Good Deal on Ximeta NDAS Enclosure $39.97

[flot]

Originally posted by: EKKC
the intel i have is gigabit but on RAID 5 its so slow its not even funny (going down to 7Mb/s). did any one here try to set up these ximeta ndas in RAID 5 config?

I would do some more research before buying as a RAID. I only bought one so was just skimming the raid details, but something about it seemed a little funny. There isn't any drive-to-drive link, so I think what happens in a raid config is that your PC does the work of sending the data to the right drive - which may be good or bad depending on the implementation.

For a single drive I'm pretty happy with mine - I really just wanted an "online backup" that I could store physically seperate from my PC. Mine does go to sleep often, btw.

 

[superflysocal]

please correct me if I am wrong but NDAS requires a software installed on the end computer to be able to see the drive on the network, right?

This would mean you can't use this as a "media" drive accessible by networked media players (like Roku, or Dlink dsm-320) and you can't install a media server software like Twonkyvision on it w/o a pC.

 

[Modular]

Why is the theoretical max transfer speed only 12m-bit/second on a 100mb/s connection?

I just picked one up and I'm getting about 8mbp/s transfer speeds from the drive to computer and vice versa. I wish it was faster...

 

[StormRider]

Originally posted by: Modular
Why is the theoretical max transfer speed only 12m-bit/second on a 100mb/s connection?

I just picked one up and I'm getting about 8mbp/s transfer speeds from the drive to computer and vice versa. I wish it was faster...

100 Mbps Ethernet means it can transfer 100 Million bits per second (Mb/s). Divide that by 8 (8-bits are in a Byte) and you get 12.5 Million Bytes per second (MB/s). That's the fastest you can transfer over 100 Mbps Ethernet.

The Ximeta gets much closer to this theoretical max than any other low cost NAS I have tried.

 

[flot]

In my uncontrolled test I copied 1400 mb of data from my PC to the drive in 130 seconds.

That's better than 10 megs a second. Not bad at all!

For reference, copying the same file locally from my C: drive to my D: drive (both newish SATA drives) took 40 seconds. So the network drive is approx 1/3 the speed. I'm pretty impressed with those numbers.

 

[StormRider]

Originally posted by: flot
Got it mounted on the network and offhand I am pretty happy with the performance. I wasn't thrilled with installing the windows driver for it, but it shows up seamlessly now and considering that I backed up 4 gigs of data to it in a couple minutes, no complaints.

The only disappointing thing was that one review I read (probably of their 80 gig drive-included model) lead me to believe it came with backup software, mine came with acronis trueimage which, as I understand it, can backup a partition but not individual folders etc.

Mine came with an Ximeta optimized version of Acronis True Image 9 which I understand does both image and file/folder backup (I haven't verified this yet though).

 

[Johnnyicemaker]

I have had a few problems with a wireless network connection to the unit "disconnecting" which I think is my wireless network more so than the unit, but other than that it runs great. Never gets too hot and is way fast, even across the wireless.

Does anyone have a problem with the other NAS systems having proprietary disk formats?

The #1 reason I got this enclosure was because you can format the drive in NTFS. Yes I am a Windows user for all you Linux people. If the enclosure ever failed I could always plug my drive into my computer and recover the information, whereas the other systems like the dlink or netgear systems, when they crash your data is virtually lost to Windows.

 

[Athena]

Originally posted by: JohnnyicemakerThe #1 reason I got this enclosure was because you can format the drive in NTFS. Yes I am a Windows user for all you Linux people. If the enclosure ever failed I could always plug my drive into my computer and recover the information, whereas the other systems like the dlink or netgear systems, when they crash your data is virtually lost to Windows.

It works the other way around too. I use a Ximeta to upgrade machines -- I just put the old disk in the Ximeta and then copy the user's files over to the new machine. I don't have to deal with not having a bracket for a second disk because I don't have to open the new box at all.

 

[Johnnyicemaker]

I wish I would have read this forum before I purchased my enclosure at Fry's for $70. The Radio Shack deal is awesome. I think I will go to my local store and see if they have any in stock.

In my current configuration I purchased a 500GB Hitachi drive at Fry's for only $100 when you figure in the rebates. (Hint...In my experience Hitachi drives normally run a bit cooler than Maxtor or WD) Along with the $70 I spent on the enclosure, my 500GB network storage device only cost me $170. That is 34-cents a GB. Right now most devices are averaging right around $1/GB. I can build 3 Ximeta systems for the same price. Using the Radio Shack price of around $40 for the enclosure, you can get your system to under 30-cents a GB, what a deal!