NAS Enclosure Recommendations
in [Home Built PC]
|
From: Peter on 6 Mar 2010 16:24 I know this is probably more suited to a networking group, but I've been subscribed to a.c.h.p for quite a while and I have seen this discussed before here, so I was wondering, as per the subject, if anyone here had any specific recommendations about this type of hardware. I've had a brief search around and they generally seem to be quite thin on the ground, whilst at the same time the NAS HDs don't seem to be getting any cheaper and actually seem to be going up in price a little. I would like the enclosure to support SATA at the very least and to be as easy to setup as possible, without needing any kind of software install on any of the PCs on the network, or where possible, not needing any kind of remote setup for it to be recognised by the PCs on the network. Obviously, putting a brand new HD in it is going to require partitioning and formatting, but hopefully everything else should be pretty transparent. Is that attainable? -- Pete Ives Remove All_stRESS before sending me an email
From: Charlie Hoffpauir on 6 Mar 2010 21:00 On Sat, 6 Mar 2010 21:24:13 -0000, Peter <pete.ivesAll_stRESS(a)blueyonder.co.uk> wrote: >I know this is probably more suited to a networking group, but I've been >subscribed to a.c.h.p for quite a while and I have seen this discussed >before here, so I was wondering, as per the subject, if anyone here had >any specific recommendations about this type of hardware. > >I've had a brief search around and they generally seem to be quite thin >on the ground, whilst at the same time the NAS HDs don't seem to be >getting any cheaper and actually seem to be going up in price a little. > >I would like the enclosure to support SATA at the very least and to be >as easy to setup as possible, without needing any kind of software >install on any of the PCs on the network, or where possible, not needing >any kind of remote setup for it to be recognised by the PCs on the >network. > >Obviously, putting a brand new HD in it is going to require partitioning >and formatting, but hopefully everything else should be pretty >transparent. Is that attainable? Well, I recently bought a NAS box (without drives) and installed a pair of 500 GB eSATA Seagates with no trouble at all. It was very easy to set up, and although it's only a week old, is working flawlessly so far. I wouldn't go so far as to recommend this unit yet, but I would say it is at least worth your consideration. The unit I bought was by D-Link, a model DNS-321, which I bought at Fry's, but I've seen it and other models available from Newegg also. The unit comes with a CD that contains the basic setup as well as backup software (which I deleted after installing. The included backup software takes up a lot of dedicated space on my main drive, and I really didn't think it offered me anything I wanted). I chose to do my backups using batch files and MS Robocopy, which works just fine, and only when I tell it to. A little research will quickly show you that there are boxes with more features than this box has, so you need to first decide what features you need (and are willing to pay for). I also looked at a box that had ports for copnnecting additional external drives, and also a DVD writer built in. However, it was a lot more expensive than the approx $100 this one cost, and I didn't see a need for the DVD burner, or the additional external drive connections. With 500 GB drives going for just over $50 and the box at about $100, I have 500 GB of mirrored storage, available to all the computers on my home network, for a little more than $200. (Of course, mirroring the drives is optional.... I could have striped them for 1TB, or simply left them as 2 separate volumes for 2 500 GB backups). The formatting of the drives is done without any extra effort, once you load the CD and recognize the drive. You can elect to map the drive to each computer on your network, or just address it by it's networked name. Connecting it to your wired network gets it an assigned IP address via DHCP. -- Charlie Hoffpauir Everything is what it is because it got that way....D'Arcy Thompson
From: Charlie Hoffpauir on 6 Mar 2010 21:03 On re-reading my post, I noticed a mistyping.... On Sat, 06 Mar 2010 20:00:00 -0600, Charlie Hoffpauir <invalid(a)invalid.com> wrote: >On Sat, 6 Mar 2010 21:24:13 -0000, Peter ><pete.ivesAll_stRESS(a)blueyonder.co.uk> wrote: > >>I know this is probably more suited to a networking group, but I've been >>subscribed to a.c.h.p for quite a while and I have seen this discussed >>before here, so I was wondering, as per the subject, if anyone here had >>any specific recommendations about this type of hardware. >> >>I've had a brief search around and they generally seem to be quite thin >>on the ground, whilst at the same time the NAS HDs don't seem to be >>getting any cheaper and actually seem to be going up in price a little. >> >>I would like the enclosure to support SATA at the very least and to be >>as easy to setup as possible, without needing any kind of software >>install on any of the PCs on the network, or where possible, not needing >>any kind of remote setup for it to be recognised by the PCs on the >>network. >> >>Obviously, putting a brand new HD in it is going to require partitioning >>and formatting, but hopefully everything else should be pretty >>transparent. Is that attainable? > The drives are SATA, that is bare SATA drives, no enclosures so saying eSATA was just a mistake on my part. >Well, I recently bought a NAS box (without drives) and installed a >pair of 500 GB eSATA Seagates with no trouble at all. It was very easy >to set up, and although it's only a week old, is working flawlessly so >far. I wouldn't go so far as to recommend this unit yet, but I would >say it is at least worth your consideration. > >The unit I bought was by D-Link, a model DNS-321, which I bought at >Fry's, but I've seen it and other models available from Newegg also. > >The unit comes with a CD that contains the basic setup as well as >backup software (which I deleted after installing. The included backup >software takes up a lot of dedicated space on my main drive, and I >really didn't think it offered me anything I wanted). I chose to do my >backups using batch files and MS Robocopy, which works just fine, and >only when I tell it to. > >A little research will quickly show you that there are boxes with more >features than this box has, so you need to first decide what features >you need (and are willing to pay for). I also looked at a box that had >ports for copnnecting additional external drives, and also a DVD >writer built in. However, it was a lot more expensive than the approx >$100 this one cost, and I didn't see a need for the DVD burner, or the >additional external drive connections. > >With 500 GB drives going for just over $50 and the box at about $100, >I have 500 GB of mirrored storage, available to all the computers on >my home network, for a little more than $200. (Of course, mirroring >the drives is optional.... I could have striped them for 1TB, or >simply left them as 2 separate volumes for 2 500 GB backups). > >The formatting of the drives is done without any extra effort, once >you load the CD and recognize the drive. You can elect to map the >drive to each computer on your network, or just address it by it's >networked name. Connecting it to your wired network gets it an >assigned IP address via DHCP. -- Charlie Hoffpauir Everything is what it is because it got that way....D'Arcy Thompson
From: Peter on 7 Mar 2010 07:41 In article <c926p5dee32t3dmtilr7ng8aedgar3k8ej(a)4ax.com>, invalid(a)invalid.com says... > On re-reading my post, I noticed a mistyping.... > > On Sat, 06 Mar 2010 20:00:00 -0600, Charlie Hoffpauir > <invalid(a)invalid.com> wrote: > > >On Sat, 6 Mar 2010 21:24:13 -0000, Peter > ><pete.ivesAll_stRESS(a)blueyonder.co.uk> wrote: > > > > > > >Well, I recently bought a NAS box (without drives) and installed a > >pair of 500 GB eSATA Seagates with no trouble at all. It was very easy > >to set up, and although it's only a week old, is working flawlessly so > >far. I wouldn't go so far as to recommend this unit yet, but I would > >say it is at least worth your consideration. > > > -- > Charlie Hoffpauir > > Everything is what it is because it got that way....D'Arcy Thompson > Thanks for the reply, Charlie. -- Pete Ives Remove All_stRESS before sending me an email
|
Pages: 1 Prev: testing ddr3 ram 64 bit Next: Call for papers: HPCS-10, USA, July 2010 |