QNAP TS-459

[jimim]

Hello all,

 

I'm looking at this NAS right now.

 

I have a question. My whole house runs on macs for music and everyday use. I am expanding into movie's now and will be using a windows machine to do the backups of the movies i own. at that point the hardware (popcorn hour) will take over and the windows machine will not be used.

 

my question is format of the NAS. . . will I have problems? will I be able to read and write with both the mac and the windows computer? will they have problems talking with the NAS?

 

I guess I just don't understand how they are formatted? do you have to pick a format when you set em up? FAT vs NTFS vs other? or doesn't it work like this with NAS.

 

I'm going to do a RAID5 array if that matters.

 

thanks sooo much guys,

jim

 

[The Computer Audiophile]

Hi Jim - You won't have any problems reading and writing to the NAS from Mac or Windows computers. The NAS will likely be formatted Ext3. Network communication via SMB of AFP allows your computers to talk to and use the NAS just like a local disk.

 

[jimim]

Chris I'm looking at the TS-459 actually. thought the 459 was a good place to start due to it's CPU and it has 4 bays which I think is all I'll need (famous last words) and it has an auto wake for LAN so no more worrying about these (!) in iTunes I'm assuming. That is without having to use an external program like you wrote about to wake your external disk in the past. I'm going to do a RAID5 setup. Reason being is right now everything (lossless) is on an external disk connected to my time capsule. We have a baby now and pictures are starting to pile up and disk space is filling up and I'm getting worried about loosing them down the road so I figure now is a good time to look into a better HDD setup with backup in mind. RAID5 is just kinda making sense in my head right now.

 

I figured I would put all my lossless stuff spread across 4 disks and my pictures and prob even my regular iTunes library for the wife's and my iPhones.

 

What do you think? Pro cons? Be honest. Also will RAID5 vs say Raid1 have any impact on my music when it is streaming over via ethernet to my MB pro?

 

Thanks,

Jim

 

[The Computer Audiophile]

Hi Jim - RAID 5 is the way to go in my opinion. According to Wikipedia, "The read performance of RAID 5 is almost as good as RAID 0 for the same number of disks. Except for the parity blocks, the distribution of data over the drives follows the same pattern as RAID 0. The reason RAID 5 is slightly slower is that the disks must skip over the parity blocks."

 

Using gigabit Ethernet from the NAS to the MBP either direct or through a switch/router is highly recommended. I pull files from a NAS everyday via iTunes and it works flawlessly.

 

[jimim]

ya so here's the catch. i'm all cat5e in the house. my drops all go to my basement where my netgear switch and router are and they aren't gigabit. sooo does it matter if they aren't gigabit?

 

also heres another thing i read last night from one of your reviews. the thecus review you talk about mean half life of the disk and how you set it to wake for the hours you are up and then sleep for the hours not in use. i thought the disk would auto sleep when not in use so say at night when in bed. why have a setting ot tell it to sleep then if it's not being used anyway? does that make sense? i figured since say the QNAP has a wake on LAN connection it would just mean when I wake my MB Pro or any computer from sleep and the LAN kicks back in the disk would then spin up? Or since their would be a ethernet connection in the computer the LAN port would always be sensed so you need to tell to sleep certain times or it would always be spinning?

 

Guess I'm confused on when a disk wakes and sleeps if it is hooked into a network, say my netgear router and switch?

 

can you explain a little?

 

thanks alot,

jim

 

[The Computer Audiophile]

Hi Jim - I have one 100 Mbps PC and it works fine with a NAS etc... I think you should be OK with your setup.

 

More about sleep, wake, etc...

 

The Thecus unit has two settings. One allows the hard drives to sleep after a certain period of time. The other allows the whole NAS unit to sleep on a schedule. I like to put the whole NAS to sleep on a schedule because the the internal fan stops spinning and power to the drives is cut off.

 

You mention Wake On Lan. Be careful with your assumptions about how the QNAP will function with WOL. Most WOL capable devices require a special magic packet be sent to wake them up. On my Mac I use an application called WakeOnLan to wake a device.

 

[jimim]

Thanks for the comments BTW!

 

So you mention about the WOL needing a special magic packet to be sent to wake them up?

 

Meaning maybe Mac's can't send this for the QNAP?

 

What about your Thecus? Does it have WOL. It's not something I need per say just talking about it cause it has the setting and really didn't understand it.

 

With the program you use. I take it is designed for a Mac to send the packet to any NAS to wake em?

 

thanks,

jim

 

PS I'm going to check out Thecus's website tonight.

 

Pretty much all I need is say 4 drives. They will be for:

 

1. Lossless music. Will be streamed from NAS.

2. Regular iphone/ipod music and Nuvo/AE setup. Will be streaming from NAS.

3. All picture backup (i do lots of photo editing) def one of my larger hobbies. Not grabbing from NAS just for backup.

4. Soon to be "backups" of my BR movies for streaming throughout my home. Will be streaming from NAS.

 

Should I be looking at Thecus vs QNAP or something else?

 

Deff going RAID5 though.

 

[restock]

No problem with QNAP TS-410 and my Mac. Nice features for the price, but not the quietest, so not the best solutions if you have it in your music room (actually both the WD Green and Hitachi have pretty loud seeking noises.)

 

Only one comment: DON'T get the WD Green hard drives for a Raid array:

 

http://forum.qnap.com/viewtopic.php?f=182&t=16357&hilit=raid+rebuilt+power&start=30

http://forum.qnap.com/viewtopic.php?f=182&t=25541&p=109731&hilit=WD+green+raid#p109731

 

The latest WD Green drives are not designed to work with Raid arrays, which could cause problems in the long run. If you have the older WD drives, you may be fine with an additional Firmware upgrade. That is true for any RAID array, not just QNAP.

 

Good luck!

 

Rene

 

[jimim]

Rene,

 

Thanks for the reply. I was told that by QNAP but they said they were fully tested and all was good. It's funny that you mention this exact issue cause I spoke with WD on Fri and they said only enterprise drives (the 2TB are crazy expensive!) and QNAP said the Greens are ok now.

 

Thecus also recommends the Greens too. I don't get this. WD says one thing but QNAP and Thecus say the opposite.

 

I'm actually getting kinda scared about switching over to a NAS setup.

 

My NAS will be up in the office which is already noisy due to my DVR for the cameras around our house. So what the heck al little more noise won't matter! LOL

 

So getting back to all this. . . what drives to I go with then? If I stick with the Enterprise I can get Black Cavs but the larger ones weren't tested yet. I know WD says they are OK for RAID5. But QNAP hasn't tested them.

 

Also I'm worried about support. This is new to me and deff not an expert here. Worried if I need help I am going to be in trouble. I have heard QNAP isn't the best for support. I didn't catch that feeling when I spoke with them 2 times on Friday and they were real good to me.

 

let me know your thoughts,

jim

 

[jimim]

Rene,

 

What about Seagate drives? Should I call them to see if they aren't made for a RAID5 setup also? I have read horror storied about Seagates the past few years.

 

jimi

 

[restock]

Unfortunately I ended up with the only 4 drives that are now on the no-go list: WD15EADS-00P8B0. When purchasing the drives QNAP had ok'ed the WD15EADS (1.5TB), the issues came up only later. And a lot of other NAS companies are still (wrongly) recommending the WD15EADS (1.5TB).

 

I bought the Hitachi 2TB which are on the compatibility list and at least are available at good prices. Only thing is that they are significantly louder and I only have a small apartment so not completely happy (the other day a friend though my tube amp was broken when listening to music mistaking the HD noise for tube crackling). Ultimately I will synchronize 2-3 quiet notebook drives to my RAID array for music listening and use the RAID only for storage.

 

 

 

[restock]

By they way pretty happy with the QNAP otherwise - nice SMART features on checking HD health etc.

 

I would probably consider the Samsung EcoGreen F2 HD154UI 1.5TB for the quieter drives. I heard not too many good things about Seagate either.

 

[jimim]

"Ultimately I will synchronize 2-3 quiet notebook drives to my RAID array for music listening and use the RAID only for storage."

 

Thanks for the reply.

 

Can you expand on this? Was confused?

 

jim

 

[katywu]

Jim

 

It took me ages to decide which way to go with NAS and I consider a number of vendors including Thecus. I eventually purchased a QNAP 419P with 1.5TB Seagate Barracuda drives and set it up in a RAID5 setup. I must say that I'm absolutely delighted with the unit, it has worked without any problems and is very easy to set up. The interface is quite intuitive and has a good range of features stream . I schedule the QNAP to switch off/on automatically and it works well. I store all my music on the NAS and stream to my Hi-Fi without problem. I would cetainly recommend the QNAP.