NAS - Standalone Units

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gehenna

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#18257 3-Jan-2008 20:51

I'm in the market for a hardware/standalone NAS device. When I say standalone, i mean an actual NAS device - not FreeNAS or something similar. I'm not looking to build an old PC into a NAS, i'm looking to get an actual preconfigured device. My reasons for that are power consumption, space, noise and all that kind of thing.

I've been very impressed by the Drobo, but from what I can tell it's not actually available in NZ yet. I've checked Pricespy and a few other sources but can't see it anywhere.

So, i'm wondering what you guys are using for standalone NAS devices. Ideally it would hold 2+ 3.5" drives. Hot-swap ability would be good, but not necessary. The aesthetics would need to be pretty slick too.

I've got a mixed environment, Windows and Mac all over the house so interoperability would be great.

I'm interested in your thoughts, hopefully someone has something to add :)

freitasm

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#102793 3-Jan-2008 21:33

ReadyNAS is really good.

My technology disclosure

GoodSync

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gehenna

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#102803 3-Jan-2008 22:05

thanks for that.

I should add - price point is important too. I've found an australian distributor of the drobo and they've got it for around $899AU. So I'd like to see if i can find something for around $1250NZ max

bk2007

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#104959 15-Jan-2008 12:55

I too have been looking for an affordable NAS home device. The ReadyNAS does look good, but C1 is offering it for 2.3k, which is a bit more than I wanted to pay. I wanted to have some hardware based raid 5, and an external capability so it's a bit more reliable, have had too many drive failures in the past - I have been just using two USB Drives attached to a PC as a workaround with robocopy constantly copying files between them for reliability/backup purposes - it's good to be able to take the backup drive away and just plug it into any old PC and hey- it just works - have been not impressed by other NAS drives apparently not working with VISA as being linux/samba based, etc, some seem to require 'special' software to be installed so they can be mapped as drives - what I want is a simple device that sits on the network and just works without any sound. Am starting to think that an old PC (maybe an old small laptop) working as a fileserver might be the best way after all - all the functions, (including a printserver) for small cost?

mruane

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#107592 30-Jan-2008 17:43

I have been using the Nexstar LX with a 500Gb hard disk. There are all kinds of horror stories in various forums regarding this device but its been working reasonably well here. The biggest problem I have had is the sleep timeout. Initlally I had the device to zero timeout which was supposed to keep the device always available. However, occasionally Vista fails to find the device on the network.

Since changing the timeout to 60 minutes and then getting MirrorFolder (the backup software) to make a backup scan every 60 minutes the problem appears to have gone away. Its now a working solution that cost about $105 for the case plus whatever you want to spend for the hard disk.

PS The Nexstar LX is completely standalone connecting to the router/hub or it can be used as a USB external disk.

Cheers Mike

camo786

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#107620 30-Jan-2008 20:11

I have setup Synology devices for Customers, I cant fault them, support 64 connections, whereas the comparable linksys one only supports 10 connections

Local distributor is good to deal with too

http://www.vst.co.nz/storage%20solution/synology/DS207/ds207.html

Pricing without drives should be in the region of $700+GST

apcfixer

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#107752 31-Jan-2008 12:02

Have a look at XIMETA NetDisk NDAS 3.5" Enclosure. NDAS is a form of NAS storage but by the web facts it has a fster access time. they have an ethernet and usb connection. I brought 2 and put in 320 IDE drives - they also have the advantage of being able to raid. I have set my two to raid, one is located near the computer the other is in a rumpus room 30 metres away. You install software on each PC so the drive is mapped to a local drive. Cheap, quite

SpiderNZ

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#108634 5-Feb-2008 11:21

I currently use a Linksys NAS200. Comes with 2 bays in which you can install 2 3.5" drives, it also has 2 USB 2.0 ports to attach exteranal USB disk units. The hard drives can either be mirrored or used as 2 separate disks.

It has a 10/100 Ethernet port to connect to a switch/hub, ( in my case a Linksys WRT350 ). Access to files via HTTP, Samba and FTP.