Cheap NAS for the home network?

sclawson · Post by **sclawson** » Mon Apr 19, 2004 1:30 am

What sort of NAS (Network Attached Storage) appliances exist these days for home use? ("Home use" meaning INEXPENSIVE and LOW MAINTENANCE.) As of a couple years ago I was disappointed with how expensive the couple offerings were, but since then I haven't kept up with that part of the market.

A NAS server appliance IMHO holds lots of potential for home use, in that it would offer access to networked files for every machine on the LAN without the need to keep any particular one running at all times. An appliance would probably also consume less electricity than a full-blown computer, and could be located in some out of the way place, like the basement or a seldom-used closet, allowing folks to get some use out of even the noisy hard drives they might have sitting around.

The concept sounds great. But are there any decent contenders on the market right now for home use?

grandpa_boris · Post by **grandpa_boris** » Mon Apr 19, 2004 1:43 am

sclawson wrote:What sort of NAS (Network Attached Storage) appliances exist these days for home use? ("Home use" meaning INEXPENSIVE and LOW MAINTENANCE.)

there are commercial packages, like a quantum spin-off called snap appliance. the lowest end 80GB box will cost you under $600. there are others that are more or less in the similar price ranges. the price goes up steeply as you go into higher GB ranges. these things aren't going to be quiet, they aren't built for that.

anything you build by yourself is likely to be much quieter or even silent, but isn't going to cost you much less -- unless you start out with a pile of free scrap components.

Bluefront · Post by **Bluefront** » Mon Apr 19, 2004 3:24 am

I suppose you've seen this setup? ....BestBuy and CompUSA usually carry the 160gb version. And the price is ok....less than $200. Mine works great....sits in a closet so it's inaudable.

maxxymus · Post by **maxxymus** » Mon Apr 19, 2004 4:11 am

get cheap computer, run it passive and underclocked.. and add as many HD's as u want.. can even put NTFS or w/e if u want. U can get many HD's at $60-80 for 160gb+ with rebates.

geordie · Post by **geordie** » Mon Apr 19, 2004 4:20 am

I'd go with the cheapest pc you can get your hands on - you can sometimes pick up old Pentium 133's or the like for free.

Add a load of disks.

Run linux with samba.

cmcquistion · Post by **cmcquistion** » Mon Apr 19, 2004 4:56 am

geordie wrote:I'd go with the cheapest pc you can get your hands on - you can sometimes pick up old Pentium 133's or the like for free.

Add a load of disks.

Run linux with samba.

Very good advice.

Specifically, you could run ClarkConnect, which is very user friendly and easy for Linux novices to setup. In addition to being a file server, it can also be used as your Internet Firewall, Print Server, Mail Server, and loads of other tasks.

The quietest computer I have ever built is my ClarkConnect Firewall/Web/Email/FTP/File Server. It is running a K6-2 500 MHz and a single, suspended Seagate Barracuda IV. I have a SVC GC-68 heatsink on the CPU w/ a Panaflo L1A @ 5V and another Panaflo L1A at 5V as the PSU fan. This system is COMPLETELY inaudible. In the middle of the night, with everything else turned off, I can turn on this machine, and not hear it!

Dhurdahl · Post by **Dhurdahl** » Mon Apr 19, 2004 6:17 am

Thats what Im doing... clarkconnect on an old box... works great!

BUT remember with a really old mb you will have problems with bigger disks (if you don't get a IDE pci card that is)

sclawson · Post by **sclawson** » Mon Apr 19, 2004 11:35 am

Well, I'd never heard of those NetDisk products, which look like great choices. But can the hard drive be replaced with something larger down the road, or are you stuck with whatever you bought originally?

And I'd never heard of ClarkConnect. If I understand correctly, it's basically a Linux distro tailored to turn an old PC into a networked file server, and optionally also a residential Internet gateway?

I see that they try to sell some sort of services to you. Are those necessary, or will the free software download suffice?

Thanks all!

grandpa_boris · Post by **grandpa_boris** » Mon Apr 19, 2004 12:21 pm

sclawson wrote: Are those necessary, or will the free software download suffice?

i don't know anything about clarkconnect, but i do know a bit about linux SMB servers. SAMBA is included in all major linux distributions, samba.org has support forums and manual pages (along with the source code), and there are many step-by-step books on turning a linux box into a CIFS/SMB share for windows and linux systems.
on the other hand, if you don't want to spend the time to learn the hard way how to run a fileserver, it's entirely likely that a packaged offering like clarkconnect is a reasonable choice.

grandpa_boris · Post by **grandpa_boris** » Mon Apr 19, 2004 12:45 pm

Bluefront wrote:I suppose you've seen this setup? ....BestBuy and CompUSA usually carry the 160gb version. And the price is ok....less than $200. Mine works great....sits in a closet so it's inaudable.

i am sure they work. it differs little from the stand-alone maxtor one-touch external firewire/usb drive i use as my backup device. but it isn't a fileserver.

i don't have a problem using something like ximeta NDAS in limited home configurations as external and mostly disposable remote storage, as i use my one-touch. for anything more complex and scalable, i would much rather spend another $100-200 to get a fileserver head on top of the stack of drives, running RAID, and serving out files rather than blocks.

mg1394 · Post by **mg1394** » Mon Apr 19, 2004 7:19 pm

If you can get one of these at a reasonable price, it can't be beat.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... 11360&rd=1

acompeau · Post by **acompeau** » Mon Apr 19, 2004 9:46 pm

The Snap Servers are nice, although they're usually rather expensive, even on eBay.

I'd be very cautious about using any single disk solution (e.g., Ximeta). At a minimum, back up that data in a couple of places.

I have to say that putting two disks in a RAID 1 configuration is the way to go. I personally run my NAS this way off a VIA EPIA motherboard in a micro ATX case. If you've got buckets of cash, you can always use 2.5" drives instead of 3.5" drives and run it nearly silent.

=)

Dhurdahl · Post by **Dhurdahl** » Mon Apr 19, 2004 10:51 pm

sclawson wrote: I see that they try to sell some sort of services to you. Are those necessary, or will the free software download suffice?

The free one is more then enough

Cheap NAS for the home network?

Cheap NAS for the home network?

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