Nas

[Fweddy]

Morning chaps.

Next pay day I'm thinking about splurging on a NAS. I'm not bothered about it coming with a hard drive but I do want one that can download torrents by itself and is as cheap as possible.

I saw Netgear RND2000 ReadyNAS Duo 2-Bay NAS Enclosure.. | Ebuyer.com in the bargain thread, is it any good? When it says it automatically mirrors the drive if you add a second, is there a way to change that does anyone know?

Are there any other alternatives I should look at?

Thanks in advance everyone.

 

[dysfunction]

NAS has been discussed here: https://forums.freddyshouse.com/techie-discussion-3/241549-proper-nas-solution.html


I'm sure you can change the configuration of this...they are usually fairly configurable.
That seems like a good price but I don't know how good Netgear with their "cheaper" NAS devices.
Many people recommend the "Pro" versions but they cost a small fortune.

Some Reviews of it at Amazon:
Amazon.co.uk: Customer Reviews: Netgear ReadyNAS Duo RND2000 Home Storage Solution ( 2 Bay ) - No Drives Included

I quite like this but it is more expensive but then you get what you pay for
QNAP TS-219P-UK 2 Bay Turbo NAS enclosure SATA: Amazon.co.uk: Electronics & Photo

Another alternative but a lot more expensive is this:
HP MediaSmart Server EX490: Amazon.co.uk: Electronics & Photo

 

[MYstIC G]

I've got a duo.

It runs transmission fine (which is miles better than the native bittorrent client).

The drive thing does happen automatically. You can configure it in alternative modes but you can't do that while you've got data on it. Basically if you get a drive now don't expect to put a second one later in a JBOD fashion. It places data integrity as a priority over free space.

It doesn't have mega horsepower as its a sparc processor so if you want it to run your torrents, stream HD video and sync your music files to your mobile simultaneously it can do it but it can get a little pissy.

It's a tiny quiet box that you should only notice when the fans first kick in when you turn it on. It can power itself up and down on schedule and the user interface is piss easy to use.

I've got mine configured so that if I hit a torrent link at work it pings it to my NAS and it'll be ready when I'm home later. It's much better than leaving a full blown PC on all day to keep the ratios tip top.

 

[ford prefect]

I have a duo too. I through in 2x Seagate Barracuda 1.5 TB drive and it is incredibly quiet, just a slight hum really when it settles down.

I get an a lot more use out of it than I thought I would. It is a nice little device really. I suppose it depends on what you are planning on using it for. It has plenty of grunt for what I need which is basically data backup from eight machines, the odd torrent and it occasionally gets used as a media server. I also mirror a couple of websites on it so I can try out changes before sending them live.

All in all it is a fab bit of kit

 

[MYstIC G]

Only thing I need to figure out on mine is how to safely get terminal access so I can start using wget as well as torrents

 

[Fweddy]

Thanks guys. Dys those are a bit out of my price range I'm afraid. £200 is probably the absolute max I can spend.

I just want something that can sit in the corner of my living room downloading videos at night and streaming them to my xbox during the day. My PC is in my bedroom now so if I leave it on overnight it disturbs me and I don't want to leave it on through the day when I'm out just so my housemates have the option of watching things.

I have a 1TB and a 1.5TB drive at the moment, each about half full. I figure I'd put both of those in the NAS and stick the free 500GB drive in my PC.

 

[MYstIC G]

It'll do that job perfectly, that's exactly why I bought mine. I can now sleep at night and don't need my PC on to stream music to my netbook.

I don't know how it will react to different sized drives as mine are both identical. You may wish to check up on the readynas forums.

If you do put both your drives in, my understanding is that you will need to move everything off them to put everything back on afterwards. On that basis given your budget you might want to go for this: Netgear RND2110 ReadyNAS Duo 1TB NAS Drive - FREE DRIVE | Ebuyer.com at £199.

That way you could probably (assuming your existing drives are compatible) move everything to your existing 1.5tb drive. Install your old 1tb and alongside the preinstalled 1tb to get 2tb storage in your new NAS. This would leave you with 2tb storage in your PC (500gb + 1.5tb) and you can then flog the free drive on e-bay when it turns up?

 

[MYstIC G]

I'm still trying to find the stuff on running it as one disk. Fucking internet sucks sometimes.

 

[MYstIC G]

Ah, there we go: NETGEAR ReadyNAS • Frequently Asked Questions

PS: Obviously I've not tried any of this!

 

[MYstIC G]

If you remind me on Sunday morning Fweedy I'll screenshot my admin panel for you.

 

[Fweddy]

Thanks G, I don't have internet at home yet (hopefully it's going to be activated today) so I couldn't remind you but you've been helpful enough already thanks. I'll be buying one as soon as I have the pennies if I don't succumb to the temptation to buy a new camera lens first.

The 1tb idea is a good one too, I might well do that

 

[MYstIC G]

I just want to check to be sure before you do mate that it'll let you have them as one big disk. I'm fairly sure it does because I didn't want it that way on mine but the online documentation is crap.

 

[MYstIC G]

Admin panel. It doesn't show that you can do two drives as one on mine. You may wanna post on the readynas forums and get someone to confirm that you can set it up as you like when you start.

 

[old.user4556]

Does it transcode?

 

[ford prefect]

Does it transcode?

I believe you can install memcode on it (It is essentially a debian box), but i would guess it would be incredibly slow. The duo's CPU isn't exactly a powerhouse - it has a 200mhz processor, which is a custom jobby soldiered on to the board. You can increase the memory on it up to 1gb I believe, but for reasons I don't entirely understand performance tops out when you put in 512meg from what I have read (It has 256mb ram natively).

 

[dysfunction]

Ah thats why the Qnap is more expensive! It has a 1.2ghz processor and 512mb ram...