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Thread ID: 129197	2013-02-09 05:10:00	NAS in a box or build my own?	Tukapa (62)	Press F1

Post ID	Timestamp	Content	User
1327220	2013-02-09 05:10:00	Hi team Now that I'm getting through ripping my blu-ray movies (uncompressed) I'm starting to think about the best bet for storage of all my media (bearing in mind I have yet to do all my standard DVD's and 400 odd CD's into FLAC). I simply don't have enough room at the moment and need a solution that I can bung on the home network and access via XBMC in other areas of the house. So - I was looking at the NAS in a box solution and see that the Synology ones come with a good reputation but the Synology DiskStation DS413j (www.ascent.co.nz) is a bit more pricy than I had hoped. Then I saw this D-Link DNS-345 Sharecenter Quattro NAS device (www.ascent.co.nz) on special for quite a bit cheaper and after checking out a couple of reviews it seems to be a solid piece of kit. Then I thought I would look into building my own. I have an old tower case floating around, I have a redundant 500GB laptop hard drive which I could use for a system drive so I priced the remaining components which include a motherboard (www.ascent.co.nz) with 6 SATA3 connectors as well as 4 x USB 3.0, an AMD A4 5300 CPU, 4GB Ram and an Antec 450W PSU which came to a total of $310. I figure chuck in FreeNAS and I have saved myself $110 off the D-Link (and $360 off the Synology) which I can put towards 4 x 3TB Hard Drives. Now perhaps the simplicity (and quietness) of the NAS in a box is worth a few of those dollars saved so I'm interested to hear from anyone who has built their own or has other experience with this sort of thing. Thanks.	Tukapa (62)
1327221	2013-02-09 05:58:00	I'd say build your own. That way you can upgrade bits (and especially OS) as tech and your requirements change. Often the 'box' solutions get no love from the vendor once it is sold, has a custom OS tied to specific hardware, and you end up with something that doesn't do what you want anymore.	fred_fish (15241)
1327222	2013-02-09 06:17:00	Personally, I'm a fan of the Seagate BlackArmor series. While building your own is certainly worth looking at, for example that motherboard you've linked doesn't support Raid 5, so if you want any redundancy you'll have to go Raid 10, and only be able to utilise 50% of your total disk space.	inphinity (7274)
1327223	2013-02-09 07:44:00	Build your own, you have more options than a premade - looking at that D-Link DNS-345 , its actually not that cheap - The spec's say NO Storage come with it, so by the time you purchase a couple of X capacity TB drives its not that cheap.	wainuitech (129)
1327224	2013-02-09 08:08:00	chuck amahi on it as it has greyhole disk pooling. While not a true raid its similar in how it can be set up, it also has outlook integration and with hda connect you have your own vpn	gary67 (56)
1327225	2013-02-09 08:21:00	Definitely DIY. With things like the Raspberry Pi (If you don't need high speed and are cool with USB HDD's) or any Atom box running something like FreeNAS, they're a *breeze* to setup and well worth the investment if you ask me :)	Chilling_Silence (9)
1327226	2013-02-09 08:40:00	I built a few DIY solutions but in the end brought a Synology DS212j, uses bugger all power, has an awesome UI, and "just works".	Alex B (15479)
1327227	2013-02-09 09:46:00	General comment, not aimed at any post or one -- Lately there's been a few post with "it just works" mentioned - when it turns to sh1t - does it "just fix its self" :p	wainuitech (129)
1327228	2013-02-09 10:24:00	I'd also say DIY. I built one a few years ago. Actually just converted my old PC when I bought a new one. Installed Debian without a GUI, set up samba and as backup storage I was away. After a while I went for a Synology 108j - which was good, in a way, but when I got big ideas about setting up websites and remote access etc. I found it just didn't cut the mustard. I think the operating systems in NAS's are generally pretty limited. If they had a proper linux system installed they'd be far more "tweakable". I wouldn't put them down totally, but if you want flexibility then build. I have, again, lot of fun doing it, a total learning curve and the cost of the new machine I think would be cheaper than what I paid for the Synology about 4 years ago - it's sitting in a cupboard at the moment while I figure out what I'm going to do with it:D. I took the hard drive out of it to use in my new project.	jcr1 (893)
1327229	2013-02-09 11:08:00	Actually now you mention it, I setup a pcengines Alix system for a company with 2x USB HDD's almost 3 years ago now. It's literally locked away in a safe at this company.... been rebooted several times when power / UPS failed, but still just keeps on ticking away... Can't recall if it's running FreeNAS or just straight debian but yeah, good times :D	Chilling_Silence (9)
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