advertisement


NAS for CD rips..

M

martin_b

Active Member
As im newly retired Ive decided its about time I rip my CD (300odd) collection to a NAS.
Synology seems to be the brand of choice, but in my case with retirement comes poverty, (I followed the George Best school of investment advice) so I'd like to buy pre-loved if possible.
Any models to avoid/look for, or should I be aiming for any model post 20XX?

TIA

Martin
 
martin_b said:
Any models to avoid/look for, or should I be aiming for any model post 20XX?
Click to expand...
Definitely newer, as new as possible, they seem to fail more quickly than you'd imagine these days. Probably the p/s in them. Don't overlook qnap if one comes up.

It does beg the question as to why a nas and not just an external hard drive (SSD). Do you have a USB socket on your internet router for example..
 
gavreid said:
It does beg the question as to why a nas and not just an external hard drive (SSD). Do you have a USB socket on your internet router for example..
Click to expand...
Yes I do, ( BT Business hub) but ive never plugged anything in to is as I thought you needed it to run some sort of OS to allow it to be seen on the network by my PC's ( MAC and Wndows OS)
 
martin_b said:
As im newly retired Ive decided its about time I rip my CD (300odd) collection to a NAS.
Synology seems to be the brand of choice, but in my case with retirement comes poverty, (I followed the George Best school of investment advice) so I'd like to buy pre-loved if possible.
Any models to avoid/look for, or should I be aiming for any model post 20XX?

TIA

Martin
Click to expand...
No need necessarily to rip to a NAS. You can rip to an ordinary pc or mac (depending on how much space you have) or an external drive attached to it. Some routers will allow you to mount a usb drive to turn it into a network drive too. Whatever you do though- do back up to another drive attached to a different device (not just raid on the nas) and/or the cloud.
One word of warning about buying the cheapest/lowest cpu synology model. I did so a few years ago and synology then almost immediately started sending me messages that the model I had would not run the latest firmware. This was actually untrue, but it is annoying.
 
martin_b said:
Yes I do, ( BT Business hub) but ive never plugged anything in to is as I thought you needed it to run some sort of OS to allow it to be seen on the network by my PC's ( MAC and Wndows OS)
Click to expand...
I don't know about BT but it should all be configurable if you point a web broswer at the router. You should just need to a supported file format - a very good poor man's nas.
 
martin_b said:
Yes I do, ( BT Business hub) but ive never plugged anything in to is as I thought you needed it to run some sort of OS to allow it to be seen on the network by my PC's ( MAC and Wndows OS)
Click to expand...
I'm not sure you do, although you may have to log in to the router on a browser window and do something on the settings. It might be worth a try if you have a usb drive. Someone around here will doubtless have done it with a Bt business hub.
 
martin_b said:
Thanks Chaps, Will investigate the USB on my HUB ASAP!
Click to expand...
I format the disk on my windows PC using a suitable utility. Create the folders I want within windows (although the router will format and allow for shares and permissions etc) and then swap it into the usb socket but mine's an Asus and I don't know how much control BT gives you. I use windows to manage backups too by mapping the network drive to a drive letter.

It's worth a try to see if it's responsive enough for what you want!
 
here i use an Asustor Lockerstor Nas.
got all my music/video library stored which is easily accessed via my ethernet network.
 
I have an old Western Digital NAS that runs Twonky Server. Then use my TV to access the music files*. TV is connected to my amp DAC input.

*I'm sure other devices will be able to browse the files served up by Twonky Server, my TV is just the most convenient for me.
 
Colin L said:
For 300 CDs I’d strongly suggest ripping to an 2TB SSD and then periodiclly back up to a spinny disc (much cheapness). No need for a NAS
Click to expand...
This
I moved to a NAS for my CD rips and downloads once I was in the thousands of albums...

Still not sure I wouldn't be just as well served (ha ha!) using a Mac mini / NUC and external SSDs...
 
I have my music and videos ripped to an SSD connected to a Mac Mini (M1) and it works flawlessly (LMS to serve music and Plex to serve video through the home).
My concern is that if the ssd fails I’ll have lost everything. You can of course backup to another disc connected to the ‘Mini but there are only so many usb connections to play with, so this can be limiting if you have other devices connected.

My intention (once I e research the best make and model vs cost and noisiness ) is to buy a hard drive docking station (such as this: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07Y3WDHLD?tag=pinkfishmedia-21) which is like a NAS but without the “NA” element - the MacMini is how the storage attaches to the network. With this setup you can set the discs in RAID 5 (I think?) which backs up your data across all drives, so if one drive fails none of the data is lost.
This might be worth looking into for the OP.
 
This site contains affiliate links for which pink fish media may be compensated.
vinylslug said:
I have my music and videos ripped to an SSD connected to a Mac Mini (M1) and it works flawlessly (LMS to serve music and Plex to serve video through the home).
My concern is that if the ssd fails I’ll have lost everything. You can of course backup to another disc connected to the ‘Mini but there are only so many usb connections to play with, so this can be limiting if you have other devices connected.

My intention (once I e research the best make and model vs cost and noisiness ) is to buy a hard drive docking station (such as this: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07Y3WDHLD?tag=pinkfishmedia-21) which is like a NAS but without the “NA” element - the MacMini is how the storage attaches to the network. With this setup you can set the discs in RAID 5 (I think?) which backs up your data across all drives, so if one drive fails none of the data is lost.
This might be worth looking into for the OP.
Click to expand...
That box doesn’t have the required RAID5 hardware built in, it’s just a convenient bunch of hard disks. You need a proper NAS or alternative computer based solution - FreeNAS, Unraid etc.

QNAP and Synology both offer excellent NAS boxes.

Ideally you’d stick the NAS in another room, garage, cupboard so the noise doesn’t matter.

Depending on how much capacity you need SSD is silent but gets spendy if you need a lot of space.
 
This site contains affiliate links for which pink fish media may be compensated.
Amber Audio said:
That box doesn’t have the required RAID5 hardware built in, it’s just a convenient bunch of hard disks. You need a proper NAS or alternative computer based solution - FreeNAS, Unraid etc.

QNAP and Synology both offer excellent NAS boxes.

Ideally you’d stick the NAS in another room, garage, cupboard so the noise doesn’t matter.

Depending on how much capacity you need SSD is silent but gets spendy if you need a lot of space.
Click to expand...
Ah - there is another brand (yotta-something ), cheaper too that does have raid 5, so in principle the idea is sound. I just need to source an Amazon link. The Sabrent is twice the price so I daftly assumed that it would have raid 5 capability. Just goes to show…
 
RAID is all about availability, often for home use it’s not worth it, your money might be better spent on a couple very big USB disks and mirroring the main one to the backup one when you add music, store the second offsite if poss (theft/fire).

I look after a lot of NAS boxes at work, mainly QNAP and Synology, for my home music I use a NAS with 2 large disks in RAID1 - avoids downtime if a disk blows of an evening, music still plays and I can swap the disk out when suits. I have multiple external backup systems in place, helps running an IT company and having access to pretty much any kit I fancy.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.


advertisement


Back
Top