Looking for a simple NAS with RAID1 ability for 2x500GB drives.

Can anyone here recommend a quiet one?

Check smallnetbuilder.com for NAS advice.

I have used their site but I'm asking on here because I specifically want something that's very quiet. Anyone outside of SPCR often have differing ideas of what quiet actually is

Unfortunately, I doubt you're going to find any that are SPCR-quiet off the shelf. I've actually examined about half a dozen variants and looked briefly at many more -- everything from 4-drive to 1 drive models -- and all the multiple drive NAS have issues, the biggest being a tiny noisy fan for the built in power supply, with the second one being a noisy highly impeded fan for the HDDs. There's rarely any kind of damped mounting for the HDDs.

On the plus side, an NAS can be tucked away anywhere. SPCR's NAS is hanging off the rafters (between floors) in a closet on elastic cord.

A network backup is in the form of a 2TB quiet drive that is scythe-cased and sitting on foam inside one of the always-on lab PCs.

You could always just make an Atom-based silent PC in a small case if you can't tuck a NAS away somewhere. Run some form of Linux optimized for NAS operation or WHS if you like.

Thanks Mike

In our current rental there is a cupboard in the same room as my main PC and router that would be perfect, but it's only temporary accommodation and I have no idea what my next flat will be like.

I was thinking about modding the exhaust fan and grill etc. of one model I was looking at but then I started thinking about the warranty...

Hadn't actually thought about putting it in a dedicated enclosure. That might be the best option.

I have tried to quieten various NASs from the ReadyNAS range and there are problems as well as opportunities.

I had a PSU fail on an NV caused by replacing the noisy Adda fan with a quieter Noctua - so I reversed the changes I had made to the other 2 units ! The units ran some 8C hotter with the Noctua.

Where I did have some success is in adding a resistor to the fan of a ReadyNAS Duo. This reduced the starting rpm from 4000rpm to 2500rpm and helped a lot to quieten the first 30secs of startup. After that it runs at 1600rpm which is OK but not quiet by SPCR or by my standards.

However, the better solution by far is to chose quiet drives. Samsung are OK even at 7200rpm.

A remote location is always best (that's where they are now) but if you want to roll your own try 2x Samsung drives in GrowUp Japan boxes resting on foam. Then the noise source will be the single low rpm fan that you will need to ventilate the enclosure.

I ran Ubuntu Server on one of these for a while but switched in the end to a ReadyNAS Duo for hassle-free operation.

A new lianli mini-itx or matx case might work well for a diy server.

PC-Q08 uses atx psu, can use a decent size heatsink, and 6 hdds, uses big fans.
PC-V354 is very similar but for mATX.

Review samples just arrived here, they look quite promising.

You also might want to check out the Western Digital Mybook World Edition 1TB.
I see on the Sonos music system forums that several users have bought this NAS as a source of streamed music.
It's referenced as having no fan, but that doesn't mean it's silent !

See : http://forums.sonos.com/showthread.php?t=17854&page=2

I heard QNAP's NAS boxes have good fan control (off most of the time). Anyone here got any experience with one?

I have a Mybook World Edition II (2x1TB) in RAID1. It has no fan and the drives are very quiet. I have to walk over to it and feel it to know whether the drives are spinning.

The bad news? Its performance is awful. Maxes out at 13MB/s upload, 27 MB/s download for me over gigabit ethernet. (In case you're wondering why I have it: it was free.)

I'd recommend a Buffalo LinkStation Duo. I bought one on sale 2 years ago for under $250 and it came with 2x500GB hitachi drives. The only thing you can hear is the fan sometimes, but it's pretty quiet overall. If I replace the fan I'd probably wouldn't hear anything from it at all. You can attach an external USB drive to it also, but that access was painfully slow.

edit: didn't realize this post was so old

I have a QNAP TS-119 II. The fan is very quiet. However, the drive sleep function is broke, so the drives never spin down. The unit would be silent while the drives were asleep.

Craig