Suggestions for a decent NAS system

[stek]

Also consider OpenSolaris, ZFS now has data dedup, saves loads if you run backup routines. have an Ultra 45 SPARC doing nothing - four SATA/SAS slots, waiting for cheap disks again....

[Durbs]

a brace of 4 Hitachi Deskstar 7K400 4 terabyte disks?

+1 for the Microserver N40L being a superb NAS, I run Windows 2008 Storage Server on mine and it runs a treat and is a million times faster than my old McCheapo consumer dedicated NAS box.

If you are set on 8 x 4TB disks though, the N40L isn't going to work! Thats a lot of storage and is well outside of any consumer-level units capabilities.

Was just reading this months Computer Shopper and it recommends the Synology Rackstation RS812RP+ and it also accepts the RX410 disk array if you want to expand it.

Quite expensive but the rack will look slick in your home office.

[ThomserveBAS]

Can't say for sure if the HP Microserver will take 4TB disks, but I absolutely love mine, got it setup with 2x2TB disks at the moment (waiting for HDD's to return to a decent price to get the other two) and have VMWare ESXi installed on it, that allows me to run different OS's in a virtualised environment. Whilst I have the ability to do so, at the moment, I am only running 1 VM which is an Ubuntu Server install, using it for NAS, DLNA, print server and CCTV monitoring station.

With a bit of tinkering, the HP supports 5 SATA disks (4 in a SAS bay + 1 with the CD/DVD channel unlocked via a hacked BIOS) + 1 ESATA with external to internal cable.

[chef]

+1 for Synology, I have the DS412+ and have no complaints, it currently holds 4x3Tb and hasn't skipped a beat since I've had it.

[eek]

Drobo provided you have two or can cope with downtime if the hardware fails.

Failing that a proper computer and unraid. Granted it requires a proper computer but its hardware neutral (so you can just buy another computer and pull the data off or pull it off disk by disk) and multiple disk failure will result in losing only the data on the failed disks not everything.

The HP Proliant N40L's at £150 or so after cashback from HP will easily run it consuming 40w or so max.

[v8gaz]

Drobo get a good name, but I've been using Synology for a while, worth as look. You can play with the interface on their website. I have 4x 3Tb disks, and it does everything I need and more.

[bobspud]

I'm fed up with the inconvenience and unreliability of juggling disks in and out of cradles. So I wondered if anyone can recommend an easy to set up NAS disk server that would support, say, a brace of 4 Hitachi Deskstar 7K400 4 terabyte disks?

I'd rather go with Linux, for more reliable performance and of course no licencing costs. But is Linux likely to have drivers for 4 Tbyte disks yet? That is and always has been one of its besetting problems - forever behind the curve with drivers.

Drobo. They can even do replication for offsite backups. about £600 for a setup.

[OwlHoot]

I'm fed up with the inconvenience and unreliability of juggling disks in and out of cradles. So I wondered if anyone can recommend an easy to set up NAS disk server that would support, say, a brace of 4 Hitachi Deskstar 7K400 4 terabyte disks?

I'd rather go with Linux, for more reliable performance and of course no licencing costs. But is Linux likely to have drivers for 4 Tbyte disks yet? That is and always has been one of its besetting problems - forever behind the curve with drivers.