What is a NAS

While there is nothing to stop you from setting up a machine and sharing the drives, do you really want a full blown desktop computer humming away and eating electricity just to share some files? What is much better is a small dedicated box hidden away in the corner with a lot of storage space. Add to this RAID and you have some sort of protection if the drives goes bad – but this depends on what type of RAID you choose.

What else can this do?

The main thing here which might be worth pointing out would be for example the iTunes Server – you can have one central place for all your tunes and the computer will see them. I have tested this myself with FreeNAS but I personally proffered a shared directory and adding them to each iTunes.

On the back we have a USB port – this can be used as either a USB Printer or another Harddrive for even more storage. The Fan you see will be making some noise but should power down as the unit is not needed.

Limits of this device

While the device is very cheap (£117.49 from Aria) there is some limits on this device. It supports a maximum of 1.5TB Drive per bay – so the Max Capacity will be 3GIG – this will go down once formatted of course and it would be wise to pick two drive of the same capacity for proper RAID. It does support JBOD (Just a Bunch of Drives) which added all the capacity up and presents it as one drive – it uses the first drive then the second as it fills up. If one drives goes – you have lost everything in JBOD mode, so be careful.

While Intel’s Atom has a near-monopoly on the netbook market, that’s not the only place the processor will be practicing its power-miserly ways. Intel launched at CeBit its first Atom processor-based platform optimized for networked home and small office/home office (SOHO) storage devices.

The energy-efficient platform consists of the Atom processor D410 single-core or D510 dual-core and the 82801IR I/O Controller to run network-attached storage (NAS) devices that organize, manage, protect and share documents, photos, videos and music.

The new platform features six PCI Express lanes, 12 USB 2.0 ports, a port multiplier function and eSATA ports that give OEMs the ability to add peripheral devices and expand storage capacity outside of the box. It also features hot plug capabilities for easy capacity upgrades and an integrated gigabit Ethernet MAC controller for improved data transfers to and from the home server or small office NAS device.

“NAS systems have traditionally been found in businesses to manage, store and access data,” said Seth Bobroff, general manager, Intel Data Center Group, Storage. “Today, households and small offices have an ever-increasing number of computers, laptops, netbooks and mobile phones that create and consume digital content. This advancement in mobility coupled with the explosive growth of data and media are creating the need for centralized, easy-to-use network storage solutions for the home and small office.”

LaCie, LG Electronics, QNAP, Synology and Thecus are signed on as product partners for Intel’s platform.