NAS or WHS?

Hi,

I'm not sure if this is the proper place for this thread, so i apologize in advance and any mods if feel free to move it to where it fits better.

Im ruining 4 laptops at home and 1 desktop atm... and quite frankly im getting tired of backing up the laptops with a external hdd. And i also would like to have something at home where others can store their pics/videos and have them available for all, instead of having to open multiple laptops at the time for showing relatives and friends stuff.

So i been checking around, and there are some really nice options that i didn't know, a lot of NAS are cost friendly now a days for a home setup... but then i also recently check by mistake a Windows Home Server... both seem very similar into what they can do, at least for my own purposes, to the point that im kinda confused what would be better for me.

Im currently checking low budget, like
ASUS TS Mini SOHO Server (2TB Storage)
Synology DiskStation 2-Bay (Diskless) Network Attached Storage DS210j + 2x Western Digital 1 TB RE3 SATA 7200 RPM

Price wise both would be around $480... and will have the same capacity, i would like to have a raid1 setup for mirroring for a little more safety on the info inside the server, so NAS offers that, but i read also windows home server can offer a option to copy in both drives although idk if it can recover from a drive failure (i mean the OS itself). I would like to be able to backup any laptop in thru the wired/wifi network i think both will offer that. I would also like to be able to access info from it remotely, i think both offer that also. Maybe some downloading like bit torrent, i think both can do it also.... so im still confused what would work better or if it matters.

 

A Windows Home Server does offer more options than a NAS, but since i dont own a WHS i cant really tell you anymore than that.

What i do own is a Western Digital Sharespace with 4x 1tb WD Green drives.
Its not the greatest or the fastest (Around 15mb/s) NAS available, but for my usage its perfect.

Its primary usage is storing my DVD archive, so that i have easy access to my growing library of movies from XBMC.
Also works flawless when i use it to store my backups too.

 

+1 for the Synology devices. They are easy to work with, have tons of features, and are fast! Here's a couple of reviews of one you're looking at:

Review: Synology DS210j network-attached storage device ? Computer Chips & Hardware Technology | Geek.com

Review of Synology DiskStation DS210j NAS | Testseek Labs

 

I dont like how by default it wants to backup your entire HD, you can exlcude folders but its pretty time consuming if you only want to back up a few folders. On the M$ forums they tell you, no just let us back up everything, trust us its better. We can backup 300gb into 280gb! Well I'm thinking big deal, I only wanted to backup 20gb to begin with.

 

I have the 110j and it's aweome...streaming to my ps3..there is a great app for the Itouch so you can stream your music to it over your wifi...they have firmware updates to enhance functionality...great product...

 

With decent WHS you can get multiple times faster speeds, on a bad day (small files) my HP box (ex475) gives me around 60MB/s, with bigger files (dvd-images) I can hit around 90MB/s. That is the least powerful box with just a singlecore Sempron in it.

 

WHS is the way to go. The way it backs up data is completely different than raid. The "array" is dynamic. Meaning in that the drives can be different in size and you can add or remove drives as needed. Want to swap out a 1TB drive for a 2TB drive? No problem. In a regular NAS you would have to back up all that data to another system, stick in two 2TB drives and then migrate your data back. WHS is much much more powerful and really no more complicated to use. Not to mention it will be several more times faster in transfer speeds. Personally I would go with the HP WHS or Lenovo WHS for more HD bays.

 

Check out the D-Link DNS-321, which people have hacked to be a mini Linux box. This allows it to be used as an ftp, backup, NAS, torrent box and more.

It's also cheaper than the ones listed here.

Oh, and don't count on any 2 disk raid to protect you from anything. A good backup starts with it not being in the same box.

 

WHS + FlexRaid offers the most flexibility and power