NAS Drive short-term

Posted by: Jon Myles on 05 March 2012

Here's a question.

I am looking to move all my CDs to a NAS - streaming through a Uniti and NAP200 as a power amp.

My long-term (as in next 9 months) is to buy a UnitiServe. However, I'm moving house in the next three months and waiting until then before that investment.

In the meantime, I want to dip my toe in the water - and so am looking for a cheap NAS to use as now. After the move and purchase of a UnitiServe I'll just use the NAS for computer storage etc. so I'm looking for as cheap as I can get away with for the moment to get me up to speed (so to speak).

Before anyone asks, no - I don't mind the time I'll be spending re-ripping when I get the UServe.

So, what should I go for at the moment. It'll be wired into my router, stream wirelessly to the Uniti and files will be transferred to the NAS from a MacBook Pro.

Any ideas anyone?

Posted on: 05 March 2012 by Phil Harris

Netgear ReadyNAS Duo?

Phil

Posted on: 05 March 2012 by RaceTripper

I have been considering a Synology DS212J for $200 and adding a pair of 2 TB drives I already have. I'm still undecided whether I'll do this, or spend more to get a Mac Mini instead.

Posted on: 05 March 2012 by PinkHamster

Hmm, I cannot really give you any advice on real cheapo devices. But I have a rather simple QNAP 119 TS, which works very much to my satisfaction.

Whatever you buy, please look out for sufficient processor and RAM capacity, if you also want to install the server software on the NAS, which will allow you to not have you Mac running.

BTW, you will not have to rerip your CDs. Bit-perfect is bit-perfect. This is completely independant of the device which produced the file.

PS: You might even come to the conclusion that a Naim server will be rather redundant as the NAS will perform the job perfectly. The server will not add to the SQ. I merely needs to work reliably.

Posted on: 05 March 2012 by fatcat

Originally Posted by PinkHamster:

Whatever you buy, please look out for sufficient processor and RAM capacity, if you also want to install the server software on the NAS, which will allow you to not have you Mac running.

What minimum processor speed and size of RAM would you recommend. I'd be running a SB Touch from a Logitech server.

Posted on: 05 March 2012 by PinkHamster

To be honest I don't know in numbers. All I can say is that the current brand models such as my QNAP, which is now 1 and 1/2 years old seem to be sufficient.

There are also offerings by discounters (even food discounters) for NAS devices, which do nor seem to render adequate capacities. This is what I gathered from discussionson various forums.

My NAS is a QNAP 119 TS and I run LMS on it to serve a Squeezebox Touch. The operation is absolutely smooth. This might serve as a minimum reference.

Posted on: 05 March 2012 by RaceTripper

I'm still looking for something for my UnitiQute (or ND5 XS if I go that route).

Posted on: 05 March 2012 by fatcat

Originally Posted by PinkHamster:

My NAS is a QNAP 119 TS and I run LMS on it to serve a Squeezebox Touch. The operation is absolutely smooth. This might serve as a minimum reference.

Thanks. I'll find the QNAP spec and buy something as good.

Posted on: 05 March 2012 by james n

Jon - out of interest, you've got the computer to do the ripping, (and soon) the NAS to store and serve. Why buy a Unitiserve ?

James

Posted on: 05 March 2012 by totemphile

Originally Posted by Jon Myles:

Here's a question.

I am looking to move all my CDs to a NAS - streaming through a Uniti and NAP200 as a power amp.

My long-term (as in next 9 months) is to buy a UnitiServe. However, I'm moving house in the next three months and waiting until then before that investment.

Before anyone asks, no - I don't mind the time I'll be spending re-ripping when I get the UServe.

So, what should I go for at the moment. It'll be wired into my router, stream wirelessly to the Uniti and files will be transferred to the NAS from a MacBook Pro.

Any ideas anyone?

Jon - you could rip CDs in iTunes, download Yazsoft's Playback UPnP server and play all you music directly from your MacBook Pro. No need to buy a NAS. I recently bought an ND5XS and use Playback to serve music of my MBP. It works really well. The only drawback are the limitations of nStream, which is still quite rudimentary.

Is there any particular reason you plan to buy a UnitiServe? You could get a Vortexbox, which does exactly the same but at 1/5 of the price of a US.

Best

Posted on: 05 March 2012 by Guido Fawkes

Vortexbox - though after using it then you'll mostly likely never want to change it. Perfect rips, store downloads, as much capacity as you want, silent if you want, 100% Naim compatible -what more could you want. Please ignore my previous posts where I claimed it could make the tea, this was a slight exaggeration on my part, but it does virtually everything else