Choosing a device…

@Gnits wrote:

I am just getting to the point with my library where space is an issue and i do not want to keep buying larger hard drives for my computer to fix this issues. So it’s time to go remote…

So the question is, what are the pros and cons of the various devices, including cost, too.

I see things about the slug, the dns323 and other types of things… I would even like to use it possibly on an Airport Extreme.

So the major questions are…
1) Device power (processing power)
2) Cost
3) Number of drives it can connect (using hubs if needed)
4) Compatibility with itunes and potentially media center.

I think this last one is for mt-daapd side of the house so i extend the question further in to partitioning and sharing.

I want to do 2 things with these NAS devices. Provide itunes and/or media center access. But i also want to provide SMB style file sharing to my few computers at home.

So providing this sharing and such, can mt-daapd handle multiple directories on the device, say i have JBOD instead of a raid setup?

Can i do raid on these types of devices?

(wow this is a brain dump) A noobie at this, though not at networking and such. I am comfortable in linux but not at the coding side.

Thoughts, suggestions?

The most stable device around for idle hacking has to be the nslu2. It’s a bit underpowered, and undermemoried (is that a word?), but it’s super flexible, low power, and a frigging workhorse. It’s got best unslung support, so it supports a pretty wide array of applications. Recommended.

The maxtor mss looks nice and specs fairly nice, but the build chain sucks, and hacking stuff to run on it is nasty. Wish they would better encourage the open source crowd. Not recommended.

The linkstations are a mixed bag. If you can find one that you can run freelink on, and are comfortable with debian, then I highly recommend these. Mine is an HG, I think, with 128mb ram, and a PPC 603e (only running at 166, though). I really like this, but you have to be something of a linux geek to run it. Recommended.

I have an HP MediaVault that looks nice, but I haven’t gotten a real chance to play with it. It has a toolchain, built in page for enabling telnet (no “hacking” required), and it has unofficial support from the project manager of the project in hp. Kinda cool. I think eventually that one will be nice, but I don’t have enough experience to rate it right now. It does have two SATA 300 bays, which is a plus.

That’s my take on the software side of it anyway.

— Ron