Les Mikesell wrote:
Are you pricing the low end NAS boxes (like Buffalo Linkstation/Terastation, etc.)? It might be hard to beat that if all you want is a file server. Most run Linux of some sort on ARM or PPC processors and may need to be hacked to add NFS or support >2gig files.
I had an Infrant ReadyNAS NV+ last year (Now Netgear) which was supposed to be one of the fastest on the market (Cost about 800$ without drives). A cheaper home made NAS beated it hands down (Software RAID 5). See last paragraph of:
http://lists.centos.org/pipermail/centos/2008-April/097623.html
The ReadyNAS was a cool little NAS with many services but i found it slow and choppy. It was a nice little case and the homebrew NAS was bigger indeed. But the homebrew has power to spare and can do much more. The ReadyNAS was supposed to get shell access but never made it before i sold it (WEB Manager only when i had it).
Guy Boisvert, ing. IngTegration inc.