small, quiet, raid 1 machine - suggestions?

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gribbler
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Joined: Fri Dec 06, 2013 3:12 pm

small, quiet, raid 1 machine - suggestions?

Post by gribbler » Fri Dec 06, 2013 3:18 pm

I have an Intel NUC as my htpc, i'm looking to get something I can put 2 2tb drives in, raid 1, for my media. I'd like to run freenas or unraid. Trying to keep it small and kind of quiet, not needing less than ambient type.. Any suggestions? So much I see is for 4 or more drives

boost
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Re: small, quiet, raid 1 machine - suggestions?

Post by boost » Fri Dec 06, 2013 11:15 pm


gribbler
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Joined: Fri Dec 06, 2013 3:12 pm

Re: small, quiet, raid 1 machine - suggestions?

Post by gribbler » Fri Dec 06, 2013 11:58 pm


Yes that is one I've seen - for about 320$ or so - looks promising

bonestonne
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Re: small, quiet, raid 1 machine - suggestions?

Post by bonestonne » Sat Dec 07, 2013 6:44 am

Buffalo Raid NAS is very good. I've got a few of them lying around, and prefer them for how easy they are to set up. You can even buy empty ones and put in whatever drives you want.

RAID0 or RAID1, you pick in the web setup. Also has remote access if you ever needed that feature. I find them incredibly easy to set up now.

ggumdol
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Re: small, quiet, raid 1 machine - suggestions?

Post by ggumdol » Sat Dec 07, 2013 11:17 am

I'm a bit skeptical about opting for a fanless NAS because

(i) There are at least dozens of single-fan NAS products which are near to silence, albeit not dead silent;
(ii) The overall noise generated by 3.5 inch HDDs, quite similar to airborne engine sound in my opionion, will dominate the rest of the noise sources.

At the end of the day, most NAS products are equipped with CPUs barely suitable in terms of performance for a few selected basic NAS functionalities, which do not necessitate gigantic sophisticated cooling systems. Most of the time, the main source of noise is 3.5 inch HDDs. Also, perhaps without even a single exception, all 3.5 inch HDDs are quite noisy. I'm frequently distracted by the very noticeable noise coming from my WD Red HDDs (2x WD30EFRX) when I'm sitting 5 meters away from them, which are by the way supposed to be very quiet according to untrustworthy benchmark sites. To put another way, a fanless NAS does not really diminish the overall noise due to the presence of 3.5 inch HDDs.

I would buy Synology NAS products, e.g., DS213j, DS214j, DS212j, or even DS214SE, which are considerably cheaper than the aforementioned option, not to mention excellent graphical user interface, manageability, and near-to-silence operations. You can replace the fan of Synology DS21xj series with Noctua NF-B9 whenever you feel like to experiment it. As far as my experience goes, there is no need for replacement, though.

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