NAS drive for home media streaming
Apologies if this has been covered elsewhere, but I am planning to replace my existing Western Digital My World Book Edition White Light NAS for something more suitable for media streaming to 2x squeezebox touch units and squeezebox radio.
I know WHF suggests Synology but having looked at lots of reviews it seems it quite tricky to set up. In. The market there is plenty of choice and plenty to get confused by. Having looked a number of reviews, none of the leading products seem to get 5 stars in consumer based feedback.
Budget for the unit without disks is 200 and I plan to get 2x 3tb HDD and set up as raid 1 with USB back up and DVDs as offline
Any recommendations and also features/configurations to consider (eg CPU or RAM)?
Many thanks, Dave
With Squeezebox Touch I have bought and set-up a Netgear ReadyNas Ultra...it works beautifully and it is very quiet
FWIW more discussion on this subject here, and a blog I wrote last year when I was setting up my replacement for a WD White Light. I'm working on a much more comprehensive NAS guide, hopefully on site some time in the next week or two.
As it's specifically for Squeezebox then you need to ensure that the Logitech Media Server software is natively supported & that the NAS has enough grunt (CPU & RAM) to run it. Just streaming to a single device doesn't require much at all but scanning, the web interface & multiple players does.
Also maybe consider the Vortexbox, either as a complete package or just the free OS/software on an old PC.
http://forums.slimdevices.com/forumdisplay.php?18-3rd-Party-Hardware
any netgear NAS with the preinstalled software.
my thoughts on the fans are if you can not put them somewhere where you cant hear them talk to your computer person about noise from the drives and the fans.
alternative fans can be fun to find for any NAS.
I had exactly the same WD NAS drive before I upgraded to Synology only last week. Details of how I set it up is on this thread:
http://www.whathifi.com/forum/computer-based-music/nas-upgrade-question
Even I was a bit concerned that it may be overly complicated to set up, but actually, it's extremely easy. I cannot recommend it enough. I researched different NAS options, & Synology is amongst the best out there. It has the best UI amongst all competitors (the main reason why I chose this over QNAP). I will shortly post the summary of how I set my NAS on that thread, for easy reference.
I run a 2TB Netgear Duo V2 with absolutley no issues at all. Very easy to install and run Logitech's media server from. It's officially supported by Logitech too.
QNAP & Synology will probably be better and have extra features, but the Negear does me fine 
Am using a Synology 212J with 2 x 2TB drives, after a poor experience with a Netgear Duo. The Synology works perfectly with my 2 x SBT, all wirelessly. It's excellent kit and I highly recommend it.
FWIW more discussion on this subject here, and a blog I wrote last year when I was setting up my replacement for a WD White Light. I'm working on a much more comprehensive NAS guide, hopefully on site some time in the next week or two.
Excellent.
I had exactly the same WD NAS drive before I upgraded to Synology only last week. Details of how I set it up is on this thread:
http://www.whathifi.com/forum/computer-based-music/nas-upgrade-question
Even I was a bit concerned that it may be overly complicated to set up, but actually, it's extremely easy. I cannot recommend it enough. I researched different NAS options, & Synology is amongst the best out there. It has the best UI amongst all competitors (the main reason why I chose this over QNAP). I will shortly post the summary of how I set my NAS on that thread, for easy reference.
Great, BB!
Wow and spooky timing. It's almost the same scenario. Those little WD NAS have survived well. Great news on the NAS review, I will hold off until I read through. Thanks all for the comments. 
Another recommend for the synology crowd! I've a 410J and it works fine with squeezeserver on it. Just upgraded to DSM4.0 and it's a winning piece of software. DSM (the NAS's interface) is, imho, the difference between synology and the competition. Flexible, easy to use and regularly upgraded with new features (a bit like the PS3 software tbh!)
I assume a compatible NAS in general and specifically Synology 212j can serve both Win PCs and Macs at the same time. True?
Worth a look at the HP Microserver with Vortexbox running on it. With the current cashback offer you're looking at about £100 for something with a 250G disk already in it and with space for 3 further ones. Install the OS on the supplied disk and then use the others for your music storage. I'd recommend also putting in a DVD or Blu-ray drive which will give you an auto-ripping feature that typical NAS devices don't.
It's a more 'techie' solution but, once up and running, no more difficult to manage than a normal NAS.
If you've not heard of Vortexbox before; it's a Linux based operating system that comes with a nice web interface and has a Squeezebox Server, DLNA server, Plex media server and a few other utilities built in. If you Google it, you'll probably find various references to hardware with Vortexbox pre-installed; ignore those and you should find the option just to download the Vortexbox software.
I assume a compatible NAS in general and specifically Synology 212j can serve both Win PCs and Macs at the same time. True?
True for Synology & most others. Just make sure it's Time Machine compatible when buying.
I had written a long post to summarise how I set my Synology up, & then it disappeared when the safari browser in my iPad refreshed itself! 
Will post later today.
I may be slightly biased but Synology have done much to simplify the setting up with DSM 4.0 - http://www.synology.com/dsm/dsm_for_home.php?lang=us and a comprehensive list of tutorials - http://www.synology.com/tutorials/tutorials.php?lang=us
The DS212j falls into your budget and will happily run Logitech Media Server for your SBT's and radio as well as media streaming to any other DLNA device you may have in your home. My DS210j has only half the recommended memory for running Logitech Media Server but I've never had any issues.
If I had not opted for Synology my second choice would be QNAP. Very little to choose between the 2 in terms of functionality and performance
Squeezebox Touch > Beresford Bushmaster DAC > CA Azur 650A > Dynaudio DM 2/7's
Synology DS210j NAS running Logitech Media Server