
Ask HN: Difference between a NAS and Home Server? - Gimplox
I am trying to leave cloud storage and make a box to store all my backups, media files, documents, etc.<p>Having a remote access is what I am trying to aim for. What are some builds I should look into?
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nherment
I just moved from a home server to a proper NAS (Synology) box.

The home server was a plain Debian with a 256GB SSD and 2x2TB disks in RAID 1.
The NAS I moved to is a Synology DS716+II. I kept the home server as a
workstation and both HDD moved to the NAS.

I don't know about FreeNAS because the reviews were too bad for me to go down
that route.

Between DIY and NAS, the comparison summed up as:

\- in terms of performance a DIY server is much better than a NAS. NAS come
with laughable specs. This is a comparison of the 4 years old CPU that was on
my home server and the one bundled with my NAS:
[http://cpuboss.com/cpus/Intel-N3160-vs-Intel-
Core-i5-4440](http://cpuboss.com/cpus/Intel-N3160-vs-Intel-Core-i5-4440)

\- a NAS is pretty much plug and play

\- a lot of reviews raved about Synology's interface. I would rate it as
average. It works and seems to do the job but it is not intuitive.

\- If you want Plex (really cool!) you need to either get a high end NAS (the
DS716+II seem to work fine) or have a home server in addition to your NAS
(NAS' are often not powerful enough to transcode videos).

\- the price of NAS hardware is insane. Although there are good deals on ebay
if you're ok with 2+ years old hardware. When buying a NAS, you also pay for
its software.

\- NAS allow to easily make _REAL_ backups. That means incremental snapshots
that allow you to rollback. Replicating the data is _NOT_ a proper backup
solution.

If you value plug-and play a lot and want to spend your life doing other
things, NAS is the way to go. If you want to tinker and DIY, a HTPC with mini-
itx and a small case is the best choice. In my case, getting older, I get
tired of DIY and want things to just work. NAS it is. So far I don't regret
it.

Google, read forums and you'll have many more opinions than just my own on
what solution will suit you best.

