Synology DiskStation DS224+ 2-Bay NAS Enclosure vs TerraMaster F2-423 2-Bay NAS Enclosure

[Mark Garfinkel]

Thinking about onsite backup\storage, 2 bay or 4 bay, Any recommendations.

 

[Tom Reynolds]

I have a 4 bay with expansion capabilities. I like the 6TB high speed drives designed for a NAS

 

[Anjin San]

Unless you really need fast access from a whole bunch of devices…then an OWC Thunderbay mini or full size (depending on how much noise you want to put up with and whether 12 TB is enough which is max for the mini) attached to an always on computer and shared over the network provides just about all of the capabilities of a dedicated NAS except the 10GB ethernet capability which requires appropriate network equipment) at less cost and it's not another computer to manage which is basically what a NAS is. Nothing wrong with using a NAS either but with an always on computer anyway it doesn't really gain you all that much over a hosted RAID. I've got the Thunderbay mini hanging off my Studio which is the main PP machine but the entire drive as well as some subfolders are shared across the LAN at home.

 

[Calson]

Thinking about onsite backup\storage, 2 bay or 4 bay, Any recommendations.

Don't overlook the application tools and customer support provided by the two companies. Synology has a good track record and good user utilities to maintain the RAID array. Same goes for QNAP for larger NAS units.

With the NAS drives the lower RPM ones will run much cooler and make less noise (and the fan speed can be reduced) and last longer. With RAID the drive speed has very little impact on overall performance. It is the CPU and whether RAID is implemented in software or in the hardware.