Sorry, but I think this paints a rather unfairly negative picture of NASes!
I responded to the OP with his circumstances in mind. You seem to feel that I dissed NAS products in general.
> My NAS doesn't add complexity.
I think it does. Store your audio files on a NAS and now more things can go wrong.
Recently, after a cable internet outage, my wired router / firewall failed. That router was supplying NAT and DHCP functions for my home network. I re-configured my network so that an Apple wireless router now performed the NAT and DHCP functions (it had not done those functions before.) Those settings are buried in an advanced setting menu that I had not touched in several years. Once I got the Apple router re-configured, all our computers had a working internet connection. However, several days later when I wanted to transfer files from my personal PC to the dedicated MusicPC, I discovered that no other computers were visible in Windows Explorer. A bit of poking around indicated that Windows 7 decided that my personal PC was now connected to a new network. It marked that network as a public network and turned off discovery and file sharing. Easy to fix if you have the knowledge and troubleshooting skills.
This wasn't a problem with a NAS itself but it is a problem that may come up if you access audio files across a network. Windows file sharing, firewall s/w in the PC and the router you use all require setup and potentially troubleshooting later when you use a NAS to store your files.
> Also, look at Synology units for how they implement RAID.
> If one drive fails, you simply take it out and replace it, and the volume rebuilds itself automatically.
> How easier can it be to replace a failed disk without losing any data?
My wife supervised disaster recovery preparation in her company for years - mainframe, network, PCs and other communications. One tenet of such planning is that you have to rehearse the recovery process to find the glitches and showstoppers before you have a real disaster.
csimon, if you have actually removed a hard drive from your NAS, inserted a fresh drive and seen your NAS rebuild the array perfectly, then congratulations to you. If you have not done that, you have just proved that you can read web pages.
> Especially if you put SSDs in them. Look at the DS411slim for an extremely small and quiet box that can hold up to four 2.5" disks.
Did you read the OP at all? down4jazz is running out of room on a 2 TB USB drive. SSDs have no relevance to his situation (unless he is really cost insensitive) and four 2.5" drives don't seem relevant either.
> Cooling and Noise are definitely not issues these days.
Bullshit! If the OP wants more than 2 TB of storage, only 3.5" drives seem relevant. Cooling and noise are very relevant with 3.5" drives. Western Digital Green drives are pretty quiet but not silent. Seagate and Fijitsu drives are considerably noisier. What kind of drives is your NASA vendor using this month?
Put two 3.5" drives in a compact case and you should probably have a fan. So how big is that fan and how fast does it turn? (A large diameter fan turning slowly is more likely to be quiet than a small diameter fan spinning at a much higher speed.) More for a careful consumer to think about.
> OK, they might be, but simply don't buy a noisy box that runs hot! Check the specs.
> Synology units are extremely quiet and cool.
I certainly agree that the OP should be a careful, informed consumer. That requires the OP to learn more. Complexity again.
> however when we're talking about these sort of speeds, how many times are you or anyone else going to be frequently
> doing extremely large and complex operations on thousands of files at the same time,
> enough to warrant the difference in speed between a USB 3.0 device and a gigabit ethernet device?
The word backup comes to mind. Auto-import is next.
A gigabit connection may be slower that a USB 3 connection but low end NAS boxes often have really low throughput. Another thing for a careful consumer to check.
Doing a full backup on 2TB plus takes a long time. Speed matters.
> Sorry, I don't want to make this sound like an advert for Synology, they do have their quirks
> too which I don't like, but as far as I'm concerned your description of problems associated
> with NAS units just does not sound like my experience at all and are largely irrelevant.
> It also makes it easier to share data across the network to multiple devices.
I advised the OP to avoid the extra complexity unless he understands why he needs the functionality.
A controlled use of Windows file sharing gives me just the right amount of sharing without adding complexity or exposing my music files over my home network. down4jazz, think about your functional requirements and pick a simple, cost effective solution that meets those requirements.
Bill
