Advice on a new NAS please

The TS-470 Pro gets you an Intel Core i3 processor, if you really need the smaller form factor. Use SSDs in all four bays and you'll end up with a nice, speedy media server.

For me, a 2 drive nas seems like it will always be sufficient.  3tb WD red drives are now $122 each on Amazon. 

Nor am I convinced that the raid setup my Synology nas uses is right for ME.  I have 2 x 2tb WD Red drives, and I backup to external drive(s).  I've got about 1.2 tb total on my nas, and as I get closer to 2, I may decide that getting 4tb out of those 2 drives instead of 2 would make more sense.  A 4-bay drive will be noisier, warmer, etc etc.  Absent looking to store over 6tb, I can't think of why I'd want one.

SSD's will be great, but at over $500 per tb now, it's not the right time for me to spend that money on that.  (As prices keep coming down, I have a fantasy that Naim will offer a conversion of existing 2tb uServes to 2tb hdd technology.  Maybe in a year or two??)

NB - I'm not convinced that "turgidly" is what you meant

Are you sure it's not running services you don't use which are eating the RAM? Just a thought. I don't know how much RAM I have on my T410 although I'm using half of it and it's never faltered.

When I had a t410 it was constantly at 100% lols.

What about consideration for something a bit more robust, such as a proliant? Needs a bit more configuration but with something like openmediavault its very steady and very configurable and can take plenty of ram etc.

Hi SJB, I use a Qnap TS-269L in RAID0 2 x 3TB WD drives backed up to a Qnap TS-412 in RAID5 with assorted disks. It's probably more than is needed, but never seems to work hard, and always has plenty of RAM available. I note that there was a recent price reduction too as it is an older model.

Qnap also do a couple of flat, fanless NAS for media serving duties - HS-210/ 251, and these are supposed to be quite good, if a little expensive.

Cheers.

turgid  = Swollen and distended or congested.

Coming from the home of Yeats and Heany i was perhaps taking a little stab at a more poetic description than "slow and experiencing drop-outs".

Probably for some the same reasons I  stick with Naim I'm minded to stay with QNAP.

I only have the services I use running

Asset certainly has increased my use of the UniQute but the SBT on the main system can be infuriating slow with it being incapable of working seamlessly  if anything else e.g. downloads or twonky streaming video for the little 'uns.

SJB

Well it seems like I have solved my immediate problem which seemed to be that whenever i selected 24/192 tracks a service called sox went mad with the CPU. the 2 times i played a 24/192 track are obvious from the trace.

I had upgraded to LMS version 7.8 from 7.7 and was toying with the idea of a downgrade to see if my HD Van Morrison Moondance would still play without buffering as I know it could do this. Luckily I chanced reinstalling the EDO app (from Triode) directl on the SBT just to see and.........

Moondance is playing away without buffer or pause.

sox apparently is a transcoding app for when the player cannot manage the resolution of the file which the update must have negated the effect of the Enhanced Digital Audio app which allows the SBT tp process 24/192 files.

so not not an absolute need for an upgrade to my NAS, but I think I'll keep my eyes open for any bargains about as the RAM issue causes a "turgid" response on n-stream and iPeng but it was primarily the drop-outs that was causing me to post.

once again thanks for all the help and hopefully this post may help someone else.

SJB

I have a QNAP TS-412U and Asset is hammering the CPU, but not sufficiently to cause a problem.

Are you transcoding? This will cause extra load on the server, especially with your hi-res tracks.I use uncompressed FLAC and actually prefer the sound compared to WAV (which I find a bit bloaty).

I'm with you on QNAP - great devices.