Promise SATA 4BAY BYOD NAS NS4300N @ Fry's for $299.99

[efnethore]

Promise NS4300N

I have this nas, threw in four 1TB harddrives (WD greenpower), raid 5, works great.
This thing has gigabit ethernet and jumbo frame support, there is even a usb print server.
At 300 dollars, it's considerable less than some of the other BYOD nas boxes.
read the review here:
http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/content/view/30273/75/

reviews by other users:
http://www.dealtime.com/xPR-Pr...AS-SATA-RAID5-SOHO-SMB

how to telnet in and how to gain root access: (this won't work on others' nas, only yours, don't get too many ideas)
http://securitytracker.com/alerts/2007/Sep/1018754.html

fry ad scan here
http://latimes.p2ionline.com/s...es/1855135_5165575.jpg

edited topic summary to include outpost.com

 

[Lurker1]

interesting and future proof. Too bad my wallet can't deal with the price of the unit, much less the drives to fill it.

 

[Nole7]

Too bad no Fry's B&M in the NYC vicinity.

 

[VooDooAddict]

Thanks for the heads up on this unit OP.

I hope you dont' think I'm thread crapping, but I think this has actually convinced me to go ahead and pickup the HP Windows Home Server.

$299 + 500Gig Drive = @ $400
HP Home Server with Base 500Gig drive @ $575

Around $175 to try some of the new shadow backup features with my Vista clients, and centralize the Xbox360 Media file repository.

(My Ubuntu machine really doesn't need backup/filestore... just for browsing, and driver hunting for the windows boxes)

 

[uniball42]

looks like it's at outpost now:

http://shop1.outpost.com/produ...X+Lhnqo8D89mhE2dwqIJcg**.node3?site=sr:SEARCH:MAIN_RSLT_PG

any comments on making a better link, let me know

 

[OctaneZ]

Link at Outpost

 

[Java Cafe]

Please excuse me for my naïveté, but would this permit me to grow one bay at a time? This is what I mean, I'd like to buy this now and put a 1 TB disk in it, and then another 1 TB disk several months later, and a third several months thereafter, and so on . . . Can this unit be used this way? Would there be any issues in using it in that manner? Also, instead of 1TB disks, I assume I could use 500MB disks as well. Could I? Would I be able to mix 500MB with 1TB?

Thanks.

 

[OctaneZ]

What you are looking for is a Drobo. It isn't a NAS solution, it has to be tethered to a machine by USB. But it does allow mixing and matching, and growing the array.

 

[efnethore]

java cafe:

What you are referring to, is raid migration, and this nas box supports the feature. However it has a lot to do with the specific raid level you choose to use, for instance, raid 10 cannot be added with more hard drives, raid 1 must have drives added in pairs, etc. You might wanna google raid levels and raid migration for more info. You can of course use any size harddrive that you choose, but be advised that, for most raid levels, you want to use drives of the same capacity. When you mix a 500MB (0.5GB) harddrive with a 1TB (1000GB) harddrive to do raid, the extra 999.5GB won't be used and is thusly wasted.

ps. I'm using harddrive manufacture's mega/giga/tera-byte conversion factors, so sue me

 

[Java Cafe]

@efnethore: Thank you for the educational response. I suppose I need to become a whole lot more knowledgeable about RAID before I can actually use one of these things.

@OctaneZ: Wow! This Drobo is (or at least promises to be) magical! I imagine it has built in (raid-like) data protection. It's expensive, I know. But, how it's not selling like hot cakes beats me.

Edit: Hmm. . . a RAID stills looks like a more robust solution. Didn't realize that you couldn't extract the data out of your HDs if the Drobo goes bad, without getting another Drobo unit. If the price had been less, it would have been a more attractive proposition.

 

[amheck]

So many options for storage.....

This NAS box looks pretty nice. I've also eyed the HP Mediasmart servers. And Lime Technologies has unRaid which looks pretty cool. My heads just spinning

 

[Christobevii3]

Java cafe go read the drobo review at toms hardware. It has read and write speeds of like 15MB/s lol. It creates "virtual partitions" of the lowest denominator to make a fake raid setup and it sucks.

 

[Chunkee]

SOLD OUT!!!

Looks like a nice setup.

JCoria

 

[Throckmorton]

Originally posted by: efnethore
java cafe:

What you are referring to, is raid migration, and this nas box supports the feature. However it has a lot to do with the specific raid level you choose to use, for instance, raid 10 cannot be added with more hard drives, raid 1 must have drives added in pairs, etc. You might wanna google raid levels and raid migration for more info. You can of course use any size harddrive that you choose, but be advised that, for most raid levels, you want to use drives of the same capacity. When you mix a 500MB (0.5GB) harddrive with a 1TB (1000GB) harddrive to do raid, the extra 999.5GB won't be used and is thusly wasted.

ps. I'm using harddrive manufacture's mega/giga/tera-byte conversion factors, so sue me

I don't think he wants RAID at all, just a bunch of drives.

 

[efnethore]

outpost.com still got it in stock, so do most fry's stores.

i won't want to buy a drobo, first, with their proprietary thing, redundancy simply doesn't work, when the drive with the larges capacity fails, you are out of luck. another thing is the usb interface, i can't even begin to tell you how many people are having problems with usb controllers, failed read/write issues, weird shutdown/reboot problems, all stem from *beep*ed up usb controllers. while usb is convenient and versatile, it's the least in term of stability. I truely believe that, it's the wrong choice of interface for a direct attached storage system. just read the newegg's user review of drobo, besides the doa issues, all other problems lie in the implementation of usb, not the drobo unit per se.

 

[Chunkee]

crap...i really want one of these.... 300 bones...uuugh...i am waiting to get e8400 and a 8800gt or gts.... damn these deals

jC

 

[cordite]

Drobo is interesting (though like efnethore says I can't imagine relying on USB) but I'd recommend going with the Promise NAS for the price. I certainly paid a lot more for my ReadyNAS.

 

[uhohs]

that one review says that the drives don't spin down when not in use. anyone know if this is still the case or if there's been any update that deals with that? thanks.

 

[HardcoreRobot]

ive been watching this hoping it would go back down.

today, it did. 299 online - ~100 cheaper than anywhere else I could find. just need drives now!

http://shop4.outpost.com/product/5351488

 

[uhohs]

anyone know if they ever fixed the no spindown issue?

 

[efnethore]

no drive spindown is a non-issue.

drive spindown works like the one in windows power options

after x amount of time idling, harddrives will spindown to save power

first, it saves very little power, each of my wd greenpower less than 15 watts, 21.5 peak

a lot of people believes that, spin hardrives down and then bring it back up to speed harms the hardrive, a lot of nas do not include that feature.

if you are really insistent on having that feature, email promise maybe they'll whip up something quick for you in the next firmware update

 

[EKKC]

OP. i am intersted in this but would like to know if your RAID5 NAS can even break 12mbps transferring to/from windows via a gigabit network (with or without jumbo frame switch)

my intel RAID 5 NAS is good and reliable (it has to be, it was meant for SoHo and SMB use and cost me 600 bucks just the enclosure), but one thing i didn't like is the slow writing speed. Read is fine at 14-16mbps on my linksys gigabit switch, i suspect slow writing performance is due to RAID5 redundancy. it bursts/spikes to 10-12 once in a while but also slows down to a 5. very erratic writing speed on mine.

if this one is a vast improvement, i may buy this and donate the Intel one to write off on my taxes

 

[PromiseNasDude]

Originally posted by: uhohs
anyone know if they ever fixed the no spindown issue?

Hello, we added Hard Drive Spin-Down to SR4 FW (available for download).

Coming Soon:

XBOX 360 Support (PS3 is DLNA certified and does not require additional support)

Media Tagging for DMP (Digital Media Player)

Fix for Popcornhour DMP

Addition of MP4, M4V and MOV Formats/Containers for DLNA Media Server Plug-In.

iTunes Server Plug-In will also support Video Playback of MP4, M4V and MOV files.

Other fixes and changes are coming too. We will NEVER stop.

Other questions and or concerns, feel free to let me know.

Thanks.

 

[Baked]

I found PromiseNasDude's post in a Promise NS4300N discussion thread over at AVSForums.

Link.

 

[uhohs]

yeah, saw his post there too. i'm eagerly awaiting the new version with the fan control.

thanks for the updates PromiseNasDude