Marty Chinn
Member
Cheech said:Look at the Synology feature web page.
The main problem I have with WHS is just that, it's Windows. I have to pay $99 for the software, and then whatever the hardware costs, which certainly isn't going to be as energy or cost efficient as a dedicated NAS device. Poking around the WHS pages, it looks like you can get some dedicated WHS devices, which are universally more expensive than what I spent on the Synology device.
As far as flexibility, unless I'm mistaken, WHS doesn't do half of what the Synology device can. Any type of RAID using a modern filesystem(EXT4), baked in support for various mobile devices, e-mail server, torrents, news server, FTP, DDNS, web site hosting, and yeah, it does ADS/ACL through Samba (which obviously WHS is going to do as well, heh).
WHS looks like a neat product. It's something that I'd set up for my parents. But the Synology appeals to the IT nerd in me.
I'm still digging through that link, but I think you might not have looked into WHS enough because I would think the IT nerd in you would have it appealing to you since WHS is just a different flavor of Windows Server 2003 which if I'm not mistaken is what is used in a lot of business environments by IT. WHS allows you to setup all those services since it is just Windows Server.
Where the flexibility comes in is the fact that you can run and install Windows apps. You don't need to work within the confines or restrictions of whatever a different NAS offers you. You like a particular e-mail server, you just install it. Does Synology work with Logitech Squeezebox? Can I have it interface with my Backup Power Supply for automatic shutdown in the event of a powerfailure? It's that type of flexibility I can get with WHS.
Certainly this seems more capable than other NAS solutions I've looked at before and I'll continue to look at it in the event I ever need to change hardware down the line. Does Synology offer pooled storage?