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Synology NAS or Build your own


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I saw on craigslist someone selling a Synology 4 port for $$350 -400 and I was wondering if I should get that or build my own server and just boot Synology off the stick or SSD and save some $$$.

 

What do people suggest? If i buy a real synology i am limited to 4 drives, yet if i build my own i could have multiple SATA 3 drive support. Any suggestions or recommendations?

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I'll let you in on how I decided. I have good friend (we both do IT/IS as part of our daily job) bought a Synology 1813+ in late November. His initial outlay was $1000 for the DS, then another $1200 (at the time) for 8 3Tb WD red drives. At work I have a DS 410, and I also have an old CS 406 here at home. From my experience, Synology is a bullet-proof system, but is definitely limited by the Ram/CPU in each machine. As an example, I can easily serve files and run Transmission in the 406 but if I try to add "Sickbeard" it's too much (bogs the CS down). Add to that the high (IMO) initial price and I wanted to find a less expensive way to get the DSM software working for me.

 

I tried a few other alternatives (e.g. FreeNAS and Ubuntu), but found that Xpenology worked great for the hardware I had, and I was able to finagle the power usage to not to be greatly different from my CS 406. It will take a long time to make up (in the difference on the electric bill) what i would have spent on a 5 disk DS, much less on what he spent on his 8 disk unit. This was the deciding factor for me, and as a bonus, an old 4-core 775 socket MB and chip I had lying around seems to have a great deal more power than his 1813... He's still trying to get Sickbeard and Plex running reliably.

 

I will say that Xpenology (or FreeNAS) are defiantly for someone with at least a passing knowledge of Linux (command line) and building one's own systems.

Hope this helps your decision. HD.

-who thinks that $350-400 is the cost of a /new/ DS413j...

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Built my own with a SilverStone Precision PS07 case and an Asus E35M1-M pro (5 SATA / miniITX / AMD). The case allows for more than 5 drives.

It is very quiet, using 35W approx when using it.

It will however not be powerful enough i think for transcoding, but this is not my use case.

For streaming to my XBMC via CPL plugs a 10GB HD movie it is totally ok.

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I saw on craigslist someone selling a Synology 4 port for $$350 -400 and I was wondering if I should get that or build my own server and just boot Synology off the stick or SSD and save some $$$.

 

What do people suggest? If i buy a real synology i am limited to 4 drives, yet if i build my own i could have multiple SATA 3 drive support. Any suggestions or recommendations?

 

If you want a NAS that takes just a few minutes to get running and will run quietly for years without requiring further thought, get a Synology. If that's you, but you are severely budget constrained, consider buying a used 12 or 13 series Synology on eBay - just wait for a decent deal. On the other hand, if you like to tinker, then building your own Xpenology is quite fun, and you can get more power per dollar spent... if you don't include the cost of your time.

 

I ended up doing both. I have a Synology DS1813+ and I have an Xpenology that I tinker with.

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I just got a RS812RP+ ( 4 drive) rackmount for $300 no drives but i already had drives. I think that's a good deal so at least i have one stable system that i can upgrade without having to migrate data etc. everytime a new version came out.

 

That was my logic, it has 4 GB ram i believe. I just wanted to use it for some movies, and pictures backup. Don't really do much encoding etc. maybe I should look into that but have no time. Its mostly for home backup, storage, and instead of having my 4 year old swapping dvd's out and getting them stuck just having it on the nas so i can use my IP TV to play off it.

 

i do have other hardware i might just use for the NAS as well without VMWARE. I think VMWARe is slowing down my connection and wasn't happy with performance even on my WD 3TB Red drives SATA 3 / 7200RPM.

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i do own several nas systems...it all started with an old bufallo terastation, then switched to an qnap ts_509pro (with cpu & rammod), later i got an qnap ts412 and ts119pII.... and last i got an ds1812+.....so over the years i did spent soo much money on the pre-build storages..mostly i swapped because i needed more space and didn't wanted to throw away the old drives..

....now i did set up an 16bay 3u chassis with an decent HBA and 10gig nic for about 600-800€....running dsm in it and be happy...

so my conclusion is as follows...

if u need the system for business go and buy an original one...with service contract

(qnap wanted to have ~600€ for a sparepart after warranty time!! that was the last time i bought qnap product)

 

if you want to "play" around and know how to read forum and search the web for answers go for xpenology...

 

even "old" hw is powerfull enough and if your system maybe uses more power than a new one..ok...calculate the time the new system needs to save the buying costs...

 

so my go for future is this lovely xpenology!!

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