NAS Box recomendations

[tivoguy2]

I need to get a nas box and need some advice- I will have a gigabit/n network in place with in a few days and need a gigiabit NASbox. Price is a concern.
I was thinking of the D-link dns-321. I have the drives to go it it, I just need the box.
What do you guys think?

 

[hans007]

the dns-321 from what i've read is not the best box, but it is cheap with all the deals putting it at $100 or so.

if i was getting a box, that i wanted to use a while i'd get something with that marvell kirkwood chip.

I know the latest synology 210 series, and the iomega ix2-200 series have it. It is much much faster than the older stuff that the dns-321 has. too bad the synology's are really expensive and the ix2-200 has to be bought with drives.

 

[JackMDS]

I think that using a computer as a NAS is a much better solution.

The Entry Level NAS boxes Giga is slow, and they are usually Not compatible with NTFS,

http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2040351



😎

 

[Ayah]

An old computer imo is probably the best NAS.

 

[Emulex]

its hard to find something that has ntfs paragon drivers.

old copy of windows 2000 server would allow alot of connections..
xp/vista/win7 - 10 connects max
2003/2008 - too expensive imo.

Could run linux and VM a copy of win2k server to get the best of both worlds for the low cost.

 

[cmetz]

tivoguy2, I know it's a fundamentally different price range, but look at Thecus, QNAP, and Synology. I've had good luck with the higher end Thecus boxes for small business use.

 

[klocwerk]

tivoguy2, I know it's a fundamentally different price range, but look at Thecus, QNAP, and Synology. I've had good luck with the higher end Thecus boxes for small business use.

Thecus's higher-end stuff seconded.
Their support's not great (I think their english is mostly babelfish translated), but the hardware is impossible to beat for the price.

 

[poofyhairguy]

NASes are either for business, or people that don't need that much space (aka a 2 drive NAS is HUGE for them).

If you want your NAS to do what 80% of the forum uses their NASes for- to stream media- then just build one out of a PC. You won't get a better price per slot anywhere.

If you are a normal person and 4TB actually seems like a lot of space, I like the NASes you have found. Seems like a good deal.

 

[Modelworks]

I have retired the pc I used for a NAS. The reason why is because it didn't make a whole lot of sense.
I found it made more sense to just use the pc I already use every day in the home. File serving and streaming in the home isn't very intensive. If you already have a good pc that you use then adding more drives and letting it do the work makes a lot of sense. I know people say that they want to put it separate because it uses less power with something like an Atom cpu, but it isn't a huge difference.

A normal pc that is sitting idle will put the cpu into low power states, my video card automatically under clocks when not in use, and drives can be set to power down when not used so it really is pretty close to a standalone unit. Something like a core2 cpu has more than enough idle time even when running applications to send out a file to another device in the home.
You already have all the other applications you use for media and online tools for torrents, usenet or whatever so it is really convenient.