Nas?

[gabriel]

Hi, guys. Am considering in purchasing a NAS system, has anyone tried any? Hows the speed? Thanks

[aidanjt]

Mileage varies. What kind of budget are you looking at?

[kingpotnoodle]

Perfectly happy with my Synology DS207+ I get 20-30MB/s read/write depending on file type through my Netgear Gigabit switch using Windows 7 (which I have found to be much better/faster for Network transfers even than XP - for example at work Windows 7 grabbing files from a 2008 server maxes the 100MBit link (~11MB/s), causing my colleagues to batter me, Windows XP and SUSE never managed this feat).

The new 209 series are supposedly faster...

I used 2x 750GB WD Green drives for a RAID 1, normally wouldn't recommend them for RAID but with the lower transfer rates the potentially inconsistent spindle speeds don't seem to be a problem as both drives are more than fast enough.

Not cheap, but works very well.

[Shooty*]

Build a server.

I had a dlink DNS323 with 2 x 1tb drives in it. Streaming media was hopeless, albeit through a home plug network. And you were limited to 2 drive bays. I sold it and built a server with cheap case, microatx mobo, average CPU, stock cooler, and some average ram.

It rocks.

A machine running windows home server is great. Infiitely explandible, quicker, brilliant at streaming OVER THE SAME HOME PLUG NETWORK, mark you, good interface through the home server control panel, good applications to back up machines, content, swtich on through LAN, act as iTunes server, etc.

And of course, you can pimp it with fluoroescent tubes 'n' stuff.

Which I have done. Even though my server lives in the garage.

*sudden blinding flash of realisation*

... I am so sad it hurts. I'm going to be an embarassment to my kids

[arthurleung]

Perfectly happy with my Synology DS207+ I get 20-30MB/s read/write depending on file type through my Netgear Gigabit switch using Windows 7 (which I have found to be much better/faster for Network transfers even than XP - for example at work Windows 7 grabbing files from a 2008 server maxes the 100MBit link (~11MB/s), causing my colleagues to batter me, Windows XP and SUSE never managed this feat).

The new 209 series are supposedly faster...

I used 2x 750GB WD Green drives for a RAID 1, normally wouldn't recommend them for RAID but with the lower transfer rates the potentially inconsistent spindle speeds don't seem to be a problem as both drives are more than fast enough.

Not cheap, but works very well.

Wish my NASes can go that fast. Most of the cheaper one only goes up to 13MB/s or so.

[gabriel]

thanks for the replies. I was considering the (LaCie Network Space 1TB NAS External Drive Hi Speed USB with Gigabit Ethernet the offer is 100quid) was also thinking to get a NAS with two bays and add later 1x2TB hd. For home usage and simple backup up-ing the 13Mb/s would be fine. The PC choise though functional better, I prefer noise and energy consumption kept at the minimum.

[Shooty*]

I'm still in favour of a server. The processors on the NAS boxes just seem so slooooooooooow. OK, perhaps, for backups, esp if automated over night, but for anything else...

That's just my view.

[kingpotnoodle]

Wish my NASes can go that fast. Most of the cheaper one only goes up to 13MB/s or so.

That's the difference between a £100 and a £300 NAS box... the Synology units are great, I don't *always* get that speed, but I don't remeber seeing much less than 20MB/s.

I should say my primary use is a media storage - so relatively small numbers of fairly large (or massive, i.e. uncompressed DVD iso) files.

A network-wide lack of Realtek NICs helps to IMHO ;-)