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Author Topic: Thinking of making a change  (Read 21507 times)

Cliff

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Thinking of making a change
« on: July 08, 2010, 08:49:05 AM »
I've been using the DSN-323 for a few years now. I originally picked it up thinking I could stop adding drives to my home PC's and just add to a central location. Now I realize the nas isn't quite fast enough when I'm trying to move multi-GB movies around.
I also wanted to backup the PC's. This is nothing short of impossible with the nas
I'd like a reliable music server. Yes, the DNS has one, but it is too slow for my large collection.
I would now like a media server so my WDTV Live box can access video across the LAN. It works, but the uPNP server on the DNS doesn't serve subtitles.

So, I'm now considering moving to a Windows Home Server solution instead. Everything I've read says it can do all this easily, plus the transfer performance is close to what you'd expect on a GB LAN.

Any thoughts from anyone, considerations or things I might have missed are welcome.
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gunrunnerjohn

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Re: Thinking of making a change
« Reply #1 on: July 08, 2010, 09:10:05 AM »
I'd consider a higher end NAS, the savings in power consumption will pay for it in sort order.  Windows Home Server requires a full-up PC, but something like a Synology DS209 (which I have) will consume a fraction of the power and offer the performance and capability you desire.
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Microsoft MVP - Windows Desktop Experience
Remember: Data you don't have two copies of is data you don't care about!
PS: RAID of any level is NOT a second copy.

fordem

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Re: Thinking of making a change
« Reply #2 on: July 08, 2010, 12:07:17 PM »
Quote from: Cliff on July 08, 2010, 08:49:05 AM
So, I'm now considering moving to a Windows Home Server solution instead. Everything I've read says it can do all this easily, plus the transfer performance is close to what you'd expect on a GB LAN.

WHS transfer performance will actually depend on what hardware you're running WHS on - so don't let anybody tell you what to expect, unless you give them the hardware spec you plan to use, or they give you the hardware spec their performance numbers were achieved with.

I was a part of Microsoft's WHS public beta and the transfer numbers I saw with a Realtek gigabit NIC were mediocre beyond belief, even worse than my DNS-323, in fact, not even up to 100 mbps levels - I tracked the problem down to Microsoft's native Windows drivers for that particular NIC and was able to double the throughput by using the drives that shipped (on a diskette) with the NIC, but, at it's best, that box could not transfer data any faster than my DNS-323.

Yes - I was running the beta on older hardware that barely met the hardware requirements for WHS, and would no doubt have seen better performance had I used more capable hardware, but then that pushes the price up, and the power consumption up, and guess what - my DNS-323 does everything I need, include backup my PCs and without loading any software agents onto the PC as is required by WHS.
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RAID1 is for disk redundancy - NOT data backup - don't confuse the two.

Cliff

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Re: Thinking of making a change
« Reply #3 on: July 08, 2010, 04:44:08 PM »
I have an Acer Revo ATOM 330 that gets around 60MB/sec. To give you a quick comparison, moving 60GB from the DNS-323 takes a little over an hour. Same transfer takes about 7 1/2 minutes with the ATOM. This is while the media server is running.

Couldn't I expect similar performance with WHS?
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Cliff

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Re: Thinking of making a change
« Reply #4 on: July 08, 2010, 04:46:06 PM »
Quote from: gunrunnerjohn on July 08, 2010, 09:10:05 AM
something like a Synology DS209 (which I have) will consume a fraction of the power and offer the performance and capability you desire.
Thanks GunnerJohn. I did a bit of poking around, and the biggest difference between the 209 and the 209+ seems to be the inclusion of an eSATA port, and a whack of dough.

How does the DS210J compare to the 209? The 210J is considerably less expensive.
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Cliff

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Re: Thinking of making a change
« Reply #5 on: July 08, 2010, 04:56:16 PM »
After looking at the amazing gallery of products for the Synology I think the DLink folks need to see what their competition is doing.

http://www.synology.com/us/products/features/index.php
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gunrunnerjohn

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Re: Thinking of making a change
« Reply #6 on: July 08, 2010, 05:06:55 PM »
The DS210J is a lower end model.  Here's a comparison of various models: http://www.synology.com/enu/products/2bay_perf.php
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Microsoft MVP - Windows Desktop Experience
Remember: Data you don't have two copies of is data you don't care about!
PS: RAID of any level is NOT a second copy.

Cliff

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Re: Thinking of making a change
« Reply #7 on: July 08, 2010, 05:30:43 PM »
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gunrunnerjohn

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Re: Thinking of making a change
« Reply #8 on: July 08, 2010, 05:45:51 PM »
Well, based on the reviews I read, I think I'd stick with the Synology. :D

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductReview.aspx?Item=N82E16859321013
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Microsoft MVP - Windows Desktop Experience
Remember: Data you don't have two copies of is data you don't care about!
PS: RAID of any level is NOT a second copy.

Cliff

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Re: Thinking of making a change
« Reply #9 on: July 08, 2010, 06:08:49 PM »
I hear you - this is NOT an easy decision. Just curious, is your setup mostly windows PC's with typical family stuff like photos, music and movies?
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gunrunnerjohn

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Re: Thinking of making a change
« Reply #10 on: July 08, 2010, 06:16:54 PM »
Yep, I have two 1.5TB drives in a RAID-1 setup.  FWIW, the Acer doesn't offer RAID, which I find a bit surprising.  It's also Windows Home Server based and a little rough around the edges from what I read.
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Microsoft MVP - Windows Desktop Experience
Remember: Data you don't have two copies of is data you don't care about!
PS: RAID of any level is NOT a second copy.

klein

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Re: Thinking of making a change
« Reply #11 on: July 08, 2010, 06:32:30 PM »
hey cliff, another brand to look at is QNAP, i had a 323 for my first NAS and then due to speed and other issues i looked at other brands ... i ended up buying a QNAP 219P and it was around $300 and then i just purchased the QNAP 459-Pro because they are so good and fast and have a huge amount of features ... so just to give you another option to the brand mix and make the decision more complicated ...
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Cliff

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Re: Thinking of making a change
« Reply #12 on: July 08, 2010, 06:43:26 PM »
Damn! You're right. Actually, I just recommended a QNAP for a client but for some reason figured the QNap was beyond the budget of a home setup.

Problem is the QNap Pro compares at $957.00 compared to mid $300 for Acer or Synlogic.

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klein

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Re: Thinking of making a change
« Reply #13 on: July 08, 2010, 07:17:27 PM »
hey cliff, the 459 pro is around the 957 mark, but the 219p is no where near that i think i paid around $300 Canadian ... i had a toss up between the synlogic and qnap and decided on qnap and have been very happy ... gunrunnerjohn decided on the synlogic and loves his so they are both good and for a little more much better then the 323 as has been explained but the ultimate decision is up to you ...

the one big thing that made me change brands was the firmware update frequency, i know when i bought it what it was capable of and was happy but it is always nice when a company will stand behind there product and make it better if they can which both of the other companies do on a regular basis.  1 firmware update a year that doesn't address old issues isn't enough for me ...
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Cliff

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Re: Thinking of making a change
« Reply #14 on: July 09, 2010, 09:36:22 PM »
GunnerJohn and yourself have convinced me to stay with the NAS solution and bypass the WHS for now.

Looks like I'm now down to a QNAP 219P ($372.00) vs the Synology 209 ($340.00). Could also consider the QNAP 210 for $311.00. I have a buddy that would like me to install a NAS in his small office for automated backups, and I figured I'd get him the same box as myself.

Does either the synology or the QNAP offer a synchronization feature? I have multiple PC's in my home, and I'd like additions, modifications and deletions to be propagated to the other PC's.
From what I've read the 219P probably compares more to the 209+ on the performance side, so it should perform significantly better than the 209. The 219P also has 2 eSata ports.

From the comparison here: http://www.tomsguide.com/us/NAS-LaCie-Synology,review-1429-4.html
I think I'm leaning towards the QNap 219P
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