Need advice NAS acquisition advice for DrMcFizz1e: enthusiast, £1,000 EUR

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Need advice NAS acquisition advice for DrMcFizz1e: enthusiast, £1,000 EUR

6
0
NAS
DS218
Operating system
  1. Windows
Mobile operating system
  1. iOS
Last edited:
Usage type: enthusiast

Preferred form factor DS (DiskStation)

Number of bays: 4-bays

Do you have any existing drives that you plan on using? Yes

Prefered RAID array setup for this NAS: not sure

This NAS will be used for: backup, multimedia, business (virtual machines, mail, office, etc.)

Max budget for this setup: £1,000 EUR

Number of users that will utilize this NAS: 4

Any preferred network connectivity? 1G, 2G, 2.5G, 10G

Where will this NAS be used: LAN and over the Internet

Any special network requirements: /

Special cloud provider connectivity: /

Additional information:
Hello there!
Hope you're all having a good summer!
I currently have a DS218 but am planning to upgrade to a better model in order to run a single Windows VM for my dad (it will host his online radio station). He'll be rdp-ing into the VM from Ireland.
Unfortunately, though, I have a very limited budget, and having read various threads on this forum, I see that the recommendation is basically that if you want to run VMs then you need a Xeon processor.
However, that's outside of my budget of £1,000 just now. So my question boils down to this: I can choose between a DS920+ (Celeron) or DS1621+ (Ryzen) - but which will run a Windows VM better, accepting neither will be great? In terms of potential resource allocation, my plan is to upgrade the memory and dedicate 2 out of the 4 cores to the VM.

Some observations:
- Although cheaper, I'm wondering whether the DS920+ will be better because the Celeron also has integrated graphics?
- My dad had hoped for a VM that could run with the equivalent specs of an i5. Do either of my proposed choices give him that?
- If using VMs, do I need to be thinking more about network capacity? Will 1gb ethernet be sufficient for someone trying to use a VM alongside the other users and devices which will be using that same bandwidth?

Many thanks for reading. :)
 
My dad had hoped for a VM that could run with the equivalent specs of an i5. Do either of my proposed choices give him that?
1621 might, 920 is not even close to it.

Will 1gb ethernet be sufficient for someone trying to use a VM alongside the other users and devices which will be using that same bandwidth?
It will be fine

In general there is no 4bay device that will run a VM smoothly, so you are looking at 1621+ or 1621xs+ for that.
 
It should. With its 4GB of ram initially, it should run it fine, but depending on the needs of that VM and what you have in plan to use the NAS for, you might consider upgrading it a bit. Still, it will not feel like a dedicated machine.

You might even consider running a VPS via S3 or similar, for this need, but then again it depends on your overall needs and setup.

In short, it will be better than 920 but not in the same ballpark as a dedicated machine.
 
It should. With its 4GB of ram initially, it should run it fine, but depending on the needs of that VM and what you have in plan to use the NAS for, you might consider upgrading it a bit. Still, it will not feel like a dedicated machine.

You might even consider running a VPS via S3 or similar, for this need, but then again it depends on your overall needs and setup.

In short, it will be better than 920 but not in the same ballpark as a dedicated machine.
Hi again @Rusty! I found a stat that may make this debate a little more interesting / less clear cut. Going by this CPU comparison it seems that, assuming I were to give the VM the same number of cores on each of my chosen NASes, then the 920+ might actually do a better job (based on the graph in the section called 'single thread performance').

AMD Ryzen Embedded V1500B vs Intel Celeron J4125 @ 2.00GHz [cpubenchmark.net] by PassMark Software

Any further thoughts? :)
 
The marginal difference is true, but v1500 is a better cpu overall. So as I said/asked before, it all comes down to what the usage for this nas will be overall. If you are targeting this mainly for the VM task, you might invest in a dedicated device like a NUC or something and get a much much better experience than over a VM running on a mid-range NAS.

If you are looking for a NAS and want to use the VM on top of it then I guess you can make your own judgment based on some tests.

Just as a comparison, I did a test on a generation before 920 (918+) running full SSD setup and a VM instance on it, versus an i3 (2014) NAS model (RS3614) running with ENT spindle drives. 3614 killed that 918 like it was nothing (SSD and all).

So, some real-life tests would be much better than a pure synthetic test IMHO.
 
The marginal difference is true, but v1500 is a better cpu overall. So as I said/asked before, it all comes down to what the usage for this nas will be overall. If you are targeting this mainly for the VM task, you might invest in a dedicated device like a NUC or something and get a much much better experience than over a VM running on a mid-range NAS.

If you are looking for a NAS and want to use the VM on top of it then I guess you can make your own judgment based on some tests.

Just as a comparison, I did a test on a generation before 920 (918+) running full SSD setup and a VM instance on it, versus an i3 (2014) NAS model (RS3614) running with ENT spindle drives. 3614 killed that 918 like it was nothing (SSD and all).

So, some real-life tests would be much better than a pure synthetic test IMHO.
Thank you - I think that's a really good example you give. My hope is to use the NAS not just for running the VM but for home use, such as DS Photo and Plex, laptop backup etc. So in that case having the extra CPU power could be very useful!
 
Abort! 920 if you are going for any Plex needs. Intel vs Amd when it comes to Plex is a no brainer.
May I ask one final thing - apologies!? I've suggested the 920+ to my father, whose VM it will be hosting. He baulked at the thought of Celeron because he was hoping for i5/i7 performance, which he gets just now. I'm no expert but I was wondering whether in the sphere of NASes the difference isn't so big. I see from the CPU benchmarks that an i7 is around 60% more performant per thread than the Celeron J4125, but in the real world of running a Windows VM with a few GUI apps on it, would it make much difference. If it does, would I be right in thinking that he'd be better served by getting a DS1621xs+ which takes him closer to his i7 'benchmark' but also allows me to have my multimedia thing with Plex.
Thanks again for all your time on this, @Rusty - I appreciate it.
 
would I be right in thinking that he'd be better served by getting a DS1621xs+ which takes him closer to his i7 'benchmark' but also allows me to have my multimedia thing with Plex.
Yes on the first bit but not on Plex. Problem with Plex is transcoding. That xeon cpu is a beast but not when it comes to transcoding needs of Plex (if there will be some). The problem is that that cpu would solve those problems with shear force, and that’s not what you want while you have a vm running.

I still think that it would pay off better to get a dedicated device for a vm and then focus on the nas and it’s needs as a separate device. Getting best of both worlds in this budget might end up as an impossible task.
 

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