D-Link ShareCentre Quattro DNS-345
For its 4-bay NAS entry, D-Link offered up the DNS-345 version of the ShareCentre Quattro, which features an OLED screen displaying useful information such as volume status and SMART temperature readouts. With twin gigabit LAN ports it just about edges out the LinkStation Pro Quad on the hardware front. Yet despite this – and it’s higher price tag – I found performance to be about the same.
Cloud support is much better though, with both MyD-LinkCloud and Amazon S3 on the feature list. If this is the kind of thing you’re after it can also be found unpopulated for under £300.
Reg Rating 65%
Price £290 (Unpopulated), £700 (4TB), £815 (8TB)
More info D-Link
Iomega StorCenter PX4-300D
Iomega's StorCenter PX4-300D has a price that hints that this is a model aimed more at business users. With a 1.8GHz dual-core Intel Atom D525 chip and 2GB of RAM it doesn't lack power. It's well connected too, with twin gigabit LAN ports, as well as USB 3.0.
Behind all of this though is EMC's LifeLine software which is certified for use in many enterprise virtualization environments. With it, as well as the usual cloud backup support, LifeLine also comes with Iomega Personal Cloud; allowing users to create their own cloud network and to link multiple StorCenter devices into the cloud for off-site access and backup. It's the most expensive unpopulated NAS box here, yet puts in a respectable rather than stellar performance.
Reg Rating 80%
Price £682 (Unpopulated), £982 (4TB), £1222 (8TB), £1462 (12TB)
More info Iomega
Next page: Netgear ReadyNAS NV+ V2
COMMENTS
HP Proliant Micrpserver
At a fraction of a cost of these NAS boxes and with more flexibility, I'm glad I've opted for 2 of these instead of a NAS.
Re: HP Proliant Micrpserver
Totally agree, the price of these NAS devices is ludicrous considering a Microserver is £120 after cashback, comes with 2GB of RAM, a 256GB drive and supports ECC. The 5.25" bay is also useful if you want to install an optical or tape drive or even another 2 HDs for a total of 6.
Granted they don't work out of the box, so you're going to have to fill it with drives and install and configure your favourite OS, but I don't think that's beyond most Reg readers.
Re: What I'd be looking for in such a thing
I agree. A good postscript to this article would be similarly brief round-up of build-your-own options using freeNAS (and the rest). I'm happy with my HP ProLiant Microserver which I know many people have on here and cost a less than £150( (with cashback). No doubt the good burghers of this parish will be along soon enough with suggestions for the latest and greatest.
Re: I don't get NAS boxes...
I do...
I bought a Synology DS-413J for £275. It arrived, I stuffed 4 disks in and turned it on (hybrid RAID FTW!). A fair bit of whirring and clicking later, it's all working. Job done.
It sits quietly in the corner and acts as a printer server and media server for all the devices in the house. It runs on 30W.
My gas-guzzling PC with the 6 fans and 1000W PSU doesn't need to be on 24/7.
Easy to like.
What I'd be looking for in such a thing
Quiet operation
Properly managed cooling of the disks
Disk vibration dampening
Caddy-free disk mounting
Hardware crypto acceleration for full-disk encryption
Gigabit ethernet -- getting more or less standard, not quite there yet
Own OS support -- I'll be running a *BSD, sporting NFS, maybe AFS
And optionally feeding it a mere 12V
Somehow all I'm getting is "web interface"
Back to building things by hand then. *sigh*
