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Budget NAS Solutions?

Posted by Cliff on from the network-storage-at-a-decent-price dept.

DeliBoy asks: "After getting tired of the noisy power-sucking IBM PC Server 325 that I've been using as a JBOD server, I've decided to purchase a small network disk. Specificially, I'm looking at the Buffalo HD-HG300LAN. With FTP, a USB print server, and expandibility options, this unit looks very attractive. I was wondering what other NAS solutions Slashdot readers were purchasing for their home or small office. Is there anything better out there for around the same price?"

5 of 35 comments (clear)

  1. Linksys NSLU2 ... by Kormac · · Score: 3, Interesting

    It even runs Linux! (and is hackable to have it do all kinds of extra stuff)

    http://www.nslu2-linux.org/

    Kormac

    1. Re:Linksys NSLU2 ... by jrockway · · Score: 2, Interesting

      This is definitely an excellent product with either nslu2-linux or Debian on it. The disadvantage of Debian is that it doesn't support the integrated LAN port -- you will have to supply a USB network card. ($30 or less)

      Mine handles my NFS storage needs, receives e-mail for a few domains (with qmail), and hosts my website which runs from Apache and a perl-based CMS I am writing. With mod_perl there are no performance issues at all, at least for the minimal traffic I receive.

      The disadvantage of using this is a NAS, though, is that the throughput isn't that great. It can't read from the disk(s) fast enough to saturate even a 100MBps connection. (When I plug the disk into a real Linux box, the disk has no problem doing this... so there's something limiting the throughput intentionally or as a design tradeoff.)

      I hope Rev. 2 adds two USB controllers, more RAM, and gigabit ethernet so that this thing would be a viable solution for serious usage by small offices / departments.

      I do realize, though, at some point you need a Real Computer and not an appliance. This thing is fine for now.

      --
      My other car is first.
    2. Re:Linksys NSLU2 ... by Briareos · · Score: 2, Interesting
      This is definitely an excellent product with either nslu2-linux or Debian on it. The disadvantage of Debian is that it doesn't support the integrated LAN port -- you will have to supply a USB network card. ($30 or less)

      Not true. With the big endian OpenDebianSlug, you can use the openslug kernel together with all the packages out of the Debonaras repository (which is growing every day) *AND* the onboard ethernet.

      It's just that big endian Debian for ARM (ARCH=armeb) isn't a official Debian architecture - yet.
      --

      "I'm not anti-anything, I'm anti-everything, it fits better." - Sole

  2. "Silent Internal Fan." by Tim+Browse · · Score: 3, Interesting
    Silent Internal Fan. Not.

    I have a 160Gb Linkstation, and while it's great for what I use it for, it's certainly not silent. It's not loud, but it's louder than I expected. Given the fan was described as 'silent', that is. No way is it silent.

    Apart from that, though, it 'just works'. Which is nice.

  3. Re:Infrant ReadyNAS by ErikZ · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I just ordered the readyNAS X6 this week. The selling points were:
    Raid-5
    X-RAID
    and an a salesman from the company that hung out on our Audio-video board, answered our questions, sent ideas to the engineers (Which were sometimes implemented!) and acted the complete opposite of a company PR hack.

    I bought the ReadyNAS because I think that sort of thing should be rewarded.

    --
    Democrats or Republicans. They are both taking us to the same place and they are not afraid of us anymore.