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I've been looking into the Synology NAS drives but I'm not sure which one to go for.
I would be looking for a 2 bay around 4tb in total and it would be used for my wifes business storing mainly photoshop files, personal photo storage, our itunes music libray and Mac/pc compatible. It would also be used in conjunction with our Sonos play5. I've been on the Synology site to compare the models but I'm still unsure of which one would be best. Any advice would be greatly appreciated
I've got the DS114 for that very purpose. If you want a two-bay, that would be the DS214, I think.
Yep. Any 2 bay will do. Eg ds214,215 or 216. 215j if you want to browse photos directly on device and utility have a lot. 216 if you want to encrypt your data.
If it is key stuff I would also have a usb drive backup of the NAS to protect against fire and ransomware
Ps, remember and buy nas compatible drives
Any will do fine for those tasks, just go for the one you can get the best deal on. Mine is a DS213 2-bay. Does all of that and much more i'm sure.
Get the highest spec you can afford. The speed makes a difference.
Thanks for the advice. Amazon seem to have some deals on the Synology NAS with WD Hardrives.
I'd echo the advice above about getting the best/fastest you can afford, I've got a "J" model and sometimes wish I'd gone for the faster more powerful non J or "+" models.
You could also consider a HP mini server, much more powerful but a bit more complicated
Just make sure that your backup policies are correct, RAID isn't backup!
For the one I was looking at recently (215j) it was cheaper to buy the enclosure then your own WD red drives (from Amazon) than the bundle (also from Amazon)
The number of bays is relevant to redundancy. I've got a 4 bay with 1TB in each and 1 is redundant, so I get 3TB storage and any one can fail but still keep the thing working until I get a replacement (which has already happened to me once). This is basically the redundancy benefit of RAID. Alternatively or as well you can use RAID for speed, but for NAS storage I wouldn't be too bothered about speed of the drives. Concentrate on processor and network speed.
If keeping it running is important, go for more bays and RAID redundancy.
If not, go for storage size. 4TB out of 2x 2TB drives in a 2 bay for example if you want 4TB.
As said, RAID is not a backup. It keeps systems going but it's live duplication across the discs and a corrupted or deleted file is duplicated as well. Backups are therefore still important.
The entry level models are very short on CPU power so weigh up what processor grunt you need before ordering. I've got a DS212j and also an xpenology system running on a HP microserver. The xpenology setup is way more powerful than the dedicated NAS unit, but there is quite a big CPU difference between the two 🙂
Bung a couple of large WD red drives in the box and set them up using the Synology SHR RAID format.
There's a calculator available to show what capacity you will get given various configurations.
https://www.synology.com/en-us/support/RAID_calculator
IF you are planning on running Plex to serve films on it then check that the NAS you choose is able to transcode on the fly. (Not an issue if the NAS is just storage).
Transcoding is only necessary if the player can't play the content by direct streaming. I use Plex streamed to my Samsung Smart TV with the Plex app and turn off the transcoding as it adds delay while it transcodes. The TV can cope with just about all the formats I've used. That said I made sure I got a decent processor in the TV. Alternatively, something like an Amazon Fire stick should have enough grunt.