My current NAS (old PC with a bunch of old drives) needs a upgrade. It is pretty old and consumes alot of power. I am looking for a stand alone NAS about 1 GB, raid would be nice, low power consumption, And must work in mixed computer environment. I have a airport extreme base station but hooking up a drive is unreliable and SLOW. I am looking at the Western Digital My Book World Edition II. But I have read it is slow. Any one have any thoughts? Also should I upgrade my switch to gigabit Ethernet if I get the Western Digital.
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I need a new NAS
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A 100 Mbit connection limits you to the performance of the network. A 1 Gbit connection limits you to the performance of the drive/drives unless you get into high-end storage where you are once again limited to the performance of the network.
You might want to take a serious look at the HP MediaSmart Servers. They are consistently well reviewed and very Mac friendly.
http://www.hp.com/united-states/campaigns/mediasmart-server/
The EX495 has been getting some good reviews:
http://www.wegotserved.com/2009/10/06/hands-on-hp-ex495-mediasmart-server/
http://www.hp.com/united-states/campaigns/mediasmart-server/
The EX495 has been getting some good reviews:
http://www.wegotserved.com/2009/10/06/hands-on-hp-ex495-mediasmart-server/
If you want a good, but cheap NAS, I'd recommend the Partiot Valkyrie. I saw it at PAX East last month and it seems to be a good NAS. Two bays, can handle 4TB, has FTP, UPnP, and printer server support. Only thing it doesn't have is Time Machine support.
TigerDirect has it for $130 with rebate right now. Check it out
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=5749804&CatId=2670
TigerDirect has it for $130 with rebate right now. Check it out
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=5749804&CatId=2670
Thanks for the tip. I have played with Windows Home Server on a older PC and liked it alot. The on reason I am looking for a NAS is to save power (trying to be greener). Having a server on 24/7 is costing me about $18 a month @ 110 watts. I see the Western Digital NAS uses about 15watts. It looks like the HP Servers come in at about 60 watts.
I'm currently using this Intel Windows Home Server:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16859117003
its much cheaper than the HP Mediasmarts if you have your own hard drives already, although you will need a Windows Home Server License (~$80). It uses about 35W for me with 2x 1.5TB drives.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16859117003
its much cheaper than the HP Mediasmarts if you have your own hard drives already, although you will need a Windows Home Server License (~$80). It uses about 35W for me with 2x 1.5TB drives.
The problem with finding a "low power consumption" NAS is that they usually are underpowered in terms of performance. That is, the performance is in the same neighborhood as having an USB drive attached to an Airport Extreme...
Just because a device got a gigabit interface doesn't mean it is fast enough to be need more than 100Mbit network.
How fast do you need the transfers to be? How many clients will access the NAS at the same time?
Just because a device got a gigabit interface doesn't mean it is fast enough to be need more than 100Mbit network.
How fast do you need the transfers to be? How many clients will access the NAS at the same time?
Thanks for the input. It's just fora home network so only1 or 2 computers at a time. I may just upgrade my only PC using plan old windows and just turn it on when I need it. I get I don't need always on storage, but the convenience is nice.
After hearing lots of good things, I ordered a Qnap TS-410 yesterday. I haven't gotten it yet, but I will report back with my findings later. Check out what Qnap has to offer. They also have a nice support forum, they encourage you to ask questions pre-purchase. Plus newegg sells them.
Have you thought about any of the ReadyNAS options from Netgear? I have a ReadyNAS Duo and its a great piece of kit. Small footprint, low power consumption and PC/Mac friendly with Time Machine support. I have two Macs which backup to the RND as well as a PC. I also use the RND to store of my music/movies which I stream to the PS3 via the built-in DLNA software. 
I had a Windows Home Server. Like you I didn't want to leave a computer on all the time due to power etc, and as it was a DIY server space was limited.
Also, although they will work with Mac I believe you need a Windows computer to set it up.
I then went looking for a dedicated NAS.
I looked at the ReadyNAS for a long time, but the cost was always an issue for me so put them to one side.
QNAP is good, I have the 8 drive rack mounted version at work and can't fault it.
I have a Synology 4 bay version at home and can't fault it either. Both work with Mac, including Time Machine and you can set both up with Mac.
I believe the Synology is cheaper, but is still a good product. I haven't had any issues
Also, although they will work with Mac I believe you need a Windows computer to set it up.
I then went looking for a dedicated NAS.
I looked at the ReadyNAS for a long time, but the cost was always an issue for me so put them to one side.
QNAP is good, I have the 8 drive rack mounted version at work and can't fault it.
I have a Synology 4 bay version at home and can't fault it either. Both work with Mac, including Time Machine and you can set both up with Mac.
I believe the Synology is cheaper, but is still a good product. I haven't had any issues
Hi reebzor, I'm considering this NAS as well. Did you get it yet? Any comments you can share? Tks
I have mixed feelings about it still. It was a huge pain to get everything set up and working properly, but thats only because I like to tinker around with things. If you don't try to do anything crazy with it (i.e. install a bunch of applications, have tons of services running) then it will be fine. I had mine running with 1 2tb drive in it and over the weekend put a second drive in and migrated it to RAID1. It took me a few tries to get it right (mostly my fault) but now its working perfectly. Having a prior knowledge of linux REALLY helps with it, but again you really shouldn't need to access via the command line. I say this because everytime I got frustrated with it or something wasn't working, it turned out to be my fault. Luckily they have a pretty decent support forum.
It all depends on what you want to do with it.
So I gave up on the whole NAS thing. I tried free NAS, Linux and just plane old windows and each had their own short comings. So I got two external SATA cases for my drives and hooked them up to my mac pro. It is working out great. I connect my other machine over the network for backups when I need to and get great speeds.
I would say freeNAS was a pretty good program it just want not bullet proof enough for me.
I would say freeNAS was a pretty good program it just want not bullet proof enough for me.
had you considered a cheap PC + good (e.g. large amount of drive capacity) case? i will be going down this route, and using gigabit ethernet.
What I want to be able to do is, if I had a hardware or os failure. I want to be able to pop out a drive and stick into another computer to get the data. I found in tinkering with the freeNAS software after it was set up. I screwed up and while trying to back up the config file I deleted it. It looked like I was SOL. Also there was a issue with the drive I purchased, they were the new Western Digital with the advance formatting. No one at western Digital could give me a straight answer about if the OS supported advance formatting.
It ashamed I liked the setup, I guess I just paranoid about this data.
Thanks. My main concern is just to ensure I have enough room for my growing itunes library, home movies (that is growing), photos etc. And I need to ensure I will never lose the home movies and photos. Thus I am looking at a minimum 4 bay to ensure I have enough storage. This QNAP 410 seems like one of the cheaper ones at 4 bay. How is the power consumption? Is it as low as they say? 20W operational and 12W idle?
You realize that whenever you stripe drives that you won't be able to access any of the files if you just pull one of them and stick it in to anoher computer, right?
If your collection of music, movies, and photos are constantly growing, I suggest you look in to a system that's easily expandable, such as Drobos, ReadyNAS systems with X-RAID or X-RAID2, or unRAID.