NAS recommendations?

[danielf]

I noticed Network Attached Storage has been coming down in price, so I figures I'd get myself a NAS drive for backup and streaming audio over the network. If I'm correct, I just plug it into the router, and it's accessible over the network, right?

Now for what to get:

Looking at the cheapo options, there's a freecom 250gig at £100 (ebuyer)

Buffalo and Lacie 250G drives come in at around £130 also from ebuyer). There's not much info on the drive that's in it though.

So, I noticed that scan do an icybox enclosure at £45. I presume I can just bung any IDE disk in there? (e.g get a nice 250G Seagate at £55 and be done with it?

Am I overlooking something. Any recommendations?

TIA

[Paul K]

Freecom = not expandable. Only one drive in unit.
[url=http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HD-014-BF]Buffalo] is the same really, only expandable by USB drive.
Icybox takes PATA drives at FAT32
So really it will depend if you think your storage needs will change in future. If you may need more then why not throw a basic base unit together as a server box?

[Mr_love_monkey]

To bump an old thread rather than start a new one.

I need a nas - cheapish - but one that doesn't require installing software on each machine - as I think the freecom ones do.

I'm veering towards the icybox, and bunging a drive in there - the fat32 issue doesn't bother me - or has anyone got a better suggestion?

---------- Post added at 09:32 ---------- Previous post was at 09:17 ----------

any one got one of these?

looks ok - i assume it can be accessed via a windows share or whatever - which is my main concern

[Stuart]

I have the Lacie one described above. The OS the drive runs is actually Lacie's own version of Linux. It also runs Samba and makes the disk available as a Windows share (or you can create your own shares).

[popper]

a simple bootup and forget liveCD of FreeNAS is all you really need.
http://www.freenas.org/

[Mr_love_monkey]

Originally Posted by popper

a simple bootup and forget liveCD of FreeNAS is all you really need.
http://www.freenas.org/

Sadly, that's not a viable option for me at the present - this is really a stop gap measure as I need to place this device in my sons room (2 yrs old) - as this is where the main network router is - until I reorganise the network layout in my house - so I need something small and relatively quiet - when I get it all sorted, I'll move to a proper file server.

---------- Post added at 10:37 ---------- Previous post was at 10:34 ----------

so I don't want to spend too much either

ive been looking at this http://svp.co.uk/products-solo.php?pid=1182
30 quids looks like it does a fair bit for that price

[Mr_love_monkey]

looks like I'm going to go for one of these and one of these - unless someone comes up with a better one soon

[SMHarman]

I use the buffalo one. It is good and you can add another USB HDD to it. It is quiet and if it gets noisey then you crack it open and put some 3in1 on the fan and that fixes the problem.
Fairly quick and you can put multiple partitions / network drives on it, so I have a drive map for iTunes, Photos, Server etc.