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Originally Posted by JimmyJam19 /t/1517917/what-should-i-do-for-expansion#post_24364977
I really appreciate your detailed response. After much research I keep coming back to the synologys. It seems like they get the most praise for reliability, performance, and most of all easy user interface. I've been recommended the newer synology 1513+. They said I could start out running a raid 5 system on it with 3 4tb drives to get up and running and then add drives as needed and expand up to 60 tb if need be with expansion. I've read the red nas drives are the best to get with the synology is this true? Also, do you believe this this is the best route for me considering reliability and expansion for my future needs?
I highly recommend Synology NAS Units, they are the best ones that I have run in to so far. I am sure there are others that are similar but they aren't anywhere near the same price point or offer the same expansion capabilities. I am also very impressed with the company and the desire to keep improving their software and hardware to make these NAS units in to full blown server (which they already are with the added applications you can load on them if desired).
Keep in mind that when you do a RAID 5 which has a single Parity you can loose a single drive without data loss. With that in mind you loose the capacity of one drive right off the bat. So as you said if you start off with 3 drives you will only get the capacity of 2 drives but when you add another drive you will gain the full capacity of that drive and so on (So N-1). If you would go with RAID 6 which is highly recommended for very larger (usually over 5TB Arrays) then you loose the capacity of 2 drives (N-2). Also keep in mind that a 4TB Drive is really more like 3.6TB once it is formatted. There are a few reason for that but keep it in mind as it adds up as you get in to larger and larger drives. So if you would go with a 5 Drive Bay Base unit the max storage you will get out of it will be only about 14.4TB of useable space (RAID 5). If you would max it out with the two expansion units you would be talking a RAID 5 of about 50.4TB but that large I would strongly suggest RAID 6 or Two Parity Drives which would knock you down to 46.8TB.
Also worth mentioning that Synology Has their own version of "RAID" they call it "SHR" which is Synology Hybrid RAID which is what I am running. I attached a photo of my current set up so you can see it and the actual capacity.
If there is anyway possible to stretch the budget I would go for either the DS1813+ or even the DS2413+ for future expandability. I might be wrong but I have a feeling that the DS2413+ is going to be updated sooner than later as their lower end units have 4 Ethernet Ports and it only has 2 for some reason. I asked them and they said that they don't see any changed in the next few months.
Finally just like Canon vs Nikon I can't not tell you which way to go, WD and Seagate both make a great product. I am using Seagate Drives in mine as I've had tremendous luck with their drives over the years and I read a few very negative reviews on New Egg about various WD Drives. At the same time there are some very good reviews on Amazon so who knows. No matter which drives you go with make sure they are for a NAS otherwise you could run in to warranty issues if you ever have an issue. A lot of people also suggest buying drives weeks or even months apart to avoid getting a potential "Bad Batch" of drives which has certainly happened in the past. If you have more than one drive fail you are screwed (unless you are running a RAID 6 of course).
