What is the advantage of a NAS?

[aphex]

Just curious... I have two external drives hooked up to my Mac Mini, both shared on the network, and I leave my mini on 24/7 (I would leave it on regardless of if i had the external drives or not)

Is there any benefit in my case for switching to a NAS?

 

[Zap]

No.

A NAS is good for having 24/7 access to network shares for everyone, not dependant on if a computer is running. If you're not going to shut down your computer anyways, then probably no need for one.

 

[JackMDS]

A dedicated NAS usually takes less power than a full-blown computer.

It has its own OS in firmware so there is no need for buying OS.

The more expensive units have easy exchangeable HD racks and a pre build RAID capacity.

If you are happy with your arrangement then you already have a NAS, and Grass is not always Greener elsewhere.

 

[aphex]

gotcha, thanks guys... Just wanted to see if there was something else about it I was missing...