[itry]

Hi there,

I was wondering if anyone could provide me with some questions on the product in the title.

I'm interested in buying a NAS for use with my HTPC (i3 Intel Nuc running OpenELEC) and general use of media around the house. I've found a great deal on Western Digital's 'Education Program' site - this 8TB (2 x 4TB WD Red drives) NAS for £266.

I was just wondering if anyone had any experience with WD NAS devices? If so, is it fairly straightforward to set up with Kodi? I've never had any experience with a NAS device before so I'm completely clueless when it comes to how I'd go about connecting my HTPC to this device.

I don't think I'll ever exceed 4TB of data - I currently have ~ 2TB of data (and I plan on using this in a RAID 1 setup) so I'm not worried about not being able to add drives a later date. Is there anything better that I could get for the price mentioned above?

Many thanks.

[shabuboy]

I currently have WD My Book Live 2tb device, with network shares being access via samba from AFTV.
Before my AFTV, had a Zotac Nano + Win 7 doing pretty much the same thing
MBL runs Debian Lenny, most NAS devices are some flavor of Linux under vendor's GUI/management tools

For Kodi, you would just access the files via the network shares, either Samba or NFS

The learning curve will be how to setup a NAS correctly in regards how permissions and shares work. Not too complex, but it is where most 1st NAS timers have an issue with at first. The good, once you mastered a NAS concept, most are almost identical. Whatever you do, never compare it to a USB drive.

Also, do you really need RAID? Just remember RAID is not the same as BACKUP. See this. Make sure you understand the pros/cons of Raid.

Anyhow, my WD MBL is now:
- Backup servers for tablets, phones and PCs
- Torrent client
- Media server for all my devices listed above
- Local and remote access
- runs 24x7

[itry]

Thanks a lot for your input, I think I'll go ahead and make the splash then! Seems a great deal for the unit and 8TB too.

I know I haven't got experience using a NAS before but I'm fairly clued up with other tech so I don't think I'll have trouble setting the NAS up correctly with a bit of reading etc.

I must admit I haven't looked into RAID too much either but I was planning on using a RAID 1 setup should anything happen to one of the drives. I'll be making regular backups to a 4TB external hard drive too though.

[z31fanatic]

I use the MyCloud EX2. Very easy to setup. I have 2x4 TB drives in it and use Raid 1. I set it up once when I bought and never had to touch it again. It does what it's supposed to do and does it well. There are other popular NASes like Synology and QNAP but in my opinion they are for the more advanced users who like to tinkle with things.
I definitely recommend the MyCloud EX2 and that is a decent deal if it includes the two 4TB drives.

[z31fanatic]

I was planning on using a RAID 1 setup should anything happen to one of the drives.

Good idea. You're on the right track.

[itry]

Thanks for the reply. Yes I don't intent in fiddling around with it much once it's set up so this seems like a good choice for me. Thanks once again.