Looking for a NAS drive

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  ESEMCE on 09/09/2011 - 08:15

  Buy an old P4 PC - or similar (or drag one out of the cupboard/shed), fill it with Hard Drives and install FreeNAS…
  Anything less than a $500 dedicated NAS is slow (transfer speed) and unlikely to last more than a couple of years.

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  sane on 09/09/2011 - 09:10

  Personally I'd go with a Buffalo Linkstation Live - cheap and with an emphasis on doing all the bits you are interested in cheaply. Not the best performer, but that's not really going to matter to you.

  Otherwise I'd look for one of the HP Microserver deals that have been around, slightly more all up, but capable of doing lots.

  What I wouldn't do is pull out the old PC. This is something you leave on 24/7 and the electricity costs of even a lowly 350W PSU would be bad. A Linkstation can deliver for 10W, a Microserver for 20-30W. That counts, as does the heat, noise, etc.

  • 

    ESEMCE on 09/09/2011 - 11:32

    -1

    Why leave it on 24/7? Who seriously needs access to their media for more than 4 hours a day?
    To counter that, I wouldn't recommend a LSL. I originally bought a Linkstation Live and sold it 3 months later due to frustration with the slowness of file transfers despite it having a Gigabit Ethernet port.. The electronics were too slow to maintain acceptable data transfer rates.
    My old PC running as a server is only on when I'm at home and when I'm using it… Despite using more power when on, it's undoubtedly more efficient over the course of the year than leaving anything running 24/7. It'a also better for the drives.
    In the 4 years my old PC has been running as a server, a friend is now onto his third "cheap" NAS! The first (a Netgear passive cooled unit) died from heat - direct sun on a Summer's day, the second actively cooled from "old" age after 2 years or so of 24/7 runtime (consumer hard drives aren't designed for those lifecycles).
    I have more and expandable storage and the price was $80 for a 1Tb drive with space for another 9 drives if needed!

    • 

      sane on 09/09/2011 - 17:08

      The Linkstation Live to the left of me has been running for 5 years now, has been upgraded and hacked significantly, but still works fine.

      The data transfer rate is nothing spectacular, but it's easily enough to deliver HD content to the PS3. What's more the DLNA server and remote access for files is built in - no faffing.

      24/7 is because the op wants to be able to access his docs remotely, and frankly when the power is 10W, it's well worth keeping it available. The drives have again been working 24/7 for years, no problem (so far).

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  manja on 09/09/2011 - 13:48

  Hi zone,

  I bought the Buffalo LinkStation Pro Quad and very happy with it.

  http://www.ht.com.au/part/Y9054-Buffalo-LinkStation-Pro-Quad…

  http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/forum-replies.cfm?t=1661106

  • 

    ESEMCE on 09/09/2011 - 14:12

    Of course that's $250 with no drives…
    But if you're headed down the dedicated NAS path, then this looks OK..

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    sane on 09/09/2011 - 17:10

    Compare/contrast the Linkstation Pro Quad with the HP Microserver when it's on offer. If you get to this level, I'm inclined to say the Microserver is a better, more flexible, cheaper, bet.

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      IsometricBacon on 14/09/2011 - 15:39

      I have a Linkstation Pro Quad and I can't really fault it. Everything works great and it very simple to setup and use. I have it torrenting, streaming movies, automatically backing up my machines and set up to only work at certain times of the day.

      That HP MicroServer looks like great value too. It sounds like it isn't as easy to simply plug in and setup though like the Linkstation if you're not comfortable with installing NAS OS's, but if you are it will probably give you a much greater level of customisation than you could with the Linkstation.

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  zone on 13/09/2011 - 05:51

  Thanks a bunch.

  what about this?

  http://store.westerndigital.com/store/wdau/en_AU/DisplayProd…

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  smackus on 13/09/2011 - 15:05

  as someone said before get a HP Microserver, its cheap, performs really well, has 4 bays, and its cheap.
  http://www.koitech.com.au/products/microservers/hp-proliant-…

  The only negative is you have to install an OS as it doesn't come with one but as above someone recommended Freenas.

  However if you want to pay double for a similarly performing off-the-shelf NAS then stick to qnap, synology or thecus.

  edit: the WD drive that you posted isn't really a NAS, its a glorified external drive with a wireless network port. I own a wd world, the network transfer rate is woeful less than usb2 speeds, however its easy to use.

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  AncientWisdom on 21/10/2011 - 15:15

  <revive>
  Anyone know where it is the cheapest now to get the HP Microserver?

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  EnALup on 23/10/2011 - 11:26

  I got a Iomega 2TB network HDD Cloud edition for $160. I stream movies from it to my TV and laptop. Use it as a backup option for my documents nad pictures.

  It has 600 Mhz processor and 9w of electricity usage. But you get what you pay.
  It was slow to accessed remotely. It has to be restarted once or twice a week (HD Movies will run not smoothly)
  While coping big stuff, I need to attach my hard drive to this. Otherwise it gives 2 mbps while copying and sometimes crazy 600kbps over wireless while copying.

  After firmware update, a little improvement in speed and restarting ( but still need to restart it once every 15 days, I suppose)

  So at last, it solves my purpose. Silent, and always ready to be accessed.

  • 

    llama on 23/10/2011 - 15:08

    That is hopeless

    I have a D-Link DNS323 and it only gets restarted when there is a blackout. I reckon it's been up and online for 2 or 3 years at a time!

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  zone on 23/11/2011 - 16:59

  Is this any good?

  http://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/57542

  Looks okay to me.