Recommend a home media NAS?

Ste-

Is it better to install FFP when I first open the thing or set it up first, Partition the drives etc then isntall FFP ?

T-K-O

Question for experience NAS users.

Is it better to leave the disks running 24/7 or is it best practice to schedule power down when not in use?

28064212

Ste- wrote: »

Is it better to install FFP when I first open the thing or set it up first, Partition the drives etc then isntall FFP ?

Partition first. Unless you're using FFP on a stick, it's installed to the drive, so partitioning would wipe your install

SmithySeller

IMO, when it comes to NAS, I seldom look past Synology.

T-K-O wrote: »

Question for experience NAS users.

Is it better to leave the disks running 24/7 or is it best practice to schedule power down when not in use?

Good question. IMO I would leave them running 24/7, buts that's very circumstantial. I'd also be careful about the disks I put in, some are more suitable for NAS. Have a read about Western Digital Red Drives, they are built for how a NAS functions and give a lot more consideration to going to sleep and waking back up. From memory, a two drive Synology Home NAS uses only 3/4watts when not in use. Pretty good IMO.

mac_daddy

I recently went down the dedicated NAS path myself and can without doubt recommend the items below, particularly useful if you want a RAID setup:

Synology NAS - http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B005TOXMAW/ref=oh_details_o06_s00_i01?ie=UTF8&psc=1

2 x WD Red 2TB http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B008JJLZ7G/ref=oh_details_o06_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I leave mine running 24/7 and can access it whenever I want from anywhere.

T-K-O

SmithySeller wrote: »

IMO, when it comes to NAS, I seldom look past Synology.



Good question. IMO I would leave them running 24/7, but I'd be careful about the disks I put in, some are more suitable for NAS. Have a read about Western Digital Red Drives, they are built for how a NAS functions and give a lot more consideration to going to sleep and waking back up. From memory, a two drive Synology Home NAS uses only 3/4watts when not in use. Pretty good IMO.

At the moment I power down from 3am to 6:30am, to be honest I wasn't 100% sold on the benefit of this. Thanks for reply, I'll check those WD Red disks.

unkel

The cheapest Synology 2 bay NAS is £127 on Amazon. Still a lot of money or is it worth it compared to the £54 Zyxel?

mac_daddy

I would say the Synology is definitely worth the investment. There is a reason why the Zyxel has dropped so much in price, look at the reviews it has on Amazon. Better to play it safe rather than entering a world of pain!

SmithySeller

unkel wrote: »

The cheapest Synology 2 bay NAS is £127 on Amazon. Still a lot of money or is it worth it compared to the £54 Zyxel?

I guess it all depends. But the Synology is very feature rich, but will you use them all? Its also very intuitive, and has good support.
Performance comes into it also, these are last years models, but a quick search reveals the Synology pretty much out-performing most NAS's out there at a comparative price point;

http://uk.hardware.info/reviews/2667/9/synology-ds212j-ds212-and-rs212-reviewed-performance-intel-naspt

Ste-

28064212 wrote: »

Partition first. Unless you're using FFP on a stick, it's installed to the drive, so partitioning would wipe your install

Was going to use FFP on a stick. Would I need to connected each time I want to install something ?

28064212

Ste- wrote: »

Was going to use FFP on a stick. Would I need to connected each time I want to install something ?

Haven't used the stick option, but I would have thought it always needed to be connected. Installs would be made to the stick, so you wouldn't be able to run the programs without it connected.

Again, that's just AFAIK

Ste-

28064212 wrote: »

Haven't used the stick option, but I would have thought it always needed to be connected. Installs would be made to the stick, so you wouldn't be able to run the programs without it connected.

Again, that's just AFAIK

Maybe I'd be better off installing it to HDD then.
Thanks for the advice. Still waiting on my disks to arrive from amazon. Fingers crossed Monday.

Thanks for the advice.

nedd

Looking to get a NAS myself. The Zyxel seems like a great deal, I'm sure a Synology would be a better option but I have serious budget issues.

How are people finding the 325? I want to mainly use it for DLNA Video and torrent downloads.

Thanks.

gavmcg92

Can the drives on the Zyxel NSA320 be removed and replaced down the line or is the device sealed like a standard hard drive?

BenEadir

gavmcg92 wrote: »

Can the drives on the Zyxel NSA320 be removed and replaced down the line or is the device sealed like a standard hard drive?

Yes, the drive can be removed and replaced. When mine arrived the drive was separate and had to be installed. It was a 30 second job.

Ben

gavmcg92

BenThere wrote: »

Yes, the drive can be removed and replaced. When mine arrived the drive was separate and had to be installed. It was a 30 second job.

Ben

Cheers ben. What drives were they? Are they own brand?

BenEadir

gavmcg92 wrote: »

Cheers ben. What drives were they? Are they own brand?

Can't remember!! I know mine was a 2TB but that's all I remember I'm afraid. I just unpacked it, clicked it in and away she went

Ben

nedd

BenThere wrote: »

Can't remember!! I know mine was a 2TB but that's all I remember I'm afraid. I just unpacked it, clicked it in and away she went

Ben

I just ordered a 325 without hdds and I bought a Seagate separately