Help me pick a NAS.

[visualnewbie]

I just bought the Sans enclosure for 8 2TB drives. I'll be adding it to my existing linux box which already has a RAID5 array of 6 1.5TB drives.

I've migrated my windows machines including my HTPCs over to Win7 and the backup program in Win7 is actually pretty good. I just have it do an incremental data backup every 2 days on each machine to the linux box, and a complete image of each machine on Sunday nights.

Works well, and cheap with almost endless uses since it's just an older Core2duo PC with ubuntu on it, not an ATOM, or other lower horsepower CPU.

I hear you on the noise and the heat. One thing that really helped was setting up the power management. In Linux I setup hdparm to spin down the drives after 20 minutes of inactivity. You may want to setup PM with yours as well... I'm sitting in my office right now and it's 81F in here!

Nice... Damn, I know that I'm not the only one, but I thought I had it bad. You have it just as bad and worst. Sad thing is, I have this feeling that the remaining 6 empty bays are going fill up really quick.

I'm going to have to look into the power management. I think WHS does it too. Right now, the Acer unit puts out more heat more so than the Sans. But that'll change when more hard drives are install in time. I'm actually going to dread the summer...

[Ricky-Ray]

http://freenas.org/freenas

[NSR500]

Freenas is very good if you've got a spare machine around.

[audiophil2]

Thanks for the replies guys.

What I am really looking for is a file server that can store all my non-essential stuff like photo's and movies. I want the NAS to be attached via gigabit ethernet (unless there is something faster) so that I can access the files from 1-my giganet desktop, 2-my giganet laptop/wireless-g laptop, and 3-my wireless-g/100m laptop. I want my harddrives setup up at raid 5 for disk security. I am also willing to use a dvd burner or bluray burner for archival. Ultimately, if my Raid fails I want all my movies, pics, songs saved on an optical disk for re-install. I also want to be able to rebuild each laptop/desktop in case the internal drives fail.

So far I like the Drobo and the 4 bay Sans Digital unit but as a newbie I do not see these as network NAS components. DO they just attach to a desktop?
I turn my desktop off at night so I need a standalone unit that will not eat power.

My current desktop is a basic Lenovo core 2 duo. It has almost no room for expansion. I do not need a brand new computer as all I use it for is charting and basic surfing. The only thing it really lacks to me are decent dualk head video cards for 4 DVI 20" monitors. I have the monitors but 2 are running off Siig external 128mb USB adaptors. If I need to I will gut the Lenovo and use those parts to build a midtower for the video cards I need.
I am not looking for large data storage (now) but rather a rock solid business machine with redundant backup and archival security.

I do not have many movies/pics so bluray data backup may be extreme.

[rct442]

Thanks for the replies guys.

What I am really looking for is a file server that can store all my non-essential stuff like photo's and movies. I want the NAS to be attached via gigabit ethernet (unless there is something faster) so that I can access the files from 1-my giganet desktop, 2-my giganet laptop/wireless-g laptop, and 3-my wireless-g/100m laptop. I want my harddrives setup up at raid 5 for disk security. I am also willing to use a dvd burner or bluray burner for archival. Ultimately, if my Raid fails I want all my movies, pics, songs saved on an optical disk for re-install. I also want to be able to rebuild each laptop/desktop in case the internal drives fail.

So far I like the Drobo and the 4 bay Sans Digital unit but as a newbie I do not see these as network NAS components. DO they just attach to a desktop?
I turn my desktop off at night so I need a standalone unit that will not eat power.

My current desktop is a basic Lenovo core 2 duo. It has almost no room for expansion. I do not need a brand new computer as all I use it for is charting and basic surfing. The only thing it really lacks to me are decent dualk head video cards for 4 DVI 20" monitors. I have the monitors but 2 are running off Siig external 128mb USB adaptors. If I need to I will gut the Lenovo and use those parts to build a midtower for the video cards I need.
I am not looking for large data storage (now) but rather a rock solid business machine with redundant backup and archival security.

I do not have many movies/pics so bluray data backup may be extreme.

http://www.drobo.com/products/droboshare.php

You have to buy a Droboshare for $175, which is really stupid, but once you do you can turn your Drobo into a NAS. That way you can get the comfort of a self-monitoring hard drive, but also take advantage of Gigabit Ethernet speeds. Also the best benefit of the Droboshare is that you can install Apps, such as a iTunes, File & Media Server.

[Merc1138]

Netgear readynas, I have a couple of them, lots of features(more than you'll ever need for basic home use) decent warranty also.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822122047

[visualnewbie]

Thanks for the replies guys.

What I am really looking for is a file server that can store all my non-essential stuff like photo's and movies. I want the NAS to be attached via gigabit ethernet (unless there is something faster) so that I can access the files from 1-my giganet desktop, 2-my giganet laptop/wireless-g laptop, and 3-my wireless-g/100m laptop. I want my harddrives setup up at raid 5 for disk security. I am also willing to use a dvd burner or bluray burner for archival. Ultimately, if my Raid fails I want all my movies, pics, songs saved on an optical disk for re-install. I also want to be able to rebuild each laptop/desktop in case the internal drives fail.

So far I like the Drobo and the 4 bay Sans Digital unit but as a newbie I do not see these as network NAS components. DO they just attach to a desktop?
I turn my desktop off at night so I need a standalone unit that will not eat power.

My current desktop is a basic Lenovo core 2 duo. It has almost no room for expansion. I do not need a brand new computer as all I use it for is charting and basic surfing. The only thing it really lacks to me are decent dualk head video cards for 4 DVI 20" monitors. I have the monitors but 2 are running off Siig external 128mb USB adaptors. If I need to I will gut the Lenovo and use those parts to build a midtower for the video cards I need.
I am not looking for large data storage (now) but rather a rock solid business machine with redundant backup and archival security.

I do not have many movies/pics so bluray data backup may be extreme.

The Sans Digital unit is basically an external hard drive, no more, no less. Think expansion. The Drobo does quite a bit more than the Sans and fits your needs better. I use the Sans unit to expand my Acer unit since I out grew it. My Acer unit and the HP ones do exactly what you want except the RAID since WHS uses their own type of feature. If you plan to access them via the 'net, you might want to look into the machines similar to the Acer and HP. Just a thought...

[ocabj]

We're using a few Sun 7210 units:



46TB in a 4U box. ZFS.

[odysseus]

The drobo looks silly for the price for a small soho 4-bay not coming with gig ether. You have to buy an additional "share" device to attach this for ethernet? No thanks.

[Corbin Dallas]

Due to the limited space on my HDDs I want a NAS that can do the folllowing:
Be the single backup for all my 3 computers( each has 40-80gb HDDS)
Setup in raid 5 preferably.
Ability to do automatic backups of all pc's.
Ability to archive all pc's onto dvd/blueray
Serve as file/video/pic/media/print/server.

Am I asking to much? I just was very safe archival. Price wuold be $600-800 and I would like to build in steps.

HP EX485 (except the raid 5 part) will do all you have asked for.

Be the single backup for all my 3 computers( each has 40-80gb HDDS) - Check!
Setup in raid 5 preferably. - no check here
Ability to do automatic backups of all pc's. - Check!
Ability to archive all pc's onto dvd/blueray - Check!
Serve as file/video/pic/media/print/server. - Check!

So 4 out of 5 requests filled.

I have an older EX470 that runs 4 - 2TB drives. Holds ALL our movies/pics/music and backs up every laptop we have (currently 6). Aside from not having raid 5, I f'n LOVE it.

If you go the EX485/7 route, you can get the HP iphone app that streams audio from your home server to your phone.

If you can find an older EX470/5, you can update the proc/memory and get the HP 3.0 update to make it just like the 485/7 series.

I was able to get the AMD processor and 2GB stick of ram for under $100 brand new.
Snagged the discs (2tb) off newegg for $139/ea on sale with free ship.
Got the server used off ebay for $250.
The HP update cost me $30.
Not too bad, 8TB for under $1000

http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-10218304-1.html

[Digital_Boy]

I have a trio of Promise NS-4300Ns, in 2, 4 and 6 TB flavors. They support SMB, NFS, FTP and DLNA home entertainment networking so you can stream content to a settop box, support Windows domain and workgroup, and are gig ethernet.

There's also the NS-4600N, which is a more feature rich version of the 4300N.

http://promise.com/product/pd_l3.asp?Product_Layer_ID=PRLA20060907003

[Bird of Fire]

I've been shopping around for a solution similar to yours but it must have a bittorrent client out of the gate or able to add on. So far I've found this which is pretty reasonable considering the features you get for the amount it costs.

http://www.tweaktown.com/reviews/1697/thecus_n4100pro_four_drive_nas_server/index.html

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822102026&cm_re=thecus-_-22-102-026-_-Product

Under 400 bones, BYOD. Even cheaper on amazon.

Be the single backup for all my 3 computers( each has 40-80gb HDDS): CHECK
Setup in raid 5 preferably.: CHECK
Ability to do automatic backups of all pc's.: CHECK
Ability to archive all pc's onto dvd/blueray: No built in BRD/DVD player but can be done.
Serve as file/video/pic/media/print/server.: CHECK

[Corbin Dallas]

I've been shopping around for a solution similar to yours but it must have a bittorrent client out of the gate or able to add on. So far I've found this which is pretty reasonable considering the features you get for the amount it costs.

http://www.tweaktown.com/reviews/1697/thecus_n4100pro_four_drive_nas_server/index.html

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822102026&cm_re=thecus-_-22-102-026-_-Product

Under 400 bones, BYOD. Even cheaper on amazon.

Be the single backup for all my 3 computers( each has 40-80gb HDDS): CHECK
Setup in raid 5 preferably.: CHECK
Ability to do automatic backups of all pc's.: CHECK
Ability to archive all pc's onto dvd/blueray: No built in BRD/DVD player but can be done.
Serve as file/video/pic/media/print/server.: CHECK

I would NOT recommend the Thecus N4100 unless you like LOTS of headaches and reading an instruction manual that makes NO sense what-so-ever.

We have one at my work as a file storage unit and it SUCKS the fatty. Basically in order to get or save a file you have to FTP to the server. And no, iSCSI doesn't work like they say it does.

[Bird of Fire]

I would NOT recommend the Thecus N4100 unless you like LOTS of headaches and reading an instruction manual that makes NO sense what-so-ever.

We have one at my work as a file storage unit and it SUCKS the fatty. Basically in order to get or save a file you have to FTP to the server. And no, iSCSI doesn't work like they say it does.

Hrm. Is it different with you being in an AD environment as opposed to a workgroup? I've setup a few small SOHO's like that unit before and for a non AD environment it's pretty straightforward. Give it a name, map a folder as a drive, done.

[odysseus]

Basically in order to get or save a file you have to FTP to the server.

Huh? This doesn't support a Windows CIF or L/Unix SMB/NFS mounting?