Please recommend me a network disk: min. 1.5TB and speedy transfer

[tkorsvold]

I need a new network disk, 1.5 or 2TB.

In addition to the obvious ethernet plug, it should have a USB or ESATA plug.

I would like something that transfers data as fast as possible to my HTPC and main computer. I would like to use it as a general media disk for playing .flac music files, 1080p video and pictures taken with my Canon 5D mk2.

Read speed is most important (not much writing will be done).
I DO NOT need a lot of NAS functionality, just a disk that can be recognized by a network.

So, any recommended disks?

I've been looking at:
- Lacie Network Space (very cheap)
- Linksys NSLU2 (very cheap, without disk)
- D-Link DNS-313 (very cheap, without disk)
- Linksys NAS200 (very cheap, without disk)
- Synology Disk Station DS-101j (very cheap, without disk)
- Qnap TS-109 Pro (cheap, without disk)

- Lacie 2Big network 2 TB (expensive)
- LaCie Ethernet Big Disk 2TB (expensive)
- Western Digital My Book World Edition II 2 TB (expensive)
- Buffalo LinkStation Pro 2 TB (expensive)


But now I'm totally at a loss.
Any recommendations?



Thorstein

 

[tkorsvold]

Hmmm, just found a review here:
http://www.bjorn3d.com/read.php?cID=1137

The QNap TS-109 Pro gets 9.5 stars out of 10!

Looks like a good candidate...


Thorstein

 

[pjkenned]

Speed wise, really anything 1TB+ is going to have the disk speed to stream audio/ 1080p video. The pictures are probably the biggest issue speed wise, especially when it comes to thumbnail generation over a network. You have to remember, at GigE speeds you have a maximum of 125MB/s not including overheads. Once you subtract overhead, current and even large last-gen drives can more or less saturate that much bandwidth on sequential reads (aka streaming media).

Of those, I would probably get the Qnap. That being said, the Acer Aspire Easystore 340's with 1TB drives pre-installed are about $350 these days if you shop around. You could add another drive fairly easily (I think the H340's have 4 bays) and have some duplication + room for expansion. It is single core atom based so not going to be the fastest if you do any transcoding on it.

Another option is to just buy a cheapo Atom board or barebones and add a hard drive to it + FreeNAS.

If you are going this route, I would only suggest making sure you don't want something beefier for your NAS. Personally, I found that the simple attached storage was OK, but I always wanted it to hold more. Now I just use SSD's in my systems that are anywhere near people and put all storage Raided on servers.

Of course, if you really need no NAS functionality, throw another drive in either your HTPC or main PC (eSATA or SATA), and just enable it as a share drive. Serve the other machine with that. Not the best way, but it'll save you a few hundred bucks up front + power for the other appliance. A typical 7200rpm drive these days is 5-10w, so adding a network box + what is most likely a less efficient PSU will double or triple that power consumption.