NAS users, your help needed

[audiofi]

I'm thinking about expanding the reviews website into NAS boxes so am looking for any willing volunteers to give a brief review of the NAS box they have, in particular:

Reliability
Value for money
Ease of use
Ease of setup (where appropriate)
Noise
Speed
Advantages and Disadvantages

This can be either simple ratings (1-5) or a full paragraph style review

If anyone could help, that would be great, plus you'll get your names on the bottom of the review!

Thanks

Andrew
andrew @ audiofi . co . uk

[msandover]

I'm thinking about expanding the reviews website into NAS boxes so am looking for any willing volunteers to give a brief review of the NAS box they have, in particular:

Reliability
Value for money
Ease of use
Ease of setup (where appropriate)
Noise
Speed
Advantages and Disadvantages

This can be either simple ratings (1-5) or a full paragraph style review

If anyone could help, that would be great, plus you'll get your names on the bottom of the review!

Thanks

Andrew
andrew @ audiofi . co . uk

Buffalo Linstation 160GB
Reliability: so far so good
Lots of bytes, low enough price
Way simple to use: on/off switch only
Simple setup from WXP
Fan is noisier than they would have you believe but no big deal
Access is fine, running box hacked so I can get Slimserver and Twonkymusic on it. Processor's slow running SlimServer. Twonky's smaller image and runs much faster.

[Paul_B]

The problem I see here is what is NAS? By defintion it is storage that is attached to a network, usually over TCP/IP. How is NAS different to SAN, when is a PC a NAS box?

Therefore, you could argue that QNAP, Buffalo, etc aren't tru NAS devices as they are hosting applications. Problem is embedded PC are becoming NAS devices, SAN devices are becoming NAS devices and NAS devices are becoming SAN / Servers.

[audiofi]

Buffalo Linstation 160GB
Reliability: so far so good
Lots of bytes, low enough price
Way simple to use: on/off switch only
Simple setup from WXP
Fan is noisier than they would have you believe but no big deal
Access is fine, running box hacked so I can get Slimserver and Twonkymusic on it. Processor's slow running SlimServer. Twonky's smaller image and runs much faster.

Thanks, I'll get that on ASAP

[audiofi]

The problem I see here is what is NAS? By defintion it is storage that is attached to a network, usually over TCP/IP. How is NAS different to SAN, when is a PC a NAS box?

Therefore, you could argue that QNAP, Buffalo, etc aren't tru NAS devices as they are hosting applications. Problem is embedded PC are becoming NAS devices, SAN devices are becoming NAS devices and NAS devices are becoming SAN / Servers.

Any network storage device which isn't a standard desktop pc and will run slimserver

Could be a NAS, SAN, anything at all, as long as it does the job

Its simply to add to the site to help people choose a device to run alongside a squeezebox

[Paul_B]

So when does NAS become a PC or a PC become NAS?

[audiofi]

If its small, quiet and serves the purpose, then I'm happy to add it

A NAS becomes a PC IMO when you can browse the internet, type documents, check email etc. on it

Similarly, a PC becomes a NAS when its only purpose is to share/stream files, but quietly and not a massive desktop sized box