Synology NAS experiences?

kamina · Post by **kamina** » Wed Dec 26, 2007 11:15 pm

I'm still contemplating on getting a NAS, but there is no good info available on the noise levels they produce. I'm especially intrested in the Synology DS-207+ as it seems to perform very well, has working afp and ssh access (so you can install separate apps if you want).

I have also been considering a Terastation, but we have one of the older Terastation Pro models at work and I would consider it to be too loud for running at home.

Has anyone seen the DS-207+ live? What is the most dominating sound, the disks or the fan?

I'm sure people will soon start telling me how I should build a computer myself, please don't bother unless you have a good idea on what components will allow me to put together an aesthetically pleasing box which is about as small as commercial NAS devices and does not use a lot more electricity. I'm not intrested in Micro-ATX sized devices, and anything smaller starts to cost too much for the case alone (note, I'm in northern Europe).

shoarthing · Post by **shoarthing** » Fri Dec 28, 2007 2:02 am

kamina wrote:I'm still contemplating on getting a NAS, but there is no good info available on the noise levels they produce. I'm especially intrested in the Synology DS-207+ as it seems to perform very well, has working afp and ssh access (so you can install separate apps if you want).

I have also been considering a Terastation, but we have one of the older Terastation Pro models at work and I would consider it to be too loud for running at home.

Has anyone seen the DS-207+ live? What is the most dominating sound, the disks or the fan?

I'm sure people will soon start telling me how I should build a computer myself, please don't bother unless you have a good idea on what components will allow me to put together an aesthetically pleasing box which is about as small as commercial NAS devices and does not use a lot more electricity. I'm not intrested in Micro-ATX sized devices, and anything smaller starts to cost too much for the case alone (note, I'm in northern Europe).

. . have recent firsthand experience with some Synology 107e NAS's [use a 50x50mm "X1" fan where the 207e has a 60x60mm jobbie].

Enclosure is not made of sound-deadening material; device is well made & well-designed with solid functionality & support from continuous firmware development/upgrades.

Predominant noise (over a WD Caviar 750GB HDD) is from the fan - this fan-noise is relatively refined for a 50mm but sufficiently large in volume that our Synology NAS boxes are located in a cupboard. They're noticeably noisier than our Antec MX-1s; which are usable in a quiet office.

Good cross-OS support tho' cannot as yet be used as a target for OSX' "Time Machine" feature - the Gbit network they're part of is predominantly alloy iMacs.

kamina · Post by **kamina** » Fri Dec 28, 2007 5:47 am

Thanks for the response.. I guess the 60mm fan could be changed if it's too noisy. Is the connector standard?

michaelb · Post by **michaelb** » Sun Dec 30, 2007 12:42 am

I've got a new Buffalo Linkstation Pro, and am happy with it. If you're right beside it, is too loud, but I can't hear it at all from across the room with it behind a desk.

Could always swap the drive for a 2.5" if needed, and maybe undervolt the fan.

Post by **NeilBlanchard** » Sun Dec 30, 2007 4:08 am

Hello,

The Buffalo TerraStation uses a SeaSonic miniATX PSU, and a reasonably controlled 92mm Adda exhaust fan. It was fairly quiet, though not silent. You could slow the exhaust fan a bit more (with a diode or a small resistor), and only the four hard drives would be audible -- they were not whiny, btw.

michaelb · Post by **michaelb** » Sun Dec 30, 2007 11:08 am

This site has some pics of hardware, and tips on firmware hacks, for several models/versions of Buffalo NAS: http://www.nas-central.org/index.php/Main_Page

I don't plan to open or do firmware hacks on mine, but maybe the pics could help someone here, or the hacks might help one to buy a cheaper model and upgrade it.

The 250GB Pro model is about $185 at Amazon.com now, in U.S. Not sure if the non-Pros can be had cheaper.

kamina · Post by **kamina** » Mon Dec 31, 2007 4:26 am

Thanks. We have one of the old Terastation Pro's at the office and while it's not loud, I can clearly hear it's sound when standing next to it. Usually I consider this to mean that it would seem very loud at home.

I found a lot of talk about the noise produced by the Synology DS-207+ on their own forums (should have looked there right away). From what I gather it's pretty loud. The fan can be changed, but to really make a difference you'd have to cut the ventilation holes to be larger. This would of course void the warrenty...

The new Terastations are tempting.. So there is not a separate fan for the powersupply, or it's silent? I liked my last Seasonic S12.

cb95014 · Post by **cb95014** » Mon Dec 31, 2007 10:43 am

Have you checked-out the QNAP NAS devices?

The TS-109 is completely passive. I have two (TS-109 Pro) with the new 1TB WD drives, and they are extremely quiet and power-efficient. For more capacity (or a local backup) you can add an external USB or eSATA drive.

QNAP has a nice rsync utility built into their devices that allows one NAS to automatically replicate to a peer. The peer can be on a local network or over the WAN. After inadvertently blowing-away a complete RAID group in three quick keystrokes, I have moved from RAID to replication for data protection. Far more stupid-resistant...

The QNAP forum is: http://forum.qnap.com/phpbb2/

kamina · Post by **kamina** » Mon Dec 31, 2007 3:45 pm

Yeah, I had looked them through, but forgotten them since they had no local importer. How when I checked again, it seems the largest importer we have in the country has taken them in stock. So I could probably get them from just about any computer store.

Thanks!

Now to find out how noisy the TS-209 is

edit:

The fan noise of TS-209 is 40~42 dB which is tested in QNAP lab. It depends on your requirement toward quietness. For me, I can have a deep sleep in the room with TS-209 there.

Lol, what's wrong with these manufacturers?

edit:

I guess it's the TS-109 then...

kamina · Post by **kamina** » Sun Jan 20, 2008 10:38 pm

I've been using the TS-109 for about a week and so far it seems pretty nice. As mentioned there is no fan, so the only sound comes from the hard disk. I have an older 400GB WD "KS" drive which was never very silent, and I think it's actually more muted in the case then it was in a computers case. I'm going to change the drive for something else though, as there is a documented problem with WD drives falling to sleep with the current firmware. I can't hear any seeks, but when it does actually fall a sleap there is some resonation on spin down.

Synology NAS experiences?

Synology NAS experiences?

Re: Synology NAS experiences?