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EnVoy · Sep 14, 2011, 05:31 PM

Anyone have any experience & opinions on these two NAS?

1. Buffalo LinkStation Pro Quad LS-QVL/R5 in 12TB configuration
2. Synology DS411j (would set up as 12TB)

My main usage would be as a backup to my Mac and PC, and secondly as added space.

I am leaning towards the Buffalo due to cost and the fact that the drives are included. Is it reliable and good quality?
How does the Synology rate?

Thanks for your feedback

subego · 09:33 PM

I have two of the Synology DS1511+. I haven't owned them long enough to comment on reliability.

They blow the doors off my old ReadyNAS. What would you like to know?

I haven't checked prices, but I'd be surprised if it isn't cheaper to buy whatever NAS you buy diskless and add your own drives. On the Synology this is designed to be manageable by anyone.

EnVoy · Sep 14, 2011, 09:59 PM

What drives do you have in your DS1511+?

subego · Sep 14, 2011, 10:02 PM

Western Digital 2TB Greens.

$80 on Amazon right now.

Amazon.com: Western Digital 2 TB Caviar Green SATA II Intellipower 64 MB Cache Bulk/OEM Desktop Hard Drive - WD20EARS: Electronics

EnVoy · Sep 15, 2011, 01:16 AM

Interesting, Synology says those drives are not recommended and not warranted in RAID devices.
<edit> Actually they say they are ok in consumer applications in RAIDS.with no more than 2 drives.

Haven't had any problems with them?

subego · Sep 15, 2011, 02:19 AM

I haven't.

We might be reading different lists. The one I was looking at only noted:

To use this hard drive, we suggest that you reinstall the system with DSM 2.2-0965 or onward first, then reformat the HDD to adopt the WD Advanced Format Technology.
Before installing this hard drive on DS107, DS107e, DS108j, and DS109j, upgrade DSM to 2.2-0942 version and onward with 1TB or smaller capacity hard drive.
The batch number, 00S8B1, 00MVWB0, for this particular hard drive has passed the hard drive compatibility test.

It was otherwise listed as compatible.

EnVoy · Sep 15, 2011, 08:22 AM

It's at the top of that page, click on the word "reasons"

In any case they seem to be working. Do you use Time Machine with it, or another backup solution? Do you have a PC in the mix at all? Any problems with it? What do u use to back it up?

How loud is the RAID? Could it sit in a living room and not bother everyone?

Thanks

subego · 02:23 PM

Ah... Okay. I was looking at the Synology compatibility page.

All my Macs are backed up onto stock Time Capsules, but the Synology has Time Machine capability. For backing up the Synology (which has all my camera RAW files), it automatically backs-up to the other 1511+. I also have CrashPlan doing a cloud backup.

No PCs at the moment.

The backup 1511+ is in my freaking bedroom if that gives you any idea of how insanely quiet the thing is. I didn't even have to take it out of "cool mode" and put it into "quiet mode".

Eug · 05:07 PM

I have the Synology 211j. It's uber stable, the OS is nice, and it supports my IP camera.

However, it's slow. We're talking in the range of 18-22 MB/s real world read from the NAS for my RAID 1 over Gigabit Ethernet.

This site tests the 211 (not the slower 211j) and the 411j. My original testing was on hard drives on my client computer, but I did check out an SSD and it still wasn't so fast. I'll try again though with both Windows and OS X with SSDs. I was hoping for around 40 MB/s.

In the bench they do get up to around 40ish MB/s over Ethernet, but it's still slow for a 4-drive system.

I'm using the DSM 3.2 OS (not 2.2), which is compatible with Lion.

Maybe I'll try fiddling with the settings again. Perhaps something is holding it back somewhat.

subego · Sep 15, 2011, 08:41 PM

I get reads of about 40 MB/s on a large file. RAID 5. No jumbo frames.

EnVoy · Sep 16, 2011, 12:28 AM

Ok, I decided on and bought the Synology DS411j + 4 of the 2TB Caviar Greens. I found too many negative reviews on the Buffalos to go that route.

It's on the slow boat so won't be here for a week I'm guessing. I'll give a report once I get it up and running.

Thanks for the feedback subego & eug..

Eug · Sep 16, 2011, 02:10 PM

Originally Posted by subego

I get reads of about 40 MB/s on a large file. RAID 5. No jumbo frames.

Hmm... Your 1511+ is supposed to be way faster than my 211j, and it is, but 40 MB/s isn't exactly fast. So perhaps my 211j's 20 MB/s is about what I should really expect in the real world.

BLAZE_MkIV · Sep 16, 2011, 04:54 PM

I dumped my synology box after 2.1 years because they stopped updating the firmware and apple changed their hfs+ attributes and I couldnt upload any files I downloaded from the web.

subego · Sep 16, 2011, 11:41 PM

Originally Posted by Eug

Hmm... Your 1511+ is supposed to be way faster than my 211j, and it is, but 40 MB/s isn't exactly fast. So perhaps my 211j's 20 MB/s is about what I should really expect in the real world.

It's supposed to spit out 200 MB/s. I'm thinking with tweaks I might get half that.

subego · Sep 17, 2011, 03:00 AM

Also, FWIW, I'm getting 60 MB/s writes from an SSD source.

subego · Sep 17, 2011, 03:45 AM

Aaaaand... 100 MB/s reads to the same SSD. My old Mini is a total dog.

Cold Warrior · Sep 17, 2011, 10:14 AM

Originally Posted by subego

It's supposed to spit out 200 MB/s. I'm thinking with tweaks I might get half that.

Gigabit ethernet is roughly 100 MB/s give or take, once you account for network overhead. You would have to NIC team to get more than that, depending even on how your switch reacted to whichever teaming protocol it tried.

Originally Posted by subego

Also, FWIW, I'm getting 60 MB/s writes from an SSD source.

What was the write target? If it's an older machine, its hard drive may only write 60 MB/s or so, sustained.

mduell · Sep 17, 2011, 03:04 PM

We went with the 6 bay QNAP TS-659-PROII-US for our office Time Machine server and we're pleased with it.

subego · 04:41 PM

Originally Posted by Cold Warrior

Gigabit ethernet is roughly 100 MB/s give or take, once you account for network overhead. You would have to NIC team to get more than that, depending even on how your switch reacted to whichever teaming protocol it tried.

Yup.

The 1511 handles 802.3ad, but my network isn't built out to take advantage of it. Next time I feel like going up into the ceiling and rewiring 100' of cable I guess.

Originally Posted by Cold Warrior

What was the write target? If it's an older machine, its hard drive may only write 60 MB/s or so, sustained.

The 1511.

Edit: I'd assume the RAID 5 is the bottleneck.

Cold Warrior · Sep 17, 2011, 05:40 PM

What was the write source? If it was also a slow machine, that could be your bottleneck.

subego · Sep 17, 2011, 06:09 PM

Stock SSD on a new MacBook Pro via Ethernet.

subego · Sep 17, 2011, 06:14 PM

Is 40% overhead for a RAID 5 way out of line?