Need some advice and input

[ZenicaNJ]

Hi Forum,

I would like to ask for some input and suggestions regarding how best to achieve the home network I need. I am looking for a router, switch or what ever else will accomplish the job.

My goal is to have two HDD enclosures that are USB 3.0 connected to a laptop (yet to be purchased So I'm open to suggestions on the brand/model NIC it should have) which will connect to the network.

The cable modem will connect to a wireless router which will have a laptop a desktop and voip device connected by Gigabit cat5e.

By wireless means (either 802.11n or draft 802.11ac) a repeater, bridge or access point will get a signal from the parent router and feed it to the second laptop via Gigabit cat5e. This way the USB 3.0 enclosures are on the network without having to use a NAS. A NAS would require my drives being formatted which is not an option. Plus two of them would cost as much if not more than the laptop I have in mind, an Asus Q200E.

ok, thoughts? suggestions?

I am looking for the highest MB/Second transfer rates possible between the two computers.

Thank you in advance...

 

[Fraoch]

A NAS would require my drives being formatted which is not an option.

Not sure what you mean by this - all drives have to be formatted somehow. Do you mean that there is already data on the drives and that you don't want to reformat them?

Plus two of them would cost as much if not more than the laptop I have in mind, an Asus Q200E.

Most NAS devices would be cheaper, and you don't have to get two of them as most have 2 or more bays. I see the Q200E for $479.99, for that price you can get a midrange or even high-end NAS.

A NAS would be much, much better for this application. You don't have to play around with file sharing, the noise, power and heat would be lower and the file transfer would be faster. It's more rugged and can be placed anywhere. It's designed for 24/7 always-on while a laptop isn't.

I believe your main concern is that you'd have to reformat your drives. I'm not a NAS expert by any means but I think a NAS with JBOD ("Just a Bunch of Disks") would just accept the drives as-is and present them to the network as individual shares, not requiring a reformat.

What format are the drives in? I'm assuming NTFS - that's an issue because most NASes are Linux-based and only accept Linux file formats (ext2, ext3, ext4) for the internal drives, necessitating reformatting. However I see lots of NASes that accept NTFS for external drives, and I see at least one that has 2 USB 3.0 external drive connectors, the Synology DS213. It's $150 less than the laptop...

I am looking for the highest MB/Second transfer rates possible between the two computers.

In that case try to avoid wireless if you can. Using an AP with a gigabit cable between the AP and the laptop won't ensure gigabit speeds, even the very best 802.11ac router/APs can barely manage over 100 Mbps now, take a look at the wireless charts.

If you can go with Cat5e or Cat6 cabling that is your best bet. Powerline networking is probably your second-best option and it will be cheaper than those very high-end APs.

A NAS would help immensely here, it's small enough that it can be positioned within reach of a gigabit cable from your router/switch.