SSD NAS - How noisy are Synology NAS's? Or QNAP?

[Yoga]

Evening!

 

I'm after a silent NAS to pair with a Lumin A1, and thinking about getting the single bay DS115J and loading it with a 1TB SSD.

 

Are Synology NASs noisy (in general)? More bays will result in larger, and or/multiple fans of course. The DS115J, being single bay, has a single small fan.

 

The Synology is only £80, the fanless QNAP 210 is £180.

 

The NAS has to be placed in the study, quite near me (within 2-3 feet).

 

Any ideas? :¬)

[Kal Rubinson]

Evening!

 

I'm after a silent NAS to pair with a Lumin A1, and thinking about getting the single bay DS115J and loading it with a 1TB SSD.

 

Are Synology NASs noisy (in general)? More bays will result in larger, and or/multiple fans of course. The DS115J, being single bay, has a single small fan.

 

The Synology is only £80, the fanless QNAP 210 is £180.

 

The NAS has to be placed in the study, quite near me (within 2-3 feet).

 

Any ideas? :¬)

I have no experience with fanless NAS but, for me, the major reason for having a NAS is to locate it remotely so that sound, heat and bulk are irrelevant. With a single SSD, why bother with a NAS as opposed to a direct connection?

[Yoga]

I have no experience with fanless NAS but, for me, the major reason for having a NAS is to locate it remotely so that sound, heat and bulk are irrelevant. With a single SSD, why bother with a NAS as opposed to a direct connection?

 

That's a very good question. Wanting to avoid USB entirely I'd not considered that option. All the reviews I've read have been using network streaming from a NAS. Have you compared both inputs, are they considered equal?

[Kal Rubinson]

I do not think that there is a significant difference between the two inputs in sound quality.

[Yoga]

I do not think that there is a significant difference between the two inputs in sound quality.

 

Is this an assumption or from experience?

[Kal Rubinson]

Is this an assumption or from experience?

 

From experience but note that the devices I have used are not likely to be the same as yours since I insist on having mch capabilities.

[plissken]

Is this an assumption or from experience?

 

The inputs are data, not audio inputs.

 

As an example you can stream over Ethernet, unplug the Ethernet cable and music will still play.

 

If you can get your NAS locate it somewhere else and stream wireless.

[Kal Rubinson]

The inputs are data, not audio inputs.

 

As an example you can stream over Ethernet, unplug the Ethernet cable and music will still play.

 

If you can get your NAS locate it somewhere else and stream wireless.

Right. Just data.

[Forehaven]

I have a 1515+, and you can hear it easily even at 10ft. I located mine down in the basement and ran ethernet to audio room. I think this is how most people use this NAS.

[ted_b]

To support Kal's comments: Don't buy a NAS for its silence, buy it for its ability to be put anywhere on your LAN, and to expertly serve files (to computer servers or other family devices) or specifically music (if used as music server, like with Minimserver/BubbleServer installed). If you need something near you, quiet and storing large amounts of data, then buy a 2.5" Oyen Digital drive or something like that. Make sure the two USB connections (storage and DAC) are not on the same USB bus. Hopefully your music listening den is quiet and peaceful; keep a NAS out of there. Even though you plan on spending most of your budget on the SSD, the specs for the DS115j says nothing about being ultra-quiet (and if it was the marketing lit would highlight it).

 

Also, you'll save lots of money cuz physically noisier larger capacity hdds cost way less than $500 per terabyte (going cost of SSDs).

[Elberoth]

You can always replace the NAS fans with more quiet ones.

 

Living in an apartment flat, I was not able to put my NAS in a basement, so I took this route. I have replaced both fans on my Synology 1815+ with 10dB (or so) models. Now all I can hear is HDD spinning noise.

 

At present, I have 4 HDDs in a 8-bay NAS, so no elevated temp. problems.

 

For anyone who wants to follow my steps: always choose the NAS with the biggest fans. The bigger the fan - the more quiet it can be. Synology 1815+ has dual 120mm fans, which are about perfect for this. Smaller NAS drives may have smaller fans, which are more difficoult to quiet down, Some may even use non-standard ones. Look for 80mm fan as a minimum.

[magister]

I have a Synology DS213 located about 8-9 feet from my listening chair. I cannot hear it unless I move much closer, about 2-3 feet, and then only if the fan happens to be running. With the DS213, there is an option in the Disk Station Manager software to let the drives run slightly hotter (so the fan runs less often). I use this option. Also, I have heard that disks that spin at 7200 RPM are noisier than those that run at the lower speed (5400? I forget). Mine are the latter, so I can't say I've heard the difference in person, but it's something to consider when choosing disks for a NAS. I would probably not put a large NAS in the listening room, but my two-bay model is not a problem in regard to noise, at least for me.

[Distinctive]

My Synology 713+ w/SSD is annoyingly noisy when the fan kicks in.

[AudioTragic]

The Qnap HS-251 is a fanless 2 bay NAS. It is more expensive. I use it with 2 WD Red 6TB NAS drives. The only sound is from the WD drives seek/reading mechanism.

[Yoga]

Thanks for all the replies.

 

As the NAS has to be in my study I'll opt for the totally silent Qnap 251 with SSD. It's only for audio (no 1080p) so the CPU won't be a bottleneck.

[Distinctive]

Will you eventually run roon server on the Qnap?

[Yoga]

Will you eventually run roon server on the Qnap?

 

If I stay with the Lumin as intended - no need.

 

If I go the external DAC route, possibly. Does it require more CPU juice?

[Distinctive]

If I stay with the Lumin as intended - no need.

 

If I go the external DAC route, possibly. Does it require more CPU juice?

Yes, that was my original thinking. With roon onboard I would guess the cpu power of the NAS counts.

[Yoga]

Yes, that was my original thinking. With roon onboard I would guess the cpu power of the NAS counts.

 

Something to consider!

[Distinctive]

I reckon you have seen that PixelMagic is about to lmplement roon speaker in their Lumin renderers.

[Yoga]

I reckon you have seen that PixelMagic is about to lmplement roon speaker in their Lumin renderers.

 

Ah yes, did psme (Lumin guy) mention that somewhere on this forum? Roon in the works?

[Distinctive]

http://www.computeraudiophile.com/f22-networking-networked-audio-and-streaming/lumin-audiophile-network-music-player-14280/index39.html#post483172

[Yoga]

http://www.computeraudiophile.com/f22-networking-networked-audio-and-streaming/lumin-audiophile-network-music-player-14280/index39.html#post483172

 

That was it, thanks.

 

QNAP will do the trick then :¬)

[PewterTA]

You don't need an SSD in a NAS... why not get a nice 4 or 6 or 8TB HD? They aren't going to make much noise that you can hear if they are in a case (maybe when you're loading the drive up with music...but not otherwise).

[Yoga]

You don't need an SSD in a NAS... why not get a nice 4 or 6 or 8TB HD? They aren't going to make much noise that you can hear if they are in a case (maybe when you're loading the drive up with music...but not otherwise).

 

That's a good point. If the drives are not accessed during playback low RPM HDDs may work.