Favorite... None Yet...

[BigJim]

I have the impression that despite falling prices, I need the next quantum leap from the manufacturers before I go NAS. I'd like to see some breakthrough on, not using the cheapest possible CPU and crippling performance. Or support for 3TB drives. Or a cheaper 5 or 6 bay unit (either that or I'll just get TWO 4-bay units, which could be flexible and redundant since 2TB drives are getting down near $100 now.)

I'm watching the news and reviews and hoping for some new breakthrough. I'm a little surprised WD and Seagate are not more aggressive in this market, like they were with network media players, since both obviously sell more hard disks for them.

Will there be a raft of new units for the Fall buying season? I just kind of feel the existing product lines are underpowered, low capacity, or overpriced. Feel like there has to be some new compelling product soon.

I have about 15 TB spread out into my Windows 7 HTPC and a couple i7 hackintoshes. My need would be to support larger-than-2TB-volume Time Machine backups for the Mac. And to serve BD images to the HTPC and to a WD TV Live or if that's not BD capable some other Network Media Tank. Maybe also to backup a Windows 7 machine or two.

Am I missing something in the current lineups? Is there something new and worth waiting for due soon?

 

[claykin]

Have you seen the new Readynas Ultra series? www.netgear.com/ultra

They have a 4 and 6 bay unit. Performance should be around 60-70MB/s for the 4 bay and 90MB/s for the 6 bay. THis assumes your desktop NIC can transfer at those rates since most motherboard Gigabit NIC's can't get much faster than 40-60MB/s sustained.

3TB drives will be forthcoming. Only Seagate has one now, but I've yet to see it available as an internal disk. I believe its only available in an external enclosure and I'm not sure they even shipped it yet.

Buy when you need it. Don't chase the next greatest thing. You'll never buy and enjoy your NAS if you keep waiting on tomorrow's possible new product.

 

[BigJim]

I noticed some new ReadyNAS coming out... people seem excited about it... maybe I can figure out why this product has so much buzz... I guess its a bit more of a brand name... anyway Amazon still says "This item has not yet been released."

I'm good with not chasing 3TB drives. 2TB are well priced now. The ReadyNAS seems to offer decent performance and 6 bays. Maybe its the breakthrough I'm waiting for. IIRC other brand 6 bay cost more and perform less. I'll check the chart. But its more like, I haven't quite reached the tipping point where I need it bad enough, and I feel like I should wait and watch for a few more months. Or at least for the release and some reviews of the new Netgear.