I'm thinking about setting up a Home NAS as a music / video server and backup to the three Household PCs budget is quite small <£200 perhaps stretch to £250 - any recommendations?

This http://www.amazon.co.uk/Synology-DS212J-Bay-NAS-Enclosure/dp/B005TOXMAW

Plus disks of your choice.

HP Microservers are pretty good for this. They're cheap tend to end up on special offers frequently (like on HUKD) and have 4 drive bays.

A vote for Synology

Synology 411j/411+/412 if you have a little more cash.

Otherwise a 2 bay version.

you can build it yourself, using NAS4Free, but that means you have to do the integration and make sure you do the updates etc too.

Edited 5 November, 201213 yr by cheezemonkhai

Have to agree with the guys above that say Synology - excellent performance and management.

I use a now discontinued HP Mediasmart Server with 5TB of storage. I have installed Windows Server 2008 R2 instead of Windows Home Server, and Twonky Server deals with all the media streaming. The server is 2 years old and has been happily chugging away 24/7/365 since it was built, only restarting to apply windows updates.

Whichever option you choose, don't forget that you'll need to backup the server. Having all the media in one place increases the risk of data loss. Keep one copy of the data away from your home, and another at home for instant recovery. The remote copy will be handy, in the unfortunate event that you are burgled or have a fire etc.

Have got an HP server of some description (it's behind the desk at the moment) 5TB of storage, Windows Home Server 2011. Does all the backing up overnight. Important stuff is replicated to a PC at the office. :)

Or something like this.......

http://www.pixmania.co.uk/uk/uk/11413207/art/western-digital/my-book-live-duo-network.html :think:

Or something like this.......

http://www.pixmania....uo-network.html :think:

Not if you don't want total control of what you're doing with your data.

I'm not sure about that one, but some of their NAS products tried to do DRM and stop you copying stuff around.

That plus it's handy to be able to recover the file system when the NAS box itself goes pop but your disks are ok.

That might not be an issue now, but will be in 3-5 years when the old product is no longer made.

+1 for the Synology, use one in our uni house that sometimes involves three of us streaming different stuff from it at the same time and copes fine.The one we have has useful power saving features which is handy when your on a silly PAYG leccy meter like we are! Has a nice interface though I haven't looked a great deal into it but i'm sure there must be an easy way of scheduling backups to somewhere external as recommended above.

+1 for Synology - our 212j does everything we need. Serving HD video to a dlna TV is okay, just, over gigabit wired LAN.

Oh, and just in case you think you'll go with Synology, check out their forums site for info on problems (e.g. with Photostation) in the latest releases of the firmware (operating system). I've stuck with version 3.2-1955 as 4.x has had some issues on the lower powered machines, i.e. the cheaper 'j' models.

We run a scheduled backup to an external USB drive, but you can also send it to cloud storage if need be.

Edited 5 November, 201213 yr by Yearofthegoat

Get the HP Microserver N40L

http://www.ebuyer.com/281915-hp-proliant-turion-ii-n40l-microserver-100-cashback-658553-421

£119 after cashback and then perhaps another £100 on a 3tb hard drive for it.

I have installed Windows Home Server on mine and I have on it all backups of photos/docs/movies from my PC, Music to stream to my Sonos and nearly 2TB of HD Video content. It also manages all my TV and movie downloads through newgroups so i can just sit and let the downloads sort themselves out and put them in a XMBC friendly format.

Can't beat it for the money.

Argh, bloody HP (or eBuyer, whoever it is). I swear they set their prices depending on demand, every time I've looked at the Microservers recently they've been nearly £270. As soon as I have no bloody money, they're £50 cheaper. Sods.

Don't forget that Windows Home Server of all versions is now end of life and officially a retired system, and the only copies available once sold will be it. Support should be no issue as it uses 2008 R2 as its backend, and that is being supported for many years to come.

Another vote for Synology in our household.

+1 for Synology - our 212j does everything we need. Serving HD video to a dlna TV is okay, just, over gigabit wired LAN.

Oh, and just in case you think you'll go with Synology, check out their forums site for info on problems (e.g. with Photostation) in the latest releases of the firmware (operating system). I've stuck with version 3.2-1955 as 4.x has had some issues on the lower powered machines, i.e. the cheaper 'j' models.

Good advice this! My aging 209j with a pair of RAID mirrored 1.5TB discs is still going strong and I was surprised to see that Synology are still pushing out firmware updates for it. Recently upgraded mine from 1.x up to 4.x and everything seems hunky-dory, although I don't use Photostation. Only problem I've had with it over the years is a dead disc about 6 months into ownership and the NAS flagged it up and quickly and easily replicated the data on the good disc once I plugged the replacement in.

Highly recommended

Chris

I've always found the Netgear ReadyNAS boxes really easy to use and setup - http://www.ebuyer.com/290545-netgear-v2-readynas-duo-2-bay-no-disks-nas-enclosure-rnd2000-200eus

You just need to buy a couple of SATA hard drives to work with it.

+1 for Synology, Unix based OS with friendly GUI. I have the DS411 Slim which has a tiny footprint for the amount of storage 4 x 1TB 2.5in drives which makes it low on power usage.

Not if you don't want total control of what you're doing with your data.

I'm not sure about that one, but some of their NAS products tried to do DRM and stop you copying stuff around.

That plus it's handy to be able to recover the file system when the NAS box itself goes pop but your disks are ok.

That might not be an issue now, but will be in 3-5 years when the old product is no longer made.

Hey, I had my eye on that.........

Is it not very good or something?????

I don't know about that exact model, however check to make sure you don't need to install any drivers on your windows system.

That's usually a dead give away.

On the other side of it, many of the home NAS devices use custom or tweaked file systems. Look for something that uses a standard windows or linux file system that you'll be able to read back, with the disk outside of the NAS even if it all goes a bit pear shaped.

HP Microserver all the way, have one (and also a Synology box which i used previously).

The HP jobby cost me £130 or so (after cashback but before the 4x2tb HDDS), it's basically a moderately powerful PC in a server box which can take upto 4 hdds (or 5 if you put one in the DVD bay).

In terms of value for money you can't even get close to the microserver (if you can get the 100 cashback).

It's a great box, I run twonkymedia server over my home gigabit network - It easily streams all 3 TVs 1080P streams without so much as a hiccup (all whilst downloading at approx 1.5mbps from usenet and controlling my home x10 network (automated lights etc)).

I run it on debian, which was a breeze to set up. Could not recommend more.

I've got a Qnap, but I'd recommend a Synology.

I want one :(

Where do you all keep them and do you run everything off ethernet? Hate relying on my internet connection.

I want one :(

Where do you all keep them and do you run everything off ethernet? Hate relying on my internet connection.

Mine is plugged directly into my router with ethernet but all my access to it (excluding the XBox) is via wireless to the router. Can't speak for others, but the model I have is quiet enough that it lives in the lounge.

Chris