Quote:
Originally Posted by g__day
Roger,
I think what you've done makes a lot of sense however I am interested in how you decided to go a dedicated high quality NAS versus a cheap server with the same disk setup ...
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Yes, that's an age old debate that will never die
I think there's plenty of room for both solutions.
I get tired of managing lots of PC's .. be it windows updates, upgrades, antivirus, custom hardware issues (maybe a network card breaks or whatever), having to find the right PC with a quality RAID controller, etc etc etc. NAS is simpler as I see it. It's all in one. It comes together, guaranteed (warranted) to work together and does. It does one job and does it well. I don't have time to mess around with another PC and associated stuff, my wife gets tired of me spending too much time in the office as it is
So... for me, I've found NAS work well, probably the primary factors include:
- simple off-the-shelf box that has quality RAID, purpose built management/administration functionality.
- "it just works" philosophy
- lower power use than a PC
- smaller physical footprint - it sits neatly on a shelf in the office. If there's a bush fire or such emergency, it's 3 cables to unplug and the thing is under one arm out the door in the car with us.
The QNAP is nicely invisible on the network. My wife stores her photography on it from her computer, we can view it from anywhere, she doesn't need me to be home to reboot a server or boot it up if I decided we weren't using it for a while so saved power but turning it off.... if it needs shutting down for a lightning storm coming she knows where the one button is, if the emergency situation arises she knows what 3 cables to unplug and it's small enough she can grab it easily...
I think in the case of this QNAP I could build a PC for about the same price but I don't think significantly less. Thinking about what you'd need to make an equivalent:
- Decent spec CPU
- Few gig ram
- Screen
- Windows (I don't work with Linux)
- Two gigabit ethernet cards (QNAP has dual), and gigabit cards that actually can do proper full duplex gigabit.
- RAID controller (and a reliable one)
- Backup software
- Web server and media server software
- Firewall
.. I don't know ... how does that list compare to the $750 cost of the QNAP unit? I would have thought it'd be quite comparable.
Like I said.. there's room for both solutions and there'll be a comeback for everything I've said .. so it's a personal choice
I think perhaps the overriding thing is simplicity? "it just works" ? ..
Roger.