IMO but if you’re looking at cost specifically, you can do it for less.
Getting your build planned out and setup might be a pain but it should be a one time pain once all said and done.
Well, I’m open to suggestions. I want to spend under 750$ USD. I am buying from Newegg to build my credit
For that purpose, I would suggest a cheap DS418j to serve files and a separate cheap NUC to run your NZB and media stuff. Note this particular NUC supports intel quicksync, so it will hardware transcode with Plex Media Server.
Also if you don’t already have it, you can get 2 free years of ShopRunner for free with a paypal account. Free 2-day shipping from newegg.
Alternatively you could use an Asus Chromebox and install Linux on it. That’s actually what I use for the same purpose myself. It’s also a celeron, but it’s a broadwell celeron, not an atom. Base cost is a bit more but it comes with 2GB RAM and a 16GB SSD. I upgraded mine to 4GB RAM and a 120GB SSD but honestly for running nzbget and whatnot the baseline should work fine.
Instructions: https://kodi.wiki/view/Chromebox
What’s the reason for the upgrade/replacement?
(I generally recommend building your own setup.)
More storage?
More SATA ports?
Swapping out your MoBo, and APU could put you in a position where your Memory is still usable, but could get you more SATA ports.
If you have a place to backup your data temporarily you could install Xpenology on your system, and roll your own Synology setup.
The other downside to the 918+ is you limit yourself to 4 drive bays.
If you are looking to expand your storage, may consider getting a bigger PSU as well.
I’d even recommend Synology for the technically savvy. I love these fire and forget solutions especially in a home setting when I know exactly what my target use case is.
If anything, if Seagate still has NAS solutions for the consumer, I’d recommend them over QNAP as well just because they accel at one job, being a NAS. No special features that matter at all, just an easy to setup NAS.
Not necessarily, while it will cost extra on top of the 918+, you can actually expand it by another 5 drive bays with an expansion unit giving you a total of 9.
https://www.synology.com/en-us/products/DX517
Yes, that is correct.
You’d still be better off building your own and running Xpenology.
It all really depends on the use case, and what you are looking to build. As an expansion on an already existing system, it’s not a bad idea. I still find their hardware… limiting.
I am looking to upgrade the speed and reliability for one.
I would like to get a case that has hotswap bays on it so I am not having to crack open the chassis just to swap out a drive.
I would like to have m.2 SSDs for caching.
I would like to be able to run a VPN on it that would allow me to access the data over the local network normally while funneling the WAN traffic over VPN. (even if that VPN is something like SoftEther)
I feel my FM1 socket APU system is a bit long in the tooth and I keep having to restart servers and services to keep it running.
It would be nice to be able to have it recover from a power outage and know that the services are up and running.
Recently, I have had the server hanging during boot. I had to hard reset it to get it to boot.
I also want to downsize the size of the chassis. Right now it is in a midtower case that is about as tall as my Corsair 600T. My current case has a weird vertical drive mount that is ganked as hell. I would also like to reduce the power consumption over all.
Having additional drive bays would be nice to have but not mandatory.
If I did have drive bays (more than the SATA ports on the board), I would need a SATA/mSAS card so I could use the mSAS —> SATA cables to connect them all.
All told, I would like to spend less than $750 if possible.
