I have been collecting media for a number of years, some of it dating back to 1996 or earlier. Keeping track of all of this media, while always a headache, was easier in the past due to my primary machine being a self-built windows/linux running behemoth. I still have a behemoth of a machine, but I have found that as I have gotten older and as technology has gotten more mature, I no longer rely upon my desktop machine as much. It still works well for sharing data, but with each new iteration of Windows the process becomes increasingly more annoying and following a hardware/software issue a few years ago, I moved to a regime of housing my data on external units.
I moved to external units as I didn’t want my data to be locked to one machine and it worked well for a while, but now I am realizing the pitfalls of this setup as well. Following that unfortunate incident in ’05, I purchased my first Mac and took my first steps towards moving towards a mac-based ecology. Now I am plagued with several units, mostly based on IEEE-1394a (firewire 400), and no permanent home for them due to a split household. While I technically due have a G4 mini that could serve the task, I would prefer a more independent solution which has lead me to look into network attached storage (NAS) based solutions.
At one point in time NAS was really only a solution for enterprise and small businesses, but with an increase in consumer data consumption/hoarding – and lower component cost – companies have begun to offer more affordable options for consumers like me. While there are a number of options available, including some for consumer level network suppliers such as D-Link and Linksys, I have found myself being drawn to the products from a company by the name of Synology. At first I was drawn to the DS410, as I wanted to hold a maximum number of drives at a reasonable price. The DS410 can handle up to four 3.5″ or 2.5″ hard drives and offers 2 USB and one eSATA port. All of their models function as DLNA/UPnP media servers and offer php-based webhosting and ftp services, as do most decent NAS units, but I am more interested in the ability to add more storage without adding more units to the network.
With this requirement in mind, I began looking at the DS710+ and DS1010+. Both support expansion via the DX510, a unit offering an additional 5 storage bays for future expansion, and it integrates with the base unit as if the additional five bays where natively included with the base unit (so 7 bays for the DS710+ and 10 bays for the DS1010+). If you’ll recall, I stated that most models include eSATA and USB ports that should support expansion, but I wanted expansion that I new I could rely on. Now I am left with the decision of the DS710+ or Ds1010+, a price difference of $469 plus an additional $405 in additional hardware to populate all the bays with 2 TB Hitachi Deskstar HD32000 drives (all prices based on Newegg.com).
Below you can find a video put together by Synology highlighting some of the features of their unit. As soon as I decide which unit to go with, I’ll post an update on setup and performance.
Love the one you’re with, or so the lyrics go. In my time here in Seattle, I am finding that to be easier said than done. The major fallacy in such logic is that it assumes that there is someone for you to be with in lieu of the one you love. Unfortunately, I do [...]
I won’t try to recap the story. You’ll have to travel to Jalopnik to view it, in its entirety, for yourself. It is the tale of Bill Caswell and how he took a $500 beater he picked up off of Craiglist to Mexico. It is a tale of how a little ingenuity, hard work, [...]
