Network Attached Storage

What are the qualities of a good Networked Attached Storage device?

• Size
• Ease-of-use
• Protocol support: Samba, AFP, sshfs, NFS
• Energy effciency
• Price
• Performance!

Performance is key, and savvy tech masters can forego the ease-of-use mumbo-jumbo, go to the command line, and wreak havoc, figuratively.

Item	Price
intel e1000	$16
Celeron D Processor 331 LGA775 2.66GHz 256K 90MN XD 533MHz Box	$35
Shuttle XPC SS30G2 Barebone System + Kingston 256MB PC2 4200 Memory Combo	$179

This thing should be screaming, and tiny, and energy efficient. I'm going to put two 500GB Samsung spinpoints which I bought for a thecus n2100.

As for cost efficient, absolutely. With a total of under $250, it is cheaper than most NAS out there.

Buying two NAS setups from Newegg

I'm buying the components to build two network attached storage devices from Newegg. The shell is the Thecus 2100, and the drives are Samsung.

The Thecus 2100 is an open box for $250 : N82E16833201005R

and the Samsung 500GB Hard drive for $139: N82E16822152052

and memory upgrades Kingston 512MB for $39: N82E16820141436

I have a Linksys NSLU2, which is an awesome device, but it needs a little more power to be really useful. I'm going to rebuild mine with a 2GB flash drive instead of the 512MB one I'm using currently. That should be much better.