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NAS Suggestions

TheBearman

TheBearman

macrumors 6502
Original poster
May 23, 2008
445
87
Cary, NC
Hey all,
I'm in the process of moving from Windows to OSX and doing a little planning. My current Windows system (home built) has had an internal raid 5 setup. My plan calls for a move to an iMac with a NAS device to handle my raid needs.

I did just read about the upcoming Promise NAS NS4600 device which features a BYOD design. I prefer this as I would like to pick the drives which make up my raid. I noted Buffalo also makes NAS devices, but these are pre-configured with their choice of drives. Promise makes reasonably good controllers, including the one in my current Windows system.

The problem I have is that although they both support OSX the utilities available to manage them is limited to Windows.

My questions are, does anyone have one of the current Promise NS4300 units? Happy with it? How about Buffalo devices? Another brand someone wants to talk about?

My requirements are raid 5, 3tb or greater storage, gigabit ethernet.
 
I can't talk about the brands you've mentioned, but I've just setup a Netgear Readynas Duo for a client and was very impressed with it.

The software is all controlled through a webpage so it's not os specific. It supports lots of mac features and is very quick.

Netgear bought Infrant I believe for their NAS technology which was one of the best.

Hope that helps.
 
Have a look at QNAP and DROBO. Both brands offer a wide variety of products and are BYOD.

I use a QNAP TS Pro 209 with 2 1 TB drives.
 
I second the recommendation re: the Infrant (now Netgear) Readynas. I have two 4-disk (BYOD). I've had them for years, and upgraded to bigger disks a couple of times without any problems (automatic volume expansion). They support time machine, AFP, etc. and are managed via a web browser (there's also a mac app that launches the web browser, which is really only useful if you have multiple NAS).
 
I'm also using Netgear/Infrant ReadyNASes here. I've got an older 600 model and a newer NV+. They also have a Pro version out that holds 6 drives and a I believe they call the version that is BYOD the Pioneer edition or something like that.
www.readynas.com
 
I love my synology NAS, it has been very reliable and easy to use. Definitely one of my better electronic purchases!
 
I'm using a ReadyNAS Duo too and am really pleased with it. I use it on a mixed Mac/Windows network and the amount of customisation allowed is fantastic. I bought the slightly harder to find driveless version and populated it myself to save money and give me more freedom. It was really easy to set up.

The only issue I had was some lag when I was using it on a new network. I changed the MTU and it was back to normal - apparently some networks are a little sensitive to this.
 
I've had a Thecus N2100 that is BYOD for a couple years now. Got it mainly to stream my ripped CD collection via iTunes server to my Roku player without needing a computer on 24/7. But it's also come in handy as a fileshare between Macs and PCs on my home net.
 
I have a Drobo and have been extremely pleased with the unit itself. The Drobo share attachment works well but transfer speeds seem slow compared to other NAS systems i have used. If i were to do it again i would probably seek a cheaper alternative.
 
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