Any recommendations for a NAS to back up my Unitiserve?

Posted by: Joel on 30 March 2012

Only just joined the forum and already spent hours reading posts, great site! I feel an upgrade coming on already...
Meanwhile can anyone advise which NAS to buy to back up all my ripped CD's stored on my UnitiServe?
Reading different posts seem to suggest QNAP or SYNOLOGY NAS drives, if these are ideal makes which model would suit? I'm looking at spending no more than about £200.
My tech skills are very limited i'm afraid. I'm after a reliable, robust, user friendly and quiet NAS. Apologies if I am going over old ground but I can't seem to find a thread that answers my question.

Primarily I'm after a NAS to back up my ripped CD's/playlists incase my Unitiserve crashes and I lose all the data.
Secondly I would also like to store photos on it (I've run out of space on my laptop) and store my ITunes Library/files on it too for the same reason.

I did buy a Western Digital NAS several months ago (before I owned a Unitiserve) but took it back as it ruined my I-Tunes library as once i'd copied all the itunes music files over, the WD NAS changed all the artists names to obscure composers names therefore ruining my tidy itunes library, it was a nightmare! (managed to recover most of my library from my iPod)

I only rip CD's to my iTunes library so I can load music onto my IPods/Phone. Will I still have to copy cd's onto my laptop to my itunes library once I get a NAS or will I be able to add music to itunes library from my backed up Unitiserve WAV files stored on my NAS? Copying CD's twice (laptop and unitiserve) and adding to playlists twice etc is a real pain!

Any help would be really appreciated.

Many thanks
Joel

Posted on: 30 March 2012 by PG

Not sure how this would work as back up but I have a Qnap 212 with two 500gb drives and it works well.

Posted on: 30 March 2012 by musica

I use a Readynas Duo RND2110 for my Unitiserve backup. I got mine for £167 from Scan Computers. Works fine. It came with a Segate 1TB Barracuder Hardrive.You can program it to switch on and carry out a backup automatically witch is very usefull. Setup and software is ok and straightforward.

Posted on: 30 March 2012 by Dungassin

https://forums.naimaudio.com/di...ent/1566878604340111

That's the link for Naim Tested NAS drives. I own both QNAP and Buffalo NAS drives. Both work well. I use the QNAP (2 x 2TB) for my NDX, and keep the Buffalo Linkstation Pro (2TB) for other things (photos, videos etc) - but it also works well with the NDX using its own Twonky (DLNA) media server. Just go with whatever you like.

Posted on: 31 March 2012 by Joel

Thanks for your advice gentleman.. I had read that thread posted by Naim but it's over 2 years old so was unsure if it's still relevant as technology seems to move so quickly! I like the idea of a netgear nas as my router is Netgear. However reading other threads suggest the Readynas duo can be a bit noisy, is that correct? It'll be in my living room so after a quiet drive.... The Qnap 212 looks good too as does the Buffalo link station pro. After reading all 3 product sites they all seem similar in spec, so I assume it's down to personal taste as they're all compatible with my unitiserve? I am still a little concerned that they will muck up my iTunes library like the WD mybook live did last time. Can any of you give me advice on the second bit of my original post regarding iTunes? Thanks again for your help, it's appreciated. Joel

Posted on: 31 March 2012 by Mr Underhill

Joel,

Depends what you want to achieve, and how much you want to spend.

To hold my music I use an old DELL PC loaded with Linux, and a couple of external 3TB HDDs.

I use one as the primary, where I have a Naim share and a Naim store as used by my NS01; I rsync the data to my secondary HDD every night for resilience. Cost - £200.

You could achieve the same using an old windoze box using xcopy, for instance.

If you are looking at NAS I would double check the size of disks the box you are looking at can use.

I need a NAS for other work I am doing and am thinking about DROBO. This does not use classic RAID, and claims advantages that look attractive - interesting range of reviews on Amazon. If I buy one of these I'll report back.

Posted on: 05 April 2012 by Joel

Mr Underhill and everyone else,

Thanks for your advice. After extensive research I've decided to order a QNAP TS-119P II drive with 2TB hard drive. It looks robust, hopefully it will be easy to use and sync well with my kit.

Many thanks

Joel

Posted on: 05 April 2012 by Obsessed1

Please update this thread when you get the QNAP. I would very much like to hear how easy it is to get the QNAP to back-up your Serve.

Posted on: 05 April 2012 by Joel

Ok no probs, I will do. Fingers crossed!

Posted on: 05 April 2012 by bb7668

I am now using a Synology NAS to partner with my Naim ND5 XS and I am pretty happy about this.

One of the main advantages of using Synology (over QNAP for example) is that it has its own free iPhone/iPad/Android Apps (i.e. DS Audio) to control the playback of the songs from the Naim streamer. The practical implication is that I can not only use N-Stream but also DS Audio to navigate through the albums.

In terms of control, DS Audio is miles better than N-Stream. For a start, the search and playlist function of DS Audio really work. Further, the album art displayed on the DS Audio is of better resolution than that of N-Stream. More importantly, the feedback from the DS Audio is much more responsive. For the DS Audio alone, I am prepared to pay a bit more to buy Synology NAS over other similarly priced NAS.

Unless and until Naim is coming up with a better control interface, I think I will stick with DS Audio for the time being.

Posted on: 06 April 2012 by Joel

That's interesting. Which Synology NAS did you get?

Synology and QNAP seem to me to be very similar and of the same quality. The only reason I've decided to go with QNAP in the end is because it's on Naim's recommended NAS drive list....Although I haven't ordered yet as it's bank hols, so there's still time to change my mind!

I spoke to NAIM last week and have been reliably informed they are in the process of updating both Naim apps, so keep an eye out for those..

Posted on: 06 April 2012 by bb7668

I am using a 2-bay Synology 712 plus. This is a relatively pricey model. The relatively modest modesl like 112, 212 and 212 plus can also achieve the ssme result and use the DS Audio. Hope this helps.

Posted on: 24 April 2012 by Joel

Obsessed1, Sorry for not getting back sooner but at last minute I decided to upgrade my naim equipment so the qnap is on hold for awhile to funds allow! I will update the post once I have bought the qnap...