Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
What’s a good NAS and NAS software for home use with almost all Apple devices?
- Thread starter Luba
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
Yes on Networked device you have to make a share a folder that Time Machine will see. Plus time Machine is basic backup software at best and you create a share first so Time Machine doesn't take over the whole NAS!
Last edited:
You beat me to mentioning this haha. I've been running first FreeNAS and now TrueNAS for years now, and it has a slight but not impossible learning curve to set it all up... I love it. I echo the fact that it depends on what you wanna do with your NAS... I have mine setup as a network share and a Plex Media Server... its hardware isn't great (3rd Gen Core i7 with 32 GB of RAM and 8x4TB HDDs in essentially RAID 5; RAID Z1 is how TrueNAS classifies it) but it still slaps and does what I need it to do (playback media over the network locally and remotely) quite well. I don't have a lot of 4k content, but even 4k streams across any network I've thrown at it quite well for what it is. Content is totally watchable. With that said, pre-built NAS units like Synologies have their uses too for more streamlined/simple stuff... Building a computer for TrueNAS or similar is only really recommended for tinkerers or people that feel comfortable building computers like I am.
If fan noise is an issue for you then IME Synology is noisy. The front covers don't isolate the drive noise and the back fans are small. I tried a 2 drive version for a few weeks and then went back to Netgear. Isolated front covers, bigger fans (so run slower). Synology interface is nicer and slicker, but IME, one only uses it now and then. NASs are supposed to just run and not demand attention.
I'm using a pair of ReadyNAS 424s with 4TB WD Red drives.
I'm using a pair of ReadyNAS 424s with 4TB WD Red drives.
That's interesting.. I've never had a noise issue at all with my Synology. I would expect to have even more noise compared to newer models, as I have the DS213j, which is the 2013 model. It's been running for 9 years without any problems whatsoever, especially in regards to noise. This is the 2-drive model, which I have 2 3TB WE Red drives in it, which I slotted into it the day I bought the NAS. Those drives are running fine with no noise louder than the ambient noise in my office.
Which particular model of Synology were you using that you say was noisy?
BL.
It was a Diskstation DS220+. Maybe it's the difference between my quiet room and your office. I found the Synology noise to come from the front as well as the back (my units backed onto an acoustically "bright" wall). So do my Netgears do also, but the fan runs slower. Perhaps it's personal noise tolerance as well (I used to build very very quiet PCs).
Also the hum from the Netgears is at a lower frequency than the Synology - can make a noticeable difference in annoyance.
Update : Just checked the data sheets. The Synology fan is 92mm. The Netgear is 120mm. This will give a real difference in perceived noise.
Last edited:
Is a Mac with smb file sharing enable less good in any way? I am still back and forth between the two options.
I cannot verify if Apple capped the smb data transfer speed as some mentioned.
Last edited:
I have both a Mac mini server & Linux server (backup server). The smb transfer rates are pretty much the same. The same goes for transferring from Windows to the two machines.
So SMB under MacOS is not fully functional? What is not functioning when comparing with Synology's SMB?
Ant were from 108 MB/s to 34 MB/s. I find it really depends what I am copying to the server. Here is what a copy of a bunch of different size files from my office backups to my linux server. The source files are from a USB drive connect to my Mac mini server.
At the present I am archiving many small files, so yes they take along time. But it does not matter for me I setup these copy jobs up on these two servers and come back in a day. If I have more I set up the next job. There is also a few other machines connected to the Mac mini backing up hourly and it also host Time Machine backups and a VM running my DNS, so there is a lot going on. All my equipment is 1GB.