Welcome back to the guide to your assembled PC, today to complete and expand the topic previously discussed about memories and external hard drives, we will discover together how to save, access and re-share files on a home network that is also accessible from the outside. In short, let's talk about IN THE.
Before diving into this succulent new topic, I remind you to go and reread all the previous articles of our guide, which will allow you to choose the best components for your custom PC.
ALL EPISODES:
Chapter 1: Guide to building your assembled PC: THE BASICS
Chapter 2: Guide to building your assembled PC: PROCESSOR AND HEAT SINK
Chapter 3: Guide to building your assembled PC: THE MOTHERBOARD
Chapter 4: Guide to building your assembled PC: RAM, HDD and SSD M.2
Chapter 5: Guide to building your assembled PC: THE VIDEO CARD
Chapter 6: Guide to building your assembled PC: THE POWER SUPPLY
Chapter 7: Guide to building your assembled PC: THE CASE
Chapter 8: Guide to building your assembled PC: THE MONITOR
Chapter 9: Guide to building your assembled PC: PERIPHERALS
Chapter 10: Guide to building your assembled PC: EXTERNAL HARD DISKS
What are NAS and what are they used for?
I for one, when I bought my first NAS, I admit, it took a long time. Partly because I didn't quite understand what advantages it gave compared to a simple USB disk, partly because there are an infinite number of very different models and types.
So how do I choose the perfect NAS for me?
If you don't feel like collecting all the Infinity Stones or looking for Will Smith's lamp to ask him, you just have to continue reading.
Let's be clear. What is a NAS for?
Il NAS (Network Attached Storage) is a hardware external to our computer that contains one or more memory disks for sharing in a private network, such as that of our home, or of a small company, or public, therefore accessible from the outside.
That's all? Absolutely not!
To give a better idea of their operation, and justify the often quite high price, we will have to see the NAS as a small PC in its own right. To tell the truth, once NAS were real computers configured to be accessible on the network but, given their highly specialized nature, over time they have become more and more compact enclosures for hard drives, with inside them motherboard, processor and RAM for operation and file management.
As a demonstration of this, in fact, inside the NAS, in addition to these components, we find a real operating system complete with user interface. Based on Linux, the latter will allow dialogue with both systems Windows, through protocols FTP, NFS e Samba with either MacOS through AFP.
This is therefore the first big difference from a classic hard drive: the NAS connects with a LAN cable to the router, and not with a USB cable to the PC.
Let's do the count. How many discs do I need?
That's right, the number of hard drive bays, they said Air, represents the first variable for choosing a NAS: the greater the number, the greater the storage possibilities we will have.
To store data and access it only one bay will actually be more than enough, but if we want to expand the capacity or add basic functions such as data redundancy for internal backup we will have to choose models from multiple disks.
What about SSDs? No, I have not forgotten them, these memories are simply less suitable than classic mechanical drives and, despite a higher speed, HDDs are still preferred today for the greater ease in recovering data in case of failure.
Unfortunately the discs can break ...
That's why the most important function of a NAS is the ability to make backups both online, to one of the many cloud services such as Google Drive, Dropbox or OneDrive, and to other external memories connected to one of the USB ports.
However, we have not yet talked about a basic concept for the operation of NAS, that is the redundancy of data, or how these are written and copied on the various disks.
To manage this we use a technology called RAID (Redundant Array of Independent Disks) and there are various types, let's see the main ones.
RAID 0
In this case the disks are converted into a single volume where the final size is equal to the sum of the two disks. The data is written and read in parallel with an increase in the normal speed of the disk, but the disadvantage of losing all data if one of the two disks, for example, fails.
RAID 1
Unlike RAID 0, in this case the two hard disks mirror each other and the data is written in a concatenated manner. The final size will be equal to the size of only one of the two disks (the smaller if they are not identical), but by sacrificing half of the space we will have the great advantage of having all our data available on one of the two disks if the other.
RAID 5
It can be used in NAS with at least 3 bays and also in this case the files are written uniformly on all the memories which, in the event of a failure of one of these, can continue to work with a decrease in performance. The missing data of a broken disk will in fact be reconstructed with the "parity information" saved on the other disks.
The total space count is the number of disks -1 multiplied by the size of the smallest disk. For example, with 3 1TB disks the total will be 2TB = (3 -1TB disks) * 1TB.
RAID 6
Similar to RAID 5 but with a minimum number of 4 parallel memories, where data is always available even with two bad disks.
Other types are finally the JBOD (Just a Bunch Of Disks), which is very similar to RAID 0 with the difference that the data is written separately, thus being able to recover at least the data of one disk if the other fails, and proprietary systems such as theSHR (Synology Hybrid Raid), which combines some of the advantages described above.
The first start. What would we see when turning on the NAS for the first time?
As mentioned, NAS are not simple network drives, but must be understood as a real small home server complete with an operating system and Whatsapp which greatly expand the potential of discs.
These additional functions in addition to the aforementioned cloud backup possibilities, concern for example photo managers that give the possibility to backup photos to and from our phones and tablets with software that also creates photo albums for their collection. Ditto for the videos!
We will be able to create our personal Netflix with native applications from major manufacturers or with, for example, the application Plex, which creates a beautiful multimedia catalog of all our movies and TV series complete with covers and additional information synchronized automatically. Furthermore, we will be able to access these photos and videos (as well as all the other files on the NAS) wherever you are, you just need to have the NAS on and connected to the internet!
There are also applications for management and automatic download of Torrent files, application for the video surveillance and control of the home automation, file sharing in FTP mode and even the ability to turn the NAS into a small web server!
In short, the possibilities are many, but let's go immediately to see some models divided by price range!
NAS enter i 100€
If your finances are tight but you don't want to give up a small NAS for the home, the first two models to consider are the WD My Cloud Home and Synology DiskStation DS119j. The first is not exactly a NAS in the broadest sense of the term, it is more a network drive with smart capacity that is appreciated for its very low price and a very simple and intuitive graphical interface. It is also true that we far exceed the indicated figure, but inside we already find a 4TB drive which is absolutely not bad considering that WD is one of the best brands ever in the panorama of mechanical discs.
If, on the other hand, you want a little more and start using all those advanced apps and functions I described above, your choice cannot be separated from one of the most famous and competent brands on the market which is Synology. Even if, as in all NAS, disks are never included, by buying the DS119j we will still have access to the DSM (DiskStation Manager), that is the real operating system complete with app and proprietary store I was talking about before.
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NAS enter i 300€
If you are more ambitious and want to create a raid with two discs and dream, like myself, a huge well-organized video library, the two reference models are the Synology DS218 Play and Qnap TS-251A, two models with a strongly multimedia soul moved by the aforementioned DSM and its corresponding system Qnap QTS. In both cases, we will have more powerful hardware to access and manage apps very quickly, the ability to stream 4K video via protocol DNLA to our smart TVs, PCs, tablets and smartphones and with Qnap also a practical remote control for their management.
In both cases, given the careful design they will not look out of place next to the TV!
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Old NAS i 300€
As previously said, NAS can also have somewhat unsettling prices if we go up a lot in performance and number of bays up towards the business range.
However, if you are looking for a product suitable for both private users but able to fully support all the flows of a small company with multi-user access and advanced disk management, I want to show you two very interesting products: TerraMaster F5-420 e QNAP TVS-951X. In addition to all the functions described above, we will have much more performing hardware, a higher number of bays and supported space and a more solid and scalable management of users.
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Hard Disk per NAS
I hadn't specified it yet, but when you buy a NAS, the disks to be bought separately would be better to always buy them the same, but there are specific models optimized for NAS that reduce the risk of malfunctions and failures to the limit since they will always be in function?
The answer is yes, and below you will find the reference models of the two main players in the market, WD with the line RED and Seagate with his Iron Wolf.
