Help with choosing a NAS

[rjwbaker]

Hi,

I was hoping for recommendations for a NAS drive that will allow iTunes hosting, remote login over the web, allow me to share folder space for other users to back there iOS devices up to, and be time machine compatible. I was thinking probably at least space for 4 disks would be best.

kind regards

Will

 

[satcomer]

Hi,

I was hoping for recommendations for a NAS drive that will allow iTunes hosting, remote login over the web, allow me to share folder space for other users to back there iOS devices up to, and be time machine compatible. I was thinking probably at least space for 4 disks would be best.

kind regards

Will

I highly suggest the Synology DS414play! It can have Apps to make it act like a media server, VPN server and do 90% of what traditional servers used to do.

Populate the NAS with some WD Red Drives for NAS boxes.

 

[rjwbaker]

I highly suggest the Synology DS414play! It can have Apps to make it act like a media server, VPN server and do 90% of what traditional servers used to do.

Populate the NAS with some WD Red Drives for NAS boxes.

 

[rjwbaker]

Thankyou, that's seems like it would do the job very nicely. Can iTunes be ran on the drive and shared over the network or will it require a computer to be connected and on? Alternatively does it have an app or database that will allow this that iTunes on a Mac will read from? I plan on connecting my ATV 4 and streaming video from the drive occasionally too.

 

[glenthompson]

Synology has an iTunes server package that appears as a shared iTunes machine. Here is some documentation about it: https://www.synology.com/en-us/knowledgebase/tutorials/632

I'm a fan of the Synology units. I just picked up a second one on Craigslist.

 

[mmomega]

I've had my DS1515+ for almost one year and love it, large community and 1st and 3rd party app developers.

 

[maxsix]

I've been using Synology brand NAS systems for years. Well worth the expenditure of time and money. Extremely reliable indeed.

 

[monokakata]

With NAS units I'm reminded of what the photographer Thom Hogan wrote about tripods -- better to drop $1500+ on a decent setup than to keep buying inexpensive units that you quickly outgrow, or that don't work properly . . . because by the time you finally realize you need that "professional" tripod, you've already spent its price on stuff that didn't work right. And you end up having paid double what you'd have paid if you just bought the good rig at the beginning.

I started with an inexpensive NAS (D-Link DNS-323) to see what having an NAS was like. It more or less worked, but definitely not always and definitely not at high speed. Then I got an EMC/Iomega unit, and that too worked OK but would drop off the network, was annoyingly hard to upgrade . . . then I got tired of fighting with it and went to Synology (DS1412) and -- shades of Hogan -- everything worked right, and worked all the time, and still does. I've never sworn at it, something I can't say for my other units. I still have the EMC in service, but I honestly don't know why. It's a pain to use.

I should have gone Synology (or other top-tier vendor) at the beginning. I'd have spent less money.

 

[McCrab]

Have a Synology 1512 and acquired a 1815+ about three months ago. The 1512 has 3TB Hitachi drives running Synology's RAID - it has been running pretty much constantly since 2012 - never had an issue. The 1815 has 8 x 6TB HGST Enterprise drives running Synology RAID - no issues (yet!). These devices are very easy to set up; have a very good user interface; seemingly great security (can set up two step authentication if you want) and have tons of features (iTunes server, target drive for Time Machine), backup, AirPrint server, photo streaming, VPN, remote access etc etc etc.

So far, both have proven themselves to be bombproof. If you get one, I would also invest in some good hard drives (Hitachi or its newest incarnation HGST) would be my pick - and get a couple of extras in case you need to do a swap.

I have tested the reliability on a couple of occasions by pulling out a drive and swapping in a new one - rebuild takes some time, but it worked perfectly.

Synology (paired with HGST/Hitachi drives, ideally the enterprise version) have my unreserved recommendation.