Zyxel NSA 325 Media Server - Video Review

[Stone Message]

Hi Everyone

I have just bought myself a Network Attached Storage (NAS) device to keep the tons of video files and photos that I create safe and sound. It is the Zyxel NSA 325 and I bought a pair of 3TB hard drives to go inside. It answers all of my data storage needs and doubles up as a media server for my network. It can be used to automatically handle uploads for social media sites, can copy and sync USB devices that get connected and much more (in fact far more than I will ever need). With the right HDs it can store up to 8TB of data (or 4TB in RAID).

My setup came through Amazon and I feel that I got great value for money.

Take a look at my review...



Peter

 

[Rocky]

Great review.  What model Hard Drives are they?

 

[Paul G]

How do you handle protecting all your files from natural disaster like fire? Trying to address this led me to the iosafe N2, costs more but fire and flood security is well worth it IMO.

 

[Stone Message]

Great review.  What model Hard Drives are they?

Hi Michael

I bought a pair of:

Seagate 3TB 3.5 inch 7200RPM 64MB Cache SATA3 Hard Drives

from Amazon UK. When looked up the NSA 325 Amazon recommended (or said others had bought) the Seagate drives. They had tons of great reviews and so I bought them.

Peter

 

[Stone Message]

How do you handle protecting all your files from natural disaster like fire? Trying to address this led me to the iosafe N2, costs more but fire and flood security is well worth it IMO.

Hi Paul

That is my next task. I have a 500 GB USB connected drive and I am going to use it to keep the key data files from the NSA 325. I will either use a backup program to do regular backups or I will write a program just for the task. I currently use this method for other work elsewhere.

Peter

 

[Rocky]

Great review.  What model Hard Drives are they?

Hi Michael

I bought a pair of:

Seagate 3TB 3.5 inch 7200RPM 64MB Cache SATA3 Hard Drives

from Amazon UK. When looked up the NSA 325 Amazon recommended (or said others had bought) the Seagate drives. They had tons of great reviews and so I bought them.

Peter

Thanks Peter.  Right now I use the Western Digital My Book Live  1TB.

 

[Kev]

I went the Synology route for NAS, they make some great products in this space and their web UI is really good (DSM 4.2). DSM 4.3 is about to be released and I'm hanging out to see what improvements it brings.

 

[Stone Message]

Hi Kev and Everyone

The key thing is not to use any cloud services for any data that you consider to be important. There are many issues with the concept and I am amazed that it has got as far as it has. I can elaborate if pressed.

Peter

 

[JoggleStick]

Hi Peter,
Thanks for that review. Personally I found it quite thought provoking in that I know I need to look into this type of setup but just hadn't the drive to do it. ( Sorry poor pun). One of those scenarios you look into once the horse has bolted, so to speak, which would probably be disastrous, if not catastrophic. Anyway, thanks for the timely review.
As an aside, there is a significant improvement in the sound quality of this review now you have the Lav mike... If anything I found the rec level a touch low, but that's a minor tweak. Well done.

 

[Stone Message]

Hi Peter,
Thanks for that review. Personally I found it quite thought provoking in that I know I need to look into this type of setup but just hadn't the drive to do it. ( Sorry poor pun). One of those scenarios you look into once the horse has bolted, so to speak, which would probably be disastrous, if not catastrophic. Anyway, thanks for the timely review.
As an aside, there is a significant improvement in the sound quality of this review now you have the Lav mike... If anything I found the rec level a touch low, but that's a minor tweak. Well done.

You are right - too many of us watch that horses backside disappearing down the road...

Thanks you for the mic feedback (another poor pun) - I did adjust the level a little low. I am hoping to get a semi pro video camera very soon and that may make a difference. My old Nikon D7000 is a great still camera and has done a passable job on the videos but I need to move onwards and upwards.

Peter

 

[Jeff Zanin]

Another very good video, thanks Peter.  The scribbling you used to obscure your data is a bit disconcerting - at first I thought there was something wrong with my screen, then my eyes, then I realized what you did.

I've been spinning this way and that regarding either a NAS or a home server, still haven't decided but glad you had good results with the ZyXel.

I agree with the cloud concerns - we use Dropbox for some projects where the participants are spread out, traveling, etc. and it is convenient in that respect but it is much better to have your own data under your own control.

To me the challenge with any sort of home server is adequate backup.  A RAID mirror helps to protect against individual drive failure but does not protect against failure of the entire unit or any sort of physical damage.  For this you need a separate device located at a different place, and although we can partially provide this using a couple of external drives that are rotated to an offsite location this is not particularly suitable for large amounts of data.

To me the ideal would be another NAS of equal capacity located at another site, with files automatically copied from the main to the backup using a secure connection.  No doubt something like this is possible but likely very expensive for home use.

Jeff