Choosing a Storage Device Isn't Easy
I'm building a new computer and one of my goals is to get my storage off of my computer and onto an external device. This means a NAS (or a DAS), and something that will soon be one of the most important pieces of equipment that I own, possibly the most important.
Caveat: this is just a collection of my notes at this point. I hope it helps me decide and it can help someone else down the road. I'll be periodically updating it, as more ideas/notes come to me. I tend to over-analyze decisions like this so let me apologize preemptively.
What do I need:
- Redundant storage
- Maximum reliability
- At least two disks
- Easy to use
- Scheduled backups
- BitTorrent client
- Reasonably speedy connection to my PC(s)
- NAS to NAS backup
- Drobo 2.0 - $500 Looks to be ridiculously easy to use. It's available in a diskless SKU and can handle different disks.
- Netgear ReadyNas Duo - $400 (with 500GB disk) Very complete feature set. More affordable than other options. It's a NAS.
- Synology Disk Station DS207 - $289 Looks good, but I don't know much about it.
- HP MediaVault mv2120 - $299 (with 500GB disk) It's affordable. Should have everything I need. I haven't been hearing the best stuff about it, seems very limited.
- Buffalo LinkStation Pro Duo - $279 Very affordable, but reviews are not great. It seems like it failed a simulated drive crash test- that's not good.
- Buffalo
- D-Link
- Thecus
- Western Digital
- Lacie
- Maxtor
- Iomega
- Buffalo LinkStation Mini - GigaOm Size isn't really a factor for me and I am concerned that this is fanless. SmallNetBuilder likes it but seems to recommend the ReadyNas Duo over it.
