Wouldn't a HTPC style server with raid configured terabyte drives provide similar or better performance for a fraction of the cost? I mean the most expensive component in such a setup would be the dual LAN motherboard...

You don't even need a dual lan mobo. Just stick an extra NIC into a PCIe slot. (Or PCI)

And you are right, a homebuilt server running some flavor of Linux would be faster and cheaper. You'd also be able to ditch your router and use the server as router aswell.

The downside is ofcourse is that its a DIY job. You need to assemble the hardware yourself, then install and configure the whole thing. For some people thay may be a major problem.

Actually VTOLfreak has a good point. A homebuilt server would cost about the same and completely kill this thing performance wise. Granted you'd would need to Do-It-Yourself but I would hope most Tom's readers are already DIY type. I should also point out that the QNAP NAS's are only slightly slower and the Linux community has already hacked / ported a version of Debian Linux in testing to it. It's what I plan on doing with my QNAP NAS to release it's full functionality. Here's the website: http://www.cyrius.com/debian/orion/qnap/

Heya,

NAS will never match a computer with the disks in the box over a network's performance. NAS is simple. This NAS box they're talking about is an expensive "computer" with no hardware. You could get a cheap motherboard/CPU/RAM/Case for like $200 bare bones (you don't need a dualcore for this; hence most folk at home with NAS just converted an old computer into one) and just toss in some drives and you're set so long as you have a gigabit lan card installed. All cheap. Install FREENAS and put the thing in a closet or wherever and forget it.

These expensive empty NAS chasis are essentially for small businesses that want it to be absolutely simplistic and don't mind overpaying for something their IT guy could build for cheaper and likely more reliable.

Cheers,

My god, $750?

Mobo with onboard video and onboard RAID5 and gigabit LAN at newegg: $150
AMD5000+ retail $60 at newegg
RAM, 2gigs DDR2 800 $50 at newegg
Case with 300~400watt PSU, $50 at newegg
WD 640g 7200rpm drive $75 at newegg
FreeNAS - Free at freenas.org

$310 for the system and the OS.

Get 5 WD 640g 7200rpm drives @ $75 each, for $375

Configure in a RAID5 setup: 2.5 tb of storage with parity against a drive fail.

$685.

Still cheaper than that "pro" nas thing. Faster. And it has potential to be added to beyond it's limited walls unlike that "pro" nas box there.

Cheers,

I've been looking around for a NAS solution myself and I still can't decide what would be the best for me. So far I've been looking at that setup:
Chenbro ES34069 + riser card : 240,00 $
Intel D945GCLF2 + Atom Dual Core 1.6ghz : 103,08 $
Kingston 2go KVR667D2N5K2/2G : 36,15 $
Promise Fasttrak TX4310 Raid 5 : 149,04 $
Seagate 500go ST3500320AS X3 : 228,54$ (76,18 $ each)
Total : 756,81 $

BTW, these prices are in candadian dollars. What really raises the bill are the raid card and the case. I've been looking for a Mini-ITX mainly for the fun of building such a small PC but I'm not sure if it's worth the price yet. It will also take less space and consume less power than a normal PC but then again is it worth paying over 200$ more?

I'm also worried about Raid 5 performance. With such a setup, I would have 1tb of data in Raid 5 on a gigabit LAN. My initial plan is to replace (not just backup) my multimedia files on my computer and mapmy personal folder directly to the NAS. This way, I would have more space on my computer and the files would also be available to stream from my 360. Do you think such a setup would be seamless for my computer or will I experience some lag with the mapped folders?

its a NAS, it doesn't need that high end of a mobo
(all parts newegg)
cpu: AMD x2 5000+ $59
mobo: Foxconn A74MX-K $50
Case: Linkworld PRESCOTT 437-01-C2222 Black SECC/SGCC MicroATX Mid Tower Computer 430 watt PSU $33
Ram: OCZ OCZ2VU8002GK 2x1GB ddr2 800 $24
NIC: Zonet 10/100 (not everyone has 100+ Mb internet access)$10
HDD: 4X SAMSUNG HD103UI 1TB 5400 RPM $99 each $396 total
3x molex to sata cable $3 each $6.87 total (savings)

total $578.79 with shipping $609.32

So far every NAS I've ever seen falls into one of two categories - crap that doesn't work well/right, and/or insanely expensive. The first company who comes up with a solution that doesn't fall into either category will have my money. Until then, do not want.

I struggled with this for months. Here's what I did and why:

I already had an old northwood 3.0 and raid capable motherboard for which I found a new bios for that supported raid 5. The board has a GB ethernet NIC integral to it. I started out buying a case ($59, 7 x 3 1/2" internal, 5 x 5 1/4" external) and a tagan 700W single 12v rail PS ($80). I bought 3 x samsung spinpoint F1 750 GB sata II ($99 ea). Put xp on it, built the array with a stripe size of 32k. 15 MB/s write, 50 MB/s read. Pathetic!! Pulled out a drive, formatted it on another PC, and stuck it back in for a rebuild of the ~1.4 TB array. After running for 4 days and not completing, I pulled the plug.

Phase 2 additions:
Intel DG33TL motherboard ($99). Integrated video, HD audio (digital in, digital out), Intel GBe, ICH9R onboard. Intel e7200 CPU ($99) - 65W TDP, 4 x corsair XMS2 2 GB PC6400 DDR2 ($55 per pair - total $110).
Bought a ocpy of vista64 to address the 8GB ram AND create GPT > 2TB. Bought another samsung spnpoint F1 ( so now 4 x 750 in raid 5) in 1 ~2.1TB volume.

I used passmark to benchmark seq read, seq write, and random access locally. Over 200 MB/s read and write locally. Random access ~10MB/s. I used the same Intel NAS benchmark suite and got over double performance in every single benchmark over the network that the reviewed NAS got. Rebuild of the array takes ~4 hours.

Approximately $850 + OS. Found a hack to put the terminal services DDL from server 2008 on vista64 sp1 so I can have multiple simultaneous users remoted-in. I have MySQL, SQL Server 2005, and SQL Server 2008 installed, antivirus, centralized backup of all PC's on the network to one location.

In my opinion, unless it is REALLY CHEAP, NAS is a waste of money. If you can administer this NAS (raid level, permissions), then you can administer the "server" I describe with the added bonus of being able to use a windows interface.

not to mention if you buy windows you can let it double as a media center as well. Might need a few upgrades to be HD capable, but it would serve 480P media just fine as is, probably even 720P.

I don't think you guys are understanding the target audience of these machines.

They are designed for quick setup, easy admin, and low power usage running constantly.

They are best designed for SOHO, home office and media center applications.

They also integrate many different apps that are easy to use and configure.

Synology in particular uses a scaled down linux os, and is completely open. So you can compile your own apps to run on it or just use the basic setup, whatever you choose to do.

I tie 2 terrorbyte NAS drive to bar and squat 50 reps this morning. And tomorrow and day after and day after.

I own a Synology NAS CS407 the predecessor to the DS408 and it works like a champ out of the box. All you do is add the hard drives and bam Raid 5. Yeah it was a little expensive ($499 w/o HDs) but for storing all my documents, pictures, and other data it's perfect. Building another PC yes can be cheaper (I have 5 I maintain today) but again it's a matter of simplicity and not messing with the OS, configuring, etc. which for some would take a lot of time but for us tech savy people we have that choice. I also use it to backup all my machines original images so I can quickly format and start from square one (not that you couldn't do this with other methods). Another thing to consider is support of the product. Synology does has great customer support, service, and decent forums plus they don't forget about their older products like some do. They are always upgrading their software with new features albeit sometimes they should focus on NAS or security rather than these other frilly feature sets. All in all I'm please with it.

Freecom has products like these for only a fraction of the price.
I think around $300 for 1TB

First, you should be able to get one of these for below $750. Or, if speed is not everything, they have the older 407e for under $400 or the updated 407 for just over $500. So the $750 is paying for performance, not features as all of them have the same features. I have an older 406 and absolutely LOVE this machine. It is a bit slower, but not so slow that I can't use it. I use it quite a bit for storage and streaming. I've yet to find the same feature set on any other NAS. I personally think the price you pay is mostly for the software development, and they do release regular updates quite often. Sometimes with even more features added.

Building a white box machine to do this is nice, but overkill and not nearly as easy overall. Sure the drives are a bit of work to get in, but how often will you mess with that? Not often at all.

My only 2 gripes are: 1. there is a shortage of room inside the device. If only another mm or 2 it would be much easier. and 2. The fan on the back needs to be 120mm instead of 80mm. It's not loud, but this would make it just that much quieter and cooler IMHO.

But everything else this little jewel does is amazing! If you are even considering, don't bother with anything else but Synology. The others are merely attempting to play catchup to what this company makes and does with what they make.