Hard Drive confusion

[Sandancer]

Hi
I am thinking of buying a Disk Station DS411J, and i have a list of compatable hard drives fron Synology, but I am a little confused. Synology write that the DS411j uses Sata II, but after I have worked my way through the list I can see that some of the drives are Sata III. Examples are Seagates ST3000DM001, ST33000651AS and Western Digitals WD2002FAEX and WD30EZRX. Also can you maximum install 4 x 2GB or 4 x 3GB also a little confusing. I would like to try and find the answers to these questions before I go ahead and buy.
Thanks

[mike42dk]

Hi

The DS support SATA2 and the SATA3 standard is compatible with SATA2, so you can use SATA3 disk's fine, about the speed you wouldn't feel any difference between SATA2 or SATA3 in your DS.

The maximum size disk you can install in your DS, is changing all the time, whenever new size disk's is tested and found compatible with DS, so for now the max size is 4TB x 4.

[Sandancer]

Thanks for the swift reply Mike it is a great help. My plan was to buy a Disk Stastion firstly to backup using Time Machine, and my files Documents, Aperture library, Pictures folder ect. Then I thought of my iTunes library, but again I am not sure. Can my Apple TV2 access my library from the NAS? I was thinking of the DS411j, but I am now looking at the DS212j to maybe start with as it would be cheaper. Would any of the DS's be reliable enough to use for backup. I also have cloud backup i pay annually for. The raid part confuses me as I have read that it is not backup. Any thoughts? I think I am asking would you use a DS as mainly a media center or is it fesable to use it for backup as well? I have only just started to consider a NAS that is why I am so unsure about them.

[mike42dk]

Hi

A Synology DS can do all what you write about you want of a NAS, media streaming to your Apple TV, TM backup and so on.
Look at the DSM introduction this apply for almost all DS, some of the smaller models don't support all the features, but the 2 DS you are planning to get do.
http://www.synology.com/dsm/index.php?lang=enu

The thing is that RAID is not real backup in that sense that it's the only place to store your data, but if you have a copy on both your computer and on your DS, then it will work.

Read about general RAID here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAID

Read more about RAID in Synology here, good to know when setting up a DS for the first time.

http://www.synology.com/tutorials/how_to_whats_Synology_Hybrid_RAID.php?lang=enu

And here is a tutorial list that will help you setting up your DS, if you are that type of a real man that don't read the manual under any circumstances

http://www.synology.com/tutorials/tutorials.php?lang=enu