I'm looking for a NAS Drive for use at home that has some sort of redundant RAID. I'd like a box that I just plug into the network so the Missus and I can just share gigs and gigs of large photos. I figured I'd ask here since at least one of you has probably discovered something. RAID 1 would be good. Raid 5 could work as well. I've looked at a lot of different produces but nothing seems to stand out. I need it to work with a Mac and some don't which is surprising. It also needs to support Gigabit Ethernet. I will be only be turning it on when it's needed to be as green as possible.
I did come across Drobo which is close but only supports USB2. I'd really like a Drobo with Firewire 800 and/or Gigabit Ethernet. I could get a something to make the Robo be a NAS such as the Apple Airport Extreme. I guess I can build a server, but that's more work than I want to put into it.
Any suggestions?
Thursday, November 29, 2007
Anyone know of a good NAS Drive?
9 comments:
Chris,
Have you looked at LaCie? They have an Ethernet appliance that holds at least 1TB. I don't have experience with it yet as I use a server.
Charles Hodgkins
The DLink DNS-323 is OK, but I found that it overheats pretty easy unless you decide to mod it yourself, it also isn't fully Vista compatible yet if that is a factor (hopefully v1.04 of the firmware is shipped soon to fix that)
The Thecus N5200 is pricy, but it will do just about everything you are likely to ask of it, including raid-5. If I could afford one, I would definitely have one here!
After looking at alot of solutions I came back to the idea of a linux based file server. If you have a spare PC lying around then its well worth it, it only takes one night to set it all up and its FREE!! The only thing thats a pain sometimes is samba but once the security is set up its all good.
Curtis
I like the current DLink DNS-323 as well. Do not try it with Vista, however. D-Link said that firmware 1.03 or higher supports it.
http://www.dlink.com/products/?sec=0&pid=509
If you want to have some added extra's:
- wifi
- apache / mysql server embedded
- max 40W power consumption
- streaming audio throughout the house
Have a look at the products from http://www.synology.com/enu/index.php
I'm actually thinking about buying one of those, after some research like you are doing now!
Take a look at the Intel SS4000-E. It isn't low priced and it doesn't have a lot of exotic features, but what it does, it does well.
I'm using the DLink DNS-323 NAS and I'm very pleased with it. So far so good !
Have you looked at the Buffalo Technologies TerraStation line?
We just got one at the office. It's a 2TB unit, with several levels of Raid (including 1, 5 and 10), is accessable via plain old TCP, has USB support and built in ftp and http access. It has a Gigabit NIC as well.
What amazed me was the price. With our corporate account at Dell, the 2GB (4 500MB drives included) model was under $900. It's a pretty nice little device, too, with a lockable front panel which covers the four pluggable drives.
Thanks for the feedback everyone. I'm going to investigate everything you've mentioned and let you know what I come up with. I really appreciate the help.
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