[?] NAS vs. Server

[mattkime]

those little boxes can be quite nice and usually you pay for that simplicity. i resently considered these boxes for someone i work for. a video friend of mine insisted that a lot of these cheaper RAID devices are a lot more failure prone than their makers care to admit.

[kj]

>and don't get me started on daisy chaining.

I daisy chain a 200gig fw hd and my external dvd burner, and burn movies off the ext. hd to the ext. dvd burner. I didn't think it would work, but it's great. kj.

[smacks]

Good deal here, as well...

http://shop4.outpost.com/product/4350515

It's got GigE, includes drives, and has multiple RAID options.

[M A V I C]

yeah, that one isn't too bad. It's about $20 more, AR, than the other enclosure with drives. I know the other one has really good reviews, but I'm not sure about this one. Also, I'm not a fan of rebates plus I would rather get one that takes four drives, put a couple in now and a couple later, rather than having 4 250's right now.

[macphanatic]

Research any NAS before buying. Many don't play well with Macs. I'm looking at building a RAID 5 server. I think Tom's Hardware had a link to a how-to article. Since I have an old pc sitting around, the only cost is the hard drives and controller card. The article used Ubuntu 6.0.6 (which is free) and walks you through the set up.

[M A V I C]

I found this review on the ReadyNAS. They tested it with a Mac.
http://www.luminous-landscape.com/review...s600.shtml

[RAMd®d]

Many don't play well with Macs.

And from some of the reviews, many don't play well at all.

I *really* want one of these NAS deals, but I haven't found one that didn't have a lot of bad user reviews.

Being a lightweight, I just want some central storage for my several Macs, keeping them a little freer of random debris that collects.

I'll read the review on the ReadyNAS. It reminds me somewhat of the old speakers at drive-in theaters. Not at all visually appealing as the more elegant units that don't seem to work very well.

So I'm still looking...