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http://www.amazon.com/Synology-America-DiskStation-Attached-DS1515/dp/B00PTGQJL4It's like rollin' in a Bentley... on your way to pick up your G5 for a flight to Vegas... where you're greeted by naked supermodels fighting over who gets to eat Skittles out of your belly button.
My original needs were for a SOHO backup solution but this NAS does much, much more! The number of "production" devices in my home has increased steadily over the years and I needed to centralize storage/backups for a few MBPs, W7 laptops and a couple PCs. The main issue I have with backup solutions is that they are typically invisible and boring. I hate spending money on something with no "bling" factor. In the past, I paid a few Benjamins for a piece of hardware (w/ proprietary software included), set up some backup tasks and let it do it's thing. It is difficult to quantify the value of a backup and I know how important they are but let's be real for a second... You aren't getting any "WOW" features. Synology changed my perspective on that.
Setup was super easy and I had 4 (additional) GBs of RAM and five 4 TB WD Red HDDs installed and the unit booted up and running within 15 minutes. After that came the parity check so I called it a night and resumed setup in the AM. Synology's DSM is a superb piece of software. Come to think of it, it "is" what I love about this NAS. Hardware specs are great for home/small office needs and with LACP, throughput on the DS1515+ is jaw-dropping.
Setting up backups was a piece of cake. I set up a Time Machine folder for the Macs, and several other directories for the Windows gear. Next, I synced a couple of Google Drive accounts and mapped a few folders on some of the PCs. I then moved/consolidated all of my music/pics/video to the NAS and backed everything up to Glacier. I was impressed how quickly the reorganization was going and figured I would document the config, set everything on cruise control and walk away. I was feeling good but I didn't feel like I was Ballin'.
Somehow, in between looking at 26" dubs for my ride and four finger platinum rings, I stumbled across a bunch of nerds talking about something called PLEX. Turns out, this piece of software lets you turn your boring NAS into a disco ball-spinning, bass-thumpin', panty-dropping, entertainment center. I played with the free version of PLEX for about 15 minutes before deciding to go all-in on a lifetime subscription. A couple of days later I had everything (and I mean everything) hooked up on it. PLEX is serving (the nerd definition) music/vids/pics to my 3 MBPs, 2 PCs, 4 smartphones, 5 tablets, 1 Apple TV, 1 Roku, 3 Samsung SMART TVs, 2 XBOX 360s, and 1 XBOX One! Yay-yeah!!! Don't hate...
My baby's mama couldn't be happier! She's currently on vacation in Florida with the kiddos and has been enjoying the ease with which she can access all the media. Meanwhile, P-Daddy (me) is back at the crib gettin' his grind on with all of the new-found features. If Synology was an NBA player, I'd own it's jersey. You feel me?
UPDATE 06.13.15
Even though I really wasn't having any problems with the above setup, I upgraded the RAM to 16GB because... 'MURICA!!!
Duane 3NE 2NR wrote:I'm liking that I can run PLEX on this directly!
as an external storage device, how fast is this? Let's say I have a folder with a 38MB Adobe Illustrator file on the 1515+ and i want to open it, edit it and save it. Do I have to wait to connect to the NAS, then wait for the drives to spin up, then open the folder and eventually open the file in one long time consuming process? Or does this feel like a USB 3 or thunderbolt attached external drive?
KarbonFiber wrote:nemo looks like your thread got jacked, sorry.
Duane 3NE 2NR wrote:^ nah we are still talking about Plex and sharing. One good option to share Plex you'd need a good NAS. So it's not off-topic.
I am plugging it in via ethernet to an Airport Extreme.
Duane 3NE 2NR wrote:ok so I run Plex currently on my iMac 5K and stream it to my devices on the LAN and remotely to my mom and dad in Jamaica to their Roku, iPad etc
I have a FLOW 150Mb / 10Mb connection and everything runs smoothly, the iMac barely breaks a sweat streaming to 5 devices at once. ALL the movies are 1080p H264 AC3 5.1 ~384Kb/s.
I have a really good gigabit aluminum PC full tower with a 800watt PSU running a
Core i7 2600K
ASUS P8P67 Workstation mainboard - USB 3.0 and SATA III 6GB/sec and 2 x16 PCIe
Corsair 16GB DDR3 1600Mhz
EVGA GTX 460 1GB DDR5 SSC
Intel X25 120GB SSD
Corsair A70 CPU Cooler
just sitting there doing nothing - enough space in there for about 10 5.25" HDDs
I could build my own NAS.
I need a NAS solution for the home office anyway since my ReadyNAS NV+ kicked the bucket after 6 years.
Problem is I have zero experience with FreeNAS or setting up one. I'm the type that would prefer an unmanaged switch over a managed one - reason for switching entirely to Apple too, it just works.
So what do you suggest?
yup I have the AC version tooKarbonFiber wrote:Duane 3NE 2NR wrote:^ nah we are still talking about Plex and sharing. One good option to share Plex you'd need a good NAS. So it's not off-topic.
I am plugging it in via ethernet to an Airport Extreme.
You will be surprised how well it works Duane. I have the same setup, direct connection to AirPort Extreme AC version.
I'm trying to avoid the long journey though. I really just want something to store movies and be able to access it from any device anywhere. The Synology with PLEX seems to do that out the box.ninjabilly wrote:Not an expert my @$$, that was very well put together and brushes upon most of the most important features of Freenas. Nemo if you want to learn more there's the manual which is easily accessible from the webui, there is also the forums and irc for specific requests.
I started out like you but with freenas 7.0 it's been a long journey but keep plugging away at it and that nas of yours would surpass any off the shelf offering.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I747 using Tapatalk
Duane 3NE 2NR wrote:I'm trying to avoid the long journey though. I really just want something to store movies and be able to access it from any device anywhere. The Synology with PLEX seems to do that out the box.ninjabilly wrote:Not an expert my @$$, that was very well put together and brushes upon most of the most important features of Freenas. Nemo if you want to learn more there's the manual which is easily accessible from the webui, there is also the forums and irc for specific requests.
I started out like you but with freenas 7.0 it's been a long journey but keep plugging away at it and that nas of yours would surpass any off the shelf offering.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I747 using Tapatalk
warrenc_alexis wrote:I have a Plex server. I only have a 3Mb uplink but it seems to work ok for one remote stream at least. Willing to exchange some server access to try someone else's.
KarbonFiber wrote:Actually S_2NR it's safe. You the owner of the server controls what each user has access to. Also I'm sure you have a proper firewall setup.
I have a synology server running Plex with remote access. I have multiple users accessing at a time and I can monitor activity and end point connections (devices)
You can also block/delete access to any user at anytime.
The problem occurs when people start sharing access from multiple end points and bog down your server. But then it's a simple delete of that particular device from access.
KarbonFiber wrote:Guys can you view a few movies or tvshows from my server please. I upgraded my server and would like some feedback (choppy, slow etc)
Thanks, much appreciated.