Reddit mentions: The best network attached storage products

> Actually, one of the upgrades was an Adaptec SATA card and a couple of 10,000 RPM Western Digital 150 GB SATA Velocoraptors. So I got that going for me.

Ow right, that's something I did read as well and forgot to change. Well, if you have a SATA HDD, you can install the HDDs into the new system without any issues and not lose data or use the same adapter cable I linked to get those files into the new PC / HDD / SSD.

> I'm not going to wait for CES kind of things because there will always be some incremental change that's just around the corner. I'm mainly interested in prices right now.

True, but well! Don't say I didn't warn you when in ~1 month time, there will be some fancy new parts available for less money.
I do understand that sometimes, you don't want to wait and that's absolutely fine.

> I'm in San Diego so I could drive up to MicroCenter if I have time. Is there really that big a savings? I'll look into it.

It's roughly 1 hour and 20 minutes drive, so fairly long trip. Perhaps you can do something else over there right away when you go there?
It depends, but it can be some nice savings for sure. Especially the CPU + motherboard combo deal that they offer is very nice, because their CPU prices are extremely awesome already.

i7-6800K is $340 at MicroCenter that's $40 off compared to Newegg & Amazon. But you also get a $30 discount if you buy a compatible motherboard there too. So that adds up quiet nicely.
I don't know how much gas you've got to spend to drive 2 and a half hours. But it's something to consider.
They also have other products there that are fairly cheap and they also sometimes price match with Amazon (and/or Newegg). So you can potentially pick up a lot of stuff at your MicroCenter and not having to worry about shipping times and damage.

> I don't really have a budget for a monitor, keyboard, and mouse. I haven't really thought about it.

Okay well a high quality monitor is something I would recommend for your work. This can quickly go above $300 for just the monitor alone.
You probably don't need a high quality keyboard and mouse, but I do recommend a mechanical keyboard to most people if the budget is available. It's just such an awesome and great typing experience, that will benefit you as well. You type better and get less strain on your fingers, because the mechanical switches don't require as much force to register the key strokes.
So for the keyboard and mouse, you're looking at a ~$100-125 as well if you go for a mechanical keyboard. Else you could get away with ~$30-40.

> I was actually looking at a Brother printer. I forget the model now but it was 11" x 17" all in one.

No idea, I am no printer expert haha! I actually just realized that the Brother that I linked above does not print in color, woops? I found this alternative which is a slow printer (6 color pages per minute), but does the job very well. So if you're not in a hurry to print, this would work very well.

> I've got them configured as a RAID 1 because I have lost a disk or two and the last time I had to send it out to one of those data recovery places. I realize there can still be errors but I do sleep better. I've thought about the NAS backup but I guess I've been too lazy to actually do it.

Okay, understandable! I will suggest to just get a NAS! Do you have any idea how much storage you would need? I mean, prices for HDDs dropped a lot and you can get, 8TB for $240 that's $0.03/GB. or $30/TB.
You could also get 4TB of high performance storage at MicroCenter for $120.

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As for a NAS, a NAS is a mini PC with storage. So they're not super cheap, depending on the speed that you want and if you like to expand the thing or not. I personally have a 2TB non expandable "budget" option that is not even close to full yet for our job.
But if you spend more money, you can get more storage and with 2 drives, so that you can RAID1 them.

> That's a pretty good idea to keep a spare video card around. Maybe I'll do that instead of having it on the motherboard. Does that mean the processor will be more powerful?

Yes, the CPU that I linked above from MicroCenter is a very powerful one and only available for the "prosumer" platform from Intel. The X99 / 2011-3 socket. These CPUs do not have on-board graphics compared to the mainstream ones that do have on-board graphics.
The big difference between the Xeon suggested earlier and the 6800K is the core count. That Xeon is a quad core, where as the 6800K is a hexa core. For programs that are well multi-threaded, this means that the performance will be better on the 6800K.

> I definitely get it about the filters and do try to keep everything dust free.

Perfect! I mean, all modern cases have at least solid enough dust filtration these days, so it's just a matter of cleaning it 2 to 4 times a year, depending on how dusty your room gets.

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I'll start working on my suggestion right now!

I'll take a crack at this.

Based on the limited financial resources available, and a boss who seems unwilling to spend the proper amount of money to fix this the right way, here is what I would recommend as a bare minimum solution to tackle this challenge.

I fully acknowledge that there are better ways to solve this problem. But in the absence of logic on the part of an unreasonable boss...

To accomplish this task with some possibility of success, both software and hardware is needed.

Software - Adobe Creative Cloud Photography Package

• $10 a month and can cost as little as $90 a year with online discounts/sales that pop up from time to time.
  This subscription will give you access to Adobe Bridge, a digital asset management software that will catalog all of your tif files. Bridge supports other photo formats as well. Bridge will help manage the data once it is stored properly on network storage.
  
  Hardware - Synology DS2415+
  
  tldr; Buy a Synology 2415+, a USB 3.0 Hard Drive Dock. Create an SHR-2 volume on your existing drives, move data around, leverage Amazon Glacier (or whichever solution you prefer) for offsite backups. Problem solved
  
  Amazon or B&H
  
  
• Roughly $1400 retail cost. You can score this device tax free at bhphotovideo.com assuming you don't work in New York State.
  
  
• Priced at the consumer level, this network attached storage device will provide you with enterprise level backup features that are easy to set up. With the Synology, you will be able to create a large data volume where you can store all of your files while reusing many of your existing drives. It will also allow you to leverage cheap cloud storage solutions like Amazon Glacier to offsite backups of your files.
  
  
• The key to setting this up correctly starts with some planning. Let's assume that you will be forced to reuse many of the hard drives you already possess. With that in mind, you will want to give yourself lots of margin for error. Therefore, I suggest you set up the data volume in SHR-2 mode. This is a software-based hybrid RAID system that will provide redundancy in the event of up to two drive failures. More info about SHR-2 can be found here
  
  
• One of the benefits of SHR is that it will allow you to use different sized hard drives (i.e. reuse your existing drives). The challenge is that SHR-2 requires four drives at a minimum to start and they will need to be clear of data. I suggest you start with the smallest drives since it minimizes the amount of data you need to find a home for elsewhere. You will ultimately remove these drives from the volume anyway since the ultimate goal is to use only the largest drives in your possession. But you have to start somewhere.
  
  
• Once you've chosen your four starter drives and have moved off the data, PERFORM A SECTOR BY SECTOR TEST EACH AND EVERY ONE OF THEM. Seagate and Western Digital make software testing tools that will write ones and zeros to every sector of a hard drive. This is a sure fire way to weed out hard drives that might fail you out of the gate. Once you've tested your drives, create your SHR-2 volume but DO NOT start copying data yet.
  
  
• This next step is probably the most important part - setting up offsite backups. Synology's Hyper Backup tool supports several cloud storage solutions including Dropbox, Amazon Drive, HubiC, and others. There are also third party options like CrashPlan and BackBlaze that can be integrated via community packages. Regardless of which backup method you choose, DO THIS NOW. Automate the backup process and it will save your ass if something bad happens along the way.
  
  
• Assuming your offsite backup solution is in place, start copying data from your external drives via a USB 3.0 dock onto your newly created volume. Once the contents of each drive are copied over to the SHR-2 volume, erase and test each drive (1s and 0s test), then expand the SHR-2 volume by adding the drive you just erased and tested. Rinse and repeat this process until all 12 bays are occupied with drives. Remember, work with your smallest drives first then work your way up to the larger capacity drives. Once all of the drive bays are occupied, you will need to alter this process by replacing the SMALLEST drives in your volume with larger drives as you continue to migrate your data. This process will increase the size of your volume, therefore making more space for more data.
  
  A few things to look out for
  
  
• SHR-1 is similar to SHR-2 except it only provides redundancy for one drive failure.
  
• SHR-1 CANNOT BE upgraded to SHR-2. Don't screw around with this decision and choose SHR-2 from the beginning.
  
• To use 2-disk redundant SHR, you will need a minimum of 4 drives to create the volume.
  
  Some Tips
  
  
• Verify that your backups have completed before adding a new drive. This will ensure that your backups are as up to date as possible.
  
• Expanding any RAID volume, even an SHR-2 volume, will take some time. The more data you have, the longer it will take. BE PATIENT.
  
• If I were in your shoes, I would check the warranty status of every hard drive I planned to use long term. That way, when a warranty expires, you have justification to buy a new, larger capacity drive that is covered under warranty.
  
• For maximum success, make sure your drives are on Synology's drive compatibility list.
  
  
  Whew... That was a virtual mouthful. I hope some of my recommendations help. Good luck and godspeed.

My current setup is a Synology DS1815+. I have a 6-Core i7 4GHz PC on my network serving as a Plex server and also a SubSonic server. Plex for video, SubSonic for audio.

The SubSonic (SS) server accesses two shared directories on the Synology; MP3 (my iTunes library) and FLAC. SS streams those to my iPhone (or my PC, or my Roku using DLNA). I pretty much exclusively use my iPhone to stream music, all from my own library of about 50,000 tracks.

I can play the music throughout my house using my Marantz SR6010 receiver. I have 2 zones. Zone 1 Living room (Martin Logan Motion 40XT front channels, Atlantic Tech IC-6 OBA I think rear channel in-ceiling, ML Dynamo 500 sub). Zone 2 In the backyard, I have a pair of weatherproof Definitive Tech AW6500 mounted on my eaves. Ugly, but they sound AMAZING.

The house is controlled locally and remotely though a Control4 system that controls the AV, security, HVAC, and lighting. Also some minimal Amazon Alexa voice controls. It is a little bit buggy, but it mostly works well.

In my studio office (off the back of the garage) I have a pair of ML LX-16 speakers and an MLT-2 sub left over from my old surround system. It offers a fantastic 2-channel sound for my Marantz HD-AMP1 and Marantz TT-15S1. I also stream FLAC to the amp using my Macbook Pro and Audiovarna using the direct-in USB digital feed. Perfect lossless sound.

In my 2016 Toyota 4Runner (came with a crap audio system), I purchased a Pioneer AVH-2300NEX head unit and a variety of speakers and a 10" sub for the back. I replaced all the speakers and wiring, only keeping the steering controls and the backup camera from the stock configuration. I sound-proofed all 4 doors. It sounds INSANE!!!!!

And they all stream music from my Subsonic server through my iPhone 7 Plus. I can set up the SS client on my iPhone (AVSub) to recieve bit-for-bit lossless streams from my Flac and MP3 collections if I want to, but I usually stream at 256kbps in order to save data in the car. In the house, I stream direct lossless.

Works incredibly well, but it's not perfect. There are little oddities like the car head unit sometimes not wanting to connect to my iPhone, or the Marantz SR6010 sometimes turning on whiteout audio. Minor annoyances.

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It's a budget system compared to many that I see on this sub. Overall, it sounds fantastic considering what I paid and how basic it is. I just love having this kind of music available to me wherever I go. And I do not stream from any sources that require a monthly subscription.

Perhaps there are ways to improve upon it.

You are the one asking for solutions. I honestly think you are making too much heat if you are consuming 350 watts for your SAN and what looks like two servers plus the UPS.
Consumer grade UPS units also have replaceable batteries, but it sounds like your mind is made up on that. No problem.
A 12 bay synology with optional expansion unit can support 240TB of space. That should be enough to last you for a year or maybe two..... haha

Unit:
https://www.amazon.com/Synology-Station-Network-Attached-DS2415/dp/B00SWEM4DW/ref=pd_sim_147_1?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=B00SWEM4DW&pd_rd_r=82Q1XT3SWR3XHNBA3RE0&pd_rd_w=Abcab&pd_rd_wg=jqDSi&psc=1&refRID=82Q1XT3SWR3XHNBA3RE0

They also have rack mount units if that is more your style. Rack mount gear is less flexible though if you decide your rack needs to go or you want to resell your devices. Non rack mount Synologies hold their value better than nearly any IT gear I have ever seen.

Expansion Unit:
https://www.amazon.com/Synology-Station-12-Bay-Expansion-DX1215/dp/B00QMVGBNQ/ref=sr_1_17?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1491247179&sr=1-17&keywords=synology

These draw between 37 and 75 watts of power depending on utilization.
You could then run several Intel NUC 6th gen I3 ESXi servers with 32 gigs RAM each. (NUCs are my current love interest for home lab ESXi hosts. They are small and silent workhorses.)

These draw 10 - 45 watts of power each.

So lets say you sell what you have and do this. What would be the power consumption and heat dissipation difference?
You are currently burning 350 watts. (I assume that is near idle power draw.)
With 2 NUCs and 1 Synology, you would be burning less than 100 watts 95% of the time. That is a huge difference in BTU of heat to dissipate, plus you would have less noise. I guarantee that.
Also, the synology has the ability to run a plex server as an app among other app running abilities. This 'could' get you additional flexibility if you used them instead of VMs in some cases and could allow you to use less VM resources should you decide to do so.

In addition to these suggestions, I would purchase enough RAM for your current or future setup to be able to shut down one or multiple hosts when not active in your lab. You could do wake on LAN to easily crank them up as needed where needed during lab testing workloads.

When it comes to storage, I'm a big western digital fan. If you're going for USB Specific and want to support more than one drive, something like this may be good:

https://www.amazon.com/Book-Desktop-External-Drive-WDBLWE0040JCH-NESN/dp/B00KU68A1A

You can swap out the drives and it supports a couple of different RAID configurations so that you can configure it for either speed, or mirroring the drives for data consistency or something else.

You're not going to be able to get anything really portable that supports a RAID configuration that allows you to just ADD drive space (RAID 5, for example) because they typically require at least 3 drives to handle striping and such.

IF you wanted to configure a Network Attached Storage device (NAS), you may be looking at a little more cash, and the device itself will be larger, but it can be accessed via a network (or even the internet if you configure it that way) so that you can access it from anywhere.

https://www.amazon.com/EX4100-Diskless-Network-Attached-Storage/dp/B00TB8XMR0

These typically also support different RAID configurations that may actually allow you to just add drives at your leisure.

If you seriously just want something to drop some music or pictures or something like that on, you can get a fairly inexpensive solution and just upgrade that solution at a later date if you wish to do so. https://www.amazon.com/Passport-Essential-Portable-External-Pacific/dp/B0041OSAZI

Good luck, hope that helps.

They're nice from what I've seen however for the most part, a NAS will function the same as all other NAS devices. It's from it's basic functionality where you will see a difference. I know that Synology is kind of the benchmark of NAS devices. They have great support and operate on a Linux based OS which is great. Also they have a lot of backup options and free appliances which from what I've read the WD MyCloud and other devices don't have.

On Amazon you're going to find the best price for most devices new. IMO this https://www.amazon.com/Synology-bay-DiskStation-DS218j-Diskless/dp/B076G6YKWZ/ref=sr_1_2?keywords=synology&qid=1556817727&s=gateway&sr=8-2 plus 2X4TB WD Red drives is a better option.

ExFAT is fine for file sharing in between systems, but I would not work off of it, you might lose data.

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A better alternative imo would be a NAS via Gigabit. A dual drive RAID 1 NAS would be nice and you can plug it into your router and mount it either in Windows or macOS. I've used this "workaround" for ages and always avoid sharing drives in between systems.

Yes you can read NTFS in macOS and get drivers to write on it, but I don't trust them.

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If you need REALLY fast storage, maybe a 10GbE NAS would be better, which will cost you a bit more since you have to get a bigger NAS and PCIe cards for both the NAS and the Hackintosh

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To save costs, you can try to see if your wireless router has a USB 3.0 port because modern routers have the ability to share external hard drives on the network. All you have to do is plug your choice of external USB 3.0 drive to it and format it and share it from the routers menu.

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Just make sure your Hackintosh is wired via Gigabit and you should be saturating the network at around ~100-120MB/sec (depending how fast the CPUs on the router is)

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You can the network drive automount with a drive letter in Windows in This PC and also have it auto mount on macOS via a Apple script or something like Mountain.

If you want an actual camera system i'd recommend one of two options.

Run CAT5e for your camera wires. Once you've chosen the spots it's time to choose the cameras.

With CAT5e you have two options. You can use baluns (like these) and hook them up to analog cameras, or just terminate them with RJ45 connectors/keystones and you can use IP cameras.

Both options will work, but i'm a bigger fan of Network devices so I would choose to go IP. You don't need crazy expensive gear anymore with IP, but it is going to cost more than analog.

For NVR I would go with a Synology product, these are great prices and have a wonderful interface that anyone can understand. They carry many models so you can find something that suits your needs.

For Camera's i'd recommend Hikvision, something like these work great.


At the end of the day there are so many options, combinations and possibilities that it comes down to your research to figure something out that works best for you.

In terms of consumer NASes, the only two choices IMO are QNAP and Synology. Others will get the job done, but they just don't have the features and polish nor can you expect support because they're made by companies who make other things as well. QNAP and Synology primary products are NASes.

The difference between the two. QNAP has slightly more powerful hardware and even higher end hardware if you want to pay a premium. Synology's strength is their software which is very very polished and easy to use. QNAP however is constantly updating their software and it's constantly getting better to. I have an old QNAP TS-439p running off an og Intel Atom from 2009 and it's still getting all the latest updates and features and is a different machine then when I got it, for the better though. It's not my primary NAS anymore but it's still kicking.

Unfortunately, in terms of hardware you'd be comfortable running Plex on, consumer NASes are kind of in no mans land at the moment. And even if you only direct stream, Plex can still hit lowend hardware hard, especially if the NAS is doing other things.

The QNAP TS-451 @ $530 has a quadcore Celeron, but it's passmark is about 1100, when 2000 is recommended for a single 1080p transcode. This is the NAS for you IMO if price is your main concern. You might run into a problem occasionally but it'll get the job done.

The QNAP TVS-471 @ $990-1090 for the Pentium and Core i3 respectively, will give you peace of mind but is very expensive as you can see. The Pentium has a passmark score of 3330 enough for 1-2 simultaneous transcodes, and the Core i3 has a passmark of about 4900, enough overhead for 2-3 simultaneous transcodes.

That's what I mean by no mans land, there's not an inbetween option at the moment, or sweetspot IMO for consumer made NAS's and Plex yet.

In terms of hard drives. Stick with WD Reds and HGST Deskstar NAS drives. Avoid Seagates, especially their 3TB models.

It really depends on what you want to do now and potentially later. You can buy...

1. an external HDD like the WD 10TB My Book Desktop External Hard Drive for $206.98 USD and connect it to the laptop,
   
2. a consumer NAS like the Synology 2 bay NAS DiskStation DS218+ (Diskless) for $289.62 USD plus the cost of HDDs,
   
3. a PC that can take a couple of hard drives like the HP EliteDesk 800 G1 SFF i7-4770 3.40Ghz 16GB RAM 2TB HDD 240GB SSD Win 10 Pro (Renewed) for $315.99 USD plus a larger HDD,
   
4. something like the HP ProLiant MicroServer Gen10 Ultra Quad-core 8GB DDR4 SDRAM Serial ATA/600 Controller Micro Tower Server Model P03698-S01 for $395.00 USD plus the cost of HDDs, or
   
5. any number of other options.
   
   Since you are familiar with Ubuntu, which is based on Debian, you should look into Proxmox VE, which is a Debian server with custom tools and a web UI for creating and managing Linux containers (LXCs) and kernel-based virtual machines (KVMs) and storage management. LXCs are similar to Docker containers except they behave more like virtual machines. Pre-built LXC containers including tons of web development frameworks like LAMP, Node.js, Drupal, Django etc. are available from TurnKey Linux for downloading and installing in minutes. Great fun!

By the time you're into the TB's it seems better to just to buy a personal network attached storage drive, and plug it into your router. You get alot of storage. for an unlimited amount of time. its on location, so you can use it for video streaming to multiple computers, and free up space. I'd even go so far as to install Plex on a computer and get a super pretty, easy to use interface that is awesome for offsite use. Actually, I think I may need to buy this setup.

Edit:

Or, if you want security, use a shared drive and Bittorent sync, and share your file with an encryption and security scheme that the NSA couldnt crack! ^Let's ^be ^honest, ^they ^already ^have.

I'd probably not do a Raspberry Pi for that. The Pi 4 is robust enough but I think it would run out of steam rather quickly. There isn't a dedicated PLEX app for it either.

I'd probably go with a Synology all-in-one NAS file server which will also have packages available to integrate backup services, run PLEX, etc.

On a Synology DS218+ you could run two concurrent h.265 4k streams via PLEX. Since you aren't planning to do redundancy you could just run two 8TB or 10TB drives in RAID0 for stripping to give the best performance. Synology integrates into BackBlaze B2 very easily.

If you want more space, you can go to a 4 or 5 bay Synology. The bigger units have SSD cache options (likely not needed) and more RAM expandability options. They also support expansion bays to add more storage or on-prem backups. The costs go up rather quickly on those units though, without disks I believe the 5 bay is $500.

Personally, I run my entire system off a Mac mini connected headless to my network and just screen share it. It runs a 8TB RAID1 for me that all backs up to back blaze. Down the line I'll go with a 5 Bay Synology with RAID5 that will act as my entire file server and media streaming server.

The Synology runs their own distro of Linux and is extremely user friendly. It can also run home surveillance systems and a bunch of other packages for various uses. We love them.

I've not worked for a truly small company, smallest is where I am right now with probably around 100 users on site and 50 or so more offsite, so my answers are more geared toward an actual enterprise setting, but I'd say that it really depends on need as for when the system should be reimaged. Can they make it without that computer until those parts come in or is it a huge burden where people will be taking 2 or 3 times longer to get things done?

Windows should do fine with the built-in things. If you're feeling motivated you could try linux as it usually has better functionality and is free, but you'll have a learning curve and they'll probably be fucked if you leave without teaching someone there how to do it. If they want to throw money at an easy solution, a NAS is only a couple hundred dollars. https://www.amazon.com/Synology-DS216J-NAS-DiskStation-DS216j/dp/B01BNPT1EG/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1500340380&sr=8-3&keywords=NAS

I'd recommend one with at least 2 drives so you can set them up in RAID for data redundancy in case 1 drive fails. And alot of them allow for accessing files over the internet if they need something while away from the shop.

Depending on how secure you want the admin accounts to be, you can disable them so nosy people who shouldersurf still can't get into it and fuck things up. Then pop in a Hirens BootCD and enable the account when you need it. In fact, I'd recommend Hirens for anyone working in IT because it's just super fucking useful.

http://www.hirensbootcd.org/download/

Dynamic disks have gotten a lot better, haha. If you are going with the case you own, There are some internal enclosures that can hold 5 3.25 in drives per 5 in bay. Like this. With the benefit of being hot swappable. If you don't care wether or not things are hot swappable, you can go cheaper and get better air flow.

You can also get a box case like this which has the bays built in and just fit it with a good motherboard, processor, maybe an HBA and maybe a NIC. Honestly, with current parts, you should be able to saturate 1 gigabit drop. Since we are dealing with pictures and videos, I'm thinking you'll be reading and writing sequentially for the most part which maximizes your read/write speeds.

Take a quick look at this before you buy your drives, that way you have the option to balance price with storage. 10TB drives usually cost more than what you get, especially since the 12TB drives are cheaper per gig right now. If you don't want to pay that much for a drive, you can go with one of the cheaper 8TB or shuck for an even lower price with a bit more effort on your part.

As for pre-built appliances, you can go with something like this or this both can saturate your network and give you the storage you desire.

Edit: My first gold, thank you!!

You don't have to do top tier everything for a homelab.

Most people will never need managed switches, much less Cisco branded stuff. TP-Link makes competent and reasonably priced dumb switches.

For the router, I used to run pfSense on a custom PC build (~$300 about 6 years ago) but I'm already familiar with enterprise router settings and found all the features I could want in a consumer grade Asus router. At the end of the day, port forwarding, WiFi and OpenVPN are everything I'd ever want it to do. I can offload any heavy lifting or advanced features to my server.

If you're not looking to be super fancy, here's a simple homelab setup:

• Asus AC86U Router: $170.14
  
• 24 port TP-Link Switch: $89.99
  
• 8 port TP-Link Switch: $19.99
  
• 2 Bay Synology Diskstation: $166.87
  
• Dell PowerEdge R710 Server: $209.95
  
  You can swap up or down based on needs but the router does all the basic stuff most people will need it to do. The 24 port switch should be more than enough as the primary switch for most people. The 8 port switch is great for secondary locations. The diskstation can handle your backups and cloud storage and is a nice balance of convenience and price. The R710 server can handle Plex, NAS duties and probably some light duty VMs.
  
  The big add-on expense will be the hard drives, of course. You could probably get by shucking the 10TB easystore drives to save a bit.
  
  I use a custom built server (Xeon E3-1231 v3 @ 3.4GHz, 16 GB RAM, built around 2012 and upgraded the CPU a few years ago) and have never owned a R710 myself, so I can't say much on the actual limits of what you can do with it. That said, I'm suddenly really tempted to grab a R710 to use as network storage because I've reached the limit of my current server. The biggest weakness I see in the R710 is the CPU isn't too beefy but its still decent given the sheer number of (8)cores/(16)threads. Plex and less demanding game servers are probably the limit of what it can handle but it should easily handle a number of less demanding VMs.
  
  Anyways, as a starter setup, this should more than satisfy most people.

1. Won't answer since others have already answered.
   
2. Take a course on Ubuntu (my own course sadly is not ready). I am not too certain of one for 18.04. There is a quite a difference between 16.04 (April 2016) and 18.04 (April 2018)'s release in look and feel. (This is expected to be a one time change.)
   
   ​
   
   If you want privacy you need to host things yourself. An easy starter would be to setup Syncthing https://syncthing.net/ on all your computers and sync common work and personal folders. I do this for my business's work and documents. It can scale to large videos and projects very well so you can use it to setup a remote backup server with a friendly gui.
   
   ​
   
   When you are ready to get more advanced you can buy a little NAS (a tutorial linked below) and setup both syncthing and Nextcloud https://nextcloud.com/ on it. Nextcloud is a google drive/docs replacement.
   
   ​
   
   https://www.amazon.com/Synology-bay-DiskStation-DS218j-Diskless/dp/B076G6YKWZ
   
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   It's a little advanced so if you can just run syncthing on your computers would be a good start.
   
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   There are quite a few free tutorials for the open source equivalent applications. See below for my picks for the equivalent on Photoshop and Microsoft Office.
   
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   https://wyatttechcourses.com/pages/free_tutorials
   
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3. I do not see why not. If you buy enterprise (and Intel) it will work flawlessly because Linux dominates the enterprise, server, and scientific computing (and hollywood rendering). Linux does have trouble getting support for consumer devices (esp cheap ones) and bluetooth is a mixed bag. Software for your field is the real issue as I make course videos and the open source stuff just isn't ready. (OBS is an exception and now dominates the industry for streaming.)
   
   ​
   
   If you buy a laptop I highly recommend System76. Laptops have a lot of custom work in them that makes it difficult for the community to get working 100% on Linux. System76 does a lot of little things like contributing to patches, flashing Linux friendly custom firmware to get things working 100%, and they offer lifetime support. (They just sent me a free replacement for a v key I just broke off.) Plus you will be supporting a Linux vendor.
   
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   https://system76.com/laptops
   
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   (WyattTechCourses has no affiliation with System76.com, I just buy all my laptops from them.)
   
   ​
   
   Edit: reddit's formatting does not want to cooperate.

I'm looking into getting this one: https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B019ZUR5WQ/ref=ox_sc_saved_image_1?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER

I'm happy not running Plex off it, I just need a NAS and a place to store hard drives. Have a few questions if you don't mind:

First, I currently use two Seagate 5tb externals. A trusted source said I can connect externals on this with an easy fix? True?

Second, I heard my hard drives should stay the same size? Like I can't later add a 8tb hard drive as the third? That's fine if so, just curious.

Ty. I'm new to the NAS idea so I'm lost and any info would be appreciated! :)

At 15gb per month of photos it would take 22 years to fill 4TB. I know you'll use it for other things too, but a 4TB raid 1 NAS setup sounds like a great start for you.

One of these: http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00OZ0CTAU/ref=psd_mlt_bc_B00OZ0CTAU

Two of these: http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00EHBERSE/

Setup as a mirror/RAID 1, put all your data on there, do something about backups (will crashplan cloud backups run on one of these?) and you're good to go.

You may start with local disk backups but there's something nice about paying $5/mo for worry free backups to the cloud.

P.S. A backup isn't a backup until you've tested it. Check every once in a while to make sure it's working and that you can actually restore files.

I had a similar thread a few weeks ago with some tweaks/settings that I've stumbled across.

https://www.reddit.com/r/HomeServer/comments/5hhk8o/windows_10_settings_for_home_server/

As for your specific question about redundancy, modern versions of Windows do have some options built in, search for "Windows Storage Spaces" for more info on that- it comes with mixed reviews.

I personally use some awesome software from a company called StableBit to accomplish this. It's called StableBit DrivePool https://stablebit.com/DrivePool

I also like their StableBit Scanner product, basically a disk health surveillance tool that will send me emails if there are issues with any of my disks. I think it was about $50 for DrivePool+Scanner.

EDIT: seeing what you'd be using the server for- I don't think a server is the right choice for you. A NAS (network attached storage) would be best for your situation. It's going to use significantly less power, cost less, meet your storage needs, excellent reliability, low maintenance, and high redundancy.

For example:

-This Synology NAS: https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B01BNPT1EG/
-Two 4tb Western Digital Red drives: https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00EHBERSE/

Thats $170 for the NAS and 2x$146 for the drives = $432

You will set the drives to mirror eachother for redundancy leaving you with 4tb of storage for your wife's photos. And if you don't have an off- site backup solution already there are plenty of Synology plugins to help you with that as well.

I have a qNap NAS 2bay. I love it. I use it as my time machine as well as my plex server and cloud storage. They are decent price and expandable, with super easy setup. You can even format the drives to mac formats. Best part is a NAS is 100% hassle free cross-platform. We use macbooks, and android's, and I used to have a PC for work, no issues accessing or syncing.

QNAP TS-231P-US Personal Cloud NAS with DLNA, Mobile Apps and Airplay support. Arm Cortex A15 1.7GHz Dual Core, 1GB Ram https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B01N78FRVZ/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_d35VCbZXNRDVB

That rack you linked too at amazon is only 17 inches deep... the dell r710 has a mounting depth of about 30" if I remember correctly... so it wouldn't really fit in that rack, in fact, more than half of it would be out of the rack! A rack like that is more well suited for smaller things like switches and the like.

a rack that would work that's in that price range is something like this although it's completely open.

Also, I don't know what's so appealing about the server you posted on ebay, but you can find some that you'll find just as useful for much much
less money I don't know where you're located (other than you're in canada based on your links) but you might be able to find a used rack for much less.

now to answer your question more directly
yeah, you get a rack. then you have rails that connect to the rack and the server, that's what lets you pull servers in and out (usually) like these guys which are rails for an r710

Your rack will not come with rails. each server typically will use different rails (there are universal ones though, but they aren't as nice) sometimes your server will come with rails however! basically, the rails will clip in, or screw into the rack, then it the server will sit on, clip on, or screw onto the rails. you can see here, the rails holding up these servers and allowing you to nicely slide the servers in and out of the rack for serving or whatever

Pelican SD Case for on-set.

A high quality SSD is probably a better idea for portable editing. Flash drives are usually pretty cheaply made (read up on SLC, MLC, and TLC flash storage). I personally have a laptop that has two HDD ports, and one has a 1TB Sandisk Extreme Pro on it for a portable work drive.

For NAS, I love my Synology DS1815+ with 8 x 4TB WD RED drives installed.

When I drive home from a job, a lot of times the footage I'm transporting is worth more than my mortgage to my client. It's important to do everything and anything to protect it.

• Switch wise, any gigabit port is fine - try this, or this which is what i have. They're unmanaged so no config is needed, just plug and play. Try to ensure your PC is using a gigabit port if possible. a card is only a tenner or so if not, and its worth the upgrade from 100meg.
  
• For the storage system, a good bet is a NAS (Network Attached Storage) device. You can make one from a spare PC and using software like FreeNAS (I do), or you can buy a dedicate one (something like this )
  
• Does your telly support upnp? if so, that might be all you need. If not you might want to buy a low power tiny PC like this, and install Kodi on it. Its a Linux OS thats based around an old Xbox media player, and its excellent. Failing that, you could buy a chromecast to stream from your PC to your telly.
  

I gotta respond to a fellow Owl! I also did similar topic replies earlier today. If the 350GB HDD is running your OS then your first step would to be to get a cheap 250gb SSD and transfer your OS onto there. How many extra HDDs bays do you have within your computer? Next step would be to get a 8TB or 10TB shuckable HDD on sale, Easystore and Elements drives are good.
https://www.reddit.com/r/DataHoarder/comments/dmisv3/anyone_familiar_with_backblaze_storage_pods/f55nxpp/
https://www.reddit.com/r/DataHoarder/comments/dmvcqc/bestbuy_easystores_8tb_130_10tb_160/
https://www.amazon.com/Samsung-500GB-Internal-MZ-76E500B-AM/dp/B07864WMK8/

But to expand upon that it really depends on how much money you want to spend and the quality of a setup you can get by with for now. As history has shown, every dollar you spend now gets you less than what you can get next year. Putting that aside though, you do need a base level set up and upgrade from there. The cheapest is just to reuse your computer as a "NAS". You could purchase Drivepool (Windows) if you want to pool/combine all of the drives onto one drive letter/mount point or use free MergerFS (Linux) standalone or within OMV4 OS (also free).

There is a real void in the market for cheap low end stuff that you can expand cheaply. You can use USB external storage, but USB is finicky so don't trust any raid setups via USB, but Snapraid might be ok'ish... You want a network attachment with one of the following.
https://ameridroid.com/products/odroid-hc2
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B076G6YKWZ/
https://forums.serverbuilds.net/t/nas-killer-4-0-build-guide-fast-quiet-power-efficient-and-flexible-starting-at-125/667/12

Since you already have a computer up and running then you can skip the odroid, but it's still good for standalone NAS backups of your OS or VMs. The Synology is new AND it is network attached, not USB attached; however it is only 2 bay (4 bay is too pricey), it has minimal processing power and upgradeability with no storage expandability. Depending on your location and shipping then ebay would have the highest value per dollar spent if you make the right purchase and the used device doesn't crap out shortly after... I made a ton of posts on all this, so if you want start reading up. Just click on the link then read and keep following the links and reading, have fun.
https://www.reddit.com/r/DataHoarder/comments/d56cfr/best_upgrade_from_a_single_drive/f0nxotm/

Laptop probably won't do, due to limited drive hookup slots. I'd probably go with a prebuilt, and whether you buy it loaded with drives or not is really your call. For ease of installation, they're a bit more money but the drive-included models aren't super expensive.

Here are a few models I've used in your price range with great performance.

• The Synology DS214se $140-400 depending on disk load out.
  
  
• The Western Digital 4-12TB My Cloud $210 (4TB model)-$549 (12 TB model)
  
  
• Then there's the highest ranked amongst cord cutters: The QNAP TS-251 From $300 (diskless, 1 GB RAM) - $1050 (8TB 4 GB RAM).
  
  For your budget, the QNAP might be a little pricey. If I were in your situation, it would depend on how familiar I was with NAS devices. If you know some stuff, the Synology is a great device. If you know nothing, the Western Digital is the most user friendly. All the included links are for Amazon. You may find them cheaper in a general search.

Hello! A small NAS should be a good solution for your company. If you want to increase the level of security you could always buy another NAS which replicates the first one. Another option would be a daily backup which you carry home with you after a work day. If your server gets destroyed the data is still save.


I don't know what exactly you mean with your question but some companies allow thier users to use addons or other services to download stuff directly on you NAS-Server (e.g. Synology, QNAP). For your local network the speeds should be sufficent but they won't be really good. Consumer NAS servers usually have a gigabit connection and can therefore transfere at a speed of ~100 MBps. For normal office work the speed should be enough and you won't notice any slowdowns.

​

If you haven't bought a device yet you should consider buying an used industiral server with a good RAID controller and sufficent RAM. You can find these all over eBay and other platforms.

​

Synology and QNAP are known for reasonable prices, easy installation and good speeds.

https://www.amazon.com/Synology-bay-DiskStation-DS218j-Diskless/dp/B076G6YKWZ/ref=sr_1_4?keywords=nas+server+2+bay&qid=1563207524&s=gateway&smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER&sr=8-4

​

https://www.amazon.com/Synology-Bay-DiskStation-DS218-Diskless/dp/B075N1BYWX/ref=sr_1_3?keywords=nas+server+2+bay&qid=1563207533&s=gateway&sr=8-3

I am looking for a NAS at the moment as a home media server of some sort and some backups. Probably around 4-8tb while i can upgrade it in the future.

I never had a NAS before and at the moment i would buy this one. Is that okay?

I have a TV that is connected to the network on its own and i hope it can read from a NAS without help while the other TVs would need a Raspberrypi right? Or is there an easyer version?

Price is unknown, if it is worth it to get a 2 bay NAS because of futureproof up to 5 years it would be okay. Otherwise i think 1 drive is enough because i save my backups in 2 other locations too.

Thank you very much and probably a happy new year. :)

That budget makes this hard.

You have 2 options, DAS or NAS. A DAS would attach via usb, or a simmilar interface, while a NAS connects over internet.

For the DAS option, Id probably get something like the segate archive drives https://www.amazon.com/Seagate-Expansion-Desktop-External-STEB8000100/dp/B01HAPGEIE/ref=sr_1_1?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1480446876&sr=1-1&keywords=8tb+external+hard+drive

These are really cheap because they use SMR on the hdd. SMR makes it so that writes can be very slow, but reads are fine. I probably buy a second one or use a clould service like amazon's unlimited acd to back it up.

For NAS, Id probably get this https://www.amazon.com/Synology-DS216j-NAS-DiskStation/dp/B01BNPT1EG/ref=sr_1_2?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1480446978&sr=1-2&keywords=synology+nas

And 2x 4tb hdd's to go with it. Any hdd will work, but there are nas optimized drives like wd reds, that are lower power, have longer warranties, and have firmware that is designed to handle errors better.

Here is a drive id pick https://www.amazon.com/Red-4TB-Hard-Disk-Drive/dp/B00EHBERSE/ref=sr_1_1?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1480447066&sr=1-1&keywords=wd+red

u/Smote20XX if i could give you some advice, it would be to spend $2k on a 3d modeling/gaming/vr machine, $500 on a Synology 4 bay nas, and $500 on a Dell S2716DG gaming monitor. You're trying to do too much, with a single point of failure for everything. Motherboard dies? So does everything you're doing. By getting a dedicated NAS like a Synology, you can still RAID your existing drives in the bay, store a ton of data, and use it as a Plex server with transcoding (and so much more actually). I would also suggest getting a legitimate gaming monitor, as TV's do not provide the same gaming experience as a 1440p 144hz monitor will. Presuming you buy a 2080 Ti for your gaming desktop build (which I would suggest), you'll be able to use VR and the monitor to play basically any and all games the way they were meant to be played. Trust me when I say, your TV's are holding you back.

As for desktop build? Something like this:

• Ryzen 2700x ($269 @ microcenter)
  
• MSI Pro Carbon Gaming AC motherboard (~$150 newegg)
  
• 32gb 15 cas gskill ($240 newegg)
  
• Corsair 240mm water cooler ($~$110 anywhere)
  
• Phanteks P350x case ($60 amazon)
  
• EVGA G3 750/850w modular psu ($70)
  
• 2080 Ti ($1200)
  
  Desktop Total roughly $2100
  
  Something like a Synology DS918+ NAS = $550
  
  Dell Monitor will be on sale for $350 (incredible price) on black friday at Best Buy

Consider getting yourself a NAS (Network Attached Storage).

• It'll hold your internal drives.
  
• Good ones also support attaching USB drives, which will take care of your external drives.
  
• You can put them anywhere in your home/office area so long as it's got an ethernet cable available. This takes care of the size/space problem.
  
• They can also handle other types of computing work besides simple file sharing. This includes things like Plex media serving.
  
• The disadvantage is that good brand NAS's are surprisingly expensive. You'll probably drop $150 or more on a 2-bay NAS. This one is from an excellent brand and includes two USB ports.

I´ve a Acer Revo One with a i3 and i can handle 1080p. It´s also available with two hardrive slots and a i5 so you can stack it up to 4TB in that. But its 2,5 inch harddrive so i added a simple My Cloud 4TB NAS. Turned off all the BS from WD, so its i can Write with about 70Mbit/s.
So, my Setup

Revo One i3 368$

2TB WD Red 89$

With this Setup for 457$ you have 3TB plus you have a Windows PC.
So, for me that was not enough so i bought a
My Cloud 4TB NAS for 168$, so i´ve a bit more Space, and that is more than enough for me.


The Windows was for the most important thing, because i can easily run everything on that i need like JDownloader etc..
Plus, that PC is connected directly to my Router, nothing else. So i can connect via Remote Desktop from MacBook or any other Windows PC and just administrate everything there. That for me was a big plus.

If i3 is not enough for you, there is a i5 as well, and you can insert there 2 harddrives instead of just one. But it cost 545$.

Also, instead of and old PC, that little things just consumes 16W in idle. I have a meter on it to check.

Hope you don't mind the dark humored names but these are 5 of the drives connected (C & D are partitioned of course). There's a few more that I either use docks or as networked drives and I'm afraid to even look through them. There may be some organization, i.e. Videos>Movies, Videos>ShadowPlay, etc but... everything is scattered in all the drives except C:. I want it to be 'one for pics/videos', 'one for games', one for programs/setups & related files and so on.

I have been looking at this Synology NAS system but I'm not sure if an extra 16TB is what I'm going for. Maybe more like 40TB. Hard drives are a bit expensive right now and it seems they've raised in price last time I checked. 8TB WD Red for $300 but I'd prefer getting an 8TB WD Gold for $455. I don't have that kind of money.

That would be ideal if I could run Plex on the NAS but my needs are pretty simple so I can't justify buying an overly expensive NAS.

If I was to get a NAS like the Synology one in the link below, which is more of a lower end NAS would I be able to install Plex on it without any need for transcoding since I will only ever be streaming locally to my Android TV device?

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B01BNPT1EG/ref=mp_s_a_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1468320659&sr=8-3&pi=SY200_QL40&keywords=synology+nas+2+bay&dpPl=1&dpID=31d8-qntl9L&ref=plSrch

If I wouldn't be able to do that I'd probably go with something cheaper like a WD my cloud + ES File Explorer & MX Player/VLC.

If the primary focus is just photo viewing, then go with a low cost all in one NAS unit. There are some low cost ones that will give around 60MB/s reads and 30-40MB/s writes, which is more than enough for media consumption.
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B008DWAGPG/

If your router offers FTP access for USB storage, you can even use that (especially since many modern routers are now offering samba, FTP, HTTP, and DLNA access to USB storage, which works great for sharing media over a home network, in addition to remote access.

If you want an entirely cloud based solution for free, and don't have too many photos, and if they have a smart TV, you can set up a flickr account and crate a private album (though in that case, you are at the mercy of flickr, and the random changes that they like to make (often which will break compatibility with some applications.

I personally prefer the NAS solution, and current use it to share photos and media with family, though I am using a more crappy NAS for that purpose, and simply link the 2 netwoks together using a VPN server running on the router to allow only local traffic, that way their WAN access will not be route through my network.

Synology is a good choice. QNAP is another vendor that a lot of people like. Regardless of vendor, I would get something with Ethernet connectivity so you can stream media from it, back up your computers, etc. I would also set it up with mirrored drives, so that if one drive fails you don't lose your stuff.

The Synology DS218+ looks pretty reasonable. That and a couple of big cheap Black Friday NAS drives and you could be up and running for $600-$900 depending on the size of drives you get. I don't know if this sounds like a little or a lot to you because I don't know your budget.

I do have a preschooler though, so I know how kids can impact disposable income. I have $2.5k in my 8-bay e3 xeon freenas box, luckily completed before my son was born. It's powerful and it does everything I need it to do. I highly recommend this solution if you like to tinker and spend money.

A lot of folks on the datahoarder subreddit buy western digital easystore external usb drives for bulk storage. I believe the last DAT sale had 8tb easystores going for $160 or so. They are just normal sata drives inside.

Definitely recommend a Synology - cost me £130 for the 2 bay enclosure, and got 2x 3TB drives.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00OZ0CTAU?keywords=synology&qid=1450343996&ref_=sr_1_1&sr=8-1

Streams all my media content to the PS4, Amazon Fire TV stick and phone (plex can also sync to devices for offline viewing) - probably my best purchase of the year. Also incredibly easy to set up and user friendly thanks to the web interface.

Hey JDM! I'm literally 5 minutes into my NAS server research. Looking to stream mostly music but movies/plex is absolutely something I'm looking at. Anyways I'm just curious why you call your build the NAS Killer? How is it better than say if I just went on amazon and bought something like this:

​

https://www.amazon.com/Synology-bay-DiskStation-DS218-Diskless/dp/B075N1BYWX?ref_=Oct_BSellerC_13436301_2&pf_rd_p=2028c04d-42d7-5f82-a3ec-2aaeb0d7bb30&pf_rd_s=merchandised-search-6&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_i=13436301&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_r=RBXMZ9ZBTG36MNNW4N28&pf_rd_r=RBXMZ9ZBTG36MNNW4N28&pf_rd_p=2028c04d-42d7-5f82-a3ec-2aaeb0d7bb30

​

or this:

https://www.amazon.com/Synology-bay-DiskStation-DS218j-Diskless/dp/B076G6YKWZ?ref_=Oct_BSellerC_13436301_1&pf_rd_p=2028c04d-42d7-5f82-a3ec-2aaeb0d7bb30&pf_rd_s=merchandised-search-6&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_i=13436301&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_r=RBXMZ9ZBTG36MNNW4N28&pf_rd_r=RBXMZ9ZBTG36MNNW4N28&pf_rd_p=2028c04d-42d7-5f82-a3ec-2aaeb0d7bb30

​

Also your website looks like an amazing resource, I'm looking forward to digging through it!

Yep, ok then you'll be just fine with a NAS. I'd highly recommend Synology as they're super easy to setup permissions for sharing files over a network.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01BNPT1EG/

Keep in mind you still need to buy the hard drives to store all of your data, but if you setup the share correctly you should see the share on all of your computers over the network. It's as simple as dragging and dropping on your main computer. Then you just point Kodi to the network share and it will see the files.

The one i set up recently was similar to this: https://www.amazon.com/QNAP-TS-451-Personal-Quad-Core-Transcoding/dp/B015VNLGF8/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1493601922&sr=8-1&keywords=qnap+ts-451

if you want a rackmount with a little more power take a look at this: https://www.amazon.com/QNAP-TS-453U-2-0GHz-Hot-swappable-Single/dp/B00S0XU2HK/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1493602058&sr=8-2&keywords=qnap+rackmount

As far as opening files, when you're on the LAN you really won't notice any difference at all. Accessing files via WAN you may notice a minor difference but it really should be negligible. Obviously this is dependent on the file type and size, i was mainly working with excel files and pdf's. Hope this helps

EDIT: Keep in mind both of those are diskless, so you still have to purchase drives. You can change the config like with the first one they have an option with 8 GB of RAM and some options with drives. So price can get up there but should still be under like 1500 even fully loaded

Hey! Small world lol. Congrats on the purchase, the R710 is a really great server to start with. I mounted everything on a Startech 12U rack and I mounted the R710 with these rails. Happy homelabbing!

Dropping idle power usage is tough, and dropping max-speed power usage isn't really beneficial since it won't save much money (unless you plan on having your CPU crunching for long periods of time).

Honestly, your best bet is to get a system meant for lower power usage. You can sometimes shave off a few watts from idle on a "big" computer, but you risk stability issues, and an unstable NAS is a pointless NAS.

My recommendation is to look into Synology units. I have an old DS216j that uses something like 15-25 watts on load, far less on idle. Most of the power usage is by the disks, which are set to hibernate when not being used.

https://www.amazon.com/Synology-bay-DiskStation-DS218j-Diskless/dp/B076G6YKWZ

Here's an example of a unit that might be good. These aren't good as media streaming servers, but if you're looking for a place to dump some drives and storage that can manage itself well and do stuff like automatic backups, then they're awesome. They make more powerful units, too, but those of course use more power on idle (especially if they're x86 units with i3s and stuff).

One alternative to even a free option like Zoho is to get yourself a small Synology NAS. You can install a CRM on there that employees can access, just like any other CRM website. It's not completely free, but it's a one time cost versus a monthly subscription. Plus, you have a very useful NAS for sharing files, backups, and there are other apps available as well (like a human resources app). You can get a 2 bay NAS for about $167 and add 2 small harddrives if you don't need much storage. Or if you really want to be frugal, get the 1 bay version for $114.

sorry for the late response, but would this also be a solution?

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00EVVGAC6

i imagine i could just connect this directly to my router via ethernet and use the wd software to access the files rather than having to connect the my book via usb and access the router through asus software.

or is this the same difference? (basically either device works fine for my intended purpose)

thanks!

• Synology 4-disk NAS - standard 4 disk array. nice and fast.
  
• Drobo 5N (1st gen). 2nd gen gives you 2 NICs but more expensive. Drobo gives you the ability to make asymmetric arrays, which can be cheaper to maintain and expand. The downside is the proprietary nature of the array's technology. I personally have this one.
  
  
  I know these look expensive, but it's a one-time cost, and you'll get plenty of storage. You are protected from single-drive failures. But keep in mind that it's not a replacement of backups. Depends on how far you want to take things, right. I'd recommend using a NAS array for your main storage, and some cheaper single drives for backup -- if you really really really want to protect your stuff.
  

I'd go Synology on this one,

2 x DS918+ at $550 Each
https://www.amazon.com/Synology-bay-DiskStation-DS918-Diskless/dp/B075N1Z9LT/ref=sr_1_2?crid=374AI59A8H6J7&keywords=ds918%2B&qid=1568938492&sprefix=ds918%2Caps%2C194&sr=8-2


8 x WD Red 4TB at $116 Each
https://www.cdw.com/product/western-digital-red-4-tb-internal-hdd/3123305?pfm=srh
- OR
8 x Samsung Pro at $875 Each
https://www.amazon.com/Samsung-Inch-SATA-Internal-MZ-76P4T0BW/dp/B0786ZQ1PJ/ref=sr_1_3?crid=17S7QFJCHXW50&keywords=samsung+4tb+ssd&qid=1568939113&sprefix=samsung+4TB%2Caps%2C202&sr=8-3


SSDs are more expensive, but the performance is phenomenally better than platter. I'd heavily recommend them if there's room in the budget.

So with hard drives, cost is about 2K. With ssds, cost is about 8k.

​

You'll get SHA --> so both units can present as one to the network. If one fails, the other will keep trucking. Users wouldn't see a difference.

Set them up with shr-2, and each can tolerate two drives failing without a problem. Throw in easy AD integration and file sync (like dropbox) it's almost a no-brainer.

​

That's pretty dang resilient on a budget, easy to administrate too.

I'm partial to going with the out-of-a-box NAS's myself. Ease of setup, along with all the other stuff they can do besides Plex, makes it a no brainer for what I want. I'm currently using Plex on an old 2014 model NAS from Synology that I finally put Plex on a few months ago. The big hurdle was doing everything I can to avoid triggering transcoding, because this NAS certainly is not capable of handling anything well above SD.

I have been looking around a bit for something to maybe replace it and would again go with a NAS, but a 4 bay model with some more horsepower.

I like this [QNAP] (https://www.amazon.com/QNAP-TVS-471-i3-4G-US-4-Bay-3-5GHz-10G-ready/dp/B00S0XSIK8/ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1510950253&sr=1-1&keywords=TVS-471) and the [Synology 918+] (https://www.amazon.com/Synology-DS918-Station-Diskless-4-bay/dp/B075N1Z9LT/ref=sr_1_sc_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1511545687&sr=1-1-spell&keywords=synoloy+918%2B) right now. If I was to pull the trigger, it would probably be one of those two.

Just an FYI if you start looking at the Synology marketing stuff, the transcoding they advertise if almost always referencing the units ability to transcode through their built in DS Video server/app package that takes advantage of the hardware encoder. Plex, from what I understand, is not currently able to utilize that hardware so Plex may not perform up to what they advertise. But, the CPU should be just fine for transcoding 1080p.

I'd probably look at a synology like this 1815+

http://www.amazon.com/Synology-Station-Network-Attached-DS1815/dp/B00P3RPMEO

It has 4 gigabit network ports, which you can bond together. Going 10gb likely won't help as im guessing the computers themselves don't have 10gb cards.

Id probably add 4GB of ram to it and look to set up a SSD cache drive.

if your budget is high enough, you could look to go entirely ssd, but i'm willing to bet you need too much storage space to justify that cost.

I'd likely go with 4 or 6 4TB drives in a RAID 10. (depending on your storage needs) as that will yield the best performance.

You could probably do all of this for a little over $2k. Using 6 x 4TB WD Red pro hard drives, an extra 4GB of ram, and a samsung SSD for caching.

I apologize, but I'm not seeing the model of the actual case housing everything. I like that it's mobile for a smaller installation. Could you share that info please? 😁

More searching... Is this it? StarTech.com 12U Open Frame Server Rack - Adjustable Depth - 4-Post Data Rack - w/ Casters/Levelers/Cable Management Hooks (4POSTRACK12U) https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00P1RJ9LS/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_MkfmDbWHYXAQZ

For something like that, just straight file storage, no Plex transcoding or anything, and in that price range, I'd look for something cheap and cheerful like the WD My Cloud NAS:

https://www.amazon.com/Cloud-Personal-Network-Attached-Storage/dp/B00EVVGAD0/

I have the 3 TB version doing basically the same thing - no issues so far. Consider also getting a cheap USB 3 drive so you can make backups of your backups too :)

My case supports 36 drive bays. I paid a good amount for it.

As for power... make sure you have enough "room" on the +12VDC line on your power supply for all of your drives. IIRC, 2A per drive is a good idea (plenty of room for spin up, and other components).

As for space, the 5 in 3 or similar backplanes allow you to convert the 5.25" bays into hard drive bays.

SAS is another way to go. If you don't mind the sound:

• https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00LSQOY6G
  
• https://www.amazon.com/dp/B002QJZLCA
  
  That gets you at least 24 bays, and possibly more. And some nice looking enclosures.

Here is the specific one I bought.

Buying locally from CL or something can be more advantages as you don't have to assemble it or try to manage shipping. Its probably easier to get a 42U rack that way. And likely the cost will be less.

I can report that these ones are pretty solid and work well. They don't have much in the way of cable management and are fairly bare and open. But they are new, are solid, and hold up well.

Depends on your budget and what kind of reliability you're looking for. If you want drives that are 4TB or bigger, there's no cheap options for reliable drives. Your best bet for SATA will probably be WD Datacenter Re or Se drives.

If you don't already have a server machine with a hefty RAID controller that supports at least 8 drives, I'd recommend getting a Synology.

A 12 Bay Synology and 12 of These setup in a RAID 6 should do you well. That will give you a tolerance of 2 failing drives and 60TB of data.

I use a WD My Cloud 4TB NAS to backup seamlessly via WiFi. It is a customizable wired network drive that you can connect and place next to your router and forget about it. It has a nice Time Machine compatibility and you can configure the allowed space for backups. This is my main backup solution for 2 MacBooks. WD My Cloud - (Amazon)


Also, I have a wired WD My Passport 1TB USB 2.0 that I have used a couple times to backup my back. My Passport - Simiar (Amazon)

>I would like not to spend more than 300$, and I this is what i hope to achieve:

I think you need to be realistic here. If you want a NAS, you need to be willing to spend a bit more cash. $300 isn't going to get you very far.

>With this requirements, you think this model will comply?

>http://www.amazon.co.uk/Synology-DS214se-DiskStation-Bay-Desktop/dp/B00FWURI8K/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1426422404&sr=8-2&keywords=synology+2+bay

You are aware that's an empty enclosure, yes? To stay under the $300 price mark, you're going to be stuck with 1 TB drives. For a RAID 1, that's 1 TB of usable disk. Just so you're aware.

>I also looked into DIY solutions (using HP microservers mainly) but I think I would end spending more money.

Well, you get what you pay for. Setting up a little mini ATX server with 4 drives with ZFS might cost you a bit more, but you may be more pleased with the performance and the redundancy, as well as the total control over the system. I know I would be.

Probably $200-$350 for decent NAS hardware and another $200-$300 for HDDs

2TB HDDs are about $50, or $70 for WDD blues.

NAS hardware:

WD My Cloud EX4100 Diskless Expert Series 4-Bay Network Attached Storage - NAS - WDBWZE0000NBK-NESN https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00TB8XMR0/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_W4wyyb4NPJDKP

2TB HDD, $72ea:

WD Blue 2TB Desktop Hard Disk Drive - 5400 RPM SATA 6 Gb/s 64MB Cache 3.5 Inch - WD20EZRZ https://www.amazon.com/dp/B013QFRS2S/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_Z-wyyb10ME7NY

You could also opt for the ultrastar refurbished drives, at about $69 for 3tb each, people have good luck with them as Hitachi (HGST) drives are crazy reliable for data centers.

Also if you're really savy you could build your own NAS for not to much - YouTube has plenty of tutorials.

While almost all rackmount stuff is 19” wide, it’s the depth and weight you have to worry about. The r610 is almost 30” deep with cables and I think the HP isn’t much shorter.

The rack you linked to is designed for network gear and even some audio equipment. What you want is a 4-post rack like this 12u - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00P1RJ9LS.

You can use a 2-post rack, but you’ll need to get the static rails instead of the ready rails. Which is your next question, rackmount servers normally need rails to be mounted to the rack and then the server sits down into them and are secured at the front of the rails with the rack ears that are on the rails and the server. The r610 uses these - Dell P223J 1U Ready Rails for PowerEdge R610 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00686MBE8.

There are some smaller racks, just make sure you’re getting one deep enough or adjustable enough to account for your servers and cables.

> network backups are expensive

Not really. You can get a NAS for like $150 bucks (Consumer-Grade, but something > Nothing). Set the NAS up to only allow a service account "Backup User" to write to it, and then install something like Veeam Endpoint Backup on the machine and explicitly tell the software to use the service account when backing up. Boom.

Honestly, you could probably do the same thing with a regular drive. Mount it, set the permissions on the drive to only allow writes by the service account, and then configure Veeam the same way.

I'm interested in getting a really basic NAS mostly for storing videos on my network and being able to access them from all my computers and possibly from my phone while out of the house. I was looking at the WD My Cloud and it seems like a pretty good deal for 4TB at about $150. I realize it doesn't have the speed or features of the more expensive NAS's, but it seems like it would be enough for me. I also know they have a 'mirrored' version with RAID but I don't even think I need that (I have a separate USB backup drive and also backup to cloud). Is there any reason I shouldn't go with the My Cloud or are there any better alternatives in the same price range?

He's talking about just a easy to set up file server - they make hardware that you shove a bunch of hard drives into and it comes with its own OS that's easy to connect to with your PC. Something like this:

https://www.amazon.com/Synology-bay-DiskStation-DS218-Diskless/dp/B075N1BYWX

Personally, I think it's easier to use streaming sites if you have a good internet connection. You just have to know how to find them.

The best option for having network storage be backed up is to use a NAS device which is capable of mirrored RAID; with this solution, all data is stored on the device is written to two drives rather than one (unlike Time Machine in which your computers actively compute copies of each file to transfer).

Some examples of NAS enclosures capable of mirrored RAID are the Lenovo IX2, Synology Disk Station, and Buffalo LinkStation Pro. In all cases, you can choose two of any drive which conforms to your sizing needs.

Any further questions, don't hesitate!

Power drill set for sure - something I would never think of but oh so totally useful.

I make sure to recommend the Instant Pot every time this question pops up here. It's the most used gadget in my kitchen now.

We also put a NAS on the registry. If you don't have a good backup system, it's definitely worth figuring something out for all the wedding, honeymoon, etc. photos to come.

Synology will provide the best apps, qnap second best. If you can swing it, the ds216play will provide much better performance and 4K transcode.

http://www.amazon.com/Synology-Station-Diskless-Attached-DS216play/dp/B015JQAWW0/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1453874135&sr=8-2&keywords=synology+ds216

https://www.synology.com/en-us/products/compare/DS216play/DS215j

I recommend you backup your data on the WD MyCloud drives before using them on a different NAS device. I'm pretty sure they will get reformatted and you will lose your data.

If you are looking at a really low budget NAS, the QNAP TS-231P is pretty cheap on Amazon (https://www.amazon.com/TS-231P-US-Personal-mobile-Airplay-support/dp/B01N78FRVZ/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1511289696&sr=8-1&keywords=qnap+ts231p)

Hoping I'm not too late to the thread for this week! If not I'll repost on Friday.

I want to make a standalone Plex server, which I might end up using for some other pet projects but for the purposes of this thread assume it's just a Plex server. My server peaks at 5 simultaneous streams, currently running on my main desktop PC. I want something very small to handle this, and with unlimited potential to expand storage.

Here is what I'm thinking.

1. An Asrock Deskmini with a 7700K in it, and an NVME drive. Here's the part list for it. Is 16GB sufficient, or should I pay the extra to go up to 32GB?
   
   
2. Low power Synology NAS for storage. Just 4 bays for now (I have 4 drives to put in it!), but it's cheap enough that I can buy another a couple years down the line and have double.
   
   I wouldn't mind paying a bit less for everything, but I specced out a $1000 mini-ITX machine, and this basically costs the same, but in a much nicer form factor.
   
   Thanks in advance!

Yeah you can go that route as well, just wanted to give you an option which can be automated relatively easily.

I use my Synology to host all my content (6-7TB worth), and run Sickrage on the NAS itself. Synology has free applications which allow me to manage the download manager (torrents) and file browsing, and even their own version of PleX that you can install on iOS/Android/Samsung Smart TVs/Roku.

It also uses very minimal power on idle, and can handle hardware transcoding for files that won't play back natively. For example, I'm at work now, and can access the UI for the NAS from here, manage all my downloads, move files around, even watch my content through my web browser.

The DS216Play is $271 on Amazon, just need to add hard drives: http://www.amazon.com/Synology-Station-Diskless-Attached-DS216play/dp/B015JQAWW0/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1458740967&sr=8-2&keywords=ds214play

I'm using the older DS214Play with Western Digital RED NAS hard drives.

>(Linux) Western Digital MyCloud Ex4 is no longer supported (Its ARMv5).

I almost bought one of those WDC MyCloud EX4 units.
First available on Amazon, February 2015. Their product page still on Amazon still touts Plex support. I don't care it supports ARM5. You knew that last year. I'm super glad I built my own server now instead of buying a low powered pre-canned setup like this. Bad risk for a long term investment.

I can see one if my colleagues saying that and forcing all the customers to either migrate, upgrade, or find another company.

Amazon link to product http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00TB8XMR0/

I probably could have written that better instead of making assumptions. If I were to be in the mood for entertainment and a kindle was my only source I'd more than likely have porn for that, outside of entertainment of course I'd have books for when I needed them. I don't read books for entertainment now, if I'm reading a book it's going to be I.T based.

You don't need a few laptops just get an external enclosure like the one I have and stockpile hard drives and write on the drive label what's on it. Or you can setup a NAS or just build a computer with a case that could hold 16 hard drives and load them up.

That looks a lot like the rack I've been looking at: https://www.amazon.co.uk/StarTech-com-Adjustable-Casters-Levelers-Management/dp/B00P1RJ9LS/ref=sr_1_3?keywords=startech+rack&qid=1569960952&sr=8-3

Thanks for the input. Your right: I am overthinking it. Other replies, too, have reassured me that there's more flexibility available than I was thinking. I feel much better about firing off the orders now!

I've got a StarTech.com 12U open frame rack. On the one hand I don't have to worry about an enclosed rack getting super hot, but on the other hand I have to manage the airflow in that room well so the hot air doesn't pool near the rack.

What it sounds like you're trying to do just isn't possible. The TV is not going to be able to share USB-attached storage to other devices that are hooked up to it over HDMI cables. HDMI cables and hardware are not designed to transmit a USB signal. It's a bit like expecting a laptop to be able to read a USB drive plugged into a desktop computer just because they happen to be attached to different inputs on the same monitor.

Now, there may be a way to kind of do what you want by turning the "smart" part of the TV into a media/file server. There are even apps out there that will turn Android devices into little file servers, and you might even be able get some standard stuff like Apache, Samba, or NFS working with a little jiggery-pokery — if the Android version Sony shipped weren't locked down.

But none of those is really a good solution. You don't want your entertainment center doing double-duty like that. You'd be much better off getting a NAS of some kind and setting up your shares on that.

Actually, if you don't want to spend the money to buy a networked hard drive and your router has a USB port, it might already support creating network shares. I have my Asus RT-N66U running DD-WRT with a drive plugged into each of the USB ports on it, and it works great for this purpose.

Alternately, if you have an old laptop or desktop that you don't really use any more, you could easily tuck that away somewhere and have it act as file server for you, too. Even a fairly old one will do the job.

If you don't have any of those things, but you do have the USB hub and spare USB drive(s), you could always consider getting a Raspberry Pi, instead. Those make a more than passable file server for light to moderate use, and they're only $35 apiece.

Actually, in that image I linked in my router comment, you can see examples of each of my latter three suggestions within about a foot of each other in my house. They're all feasible and within the technical reach of even a novice at this sort of thing, particularly the latter two. I threw together a quick and ugly graphic pointing each of them them out.

Thank you very much. I had not known about either option. After a few searches, finding this product has caught my attention.
Is this what you were talking about, because it’s not that expensive, and if I could run it with my windows desktop or my macbook, I would absolutely buy this.
Do you know of another product that is superior, or one that you would recommend? And thanks again.This thing

Thanks for the reply. I wasn't really super familiar with DAS's (I guess Drobo is a DAS though?) so I hadn't considered it. It seems like from my (quick) research there wouldn't be a cost savings over a NAS, though. This 4-bay Synology NAS is $290 - https://www.amazon.com/Synology-Station-Diskless-Attached-DS416j/dp/B019ZUR5WQ/ref=sr_1_6?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1474670435&sr=1-6&keywords=synology and I think the QNAP equivalent is like $10 or $20 cheaper.

Oh, and yes, I do only have 1 host (and it will likely always be that way), so if there were a DAS option that was cheaper than a NAS, I'd definitely be open to it.

> I can't download music outside iTunes.

Sure you can. You can download music with 3rd-party apps over WiFi pretty easily.

If you don't want to fill up the iPad you can save music to cloud services or to a local wireless storage device (like the Western Digital MyCloud), or to a home network-attached storage (NAS) unit like the $250 dual-drive QNAP TS-251 2-Bay Personal Cloud NAS (which you need to add drives to) or the $170 (also empty of drives) Synology DiskStation DS216j.

Basically you buy a NAS based on your needs (for me I got a Buffalo with 2 3tb HDD's for under $350 shipped. With that you could build a 6tb storage device or a 3tb with raid 1. I went raid 1 so if one HDD fails I'll likely still have 1 functional HDD as backup. The buffalo also has a USB so you can attach another external hdd to access if you need a bit more space.

You attach the NAS to your modem using a standard cat5 cable to one of the empty ports in the back of the modem (mine had 4 or 5 available). From there you can access the NAS just like it was a hard drive from any computer on the network.

I put a roku in the bedroom (optional only needed if you're on a TV instead of a computer) and installed the Plex app and can now view any movie/music/show on the NAS in the bedroom using the roku's remote. In hindsight I probably should have gone with a raspberry pi but a roku is great for less savvy people.

Sorry if any of this info is less techy than you're looking for and feel free to ask questions I'll answer them if I can.

If she has a few thousand to spend, then I would go with this Synology 12 bay NAS along with 12 WD Red 6TB HDDs. That brings the total to ~$4,638. If you configure all disks into a RAID 6 volume, you end up with a little over 54TB of storage. I would also strongly consider, eventually, looking into an offsite backup solution as well [remember...RAID is not a backup].

To get the most out of it, you might want to consider getting a managed switch (just L2 is fine) so you can configure the ports on the NAS in a LAGG. You'd also want to invest in a decent wireless AC router. If the iMac is close enough, you could also just connect to the network via Ethernet (or directly to the NAS).

I use this NAS as my own personal cloud storage. I don't have any experience using it for sharing FL Studio files, but I imagine it's no different than any other files really. You can sign into the NAS from anywhere at anytime. It's pretty great, albeit a bit pricey upfront. But you'll never have to pay for a subscription cloud storage!

I was tempted to use metal frame for the build but i wouldnt have a clue when it comes to metal work but if you can do it, go for it! or get a good kit: My mate just bought this :https://www.amazon.co.uk/StarTech-com-Adjustable-Casters-Levelers-Management/dp/B00P1RJ9LS/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1511427208&sr=8-1&keywords=startech+12u

Its expensive but super adjustable.

i ended up buying this stuff:

NAS:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01BNPT1EG/ref=psdc_13436301_t1_B014YN6IK4


harddisk 2x 4 TB:

https://www.amazon.com/Western-Digital-WD4002FFWX-128MB-Cache/dp/B01CK5UBHE/ref=sr_1_2?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1505392774&sr=1-2&keywords=WD+Red+Pro+WD4002FFWX


This should be enough for quite some time for me - there arent so many 4k movies out there yet ;).

i hear that i will not be able to use Plex, to connect to my NAS and flawless play 4K movies (40-50Gigs), because plex will always try to transcode the 4k movies, for that they have to be stored locally.

but i should stick to using Kodi and just play the files on the NAS directly from there.

• advice on how to setup the nas / settings in plex / kodi or shield in general, is much appreciated.

Here are some links for the product in the above comment for different countries:

Amazon Smile Link: this one


|Country|Link|Charity Links|
|:-----------|:------------|:------------|
|USA|smile.amazon.com|EFF|
|UK|www.amazon.co.uk|Macmillan|
|France|www.amazon.fr||
|Canada|www.amazon.ca||
|Italy|www.amazon.it||
|India|www.amazon.in||




To help add charity links, please have a look at this thread.

This bot is currently in testing so let me know what you think by voting (or commenting). The thread for feature requests can be found here.

Not particularly. You're looking at building a cheap NAS, which generally isn't that cheap.

Especially when you're dealing with that many drives of smaller size. If you really want to do something like this, you'll be much better off consolidating to something like a 4tb drive. You could still keep the 500gigs around though, never know when you'll need them. You may be able to save some friends ass when their drive goes out.

For 80 more you can get a way nicer 4 post StarTech one with free shipping from Amazon.

http://www.amazon.com/StarTech-com-Adjustable-Levelers-Management-4POSTRACK12U/dp/B00P1RJ9LS

Not the exact model I have under my desk, but I have a similar one from them and love it.

In your shoes, I'd probably go for the 128GB, and carry around only the things you need on the road. Then, with that $200 you'd spend, but yourself a decent Network Attached Storage drive like that.

It'll be accessible from your network, and supposedly over the internet. I say supposedly because I don't have any personal experience with them.

This way, you get the best of both worlds. Enough local storage for your day to day, and more remote storage than you'll need for a long time.

You are looking at something like this:
https://www.amazon.com/Synology-DS1815-Station-Network-Attached/dp/B00P3RPMEO/ref=sr_1_1?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1495907881&sr=1-1&keywords=nas&refinements=p_n_feature_keywords_two_browse-bin%3A6792682011

with 8 of these :
https://www.amazon.com/Red-3TB-Hard-Disk-Drive/dp/B00LO3KR96/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1495907648&sr=8-2&keywords=wd%2Bred&th=1


that's 48Tb , 24 mirrored. And there are expansion modules if you want to expand later.

https://www.amazon.com/Synology-Expansion-Increasing-Capacity-DX513/dp/B009EMFXGG/ref=sr_1_1?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1495908341&sr=1-1&keywords=Synology+DX513


it has apps that you can use to mirror to cloud storage as well.

user friendly.

> 2 - 3 users at most, 1080p content

are you transcoding for them? If you're doing transcode for 3 streams (or even 2, honestly) you will likely want a better processor...but that one will probably be fine.

The Synology/Qnap/etc have a worse processor but have hardware accelerated transcode which you wont. At about the same price point you're looking at the TS-451+, DS418play.

Even the DS918+ you mentioned has hardware accelerated transcode, so I suspect you'd see better results from it [though, it's more expensive] if you have plex-pass to allow for it.

Edit:
the 9100 supports hardware accelerated transcode, but the 9100f does not.

As an IT guy I REALLY recommend you use something like Google drive. It's cheap or free for a few gigs and you can set it up to back up any directory you want on Mac or PC. Back up your stuff! Or invest in a NAS for your home, because it's attached to the network you can have your laptop, PC, etc, back up to it every time you connect to your home network.

I recommend the following in order:

1. Buy a 4 bay Synology NAS. Something like Synology 4 bay NAS DiskStation DS918+. If you think a 2 bay will fit your needs, you will regret it when you need more space. If you think you need a 4 bay, get a 5 or 7 bay. a bigger NAS is cheaper than Bigger Drives. 4T drives are a good price now (around ~$30 a 1T or 1000G. Any more than that and I think it's too much).
   
2. Buy 2 minimum 4T Drives (WD Red or Seagate Ironwolf)
   
3. Install PLEX on Synology and buy the Lifetime Pass.
   
4. Buy MakeMKV for $50, and use it to rip Bluray/DVDs to a MKV file.
   
5. Use Handbrake to convert a MKV file to a MP4 file (aka Trans-coding), BUT ONLY if you want to make the movie a smaller file OR if you want to burn in Captions for Non English parts in movies or shows. Like 1 Game of Thrones ep is ~13G, but can be transcoded to ~1.3G with captions. Though I try hard not to compress anything as you loose quality.
   
6. Install Plex app in XBox or Apple TV and enjoy.
   
   Again most of the time you only need to use MakeMKV, name the file, move it to your NAS in the correct Plex folder and done. I do not recommend compressing every movie to have more space. Storage is cheap, Electricity and time involved in compressing is not in comparison. This will cost ~$1,000. Which will give you about 4T of storage at minimum. $1k for 4T of redundant backup is a good deal.

Just 250 GB of free space? This will give you a redundant TB.

$140 Synology DiskStation 2-Bay

$65 (x2) 1 TB Western Digital Red

Total: ~$270

If it's purely for backup, this might not matter as much, but like /u/comnam90 mentioned, I'd advise you to bump up to the $200 variant if you have the cash for better performance.

That would take the build up to ~$330

can you review if the parts(in the table) good for Synology DSM xpenology or did you mean to buy Snology

like Synology 2 bay NAS DiskStation DS218+ ?

Will I be able to use Calibre server, Ubooquity, plex and encryption(like linux LUKS) on it and access from multiple devices(laptop, raspberry pi) etc like I mentioned in the original post?

Fair enough but honestly one of these plugged into your router is easy as pie: https://www.amazon.com/Cloud-Personal-Network-Attached-Storage/dp/B00EVVGAFI?th=1&psc=1. I'm not sure about hapless playback but I think so.

You don't know what you're doing, and while this is a great thing to do for yourself, you shouldn't be doing that to paying customers.

Here is a commercial device that comes with a warranty, works well, and is fairly simple to set up:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00SWEM4DW

yes, it's going to cost more than your home built unit, but it comes with a warranty, support beyond just you, tested hardware, and software to handle performing those backups. It also eliminates the need of a boot device.

There are other budget-oriented storage hardware providers too, and another thing you can do is call them up and ask them to help configure the cheapest option (for instance, an 8-bay unit with an expansion unit using more 6tb drives may be cheaper than a 12-bay using 8tb drives.)

Network attached (some say addressed) storage. They work great, and there is free software out there like FreeNAS and NAS4Free, just add a buch of matching(ish) hard drives and install your NAS OS

This all the way. I only use portable drives for time machine backups. But for system images, I just go with the NAS solution. I"m sitting on about 2TB of worth of HDD's now, with the option to go up to 8TB....I think. I have a home grown solution. /u/borngamr try this one: WD NAS I've had them in the past. The read/write speeds were ok. If you have an old computer sitting around, I would just grab a few empty TB drives and a Linux server image, and build your own nas. It'll be more fun, and probably cheaper.

Self hosting. One of the easiest ways is probably with a synology nas or similar product.

Has pretty much everything you need. You can install gitlab on it, or you can install individual components you need (apache, php, git, mantis bug tracker, etc)

The upfront costs are a bit high and disks are sold separately.
I assume you have to search for a local seller though if there's a trade embargo going on.

I say the benefits outweigh the costs though:

• You can simultaneously use this as general file storage and your project host. You can limit access the way you like.
  
• Has lots of packages, installation of things like VPN server or other components is pretty much "point and click"
  
• Two disks for redundancy (using software RAID 1)
  
• You can SSH into it
  
• No monthly costs apart from power consumption
  
• Not having to trust a 3rd party with your data
  
• Not depending on a 3rd party upholding their contract
  
• Can connect to PPPoE networks (DSL) and cable networks when configuring the ISP supplied modem as bridge, acting as your modem/firewall. This makes port forwarding unnecessary.
  
  The only real downside of self hosting is that it depends on your internet connection. You have to forward ports and if your internet is down, your collaborators can't reach your service. This is less important for git but other things they might want (issue tracker, files, automatic builds) will be inaccessible.

QNAP can do all that, but not well and not at the same time. And if you want the actual Plex server to run on your NAS? Forget it. The POS processors they include can't even handle one stream without stuttering.

FreeNAS is a BSD build that supports all sorts of plugins. It's ridiculously easy to set up, you have full control, and you can customize as much or as little as you want. Plus being able to upgrade your hardware over time if you want to expand.

Neither QNAP nor Synology is offering enough to justify their prices. I mean, seriously. $430 for a shitty 1.5 Ghz Celeron and 2 GB of RAM? Wut? And don't even get me started on this shit.

They are offering nowhere near enough benefit for the prices they charge. The only decently priced units they have are small home-office 2-bay systems that are only good for just straight storing files (and at 2 bays, I wouldn't really want to do more than that with them anyway). Sub $200? That's fine for a convenience fee. But for most of their stuff they're charging server prices for less than half the performance.

I'm using a Synology NAS. I tried to use my WD NAS but it's software was pretty limited it what it can do. If you're just starting out I'd recommend a 2-bay NAS, Synology 2 bay NAS DiskStation DS218j (Diskless) https://www.amazon.com/dp/B076G6YKWZ/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_a9D0BbA1AWCDS

I have this one and it's great. Easy to setup, very solid & sturdy.

http://www.amazon.com/StarTech-com-Adjustable-Levelers-Management-4POSTRACK12U/dp/B00P1RJ9LS

Depending on budget, you could take a rack like this, pick up an Ikea table/counter top. Bolt the counter top to the top of the rack to create your idea. Then you can just look into getting some plywood or whatever to attach to the side to hide everything like in your design.

Not the cheapest ever as is new but I have the following rack at home. Really happy with it and it was delivered straight to the house
https://www.amazon.co.uk/StarTech-com-Adjustable-Casters-Levelers-Management/dp/B00P1RJ9LS/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1519208441&sr=8-1&keywords=startech+rack

A great friend of mine did, from Ultimate Personal Computers. /u/u_p_c -

I also have a Synology Diskstation under the tower https://www.amazon.com/Synology-Station-Network-Attached-DS1815/dp/B00P3RPMEO/ref=sr_1_6?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1468523698&sr=1-6&keywords=synology

Filled with 8 of these. https://www.amazon.com/HGST-Deskstar-3-5-Inch-Internal-0S03664/dp/B00HHAJRU0/ref=sr_1_1?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1468523724&sr=1-1&keywords=HGST+4tb

I have a Home Lab situation with 2 server with above 20TB storage in one of them. I can install VMs & Dockers & on the Server's OS.

I have a nextcloud docker <-best software for self hosted cloud where I can expand my cloud as I desire not as much as my wallet has.
This is off course is a small portion of what my home lab does. I also stream movies to my family and friends from Plex, also have a music streaming service I use for listening to music on the go from my home library.

in your case if you have no idea about any of this you can get a home NAS witha a single drive or 2 for redundancy. https://www.amazon.com/Synology-bay-DiskStation-DS218j-Diskless/dp/B076G6YKWZ/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1550568800&sr=8-3&keywords=nas
the onboard software will help you configure your own cloud and more.

A network attached storage like this.
But any usb drive connected to your router or a folder on your pc that is shared in your network as a media server works as well for media streaming. It will show up in Oculus Gallery on Quest and in other media apps like Skybox.

If you do find yourself wanting to watch movies, burn all of them to a NAS, network attached storage, like this one and attach it to your router.

Most smart TVs have that availably to browse for network attached storage so a few clicks of a button and you have a movie on.

If you need to upgrade your router the Asus RT87u has great range especially for multi story houses and more features than most people will know what to do with.

My girlfriend bought me this one for Christmas and it's worked great so far. Really sturdy and adjustable to be deep enough for my Dell R710 without an issue.

http://www.amazon.com/StarTech-com-Adjustable-Levelers-Management-4POSTRACK12U/dp/B00P1RJ9LS

Edit: There's also a 25U version of this rack for $248 w/ free shipping

To clarify, I think you mean RAID-1, not 0.

I'd look at Synology. I love my DS216Play. The DS216j is pretty cheap too.

Lenovo ThinkServer SA120. 6 Gigabit. I got one and it works awesome. Pretty cheap brand new too.

https://www.amazon.com/Lenovo-70F10000UX-THINKSERVER-ATTACHED-HOT-SWAP/dp/B00LSQOY6G/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1496014402&sr=8-1&keywords=lenovo+sa120

/u/Get_Back_To_Work_Now is correct. Use one drive for your OS and programs and put the other two in a NAS as RAID 0.

Get yourself a QNAP TS-231P for $180, put both drives in, set it for RAID 0, and call it a day. If you plan on expanding, get the 4 bay version for $80 more. If you plan on doing any kind of transcoding, you would benefit from the extra RAM, but I recommend doing this yourself as the price difference is huge.

Perhaps a compromise and just buy a nas? Wouldn't need to worry about it "playing nice" with both systems...

Check out this deal 4tb, works wirelessly and with pc mac phones and tablets, and tbh 219 for 4tb is a hell of a deal, but you can lower the tv and save some cash

If you decide to get a nas just remember to "map" the drive

Please not though this not a high end nas but essentially an external hdd with networking abilities

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00EVVGAD0/ref=mp_s_a_1_2?qid=1394735987&sr=8-2&pi=SY200_QL40

I got BB to price match amazon for a 2 TB @ $119. they usually float around 140 or so everyday price, just watch for a sale. you could probably save some money doing it on your own, but i am speculating. i didn't even research. i saw cheap reliable NAS w/ Gbit port with low power consumption so i bought it.

2TB WD My cloud for $143. 4TB $219

Many USB housings have a controller inside the housing which limits the max size of the drive, so make sure you get housings which support the drive size you want.

The Linux kernel itself has limits far in excess of this, it can handle block devices in exabytes and probably beyond.

As others have said, the limitation will be bus speed on the Pi as it shares Ethernet and USB. The max throughput you'll get is 20MiB/sec, probably worse.

You'll need to power the drives externally obviously.

If you're dropping like $1000+ on 4x 8Tb hard drives, just spend an extra few hundred bucks and get a good actual NAS like Synology or QNAP. A Synology DS-416j is $289 on Amazon. These run Linux with a web frontend. They have an small "app store" so you can install a DLNA server or whatever. They're really quite good.

You're looking for a NAS- network attached storage.

Often they can be more expensive than just a "crappy" desktop.

Or something like a Western Digital My Cloud.


WD 3TB My Cloud Personal Network Attached Storage - NAS - WDBCTL0030HWT-NESN
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00EVVGAC6/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_ZqI1BbTTV6XFF

Hi friend - here's what I use for cloud storage/backups

• Synology Disk Station
  
• 2 of these 4TB hard drives
  
  And for battery organizing
  
  
• This guy comes in handy
  
• and a whole host of these energizer rechargeable batteries in various sizes.

Hi!

I am very new to Plex and am currently running some videos from an external HDD by using an old MBP. My fear is that if the disk fails, I lose everything so I was wondering what to do and someone I talked with suggested I got a QNAP like this one: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B015VNLGF8/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER

I, however, have never used anything like that so I'm not sure what would happen. If I get something like that, I understand that I need to buy HD to put in and it offers some redundancy but can I connect the one I already have? And then, how do I run Plex on that? It seems to be more of a device to serve media to a tv than to stream.

Thanks in advance for any help!

If this helps at all, I bought one of these and it works perfectly.

Lenovo 70F10000UX THINKSERVER SA120 DIRECT ATTACHED STORAGE

I'm not sure you'll find a better deal.

Just make sure you have enough space for future growth lol, it's addictive. Little more expensive with reviews:
https://amzn.com/B00P1RJ9LS

The one you linked looks like it uses the shelves or rails+server to add rigidity since it's missing the two cross-bars... not personally crazy about that.

Ah, that version of that plan. I actually had the same idea -- a cabinet with vertical 1/4" plywood "blades", each with the SBC and disk stuck to it. The best I could find (i.e. cheapest thing with a SATA port) was something based on the Allwinner A10. The issue I had with this solution is that I would need an additional (more powerful) machine that can act as a gateway for anything that doesn't use the cephfs directly.

I've been considering a slightly less extra extreme solution: grabbing three of something like this, dropping a little memory upgrade and a linux install on them, and getting my three independent OSD hosts. This gives them much higher specs (even on a per-disk basis), although it's moderately more expensive. Also, it's a lot less work to put together.

Honestly, a WD Mycloud will suffice for that amount of data.

I know this is the US site but I'm sure you can find the exact same from the UK site.

Look into synology... You will probably have to buy the drives separately though. AND It isn't the cheapest solution, but I think its a good, but cheaper than it could be, solution.

I'm going for this one: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00OZ0CTAU/ref=ox_sc_act_title_2?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=A2OAJ7377F756P used from amazon :) Thanks

Beep. Boop. I'm a bot.

It seems the URL that you shared contains trackers.

Try this cleaned URL instead: https://www.amazon.com/Synology-bay-DiskStation-DS218j-Diskless/dp/B076G6YKWZ/ref=sr_1_4

If you'd like me to clean URLs before you post them, you can send me a private message with the URL and I'll reply with a cleaned URL.

Ah so you want to use some kinda physical enclosure then! Something like a Lenovo SA120 to put harddrives in and then connect to a HW RAID card and create your array , that makes sense now.

I see people using the Dell H200 card outside of Dell hardware for FreeNAS , however if you're using a HDD enclosure for the array how do you plan to interface with it? Do you plan to use SFF-8087 (internal) to SFF 8088 (external) cables (which do exist, just messy)? Or do you plan to get another RAID card with SFF-8088 to SFF-8088 (external SAS).


It really should just work, as long as its supported by the host OS or guest OS if its being passed to a VM it should work without a hitch, now depending on the RAID card you may have a second menu at POST/Boot to select the onboard RAID card + the new one to configure the array(s) in.

My daughter has a youtube channel and I shoot in 4k for that and fill my memory card really fast as well. I got a WD mycloud and can upload everything to it wirelessly from anywhere. Its really nice and better than any other cloud service as I still have physical access to it!

Higher end

Lower end

Both support what you're looking for, and management is very starter friendly.

Something like this would work fine. Very easy to setup

Is $119 a good deal to get a synology 2 bay DS218j NAS? I've been wanting to get a dedicated plex server for movies and tv running and this seems like a decent pricepoint. Anyone have one of these?

From my search finding 30” depth racks that are smaller is kinda difficult. You may also want room to expand. I know this rack is pretty popular and I’ve seen some sales on this one: https://www.amazon.com/StarTech-com-Adjustable-Levelers-Management-4POSTRACK12U/dp/B00P1RJ9LS/ref=sr_1_3?keywords=startech+12u&qid=1555357650&s=gateway&sr=8-3

/u/stilettoblade is correct. Neither the R610, nor the R710 would fit in this rack.

I measured the spare rails I have for an R610ii, the mount size is listed below. Too lazy to pull out one of the R710's to check those rails, but the R610ii physical server is 2in longer than the R710; so I'd think the rail mount depth would be similar if not exactly the same.

R610ii rails:

p/n: R144J

27.25in - 30.25in

These are the two racks I've found; similar in Usize that would fit these servers. I'm also looking to down grade my rack size, so if anyone has any suggestions for a 12-18U open rack on casters that is at least 27in deep; lets hear it.

*edit forgot the links. ha

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00P1RJ9LS/

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01M9DQAMS/

Synology DS216play + a drive or two

• It's your media server
  
• With 4k UHD hardware transcoding
  
• It's your camera server
  
• It's your real time backup for Windows, Mac, Android, and iOs devices
  
• It can sync all or part of your data to your favorite cloud storage
  
• The GUI is really easy to use
  
• It's designed to run 24/7
  
• It has a ton of other apps it can run for additional functionality

I personally chose the NAS route instead of multiple easystore units. You can grow as you need to and yes using 2x 4TB drives with 2x 8TB drives will absolutely work. It depends on how much you want pay up front. If you’re not looking to build it yourself you can buy a Synology DS418 and connect your current easystore units through USB until you can buy more drives. Eventually you can shuck them and add it to your pool of storage.

It’s a little more than $300 dollars but it’s a great option to set it and forget it. And you can run Plex from the NAS itself.

Synology DS418 NAS Disk station, 4-Bay, 2GB DDR4 (Diskless) https://www.amazon.com/dp/B075N17DM6/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_O9JeAbRVAJG3D

There are a few internal bays in there. Also, if you want to go dual CPU and more memory, look into Z820 configs: http://www.ebay.com/itm/HP-Z820-Enterprise-Workstation-16-Core-Dual-E5-2680-128GB-RAM/152596260219

For maxing out storage, I think the best you can do internally is 7 3.5" drives? 4 internal + 3 in an Icy Dock or similar: http://www.icydock.com/storage_buying_guide/hp_workstations/HP_Z820_Workstation_storage_buying_guide.pdf

If you wanted piles of storage, could connect a DAS device link the SA120: https://www.amazon.com/Lenovo-70F10000UX-THINKSERVER-ATTACHED-HOT-SWAP/dp/B00LSQOY6G/

(Which needs an external SAS card, but can use something like a LSI SAS9200-8e for ~$50 from eBay)

This might be better for a full post, if so, I can fill out the post and will make one.

For server building, what all exactly do I need? From what I have seen so far, this is what I need:

• 1x Server rack: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00P1RJ9LS/
  
• 1x UPS: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000086A26/
  
• at least 1x rackmount chassis: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B001NO7THO/ with the standard computer components (Motherboard, CPU, PSU, RAM, and boot drive)
  
  Is there anything else I need? Would the components I listed all above work well for a media server?
  
  For the components inside of each rackmount, what do I need to look for? If I am not doing transcoding and the server is just for serving large media files, do I need anything more than a cheap CPU (say a Ryzen 3)? What about RAM? should 8GB each be enough, or should I look to get more? For the PSU, is there sometype of calculator I can use to figure out how big of one I will need based on a full rack mount with all of the storage HDDs in it?
  

Hypothetical question, and forgive me for my naivety:

Would Videostream work if I would to purchase a NAS?...Llet's say this one? I recently started using plex and my laptop is my server. I was looking into network attached storage devices and found that many are incompatible with plex. What I am hoping is this would open up the door on more options for clouds that I could access remotely AND cast with Chromecast. Thoughts?

No transcoding required.

​

I was eyeballing Synology for the attractive cases, easy expansion units, and attractive OS.

​

Would this set-up work? https://pcpartpicker.com/user/GleekedOwt/saved/6GsMcf I made a quickie part list. It's $200 less than the Synology model (without the storage drives) and is more powerful. (Comparing to the Synology DS918+)

​

I'm not certain what route to go with the OS. Amahi looks nice, but I'm not sure I can install Lidarr, Radarr, or use Python scripts on it. FreeNAS - same concerns, and I've read that it's "more advanced".

Do you have any other comments or OS suggestions?

I actually never saw it for 600. Lust looked at my amazon order history — I bought it in jab 2018 for $529.99. Looking at the price history here it’s always user $550

https://camelcamelcamel.com/product/B075N1Z9LT

The 1618 hovers about $730 https://camelcamelcamel.com/Synology-Bay-NAS-DiskStation-Diskless/product/B07CR8RZYY

So it’s 33 or 25 % difference depending how you look at it

I think what happens is because with synology the majority of the cost is fixed — distribution, software, services, and support — drastically improving hardware results in minor end user cost increase. Which makes low end, a tiny bit cheaper models disproportionally worse value compared to competition where hardware cost constitutes larger fraction of the price. Does it make sense?

Thanks, I've been eyeing this rack, https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00P1RJ9LS/ref=ox_sc_act_title_2?smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER&psc=1

I've been waiting for a deal to come up on the used market for a nice closed rack or cheaper open rack before purchasing a rack new.

I have a desktop set up as my Plex server now, but I'm looking into a Synology NAS to increase storage capacity. If my PC streams everything fine at the moment is there any reason to get the Synology Play over the regular version?

I've done a fair amount of reading on plex servers and file sharing, but I still have a pretty elementary understanding so I'm hoping for some critique/constructive criticism on my plans. I plan on supporting up to 4 plex streams all through Wifi to TVs, tablets, laptops, phones. No remote access at this point. I plan on using a NAS device as storage for tv shows/movies/music and it will also be a torrenting machine. Then have another computer serve as the plex media server. This is probably overkill, but here's what I was planning:

File Storage/Torrenting server

Synology 2 Bay NAS

WD 4TB Hard Drive (x2)

​

Plex Media Server

Micro ATX Case

Gigabyte Motherboard

Ryzen 5 2600 CPU - 13000 passmark

8 GB Ram

Graphics Card

​

Still trying to figure out the power supply for the PMS. I think 550w should be ample. I also have a 1TB hard drive from years ago that I think I can use with this. If not I'll just get another one. My understanding is PMS transcoding isn't burdensome on RAM, but more processors cores/threads so I made sure I have ample room there.

​

The one caveat is this will be in the living room right underneath the main TV, so I wanted to try and keep noise level down. Or is this all just unnecessry overkill and I should just look at a T710/T310 dell server as the PMS?

Ok, then ignore me haha. For some reason I assumed you had Plex on a home server rather than your laptop. Any networked hard drive like this one will work fine.

If you are looking to keep it standalone from your PC, you are looking for a NAS solution. Honestly with that many drives its not very power effective and if you really want to utilize them, you should stick them in your PC. Otherwise, you need a external NAS enclosure such as the one below to use them, and they are not cheap.

https://www.amazon.com/Synology-bay-DiskStation-DS418-Diskless/dp/B075N17DM6/ref=sr_1_3?keywords=5+disk+nas&qid=1565629034&s=gateway&sr=8-3

No, what I am saying is that usb enclosure is good for now. But be sure to get drives that can be removed, that way if you ever upgrade to something like this the drives are still useable.

Absolutely this.

If it's for business and your $$$ depends on it then the general rule is "3-2-1": 3 total copies of your data, 2 of which are local but on different mediums (read: devices), and at least 1 copy off-site. Get a NAS or an external hard drive.

Synology makes decent stuff and you can find something in your price range. This is a good start: https://www.amazon.com/Synology-bay-DiskStation-DS218j-Diskless/dp/B076G6YKWZ/ref=sr_1_3?keywords=nas&qid=1570326553&sr=8-3

With a limit of $150 OP isn't getting anything "professional" grade, but a basic Synology box should be fine.

It's not the only way. You just have to upload the file to a location that isn't going to re-encode it; usually a device on your local network. Or a cloud service that you know doesn't re-encode files either by default or option.

For example, my Wd Mycloud has a great iPhone app that will upload my files, no conversion at all. Then I can get use them on a Mac, windows, whatever I'd like.

There are plenty of other ways to get wireless Time Machine without shelling out for Apple's router. For instance, this WD MyCloud + the router I recommended is about the same price as the 3TB Time Capsule, but you get an extra TB of storage, and when the drive dies, you can get another without replacing the router as well.

> how would the NAS be connected to the server? Ethernet, eSata, magic?

The "NA" in "NAS" stands for "network-attached," and there's your answer: Ethernet. You can use nfs, smb, iscsi, or any other network storage protocol that matches your requirements. If you're not sure what you want to use, you need to first decide what you're trying to accomplish here—what exactly you're going to use this NAS for. That answer will then inform how you want to set up your shares.

>If I move all my media to a separate NAS enclosure, how is that handled? Do I need to have a cpu/mobo/mem in the NAS, or am I still able to use my server?

I run a plex server on a mac mini HTPC, and I keep my plex media library on a NAS in the other room. They're connected via gigabit ethernet and the server doesn't care; transcoding, streaming, and all other operations work normally. Transcoding is done using the HTPC's CPU.

Think about it this way: the only thing you're moving is the physical location of the media. The server's going to work the same way whether it has to get its media from a locally attached hard drive or a network share. The server don't care.

> are there NAS enclosures that can handle the number of drives I'm using, without getting into the crazy price range (crazy for me is over $400-500)?

Prebuilt NAS systems, like a synlogy or qnap? As a rough guide to consumer NAS pricing, you can estimate that you're going to pay around $100 per disk slot. 8 bays is going to cost you a bit under a grand. From there, they tend to jump to 12 bays and get pretty silly.

If your budget is $4-500 and you have a hard requirement to hold 9 disks, you're either consigning yourself to DIY or you're going to have to start hunting through ebay for used NAS gear. Or revise your requirements down to a 4- or 5-bay NAS.

I have this one work great
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00P1RJ9LS/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_yt0pDbCFVTSX2

gotcha. I got a mid-length rack at first thinking it would be enough. It doesn't even fit the "dell sliding rails", though it fits those rails I linked, it just means a full-depth server is longer than the rack.

So, TLDR, get a full length/adjustable rack like this.

Or put it on a shelf or the floor, it's homelab :)

I'm curious why you didn't just go with something like this 12U 4 post?

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00P1RJ9LS/

Unless you needed it to be enclosed, but I think it would be less work to enclose this than it was to create all that contraption you made.

Are the WD ones any good? Still not cheap, but you'd think they would know how to make a quality product.

https://www.amazon.com/EX4100-Diskless-Network-Attached-Storage/dp/B00TB8XMR0/ref=sr_1_26?ie=UTF8&qid=1494012106&sr=8-26&keywords=western+digital+8tb

You could look at something like a 4-bay Qnap or Synology:

https://www.amazon.com/QNAP-TS-451-Personal-Quad-Core-Transcoding/dp/B015VNLGF8/ref=sr_1_31?ie=UTF8&qid=1551036590&sr=8-31&keywords=synology

https://www.amazon.com/Synology-bay-DiskStation-DS418-Diskless/dp/B075N17DM6/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1551036686&sr=8-4&keywords=synology

I have a synology (not this one in particular) and I love it but as far as I am aware Qnap makes damn fine products as well.

You didn't ask me, but you could get a Lenovo SA120, LSI 9200-8e, and the appropriate cable for under $300 – leaving some cash for Lenovo drive trays.

(Note also that none of these parts are necessarily ideal for you; for example, the MSA60 costs less and includes trays but has its own drawbacks. It's hard to say without knowing requirements.)

A NAS is "network attached storage". They are essentially computers largely dedicated to being a hard drive you can access from other computers. They aren't attached via USB, they are attached to your router using an ethernet cable.

The basic idea is that you buy a 4 bay NAS ($500) and put in 4 8TB hard drives (4 x $150 = 600). The NAS does some special hard drive combining magic (RAID) that ultimately gives you 24TB of space (3x8TB). The 4th hard drive is used for redundancy, so if one of the drives fails you just pull it out and put in a new one with no downtime.

There are plenty of options and configurations I didn't mention, but this is basically the gist of it.

https://smile.amazon.com/Synology-bay-DiskStation-DS918-Diskless/dp/B075N1Z9LT/

The shield can then access this hard drive space.

Have fun.

https://camelcamelcamel.com/Synology-bay-DiskStation-DS918-Diskless/product/B075N1Z9LT?context=search

Here's the price history on Amazon. You can set an email alert to be notified at a certain price point

Just saw your post on /r/homeserver - sorry I've confused you. You will probably find what you need over there. If all you want us some always-on network storage, the device you linked on Amazon will probably do the trick.

If you want more options, something like this will give you a bit more flexibility - https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B015JQAWW0/ref=mp_s_a_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1483343638&sr=8-2&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_FMwebp_QL65&keywords=2+bay+nas&dpPl=1&dpID=31GaiS0ZjFL&ref=plSrch

Bear in mind you will need to buy 2 disks to put in it.

Well you could probably use both as externals, though you'd need two USB ports on the EeePC. At a basic level you could just share them both out as separate drives. If you want to combine them into one I'm not sure of a way to merge two drives (JBOD array) over two separate USB ports.

Alternatively, you could buy an empty NAS box and use your existing drives for not too much money. Or go with something like the Western Digital MyCloud. 2TB NAS with internet access for $150.

For the setup I am about to outline, my client has the following devices:

• DS216J
  
• 3TB HGST HDD
  
• TrendNET TV-IP321PI (720P Cameras)
  
  I have allocated 500GB per camera (five in total), which takes up 2.5TB. Three are set to record at 1280x960 and the others are in a smaller area, so they're set to record 640x480. I can usually get 3-4 weeks by setting each camera to record for 500GB each, which is plenty of time. I could easily add another 3TB or bigger HDD to get a total of two months record time as well.
  
  Another one of my clients has 4MP, 1080p Cameras with basically the same setup (different cameras, same NAS) and he gets 3 weeks of record time.

I was just in this position.. I've got an older i7 box with 24GB of ram, and had 8x3TB drives crammed into the tower forming a RAID-6 array that was ~97% full. I'm running openmediavault to manage the storage simply because I prefer Linux to something like FreeBSD. It also has a PLEX plugin as well, and I run PLEX on the storage box locally.

After a lot of research, I purchased the following.

LSI 9200-8e - SAS HBA - ~$40

Lenovo ThinkSever SA120 DAS - ~$200

12 drive caddies / trays for the DAS (optional, but suggested) - check eBay, ~$100 total. You can use the caddies that come with the SA120 but need to dremel them and drill screw holes.

I moved all of my drives to the DAS (Except OS drive) leaving 4 more bays for expansion. I added 2 more 3TB drives and grew the array (actually still waiting on that to finish...).

So for ~$350 I moved to a much more flexible setup (you can actually daisy chain the DAS's, so you can buy another one for 12 more bays when you're ready) and extended the life of the setup by quite a bit.

Ya I was definitely trying to hit a lower price point than Synology. I was pretty tempted on the DS416J for only $289
http://www.amazon.com/Synology-Station-Diskless-Attached-DS416j/dp/B019ZUR5WQ