Is a NAS an overkill?

Mike K

Mike K

Getting the hang of it
Mar 13, 2016
381
40
Howell, Michigan
I'd like to add about 6TB of external data storage to my remote POE 8 camera system. The computer I have selected has 500GB, but I,m going to want to save more history than 500GB will support. My question is should I add a sophisticated NAS (Cloud) device to my system (LAN), or is there a better alternative? It looks like the QNAP hardware gets a lot of good customer ratings.

https://www.qnap.com/i/useng/product/items_by_series.php?CA=3

I have a 2TB WD "My Cloud" in my home network but I'm not too happy with it. I also see that the WD devises do not get very good ratings. Is there something that works especially well with security cams?
 
I love NASes, been using bunch of Synologies and currently Qnap since 2006, they are great at many things except their surveillance station and ridiculous camera licensing cost. Get Nvr it works much better for what it was designed.
 
klasipca said:
I love NASes, been using bunch of Synologies and currently Qnap since 2006, they are great at many things except their surveillance station and ridiculous camera licensing cost. Get Nvr it works much better for what it was designed.
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camera licensing cost? I thought that QNAP NAS was stand alone?
 
for 6TB who needs a nas, buy a single WD Purple and put it in your NVR..

NAS Storage for Security Video only, wold seem to be overkill.. Ive got 10TB of storage in my NVR.. 24TB of storage in my NAS.. my nas sucks many times more power than the NVR and I would never build a NAS just for the cameras, but I would have shoved the disks into the NAS instead of the NVR if they had the room for them.
 
I think I misread what you were trying to accomplish, I thought you wanted to use NAS software to record cameras, but if you are trying to simply extend the storage with NAS then licensing doesn't matter.
 
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I wouldn't bother with NAS on a remotely accessed system. Most consumer grade NAS have crap speed even on a Gbit connection. I'd go with nayr's suggestion, and drop a WD purple in it.
 
bguy said:
I wouldn't bother with NAS on a remotely accessed system. Most consumer grade NAS have crap speed even on a Gbit connection. I'd go with nayr's suggestion, and drop a WD purple in it.
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OK I looked at the WD Purple hard drives on Amazon and the review ratings seem to be very good, and I like the specialization for video files, but I did not find a WD housing to put them in. My tiny PC has no such slots for them. I like the idea of two separate drives so one could mirror the other for back up. ie two bays. Any recommendations?
 
Normally the drive would be installed in the system using it. I didn't realize you were using a system that might not fit more more than one drive. Most normal PCs are in cases that should hold 2 drives, or more. What kind of case or computer are you using?
 
you can put them in a generic external enclosure, however big expensive drives are best installed internally.. externally they are prone to damage, theft, and overheating.

you can get usb2, usb3, eSata, firewire, etc.. what connectors do u plan on using for an external drive? USB 2.0 has a bandwidth max of about 45Mbps and you can hit that pretty quick with video recording.
 
bguy said:
Normally the drive would be installed in the system using it. I didn't realize you were using a system that might not fit more more than one drive. Most normal PCs are in cases that should hold 2 drives, or more. What kind of case or computer are you using?
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Lenovo Computer

ThinkCenterM900 - Tiny
Part number: 10FMCTO1WW
•Processor: Intel Core i7-6700T 2.8G 4C
•Operating System: Windows 10 Pro 64
•Operating System Language: Windows 10 Pro 64 English
•Form Factor: Tiny Q170
•Memory: 4GB DDR4 2133 SoDIMM
•Video Adapter: Integrated Graphic Card
•DP Port: Optional DP Port
•Hard Drive: 500GB HD 7200RPM 2.5" SATA3
•Networking: Integrated Ethernet
•WiFi Wireless LAN Adapters: Intel 8260+BT 2x2ac Tiny vPro​
 
I've used USB 3.0 for external drives with Plex in the past, and had very good throughput (they're all internal drives now).
There is a substantial speed advantage to USB 3.0 over USB 2.0.
And I just added an internal 3TB WD Purple for $99 (NewEgg price good through 4/15) specifically for my BI Cameras.

Just my $.02.
 
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nayr said:
you can put them in a generic external enclosure, however big expensive drives are best installed internally.. externally they are prone to damage, theft, and overheating.

you can get usb2, usb3, eSata, firewire, etc.. what connectors do u plan on using for an external drive? USB 2.0 has a bandwidth max of about 45Mbps and you can hit that pretty quick with video recording.
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I agree, USB port communicating to the external drive is too slow. That is why I thought that a NAS would be better direct connected to the router via Ethernet cable. i.e. somthing like the WD My Cloud or the Qnap ts231). In fact everything connected to the router; (cpu, switch, nas). This router has 4 ports + one for the Modem. The rest is wireless wifi/bt.

TRENDnet TEW-818DRU AC1900 Dual Band Wireless Router
​
 
you have USB 3 tho, its faster than the HDD is..

nas is another point of failure and additional complexity to reap absolutely none of the normal NAS benefits from.. you dont have a dedicated network interface and network traffic is going to have to be shared with disk access.. lots of potential for bottlenecks and added latency.. for example doing a big file copy on the network could really fuck up your camera recordings.

Software NVR such as BlueIris will perform better with local disks.
 
I see that the WD Purple hard drive will handle 6GB/s. What rate will the USB 3.0 handle? All I have found on this is that USB 3 is supposed to be 10x faster than USB 2.
 
It may have a 6GB interface, but spinning drives can't actually move data that fast. Looking at Amazon reviews someone noted speeds of about 160MB/s. USB 3.0 is 5 Gb/s, or 625MB/s. You just want to be sure any external USB 3.0 enclosure you get can handle the large drive.
 
WD Purple cannot come close to 6GB/s, the SATA interface its on can.. USB 3.0 is many times faster than the drive is capable of achieving..
 
bguy said:
It may have a 6GB interface, but spinning drives can't actually move data that fast. Looking at Amazon reviews someone noted speeds of about 160MB/s. USB 3.0 is 5 Gb/s, or 625MB/s. You just want to be sure any external USB 3.0 enclosure you get can handle the large drive.
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I see that there are two types of enclosure for these hard drives. One is a total enclosure, a box sometimes with a fan. The other is as shown below, a docking station. Any one have an opinion on which my be better for the video application?

61Bh4VWMAnL._SL1001_.jpg
 
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