Good Deal on Ximeta NDAS Enclosure $39.97

[tkistre]

I've been using two Ximeta NetDisk (NDAS) for about 1 1/2 years now and really like them. They give faster performance and better security features than a NAS drive. If you happen to be in the market for a building your own networked drive, check out the manufacture's site for this enclosure. They sell for $79.99 at the manufacture, plus shipping. The cheapest I could find them online was about $65 delivered. But it just so happens, RadioShack has them for $39.97.

If you want to read about the difference between NDAS and NAS, go here. They also have USB 2.0 interface along with the network interface.

 

[squid729]

saw this price yesterday and it's a good no-rebate price! also should be able to use an Entertainment book $10 off coupon. i also have 2 netdisks and i am very happy with them, great to access our data and music from any pc in the house. they have a newer version the "giga" which will have a case redesign, gigabit speed, and likely sata due out for Q1 2007, so expect there will be ongoing deals to unload the current boxes over the next few months.

 

[TwiceOver]

I have a 120gb NetDisk from the Office Max price mistake about 6 months ago. Great little disk. Limited Linux drivers, but works perfect for any Windows box. Considering all the drives I have laying around, $40 for the enclosure isn't a bad deal.

 

[ttown]

The specs on ximeta's site don't mention win98 (nor unix/linux)

Does it work with win98?

edit: Yes, 98SE is supported according to the datasheet pdf

Looks good, OP -- I'll hunt one down tomorrow, plus I have the $10-off entertainment coupon!

 

[Athena]

I love my Ximeta disks. I liked the 400GB Net Disk so much that I bought an enclosure at Fry's a couple a weeks ago for $40 after rebate. You could take advantage of any of the current disk deals and put one in an enclosure to get an inexpensive backup solution.

 

[kevman]

singe disk enclosure only ? Can multiple be daisy chained ?

 

[tkistre]

The enclosure only holds one IDE hard drive. No limit on size. Although I haven't done so myself, they claim if you have more than one, you can run them in Mirroring/Raid 0/Raid5.

 

[Athena]

You need an ethernet port for each unit so if you don't have enough, you'll have to add a switch to your network.

 

[jkim98]

I would love to jump on this as I have spare 300 Gig PATA drives but can't due to the limited Linux support.

It sounds great for Windows only environment.

Here are some reviews:

Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Ximeta-NetDisk-External-Drive-NDU10-80/dp/B00028CAXA
arstechnica: http://arstechnica.com/reviews/hardware/netdisk.ars/1
http://www.hhcmag.com/reviews/ximetanetdiskmini/index.htm

 

[isekii]

how is the transfer speed ?
Is it slow getting and placing stuff in the drives ?

 

[mikeford]

No fan, that could be a problem for some drives, but otherwise very tempting.

 

[aimanzym]

thx man. nice review.

 

[LoverBoyJ]

I need one of these networked drives at home, now I'm contemplating between this unit OR building an old PC and using FreeNas.
Can someone tell me which one is better?

 

[zephyrprime]

Awesome. I've been finding my wireless network server to be a little slow for file storage so hopefully this will do the thing.

 

[BoKingWen]

Originally posted by: LoverBoyJ
I need one of these networked drives at home, now I'm contemplating between this unit OR building an old PC and using FreeNas.
Can someone tell me which one is better?

Didn't know there is something like FreeNAS which I found very interesting. I think if you have the parts at home it might be better using FreeNAS. I am not trying to thread crap but I found some reviews and people from other borad have bad experience with this encloser. I think the idea for this is nice but the driver part keep me from it. Window Vista is coming who knows if this will work on Vista. I remember 2 of my web cam didn't work from ME to XP.

 

[Athena]

Originally posted by: isekii
how is the transfer speed ?
Is it slow getting and placing stuff in the drives ?

Network Attached storage is always slower than local. Ximeta's NDAS is definitely faster than TCP/IP solutions.

Using it over a wireless connection is not good though. The nice thing about Ximetas is that you can use the USB connection and attach them directly to machines that are not wired to your LAN.

Originally posted by: BoKingWen
I I am not trying to thread crap but I found some reviews and people from other borad have bad experience with this encloser. I think the idea for this is nice but the driver part keep me from it. Window Vista is coming who knows if this will work on Vista. I remember 2 of my web cam didn't work from ME to XP.

I bought my first Ximeta after researching NAS solutions. PC World gave the Ximeta NetDisk top marks for speed and it's definitely been better for me than TCP/IP solutions.

Most of the negative reports I've read have been from users with wireless connections -- which is a bad scenario for network attached units; they just cannot offer the performance you can get with a shared volume on another PC.

There are some other glitches with installation (you must use cable select on the drive...) that are not in the documentation. Technical support sorts things out very quickly.

As far as Vista is concerned, they are working on the drivers right now and we should have something within a few weeks (if not days).

 

[txlonghorn]

Originally posted by: LoverBoyJ
I need one of these networked drives at home, now I'm contemplating between this unit OR building an old PC and using FreeNas.
Can someone tell me which one is better?

I looked into FreeNas but decided against it. Bought a Ximeta NDAS instead. For FreeNas, you need to build a PC and install a bunch of freeware on top of UNIX. Unless you are familiar with UNIX and the freeware, that's a lot of work and if something goes wrong, your only support is online forum. NetDisk is so much easier for my all Windohs enviroment. Jus plug it in, install the driver and it works. The plus side of FreeNas is that it is expandable. You can plug in at least 4 drives in it.

 

[mikeford]

What FreeNas doesn't include is free electricity, typcial old PC running 24/7 can use $150 a year in power.

OTOH once you bite the bullet and have a PC running 24/7 you can typically give it a LOT of little jobs to do beyond just network storage.

I want one of these boxes, but I haven't figured out how it might fit into my overal network storage plan.

 

[ElFenix]

can they turn themselves off when not in use?

 

[Elixer]

NDAS is ok, but slow & lacking if using a OS other than windows.

Another option is to get a eSATA case, and use that. That is the fastest option, and you can get a SATA->eSATA converter for a few bucks. (It is just a cable that hooks up to your motherboards SATA port, and then a breakout connector that has the eSATA connection on it.)
No drivers/networks to worry about then., and works with any OS that works with your motherboard.

 

[imported_SP]

Originally posted by: Elixer
...Another option is to get a eSATA case, and use that. That is the fastest option, and you can get a SATA->eSATA converter for a few bucks. (It is just a cable that hooks up to your motherboards SATA port, and then a breakout connector that has the eSATA connection on it.) No drivers/networks to worry about then., and works with any OS that works with your motherboard.

Or if you have one empty 3.5 inch bay in your computer you can get inexpensive SATA rack with extra trays and have forever expandable storage. If you fill your hard-drive, you only need to buy a new internal SATA drive when on sale, install it into the spare tray and insert it. Almost like a ZIP cartridge, just instead of propriatery expensive ZIP cartridges you use standard internal SATA drives. Very fast, and best bang for the money for super-fast removable storage.

This is the type of rack I mean:
http://www.icydock.com/product/mb123sk.html
You can find spare trays for about $13-$20. Cheap enough to keep your removable SATA disks in their own trays forever. And some of the trays even fit into external portable eSATA enclosure.

 

[Athena]

Originally posted by: Elixer
Another option is to get a eSATA case, and use that. That is the fastest option, and you can get a SATA->eSATA converter for a few bucks. (It is just a cable that hooks up to your motherboards SATA port, and then a breakout connector that has the eSATA connection on it.)
No drivers/networks to worry about then., and works with any OS that works with your motherboard.

That of course, assumes that the motherboard has SATA support. There are all sorts of solutions for external storage. This is one that is relatively simple, has the advantage of working in either networked or direct attach mode, and works with just about any Windows machine.

 

[StormRider]

Do these power down the hard drive when it's been idle after a certain amount of time?

 

[uhohs]

how well does this thing conduct heat? aluminum? or is there a fan?

 

[imported_SP]

There are different models of the racks, some aluminium, some plastic, some with fan. Some oeven have sensors and LCD to constantly monitor temperature. I am not sure how well it works, but one model seems to have a lot of control: "LCD readout display indicating real-time drive temperature/activity/positioning/overheating and fan failures. The front buttons are equipped for you to adjust the temperature that you wish to allow the drive to operate under." More at:

http://www.icydock.com/product/mb722skgf.html

I didn't see anything about the drive powering down, but I would expect that it would behave as any other internal SATA drive. (Is powering down the drive function of the drive itself, or is it the operating system, or perhaps the motherboard?)

[Sorry, am not sure if you were asking about the Icydock or about Ximeta. Didn't mean to hi-jack the thread...]