QNAP advice please

Hi John,

I've been using a QNAP TS-412U NAS for the last five years or so and it is plenty enough for streaming hi-res audio and blu-ray video SIMULTANEOUSLY, so have no fears about its suitability.

Normally, with a NAS, you would consider RAID redundancy, but as you already protect your data this is probably not a worry for you.

I also use the 2TB WD Red; four of them in RAID 5. They are quiet and cool, so wholly suitable for your needs.

Oh, and I use Asset too. Works fine on the QNAP.

HTH

I'd be wary of 1GB RAM. 

I see it's upgradable to 8 GB, I'd try to purchase it with perhaps 4GB if you can. QNAP RAM can be hard to purchase (and it can be costly) after the event. 

I have a 412 that I now use for backup and a 469 as my active NAS. It has 3G RAM and it generally runs at 25%. I found the RAM in the 412 was becoming a limiting factor. 

SJB

With respect to SJB, I disagree. My qnap has 512mb RAM and runs at 80%, so 1gb should be fine.

by all means get more if you want.

intothevoid posted:

With respect to SJB, I disagree. My qnap has 512mb RAM and runs at 80%, so 1gb should be fine.

by all means get more if you want.

 

My 412 runs at about 80% all the time. The performance improvement of moving to the 469 was substantial. The Intel processors need more RAM than the arm based ones  

If you think about it something running at 80% had very little headroom.

But still this is a great place for people, telling you what they have is optimal, I'm just telling you of my experience me with 2 different QNAPs. 

....with respect  

SJB 

I don't understand much of this, but I think I disagree with all on the RAM issue;  my Synology has 512mb RAM & at the moment is playing a 16/44 WAV & is showing 18% RAM & 1-5% CPU. 

Mike-B posted:

I don't understand much of this, but I think I disagree with all on the RAM issue;  my Synology has 512mb RAM & at the moment is playing a 16/44 WAV & is showing 18% RAM & 1-5% CPU. 

Apples and oranges, Synology NASs use much less RAM than QNAP. 

This is is the 412 doing nothing 

This is the 469 doing streaming. 

SJB. 

OK,   I see,   but wonder why.   (no need to answer,  I'll take what & why it is)

Sloop John B posted:

 

But still this is a great place for people, telling you what they have is optimal,

Sloop in the process tab what app is using the memory, one or a couple ?  

I have a a 459 Pro II, it came with 1GB, but I added the 2GB shortly after, taking it to it's max of 3GB.  It generally uses about 500MB, but goes up to 1GB in busier times. 2GB would be my minimum, and more is bonus, but i all depends on your use of the NAS device.

use QNAP HS 251  = recommended by my dealer - no issues with RAM - but a do use x2TB Western Digital - even better with Asset

delighted with it

intothevoid posted:

Sloop John B posted:

 

But still this is a great place for people, telling you what they have is optimal,

Hmm.

A general observation as much aimed (and applicable)  to myself as yourself and a warning to the OP.

 I do remember however over 25 years ago on my wedding day an  old uncle of mine who had traveled the world came to the wedding and said  "Son,  I haven't given you any presents but I will give you this piece of advice that will be useful for the rest of your life - never skimp on  ram"

SJB

25 years ago?  His name wasn't Bill by any chance?

interestingly (for me at least) I've spun up Asset on a pc and disabled the QNAP version. The nas is now running at 51% ram.

and I get to stream DSD too. Win/win. (No pun intended).

Being the (proud) owner of 2 QNAP NAS's my recommendation is: go for enlarged RAM!

I didn't want a second NAS but I found that my initial purchase (419PII) couldn't handle the load.  When I queried (on the Asset forum, I think) why the music often stopped ... and the RAM usage was above 90% (well in the red!!!) I was advised that the 512MB RAM was too little for my sizeable music library.

Left alone it was usually okay but once I tried to get the NAS do a second task ... such as add files, amend tags or re-scan ... the red bars lit up and often, if not always, the music stopped.

The 419PII is not RAM upgradeable so I opted to buy the second NAS (QNAP 453Pro) which has 2GB RAM, upgradeable to 8MB.  At the moment I don't have those old music-stopping problems and my library is well in excess of 52,000 tracks, approx. ITB

Maybe those who find 1GB, or less, RAM sufficient do not have the same quantity of music.

Oh, and I use the old NAS as a backup

Thanks for all that - as usual some good advice (especially for those contemplating marriage). My take on this is that the basic 251 will probably be OK for my simple music streaming needs, given I don't have a massive collection of music files at present - I'm really just dipping my toe in the water at this stage. Having said that, things computing do have a habit of growing quicker than I expect (maybe before I can consider/afford upgrading to a Unitiserve if I feel committed to streaming) so a bit of an upgrade at this stage might be sensible. I can do that I think by buying an extra 1gb of RAM now (which seems to be reasonably priced on websites at present) or going for the TS251 plus which comes with 2gb of RAM for not a huge increase in price. Anyway - I'm much happier about the direction to take now so thanks to everyone for taking the time to respond. 

The claim streaming music is CPU intensive and memory hungry is an urban myth.

 I use a QNAP TS-112 NAS, it has a 1.2ghz processor and 512mb RAM. Below are the CPU and RAM resource monitors while streaming a High Res music file. RAM usage stays constant, it is the same value whether streaming or idle.

 The reason the memory usage is low, is I’ve removed all superfluous programs from the NAS. 

BUT, if extra RAM cost little extra money, taking Sloops uncles advice is a no brainer.

A couple of follow up queries if I may....following all the advice above I settled on a QNAP TS 251 plus (with just on drive initially as I have all the music on my Mac which is already backed up on a Time Capsule). Installation was a little confusing in terms of the different passwords and user names for different aspects of the NAS but following that it's aok and I can stream the sample music on the QNAP to my Uniti. I have Asset installed on the QNAP but haven't done much with it yet until I populate the music folder I want to use.

Next step though is transferring music from my Mac to the NAS - I hadn't realised how slow this would be over the network. So far I've tried dragging and dropping from my Mac into the folder I created on the NAS, and cut and paste to that folder, without much success. A continual message "processing" and no visible results after about an hour for one CD file.

So my queries are: what is the best/quickest way to transfer music files, and does anyone know if you can rip directly from dBpoweramp to the NAS (admittedly this option opens up a back up issue, but let's ignore that for now).

Thanks again.

Yes to dBpoweramp and Ripping directly to NAS  - when you rip programe comes up with a tree for your net work - placed mine on Z drive -

Thanks - but as I'm a beginner at this....could you expand upon "placed mine on Z drive?  Why and how if you could?

Thanks

It looks like Antony has mapped as a network drive a folder on his NAS drive and named it as the Z drive (as opposed to the main system drive usually given the letter C). This is fairly straightforward in Windows and I assume something similar can be done with the Mac. Doing this makes navigating and copying files to the folders on the NAS drive much easier in file explorer.

OK thanks - I've looked up the Mac approach and had some success....it will only let me map the Multimedia folder that came ready installed on the QNAP and not new folders I've created but I can live with that. Haven't really cracked the dBpoweramp file path yet as the folder is greyed out when I try to set it up but I'll look at that some more. Looks like I need to dig into the QNAP/Asset software a bit more, not something I really want to do as I find both their help pages and forums as clear as mud most of the time....but I can now transfer files and stream music so that's a result.

Thanks all.

John - I run QNAP HS-251. Same thing, but a different outer case. I also run a Mac.

If you have any questions - just email me directly (email is in my profile) and I will take you through the setup. 

1 sthing is different to your set up -  I use a UnitiServe SSD.

john s posted:

 

Will the TS 251 work OK as a file server (I'll get the QNAP version of Asset for it obviously)

Will the supplied 1gb of ram be enough for music streaming - now, and for higher definition files if I move to the 24/192 Boards or upgrade the streamer?

And the catch all - am I missing anything?

Many thanks

Yes.

Yes.

Not really. But if anything crops up on installation or set up you know where top ask.

I run Minimserver on a QNAP with 512KB RAM and Asset of another QNAP with 4GB RAM. Both play all resolutions up to 24/192 with no difficulty or apparent difference in quality.