To NAS or not to NAS.. that is the question..

[Pesto]

SO... I am doing some research now to figure out what what to do.

My situation is that I have a laptop and my wife has a laptop, we both never use the 3 desktops we have running BUT we need the storage space for all the MP3's, Pictures, Application ISO's, and other random things. which makes me think, i can kill these 3 boxes that are loaded with 2 or 4 120gb drives and get a NAS that can house some new 500GB drives. Since i'll have my lifes collection of MP3's and pictures i REALLY dont want to loose that data. So i'm thinking a RAID-1 or RAID-5.

Anyone have a NAS box that they're REALLY satisfied with that houses 3 to 5 drives and recommend? Or a better idea than going with a NAS? i was considering the stability and maybe just getting like a tower to load with SATA drives and a SATA RAID controller (not the most cost effective method)..

well.. off to some research.. anything to keep me busy till QUAKECON!!!!!

[Darkstar]

You could turn one of them into a NAS, check out
http://www.freenas.org/

[kenc51]

FreeNAS would be the cheapest option.

You could get a Thecus NAS. They have great firmware support.
The good thing about these is they use hardly any power, are small and also quiet.
You can use it as an itunes server, download server and some also work as print servers.

I have a Zyxel NSA-220 2 drive NAS with 2x 1TB drives. It small and inaudible.

My order of preference would be the following;
Thecus N5200 - 5 drive NAS, Lots of features and good performance, but pricey (My next purchase)
http://www.thecus.com/products_over.php?cid=10&pid=8
Thecus N4100+ 4 drive NAS
http://www.thecus.com/products_over.php?cid=10&pid=28
Thecus N3200 3 drive NAS
http://www.thecus.com/products_over.php?cid=12&pid=48

[DaIceMan]

You could turn one of them into a NAS, check out
http://www.freenas.org/

my buddy just set up FreeNAS, and he loves it. I haven't had a chance to take a run at it yet, but I'm kicking around the idea of it myself.

[Darkstar]

You could turn one of them into a NAS, check out
http://www.freenas.org/

my buddy just set up FreeNAS, and he loves it. I haven't had a chance to take a run at it yet, but I'm kicking around the idea of it myself.

sweet!, what kind of hardware did he set it up on?

[bubba]

FreeNAS is good, but last time I messed with it it did not allow sub folder restrictions. So if you had share 1 with sub folder A and B, and you want to allow someone write access to A but not B it couldn't do it.

If you're looking for a community "get it here" storage then freeNAS is great. I had it running on an old 1.3 Tbird and 512ram. Nice thing about freenas is that once you have it installed its headless. Stuff the case off in the corner some where with a patch cable running to it and forget it, access it across the network for changes.

[ScottLovesDogs]

This thread has raised a question that actually fits the title and topic: My family (Wife, 23y/o daughter, and me) have three laptops that we use heavily. We also have the big graphics/server machine in my sig. The big machine has enough storage space that we each have folders on it that are shared with our laptops, and to which our laptops connect automatically at startup. If it needs more storage room, there are four more 3.5" drive bays available, and six 5.25" bays to hold more hard drives. It can easily function as a print server too. In fact, the only limitation that I see to using this as network storage is that the motherboard can only do RAID 0 and 1, if I want RAID 5, I have to buy a controller that can do it.

Would there be any advantage to adding NAS to our network? Enough of an advantage to offset the extra cost, or should we just leave the big machine on all the time?

[Alathald]

Would there be any advantage to adding NAS to our network? Enough of an advantage to offset the extra cost, or should we just leave the big machine on all the time?

If all you use the big machine for is storage then yeah, I'd say throw freeNAS on that sucka...it is free after all

[bubba]

This thread has raised a question that actually fits the title and topic: My family (Wife, 23y/o daughter, and me) have three laptops that we use heavily. We also have the big graphics/server machine in my sig. The big machine has enough storage space that we each have folders on it that are shared with our laptops, and to which our laptops connect automatically at startup. If it needs more storage room, there are four more 3.5" drive bays available, and six 5.25" bays to hold more hard drives. It can easily function as a print server too. In fact, the only limitation that I see to using this as network storage is that the motherboard can only do RAID 0 and 1, if I want RAID 5, I have to buy a controller that can do it.

Would there be any advantage to adding NAS to our network? Enough of an advantage to offset the extra cost, or should we just leave the big machine on all the time?

Yes and No, if you get a true NAS box there will be a large power savings over time (if your worried about that). Since you have a box set up already then I would say no.

As for the raid. For storage I prefer Raid 1 (mirroring) couple large drives and your good. One dies, move over to the mirror and replace the dead one, no waiting for drives to rebuild. The chance that both drives go at the same time is slim. I would still backup the important stuff regularly.

[ScottLovesDogs]

Thanks Bubba, makes sense. Will just go with what we have, and there is really no need, aside from convenience, to run the big graphics/server box all the time. The laptops will connect to it properly even if it is simply turned on and no one has logged in as a user on it yet (XP Pro SP2) , so it is easy and quick enough to just start up and use over the network if anyone wants access to it.

Power savings over time would be nice, but the cost of a good NAS box is pretty steep, and, if factored in to the overall cost equations (acquisition + energy use), will make the breakeven point of a NAS box more difficult to reach. Also, if we compare the energy use of a 24/7 NAS with turning the big server/graphics machine on as needed, that eliminates even more of the NAS's advantage.

It is good to think this stuff out and get some clear-headed input to help guide deliberations. Thanks again, you probably just helped save me a bundle of money. And, your remarks about RAID 1 make good sense too.