NAS device needed.

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garvani

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Topic # 24584 28-Jul-2008 14:33

First up ive searched the forums and seen that its been asked a few times, but most of the answers have been pointing to NASlite etc which isnt quite what i want to do.

I need a 1 bay nas device, all it needs is sata, fat32 and samba support. It will be connecting directly into the back of my xbox via a crossover cable (for xbmc use). Ive already brought a 640gb WD drive, just need the enclosure (cheap would be good too :) I dont want to have a seperate pc running nas software as it needs to be portable, the xbox is used at partys and is moved around most weekends.

Any suggestions? ive looked at the dlink 313 but at $200 our buy $ from ingram its a lil bit steep.. i really like this one from welland but it dosnt support sata! (at $89 its more what i was thinking link) the ME-747AN-S isnt available yet by the looks of it.

sbiddle

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Reply # 152079 28-Jul-2008 14:57

Just be aware that many of the cheap(er) NAS units have absolutely terrible network performance. Whatever you decide on in the end make sure you have a hunt around the net for some reviews or info on performance before you have over your $$.

freitasm

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Reply # 152084 28-Jul-2008 15:02

The external USB 2.0 drives I have here have such a horrible performance I can't believe. Sometimes I wonder if I should get a ReadyNAS unit just to plug directly to the network.

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garvani

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Reply # 152087 28-Jul-2008 15:03

hmm ok will do. I just found a $95 "Engine" branded enclosure, not so sure on that one.. The welland name has a reasonable reputation at least!

sbiddle

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Reply # 152103 28-Jul-2008 15:38

freitasm: The external USB 2.0 drives I have here have such a horrible performance I can't believe. Sometimes I wonder if I should get a ReadyNAS unit just to plug directly to the network.

eSATA is a vast improvement over USB.

Thecus make some very nice NAS units however they aren't very common in NZ.

kiwitrc

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Reply # 152112 28-Jul-2008 15:54

We bought a Drobo from Data Robotics, threw 4 500G drives into it which gave us about 1.5TB of storage (due to the proprietry Raid it uses) However you need to also buy the Ethernet adaptor for it. It runs USB2 to the Ethernet sharing device and to be honest the performance is slow. We do seem to have an issue with it currently so I am not sure if that is contributing to the speed issues. I have been told that you can build a very fast NAS device under linux in an old PC that gives quick access times so that might be the next step.

Fraktul

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Reply # 152149 28-Jul-2008 17:54

I went through a bit of research into this a month or so back as I was after something with the following requirements:

- Supported eSATA for easy addition of a seperate portable drive.
- Support Raid 5 in hardware for reliability and preformance
- Support 3 SATA HDDs needed for said Raid 5.
- Cost less than $1000 excluding HDDs

At the time I couldnt find any off the shelf solution which met my requirements, however I could build something using FreeNAS easily for quite cheap which would satify all my requirements. In the end it cam down to:

FreeNAS: http://www.freenas.org/
Case & PSU: http://www.tastech.co.nz/details/101367.htm
Motherboard: http://www.pcstats.com/articleview.cfm?articleID=2065 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813186110&Tpk=Foxconn%2bG9657MA Onboard RAID 0 1 5 0+1, eSATA, plenty of SATA ports & USB 2.0 ports, GiGE NIC inbuilt, inbuild graphics
CPU: http://www.pricespy.co.nz/pno_11448.html would have plenty of juice for a NAS
RAM: http://pconlineshop.co.nz/pcshop/product_info.php?products_id=34554

Hey presto a pretty decent preformance NAS for bugger all. Think it was about $600 all up inc shipping from memory.

I didnt end up build in the end because I moke to the UK to live in November and I'm not sure if shipping a NAS is viable or if I should just build one over there - need to get several TB of data over there somehow thoguh ;)

garvani

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Reply # 152353 29-Jul-2008 11:12

Cheers but thats not quite what im after as i said in the original post, id preferably like something small and portable. Sata nas boxes are far and few inbetween ive found. Anyone had much luck with the sata to ide convertor's that you can get, that would solve my problem.

garvani

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Reply # 152682 30-Jul-2008 13:33

Looks like ill probably be going with the linksys NAS200, 2 bays and a little bit more expensive than i wanted but it offers everything i need, with the advantage of another bay for when i eventually fill the 640gb drive. Ive read that they are fairly slow but that shouldnt be a problem considering its only going to be used for videos and music.

Has anyone got one that can fill me in on performance? the latest firmware out says it improves data throughput, im hoping someone has installed it and could inform if it cures the problem..