Budget NAS Solutions?

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?"

Comments

Overheating an issue

[commanderfoxtrot]

There are good basic ethernet NAT units from e.g. Asus and Linksys.

Most do FTP, some do SSH. Watch out for overheating and buggy Samba installations.

Linksys NSLU2 ...

[Kormac]

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

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

Kormac

Re:Linksys NSLU2 ...

[jrockway]

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.

Re:Linksys NSLU2 ...

[Briareos]

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.

"Silent Internal Fan."

[Tim Browse]

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.

Why not build your own?

[max born]

Why not build your own? Check out somewhere like pricewatch

You can get a 400G HD for about $190 and a P4 combo board for about $160.

Install slackware and you're ready to rock and roll.

Good luck.

Sounds Familiar....

[Noksagt]

See if any of the suggestions in Data Storage For Home? apply to you.

I have done DIY and bought a rig from eRacks & am happy with both.

Re:Infrant ReadyNAS

[ErikZ]

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.