Recommend me a NAS please :)

[LWA]

All,
Here's my situation: I have an Xbox Media Center that is connected to my wireless router via a crossover cable. My laptop and my PC are connected over wireless to the router.

Now what I'd like is a NAS device to be attached to my router which I can use to store my DVDs and my MP3 collection. This will allow my XBMC to play the DVDs and MP3s on my TV and will allow my computers to also access them.

Now as I have no experience in NAS drives, can anyone recommend me one?

I am looking for around 300GB of storage and to spend around £100

Many thanks to anyone who can assist,
Leon

[DR]

Thecus 1200 is a nice unit, or the 5200 - depends what end of the spectrum you wanna be at

[LWA]

Erm the cheaper end

Thanks for the suggestions David, I'm off to have a look at those...

[DR]

The 1200 has just been launched....

Its a pretty nifty all in one box

[abeacock]

Another alternative would be a Maxtor Shared Storage system (or Plus). Mine is plugged into my 3Com router, can share USB printers for all PCs on the network and you can add extra USB drives to the back if you need more storage.

http://www.maxtorsolutions.com/en/catalog/MSS_Plus/

[LWA]

David, are those 1200s for sale in the UK yet? Scan.co.uk don't stock them

Thanks Abeacock, those do look very nice. Can I ask what sort of specification you got, where you purchased it from and how much it cost please? (Please don't feel as if you have to answer those questions).

I should have put this on my original post, I am looking to spend around £100. It's a shame I missed out on this.

I could always get an Icy Box and put in a standard PATA (IDE) hard drive - does anyone have any experience with those?

[Chunkers]

If you've already got a USB drive enclosure and old drive then try a slug, Linksys NSLU2.

Its cheap, can be re-flashed and modded to run server software (Apache, mail server, slimserver) and works nicely.

Great modding community at :

http://www.nslu2-linux.org/

Even if you have to buy a drive enclosure and drive to go with it, still works out pretty cheap and you can add second drives when you run out of space easily.

Worth a look anyways

Cheers

Chks

[directhex]

i was about to suggest the linksys slug, but Chunkers has summed it up pretty well

[abeacock]

Thanks Abeacock, those do look very nice. Can I ask what sort of specification you got, where you purchased it from and how much it cost please? (Please don't feel as if you have to answer those questions).

I was lucky and managed to take advantage of this offer:
http://forums.hexus.net/showthread.php?t=90156

Got the 300GB model for £90 and then performed the firmware upgrade to take if from the MSS to the MSS+.

I'm very pleased with mine, I have great access from Windows and I can mount it from my Linux server box as well - not a proper 'server' though David!

[crazy_bob_uk]

I've used a couple of NAS, and they have both needed their own software to be installed on the pc to connect to them, so some NAS may not be compatible with the xbox.

[abeacock]

You don't need any special software installed on the client machines to access the NAS box, it appears as a standard Windows fileserver within Network Neighbourhood.

It does come with some backup and discovery software but I've not installed it.

I have no idea if an XBox can see it though!

[directhex]

a NAS box will present itself using NFS (unix file shares) or CIFS (windows file shares) or both

if it doesn't do one of the above, it's not NAS, it's a paperweight

[LWA]

Thanks to everyone for their input.

Right so far I have several choices:

• Icy Box + 300GB WD HDD (approx £110)
• Thecus 1200 (price unknown)
• Linksys NSLU2 (I don't have a USB drive enclosure though)

Any other suggestions please?

[DR]

I am trying to find out the UK price on the 1200 for you

[LWA]

I am trying to find out the UK price on the 1200 for you

Much appreciated.

[DR]

I'm hearing £139.99 INC VAT.