external hdd; network or firewire?

[Mells]

I want to add an external hdd to my lappy. Been looking at external cases for a large hdd I already have from my old laptop.

I only have USB1.1 on my current laptop but have a firewire port. In looking for a firewire hdd I found you can get the same thing that connects directly to a 100mb network.

Advantage of a network drive would be its out of sight and I can use it anywhere around the house. Downside: It will be more expensive and be on all the time.

Anyone used one of these? Any good? (not the USB ones!)

 

[Sime388]

You can get network storage for pretty cheap these days. Netgear do a nice one i THINK. Check out PC world for network storage. Personally though, i would just build up a file server...

 

[G_F]

NAS is the s**t.

Buy a 4 bay, then stack as your needs grow, you then have the advantage of adding storage at your budget.

+ less noise.

 

[Mells]

Thanks lads. I'm going to go with the NAS option. I've been doing some reading on this setup and the major benefit of them is that I can access them from work. Also, they can be out of sight in the spare room.

I love the way that I dont need to leave my PC on all day. LOL! I could host CS on one. It would probably be quicker!

 

[BenWall]

You would need a webserver to run cs

 

[Munday]

I wouldn't go for the Netgear network storage thing, read the reviews on ebuyer.com about it!

 

[Mells]

You would need a webserver to run cs

I know. I was just jesting!

 

[BenWall]

lol, would be good though, I offered to host it as I have a dell server, but the site would grind to a halt in the evening when I get newsgrouping lol

 

[Evil Ally]

I pinched an old Poweredge 2400 out of work, it holds up to 8 drives and possbily more with a bit of fiddling. You can get them on ebay for under £40. I upgraded the single 500Mhz processor to dual 1.26Ghz, stuck 2x 4 port SATA RAID cards in and a gigabit network card, all for peanuts. Of course it would still work fine for NAS without all that stuff.

I would also avoid the netgear NAS thingy, I got one for free and ended up selling it without even using it. It gets awful reviews and apparently a very unsafe way to store your stuff!

 

[Mike_182]

I'm alright, got me a PE2650 and PV200S for my NAS/DC here

Used to use a Teraststion Pro - good bits of kit them.

 

[Mells]

I'm alright, got me a PE2650 and PV200S for my NAS/DC here

Used to use a Teraststion Pro - good bits of kit them.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/DELL-POWEREDG...oryZ1484QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

Very nice Mike. Would be a bit of an overkill for what I need

 

[Sime388]

tbh, for my personal network, i wouldnt use a netgear thing either. But for other people (maybe those who dont really care about security) it's a good, easy, simple solution

 

[KDF]

I would go with firewire.. firewire will be faster unless your running gigabit.

 

[Els]

Firewire mate, get it bought.

 

[UncleGrumpy]

I'm running 4 of these
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Network-Attac...5QQihZ005QQcategoryZ96894QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
they do NAS and USB and stack up neatly, and take up to a 500GB drive. The fan only comes on if the temp goes over 45C but its virtually silent.


ps. if you buy one - offer the guy £22.01 rather than the £24.99 BIN price

 

[Mike_182]

I'm running 4 of these
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Network-Attac...5QQihZ005QQcategoryZ96894QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
they do NAS and USB and stack up neatly, and take up to a 500GB drive. The fan only comes on if the temp goes over 45C but its virtually silent.


ps. if you buy one - offer the guy £22.01 rather than the £24.99 BIN price

I'd rather some redundancy if I'm getting a million drives for backing stuff up to.

 

[Mells]

I'm running 4 of these
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Network-Attac...5QQihZ005QQcategoryZ96894QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
they do NAS and USB and stack up neatly, and take up to a 500GB drive. The fan only comes on if the temp goes over 45C but its virtually silent.


ps. if you buy one - offer the guy £22.01 rather than the £24.99 BIN price

Lol! Thats exactly what I went for. I didnt see you post so got it on the BIN price. Doh!

If its s**t I'll look for somthing else and fog it on ebay.

Didnt go for FW KDF in the end becuase I wanted to keep my lappy portable around the house without having to lug another drive with me.

It will be ok on 54 mbs for the type of stuff I need to do anyway..

 

[KDF]

No worries if 54mbits is fine for you.. just firewire is ~ 400mbits

 

[Millsy]

I'm running 4 of these
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Network-Attac...5QQihZ005QQcategoryZ96894QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
they do NAS and USB and stack up neatly, and take up to a 500GB drive. The fan only comes on if the temp goes over 45C but its virtually silent.


ps. if you buy one - offer the guy £22.01 rather than the £24.99 BIN price

just a couple of questions mate does it power up and down with the pc if connnected to the pc?

if connected through the network to a router can you switch it off if required easily etc?

also im assuming you can map to the drive so you can access like a local drive etc?

 

[Mells]

I'm running 4 of these
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Network-Attac...5QQihZ005QQcategoryZ96894QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
they do NAS and USB and stack up neatly, and take up to a 500GB drive. The fan only comes on if the temp goes over 45C but its virtually silent.


ps. if you buy one - offer the guy £22.01 rather than the £24.99 BIN price

just a couple of questions mate does it power up and down with the pc if connnected to the pc?

if connected through the network to a router can you switch it off if required easily etc?

also im assuming you can map to the drive so you can access like a local drive etc?

From what I have read up on the net regarding this is that it will goto sleep when its not being used after a certain time and will wake up when called on.

Mine will be on 24/7 connected to my router. The one in the ebay link can be powered off physically using a switch on the back and can be powered down using the software.

You can also use it as a mapped network drive.

 

[Millsy]

ta very much for the info dude