NAS DLNA hardware suggestion

[alphatech]

I would like to purchase a NAS that supports the following features:

Price around $250
Has minimum of two bays, ideally 4 bays with no hard drives in it. (I alreadyhave 4 500 Gig HD)
Supports backup, DLNA, and connects via ethernet and or USB port
Would be nice if it has a web interface and other cool protocols.

I know there is great knowledge in this board, I appreciate any suggestions.

Thanks,
Aldo

[Pete]

Aldo,

If you are into a DIY thing you can build one.

That said most 4 base basic NAS boxes (with no drives) will most likely be over $250.

A 4 drive case style as pictured (not 8 drives) would be reasonably priced.

[alphatech]

Thanks Pete, I spent few hours looking for some already made, you right they are around $250. I was trying to figure out from the group if they have a good experience with some of them since they are all similar.

Aldo

[sparkman]

Hi Aldo,

I have a couple of QNAP TS2329 Pro NAS boxes (one primary and one backup). These are the predecessor to the TS269 Pro that's currently available. Slightly above your price range, but I've been very happy with them. They have a good web interface but you can also access them using "bbackdoor" tools. They have a lot of good apps/protocols. I use the DLNA server (Twonky), the Squeezebox server, SMB file shares and a few others, but there's much more available than that.

Cheers
Al

[waninae39]

i have been using qnap devices for many years now, i am very happy
if your budget can afford it, i suggest 4 bay devices as a minimum,
use RAID 5 and you will get better performance and HD free space that raid 1. do not use a system without raid.
all hd eventually fail

on one qnap device, we keep all our music and videos. and TV and receives around the house are networked and through DLNA, they can all play directly from the NAS

[sooty]

[jon00]

As an alternative to NAS, take a look at the HP ProLiant N40L home server. This together with a copy of WHS 2011 will give you everything that you need.

[Pete]

Aldo,

I have seen the HP Proliant N40L for as little as $180 USD on sale; which is a really good price.

[alphatech]

Thanks all, all great suggestions. I like all the systems mentioned below, we use Qnap and I was looking at Synology as another option. I have 4 of 500GB hd and being on the DLNA forum I heard lot of great stuff that we can do with that technology. In my mind I was trying to combine both the NAS and the DLNA to be used for backup, home automation and etc. I would like something that is low power, has four bay and has all the new technology with a badget of around $200 I do not want to buy something that does not have that or that and I'm very restrictive on budget.

Any other experiences with these would be appreciated,
Aldo

[drozwood90]

Aldo,

I've nothing to offer in your price range.

Pete, about hos much was that case going for that you posted the picture to? Or is that the one you got as a sample to do the review on? If so, how has that experience been going? Did you settle on an OS for it?

--Dan

[Pete]

The "sample" 8 drive case was a tad over $150. That is the one I purchased and attached in the picture. I built two basic OS's for it. Windows and BSD on two separate pieces of media. That and I still have an issue. The issue is that I have to tell it to look at the IBM1015 card for first boot; wierd BIOS (cross flashed) thing. Warm boot afterwards is good. First AMD BIOS wouldn't recognize the IBM M1015 card at all. I thought it was me; then figured out it was the BIOS. In fact the 8xPCiE card / BIOS is a bit fussy. BUT it works fine with "high end" server type motherboards.

I have to look at the original prices from the email for exact numbers.

BTW there is no 8 drive NAS box with space for an mITX motherboard like the one pictured in existance that I know of. The whole case width is a tad bigger than the 8 drive cage in it. The height and depth are the same size as an mITX board. That and the extra cooling fans in the back with a server type power supply on top make it an ideal roll your own OS "do all" NAS box. You have to go very slow while building it as its tight; hence using the IBM M1015 Sata 1 to 4 port cables (SATA3 4-Port SFF) made it extremely easy. The power and SATA cables go to the backplane of the 8 drive cage along with the power cables for the two large fans. That and the top height from the drive cage to the cover is about the same height as a small footprint server style power supply. (very tight). The boot drives sit adjacent to the motherboard next to a PCiE extender for the M1016 SATA3 controller. Again another tight fit. I was thinking of using an SSD small footprint SATA drive instead of a 2.5" SATA drive. The AMD E35M1-Pro Motherboard has a new BIOS GUI which is graphical and difficult to get used to (for me) and works with the built in flash or an EFI boot. Pages and pages of a variety of configurations which is good. I am not used to seeing so much in a BIOS configuration; more just pages of text versus pages of GUI's.

[alphatech]

What you all think about this?

http://www.amazon.com/D-Link-DNS-343.../dp/B0019VSU88

Thanks,
Aldo

[dcorsus]

I had a buffalo NAS up till a few months ago that kept on crapping out on me. I bought this (http://www.storagereview.com/iomega_...px4300d_review) IOMega PX4-300D device at Fry's, it had a 200$ mail in rebate so I bought it for 499$, so not cheap but it works great!

Dirk

[chewie]

Honestly, having used several NAS devices in the past my question to you would be, if all you are looking for is a file server, why not just buy an external e-SATA drive array and hang it off your HS server? I am doing this with on my HTPC running Windows 7, and after making a couple of minor registry tweaks it has been flawless. Not to mention the fact that since it is actually Windows it can participate in Homegroup or workgroups with native file permissions instead of using Samba or some other form of reverse engineered CIFS protocol.

[dcorsus]

Honestly, having used several NAS devices in the past my question to you would be, if all you are looking for is a file server, why not just buy an external e-SATA drive array and hang it off your HS server? I am doing this with on my HTPC running Windows 7, and after making a couple of minor registry tweaks it has been flawless. Not to mention the fact that since it is actually Windows it can participate in Homegroup or workgroups with native file permissions instead of using Samba or some other form of reverse engineered CIFS protocol.

If you are talking about music content I would agree. DLNA support pictures and video and it is not just about discovering and cataloging songs, a good DLNA server will give you the option to transcode video or pictures to the right resolution, format and size of the device you want to render it on. Having that said, Serviio or some other freeware is just a program on that HS PC that just does that, provided the PC CPU has enough horsepower

Dirk