NAS Enclosures

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MindoverMaster

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Dunno if this should go here or Networking. Correct me if I am wrong in thinking here, as I went through many headaches before arising at this point.

It all started with an Atom ITX board. Ran Ubuntu on there and it worked, up until the time where the board overheating, and therefore was being way unstable. So I get a new CPU/mobo, the one posted under Nexus in my sig. So I simply tried Ubuntu. It worked, to a point. It would not share my 1.5TB drive. I try many different distros. Nothing seems to work, so I just put the 1.5TB into my main system. So then I decided to RAID1 my 2 x 640GBs. So I had too many problems with that, weather hardware or software. So I just say the **** with it and load up Windows 7. Had an extra retail serial. So whoop-de-do, it works now, sees my RAID1, great.

But, REALLY, I want a low powered system. You can guess with Windows, you're really not talking about anything low powered.

So my wee head turns to NAS Enclosures. From what I read in reviews, If you buy cheap, you get cheap. So how cheap is cheap? Should I buy just a 2-bay enclosure and put my 2 x 640GB in RAID1? Or should I get 4 or more bays, if I decide to get more drives down the road?

You tell me, what's the best outcome here? I looked on many from the cheap to the expensive. Both seem to have letdowns.
 
One thing I noticed with cheaper enclosures is they may claim gigabit, but rarely put out 20mbps or anything decent. A good enclosure I think costs $200 or more IMO.
 
I have been looking at this one for $150, on sale for $100 right now.

D-Link DNS-320 ShareCenter 2-Bay Network Storage Enclosure - 2x Bays, Supports up to 4TB storage, SATA, RAID 0/1, USB Print Server at TigerDirect.com
same price: Amazon.com: D-Link Systems ShareCenter 2-Bay USB 2.0 External Hard Drive Enclosure DNS-320 Black: Electronics

IMO, Newegg has the worst brands..

Edit: I stand corrected, I'm just looking in the wrong section. I'm split between these two.

Link


Will 800Mhz to a 1.2Ghz CPU and 128Mb to 256Mb RAM help at all? I'm thinking the almost 2x speed will help the read/write speeds.
 
I have heard a lot of good about the D-Link DNS 320-321-323.
My boss has one at home and absolutely loves it, he stuffed 2 x 1 TB drives in there and does all his storage on it. I work at the university and he recommends them to all the teachers in his faculty, to do the sharing with their students. Easy to setup file sharing, with users.
Easy to manage and awesome menu web interface, I played with it, while setting it up for a teacher. (Given I have had more experience with the 321 and 323)

In the event of a RAID failure, there is also a program that you can download onto any windows pc, and you hook up on of the drives and you can read the data on it, through that program.
I recommend them.
 
Any preference over the 320, 323, or 325? From what I read, it's just different CPU/RAM speeds.

I might just get the 320 though, unless you can persuade me otherwise.
 
The speeds are my argument lol.
I haven't played around with the 320/325 as much, the 323 is excellent and I can't imagine the other ones being anything less.
Back when I was playing a lot with them, the big selling point was the print server, because the 321 (I think) didn't have it.

So go with the 320, and let me know how you like it. (IMO)
 
I don't really need a print server. I just share it oer the network from my system. As it's up nearly all day.

I'll get the 320. Have to get it next month. Only 3 weeks. My budget for the month is almost at its limit. $100 would tip it.
 
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