Netgear RND4000 alternatives?

[willgimmence]

At the moment at home I've got my desktop system with 2x 1TB drives and 2x 2TB drives - chocka block with films! Goodness knows how I've managed it. Instead of having to have my computer turned on when I want to watch a film upstairs though my mini itx PC connected to my TV, I'd like to have a NAS which will fit all 4x HDD's in on my network. The RND4000 sounds awesome & perfect, but its pretty darn expensive for an empty caddy (naive) @ nearing £250. Can anyone suggest a good alternative? Or should I bite the bullet and buy the RND4000? (I won't spend more than £200 on it so I'll have to wait for a good deal to come along or get a second hand one off ebay)

 

[Emerald]

are the drives configured in a RAID setup?

 

[willgimmence]

Nope - just purely want it for storage, not backup.

 

[nocheese]

If you're OK with only holding 2 drives at a time check out the D-Link DNS321 or DNS-323. They can often be found, here in the US at least, for about $90us. Holds 2 drives in RAID0,1 or JBOD. I currently have a DNS-321 with a pair of 2tb drive in a mirror and it works great.

 

[willgimmence]

Gotta be 4 bay I'm afraid. The amount of data I have I'm going to have to upgrade my drives soon!

 

[nocheese]

Well then your choices sound like...

- Build a small server to hold all 4 drives. Operating system could be FreeNAS or the like. Have spare PC parts?

- Spend the money on the RND4000 (£250 approx $403us)

- Buy the DNS-321. Maybe buy 2, 1 for the 1TBx2 and 1 for the 2TBx2 (£56 approx $90us each)

 

[willgimmence]

Thanks very much sounds like better value for money! Although our main place for getting stuff (ebuyer) they are £72.99! I'll keep an eye out for a good deal!

 

[willgimmence]

How about this one?

http://www.dabs.com/products/d-link-2-bay-nas-network-storage-enclosure-49GV.htmlhttp://www.dabs.com/products/d-link-2-bay-nas-network-storage-enclosure-49GV.html

 

[nocheese]

That's the DNS-323. I haven't used that puppy myself but I have the DNS-321. I think the only difference between the 321 and 323 is the 323 also has an USB port to network host a printer.

 

[willgimmence]

According to Dlink they 323 is an old model which is now replaced with the 325. Both devices have metal casing but are lower spec CPU/RAM - I've ordered myself a 320 from BT! Thanks very much - I shall let you know how I get on