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Old 05-20-2008, 02:20 PM   #16
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We are semi-sane here -- about budgets that is. Each of us have an amount of "mad" money to spend any way we feel with no comment from the other. If I want to buy her a new ring with mine, that's fine. If I spend it on a new computer, that's fine too.

Since I have my own business, most of the computer purchases are business related and do not come from my pool of funds. Therefore I am able to spend it on useless things like a nice dinner out or a new roof.
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Old 05-20-2008, 03:15 PM   #17
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Quote:
Originally Posted by BKeeper;186548For your needs I'd take a look at [URL="http://drobo.com/products_drobo.html"
Drobo[/URL] (or infrant readyNAS if you are up to it)
Drobo is very expensive. Its like $450 with ZERO storage.

An HP Medismart Windows Home server is $500 with 500GB of storage. It will automatically back up your Windows machines with an installable client. Not sure if there are clients for Linux/Mac, I'm thinking not. Plus, it also provides shared folders, web based access for files and remoting into your PCs, plus more.

If you aren't 100% windows then the Seagate Mirra, which is a linux based stand alone backup device. The M-500 comes with 500GB storage for $339 and it supports windows and mac. http://www.mirra.com/buy/index.html

Finally, if you are only going to backup less than a dozen GB or so... check out Jungle Disk with Amazons S3 service. You can store whatever you want for $.15GB per month. Jungle Disk works as an offsite drive and/or an automated backup. For $20 you can install it on as many machines as you want to access your S3 account.

HTH,
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Old 05-20-2008, 04:02 PM   #18
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Quote:
Originally Posted by pilotbob View Post
Drobo is very expensive. Its like $450 with ZERO storage.
. . .
If you aren't 100% windows then the Seagate Mirra, which is a linux based stand alone backup device. The M-500 comes with 500GB storage for $339 and it supports windows and mac. http://www.mirra.com/buy/index.html

Finally, if you are only going to backup less than a dozen GB or so... check out Jungle Disk with Amazons S3 service.
BOb
Yes, the Drobo comes empty, and not cheap, but Bob mentioned he wants to recycle old disks using RAID.

And that is why you really can't compare the Drobo to the Mirra, which is a single disk and it's not more secure than any other external HDD (and BTW doesn't use RAID).
For what it is, I find the Mirra way more expensive than the Drobo.

You really can't compare both devices.



PS:If you want online storage for private files forget Amazon (expensive and unsecure) and go with Mozy or Carbonite.
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Old 05-20-2008, 04:05 PM   #19
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Personally, would suggest to wait off on the Drobo for Version 2.0

Because, besides the $450 cost, add another $150 if you want to use it as a NAS.

That is before adding any drives. And no firewire or eSATA.

Even Western Digital has come around with a 1TB drive with USB, Firewire & eSata for around $200. Add a Print server any you've got a NAS.

Now the Idea of turning your old PC into a Linux based NAS would work, but it is really inefficient power wise, and will probably not look very nice on your cabinet.
Last edited by bbusybookworm; 05-20-2008 at 04:07 PM.
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Old 05-20-2008, 04:06 PM   #20
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Yep, those are very nice.

But surely there is an inexpensive software solution to do network storage on an Ubuntu box. Once I get "moved in" (install Ubuntu and find backup software and virus protection and spyware protection, etc) then I'll have to do some searching. If there turns out to some space in the old box for a few more drives, I'll be all set!

But based on non-std Dell parts, looks like I may have no choice but to give the wife the Dell and put Linux and extra drives on the Compaq.
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Old 05-20-2008, 04:07 PM   #21
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Quote:
Originally Posted by bbusybookworm View Post
...the Idea of turning your old PC into a Linux based NAS would work, but it is really inefficient power wise, and will probably not look very nice on your cabinet...
Actually, the plan is to make it an Ubuntu box. The NAS is just a hoped-for side effect!
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Old 05-20-2008, 04:09 PM   #22
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Quote:
Originally Posted by BKeeper View Post
Yes, the Drobo comes empty, and not cheap, but Bob mentioned he wants to recycle old disks using RAID.

PS:If you want online storage for private files forget Amazon (expensive and unsecure) and go with Mozy or Carbonite.
I'm not sure why raid is so important. If you have enough storage to meet your needs on one drive? I still can't see spending $500 even if he does have some drives. Put the drives in your current PC and back up to them... why add $500 to the cost.

What's so unsecure about S3? BTW: If you use Jungle Disk everything is 100% encrypted by your PC before it is sent to the S3 data center.

BOb
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Old 05-20-2008, 07:47 PM   #23
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Quote:
Originally Posted by bbusybookworm View Post
Personally, would suggest to wait off on the Drobo for Version 2.0

Because, besides the $450 cost, add another $150 if you want to use it as a NAS.

That is before adding any drives. And no firewire or eSATA.

Even Western Digital has come around with a 1TB drive with USB, Firewire & eSata for around $200. Add a Print server any you've got a NAS.

Now the Idea of turning your old PC into a Linux based NAS would work, but it is really inefficient power wise, and will probably not look very nice on your cabinet.
Quote:
Originally Posted by pilotbob View Post
I'm not sure why raid is so important. If you have enough storage to meet your needs on one drive? I still can't see spending $500 even if he does have some drives. Put the drives in your current PC and back up to them... why add $500 to the cost.

What's so unsecure about S3? BTW: If you use Jungle Disk everything is 100% encrypted by your PC before it is sent to the S3 data center.

BOb
I agree with bbusybookworm, as I mentioned the Drobo has some flaws and sure Drobo 2.0 will be better. That is, if you can wait...
And if you want a NAS then the ReadyNAS is IMHO your best choice.

About the other offerings, you see the Drobo and the readyNAS are more expensive because they are RAID arrays. (I can get you a 1T usb/eSATA drive for $150, but thats not the point.)

I mean I'm not talking about storage capacity, I'm talking about data integrity.
Let's say that at 22:00 I feel great because I just got 1TB HDD.
Well at 22:05 my HDD fails. How much storage capacity do I have now? 0

As they say it's not the size, what matters is reliability.


(again I agree, if you can afford it go for an eSATA RAID, but it won't be portable)


To answer pilotBob, RAID it's important because HDD do fail, and when they do... well, you are gonna whish you had backups.

About S3, well maybe I'm wrong but I think Jungle Disk's encryption it's optional.
Plus amazon is an online store, and if it ever comes to it, they'll prioritize their store over your data.
But to be honest my main concern it's the price.
(remember what they did with our ebooks, we, final customers...)
on the other hand, EMC (which owns Mozy) does nothing but data protection for big corps. Why take chances?

just my $0.02. (not even a GB for Amazon...)
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Old 05-20-2008, 08:42 PM   #24
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I can get you a 1T usb/eSATA drive for $150, but thats not the point.
But it could be the point!!! Is it really possible to find a decent eSATA 1TB drive for $150?

That might actually simplify things for me in the sense that I could put relatively stable bulk data on it and back up only occasionally. while not having to worry about a failure because I have the back up. I'd have to think more about what data goes where, but am definitely wondering about the price point. Last time I looked (this weekend) I didn't see anything that cheap. But it seems possible given some of the other special deals I've seen recently. (In fact, I think I even saw 1TB for $108, and 2TB USB MyBook for ~$380, but that's just off the top of my head, and when I actually went to look for it, I couldn't find it.)

Btw, for my purposes, I think RAID is probably the icing on the cake, not the meat. NAS is nice, but also only a fancy way of storing data that I don't really need (unless, like I hinted, it can be a background app running on a Ubuntu box that I have anyway).
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Old 05-20-2008, 10:41 PM   #25
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But it could be the point!!! Is it really possible to find a decent eSATA 1TB drive for $150?
How about $199?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822136151

750GB for $169

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822148134

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Old 05-20-2008, 10:46 PM   #26
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I have had very good results with the Netgear SC101. I comes empty and uses 1 or 2 IDE hard disks (note, it cannot read FAT or NTFS so it reformats them and whatever is on there is lost.) In 2 drive mode it can be used as a mirror or each one alone. It connects via your LAN (10/100.) It supports TCP/IP, DHCP, and SAN. At $90 (retail) and $60 at Staples (ok, $59.50) it is a low cost alternative.

I keep on-site backups on it as well as storage of ebooks (I wonder if they will ever catch on? )

It has been in use since November 2005 and I have no unresolved complaints. (There were some driver issues at the start but they were quickly resolved by Netgear and never resulted in any data loss, just slow transfer speeds and the driver unloading itself. Both have been fixed.)
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Old 05-21-2008, 12:16 AM   #27
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Actually,the the best value for HDDs is 500 GB these days: $80.
For eSATA you'll have to wait for a special.
Just take a look at the WD Mybook line.

Maybe the home edition could work for you.
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Old 05-21-2008, 12:53 PM   #28
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Did a quick Google search, and the first hit seems to have an answer. It looks like it may not be too hard to use Samba to make drives on a Linux box available to Windows over the network...
http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...etwork-168970/
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Old 05-21-2008, 02:04 PM   #29
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ASUS M2N-SLI Deluxe AM2 NVIDIA nForce 570 SLI MCP ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail - $129.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813131013

CORSAIR XMS2 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM Desktop - Retail - $58
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820145034

Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 ST3750330AS 750GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM - $129.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822148298

Sony NEC Optiarc Black 20X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 8X DVD+R DL 20X DVD-R 6X DVD-RW 12X DVD-RAM 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-R 32X CD-RW 48X CD-ROM 2MB Cache SATA 20X DVD±R Burner - Retail - $26.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16827118012

Rosewill R5604-TBK 0.8mm SECC Screw-less Dual 120mm Fans ATX Mid Tower Computer Case - Retail - $54.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811147033

Antec BP550 Plus 550W ATX12V V2.2 Power Supply 100 - 240 V UL, CE, TUV, CB, FCC, CCC, C-TICK - Retail - $59.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817371016

ASUS EN8600GT MAGIC/HTP/512M GeForce 8600GT 512MB 128-bit GDDR2 PCI Express x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card - Retail - $79.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814121231

ViewSonic X Series VX1940w Black&Silver 19" 2ms(GTG) Super High Resolution 1680x1050 DVI Widescreen LCD Monitor 300 cd/m2 1000:1 static (typ), 3000:1 dynamic (typ) - Retail - $219
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16824116095
I'm a complete tyro when it comes to rolling my own, but have always been fascinated with the idea. I did not see a CPU in this. Should there be one?
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Old 05-21-2008, 02:24 PM   #30
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Yep, unless you already have them, it looks that way to me also. Seems that you'd have to add a CPU, OS ($ if Vista/XP, free if Ubuntu), keyboard and mouse.

But Jon covered the hard part.

Unless I'm missing something, these additions are easy to pick, and the motherboard should have information about which CPUs it supports.

One thing that I learned was that Vista has OEM and retail versions. I think you cannot move the OEM version to another computer, nor do you get support.
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