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New to XPEnology: weighing against a DS2413


bigmillz

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Hey everyone,

 

Been reading on here for a few days trying to make some decisions. I have a DS1511 now with 5x6TB drives (with 5x2TB drives sitting around), and it's filling up quickly. I'm considering a bigger NAS, and here is where I stand on some options:

 

1. Expand the DS1511 - would rather keep it all in one unit

2. Buy a DS2413 - great, but obviously the most costly. I love the form factor too.

3. Build a FreeNAS box - would be cool, but I don't have the tinker time for this. Also not being able to easily mix drives and expand (like with SHR) is a deal breaker. Yes I know even SHR2 with 12 drives is risky!

4. Build an XPEnology box - very tempting. I love the idea of a really beefed up Synology for cheap, and building it myself (I've built PCs and Windows file servers for the last 20 years).

 

So with the last option, here are my concerns, which I'm hoping somebody can help me alleviate!

1. Enclosure - I live in a 600sqft apartment, so I don't have a basement or room that I can devote to a giant case. Plus, I want to hold 12 drives. I'd really prefer a case that doesn't look like some obnoxious gamer thing, or a rackmount (would look a little funny behind the couch).

2. Existing SHR - can I transplant my array from my DS1511 to the new box?

3. Motherboard - I feel a lot of guys on here buy hardware, then spend a bunch of time working out the kinks. Is there a "gold-standard" that's known to work well?

4. SATA cards - Same as above, I'd need to add a lot of SATA ports...but I can't find anything concrete about cards that work.

5. Updates - can you update the OS in the same manner once it's up and running?

 

Thanks for any input guys! I'm interested, but I want to make sure it's for me first.

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1: For a case you could try this: http://www.scan.co.uk/products/thermalt ... se-w-o-psu it has 7x3.5" bays & 3x5.25 into which you could install something like this: http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B000L6KJ04/r ... L2D5ZE7IPI giving you 12 bays.

 

2: Yes you can move your existing SHR array into a new box

 

3 & 4: You'll have to do a bit of research on the motherboard, as for sata cards HP & LSI seem to be well supported. Have a look here: http://www.gnoboot.me/p/blog-page_6.html for a list of drivers included in gnoboot, note however that not all of them are included in nanoboot.

 

5: DSM updates aren't automatic & require some work.

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I have a DS414 which I love and just threw XPEnology on an old computer to play with it. I must admit, it is pretty nice!

 

Be sure to fully research every specific feature you use or may use w/ your Synology units & DSM. They may present problems in XPEnology. For instance, there is an issue right now where if you want to schedule your NAS to power-on at a certain time, it attempts to write to the bios which causes it to revert to defaults after boot since you don't have a Synology bios. I leave my NAS on 24x7 so this doesn't bother me, but it may be a concern to others.

 

If you're just using it for simple always-on storage at home, then I think you'll be happy. You may want to install it virtually if you have that option.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Thanks for the input! Sorry I didn't reply sooner, I guess I missed the subscription emails.

 

The hardware and updates are really my biggest concerns right now. As for packages on my 1511, I'm running SABnzbd, Transmission, Couchpotato, Sickbeard, Python, and Surveillance Station. They're all really important to me too.

 

Are there any builds known to work well? For example I know the Hackintosh community has a few of these that are ideal for folks who want a little less risk.

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