WD World Edition or Seagate Blackarmor?

[Griffon]

(Shorter) WD World Ed. - Seagate Blackarmor?

Hello,

I'm sorry, I got carried away and wrote too long a message.

To sum up, I'm looking for a NAS for my home and another for my office. In Turkey, Synology, QNap or other brands I see here are not available so I'm stuck with Seagate, WD or Iomega.

For home I need media serving capabilities to a Samsung LCD TV and would appreciate an iTunes server. I backup to an external drive connected by eSATA already so the NAS isn't about backing up, but collecting all the media to a central place. I would like to be able to access some media files remotely. I also need a very silent NAS for home. Bittorrent support would be a plus. There is no printer at home.

At work we have a network of 3 PC's (may become 4). I plan to have backups of Word - Excel documents, e-mails and other files to the NAS and schedule the NAS to back itself up to a USB drive (can't risk losing all the files). It would be a big plus to connect the USB laser printer to the network through the NAS. I think Seagate's client software allows client images to be backed up to the NAS; this would be useful to get PC's back to their feet in case of a Windows failure etc.

At the moment I'm thinking about WD World Edition 2 TB for home (quiet, Bittorrent support, good media server, acceptable speeds, iPhone photo app useful) and Seagate Blackarmor NAS 110 for the office (fast transfers, good backup-to-USB options, ability to take client images, printer support). Do you think this is logical? The networks are 10/100 ATM but it's possible to upgrade to Gigabit (by purchasing a gigabit router or switch and doing the cabling).

I heard a lot of horror stories / comments about the Seagate (don't want the NAS to break down after 3 months and leave me embarassed to the bosses). I think the DLNA abilities of the Seagate is not truly good so it's probably not a good idea for home.

Thanks in advance for your comments!

 

[thiggins]

What are you streaming to and does it require a DLNA server or can it browse and play network shares? Why do you think you need an iTunes server?

Of the three I'd look at the Iomega ix2-200d.

To get full speed from any current generation NAS you need Gigabit.

 

[Griffon]

Oh, a reply from Tim Higgins! Thank you.

At home it will stream to a Samsung 40C650, I am planning to buy a PS3 as well but it's not 100% certain. Anyway I think I won't need to stream to PS3 since the TV can play movies on its own. The Samsung TV mentions DLNA and uPNP but I'm not exactly sure about the difference. I can look it up in more detail.

I'm using an iPhone and my music is in iTunes-supported formats (incl. Apple Lossless). I think I need an iTunes server if I'm to stream those files to a speaker system? Or is it necessary only if I get, say, a Mac Mini?

I looked again at the iomega review and it's a very nice unit, but the Turkish price is about 400 $ + 18% tax. I asked my bosses about it and they say it's not acceptable for them. (Please keep in mind that we have a small office with 3 PC's at the moment, and I'm already having trouble explaining the benefits of a central backup for files, e-mail and sharing documents to the bosses..)

For reference, the 2 GB Seagate & WD's are about 250 $ + tax each. But the WD can't do print server for the office and backs up slowly to USB, and the Seagate is noisy from what I have read. The Seagate also gets a lot of "don't buy!" reviews. Client-side backup software are a plus.

Sorry if I sound fixated on these two, but they seem to be the only valid options in Turkey. (There's also the iomega home media network but I don't think it's better from these two..)

Regarding gigabit: Yes, I know 10/100 will limit any transfer to 10 MB/sn. A short while after we get the NAS I can convince the bosses to do some spending on a Gigabit switch, and change the cables. Even if they don't like it, I think 10 MB/sn can get us through for a while. At home it's even easier to upgrade to gigabit.

Thanks again for your message!

 

[thiggins]

Both are consumer-grade NASes. Neither WD nor Seagate are particularly noted for their NAS support. It's a coin toss between them.

You probably do need UPnP AV / DLNA and iTunes servers.

 

[Griffon]

Hello again,

Yes, I know these two fall squarely in the "consumer" grade.. I'm impressed by the business-grade, high-specced NAS'es out there but they're certainly out of my / our budget (and would be overkill). The iomega ix2-200d was a good suggestion, I can try to push it a bit more to the bosses (but for home it's not possible..).

Seagate / WD are not "experts" in the NAS / networking field, I agree. They probably see NAS'es as another way to sell the drives they produce.

I will hope that the WD World I plan to get for home won't fail, and will keep up-to-date backups for the Seagate for work.

As you said, I'll play it safe and get NAS'es with uPNP AV / DLNA / iTunes server support. These two support these (though people say the Seagate streams only a few video formats, but for work it's not an issue.).

Thanks again for the help! I'll post some impressions here when I get the drive(s)..