Which QNAP NAS would suit my needs?

[KapiteinKoek]

Hi there!

I am in the process of buying a QNAP NAS. However, I am still unsure which QNAP NAS would suit me the best, keeping in mind the price/performance ratio.
I will be using my NAS mainly for (automated) Usenet downloads using SABNZBD and Sick Beard. Apart from that I will be installing PS3 MediaServer to stream HD movies and series to my PS3. I also want to stream these HD movies and series to my computers (just 1 stream at the same time).
Also, I will be using it as my private FTP server to store offsite backups and as a public filehost (max 3 concurrent connections).
Last but not least I want to install ‘CrashPlan’ to make online backups of my data.
The setup I am looking at is a 4 bay NAS in RAID10. I was thinking of 4x3TB in RAID10, so that makes 6TB of useable space.
So in short, here are the requirements:

4 drive bay
RAID 10
SABNZBD
SickBeard
PS3 Media Server
Crash Plan
FTP Server.
As you can see, I am a fairly demanding ‘high-end’ user. Personally, after doing some research, I think that the QNAP TS-419P II will suit me best. At first I was thinking about the TS-412, but I think the 256MB of RAM is a little bit on the low side.

I look forward hearing your opinions!

Thanks

[pwilson]

Hi there!

I am in the process of buying a QNAP NAS. However, I am still unsure which QNAP NAS would suit me the best, keeping in mind the price/performance ratio.
I will be using my NAS mainly for (automated) Usenet downloads using SABNZBD and Sick Beard. Apart from that I will be installing PS3 MediaServer to stream HD movies and series to my PS3. I also want to stream these HD movies and series to my computers (just 1 stream at the same time).
Also, I will be using it as my private FTP server to store offsite backups and as a public filehost (max 3 concurrent connections).
Last but not least I want to install ‘CrashPlan’ to make online backups of my data.
The setup I am looking at is a 4 bay NAS in RAID10. I was thinking of 4x3TB in RAID10, so that makes 6TB of useable space.
So in short, here are the requirements:

4 drive bay
RAID 10
SABNZBD
SickBeard
PS3 Media Server
Crash Plan
FTP Server.
As you can see, I am a fairly demanding ‘high-end’ user. Personally, after doing some research, I think that the QNAP TS-419P II will suit me best. At first I was thinking about the TS-412, but I think the 256MB of RAM is a little bit on the low side.

I look forward hearing your opinions!

Thanks

Reviewing the QNAP 4-Bay Comparison cross referenced with your suppliers pricelist and spending budget should help you narrow it down.

You will probably get better performance out of your NAS in a RAID5 or RAID6 configuration, but a RAID10 configuration is definitely possible. If you NAS is going to be doing any "transcoding" of video files for you, you might want to pony up additional money to spring for an Intel rather than a Marvel/ARM model. If transcoding isn't an issue, then the QNAP TS-419P II is probably a worthy candidate for you. (I bought a TS-419P+ about 3 weeks prior to the introduction of the TS-419P-II, and it has been serving my needs quite well, but I don't use any of the applications on your list, so your mileage may differ).

Happy shopping...

Patrick.

[P3R]

You will probably get better performance out of your NAS in a RAID5 or RAID6 configuration...

I doubt that. As far as I know, performance should be the strong point of RAID 10. Especially write performance must suffer from the parity calculations necessary with RAID 5 and even more with RAID 6.

The main advantages for the alternatives compared to RAID 10 in a 4-bay NAS are:

• RAID 5 provides 50 % more available storage.
• RAID 6 have better disk fault tolerance, it's always 2 disks while RAID 10 is 1 or 2 disks depending on exactly which disks fail.

But the above is theory and to know exactly how the choice of RAID affects performance one really need to compare them with the same hardware.

I'm pretty sure there was somebody that made performance comparisons with RAID 10 and other RAID-configurations and reported them here in the forum but I don't remember what NAS model it was. Anyone that wants to know can search for it.

[KapiteinKoek]

Thanks for the replies.
RAID10 is faster in Write and in some situations in Read as well compared to RAID 5 and RAID 6, as far I can conclude from my online research.

If you NAS is going to be doing any "transcoding" of video files for you, you might want to pony up additional money to spring for an Intel rather than a Marvel/ARM model.

PS3MediaServer heavily relies on transcoding video.... However, how much of a problem is it going to be if I stick with the Marvel/ARM model instead of the Intel model?
To be honest, the Intel model is too expensive and I would rather build my own NAS running FreeNas and get even better performance/specifications for a lower price.

Thanks.