How To Setup a Home NAS Server - QNAP TS-439 Pro Turbo

[Apoptosis]

How To Setup a Home NAS Server - QNAP TS-439 Pro Turbo

The TS-439 Pro Turbo is the lastest 4-bay NAS from QNAP and it provides a platform for massive data sharing, all-in-one business server features, advanced RAID data protection, built-in iSCSI target service, AES 256-bit volume-based encryption, and the ability to hot-swap hard drives. Read on as we share experiences with it on our home network using the PlayStation 3, Mac OS, Windows Vista, and Ubuntu Linux on Gigabit Ethernet.



Article Title: How To Setup a Home NAS Server - QNAP TS-439 Pro Turbo
Article URL: http://www.legitreviews.com/article/950/1/
Pricing At TIme of Print: $799 at Newegg.com

[Major_A]

Future NAS review request:

A) Receive NAS for review.
B) Assemble low power PC with FreeNAS for a direct comparison.
C) Test dedicated NAS box vs homebrew NAS/PC in price, power consumption, and performance.
D) Give opinion if a dedicated NAS box is the better alternative.

I am curious about this seeing as you can build a low power dual core AMD setup with 2GB of RAM for under $200. Then like this NAS box you just add the drives or if you want the RAID card(s).

[stough]

While I agree that this would be an interesting comparison, I can already see one of the paragraphs in the conclusion. It goes something like:

[begin hypothetical]

Setting up your own homebrew NAS will be guaranteed to give you exactly the functionality that you need. However, this result will be directly balanced by the administration load and necessary skills of the user. The pre-assembled NAS was operational in 1/2 an hour after getting the drives and can be administered by a trained monkey...

[end hypothetical]

I'm 100% certain that I can build a better NAS for less money than most pre-built NASs. But, that requires that I assign a very low value to my time. It also requires a particular skill set that many users don't have and aren't interested in acquiring.

If you ever do this analysis or find a good posting about it, I'd be interested in seeing it.

Cheers!