Originally Posted by emul8ter
Hello everyone, this is my first post here.
I am looking to get a nas for my network to work with my WD Live.
I have a couple usb 1tb hard drives kicking around so a nas device for external drives seems like it would suit my needs.
There are a lot of options out there:
Pogoplug
Iomega Connect
Belkin Home Base
Belkin Network USB Hub
and more....
Im not worried about accessing my content over the web. I dont currently have any use for that type of feature. It will mainly be just for media storage for my home network.
My biggest concern is Hard Drive spin down. I don't know if any of these devices support that. It seems to be a big issue for a lot of people. Nobody wants their hard drive spinning 24/7.
If any of these devices supported that feature, or if someone could recommend an alternative that does, it would probably be my choice.
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Hmmm. Well the thing is that NAS stands for Network Attached Storage device. So by definition, a NAS is a stand alone box which connects to your network, not a computer. I'm not familiar with every device you listed but they seem to be usb hubs, which aren't the same thing at all. HDD spin down is usualy controlled by software and I wouldn't have thought that a usb hub would have any such software
On the subject of HDD spin down, there are two schools of thought. On the one hand is obviously some power saving but that's not as significant as many would think. HDDs, especially the new "green" dives consume very little power once they are spun up, but something like 10 times more power during the spin up time. So, cycling drives over too short a time can actualy use more power han keeping them spun up. The other school of thought is that spinning drives up and down will significantly reduce their life compared to keeping them spun up. So any saving in running costs will be negated by having to replace the drives more frequently. The other down side, is that when you want to access the data on a "spun down" disc, you have to wait around 20 seconds or so for the drives to spin up, which can be anoying.
Personally, I run an UnRaid server and I do spin down my drives after about an hour of inactivity, because the feature is there. However, many users of UnRaid prefer not to do so (they subscribe to the second school of thought).
So, in summary I would say that the ability to spin down drives should be way down on your list of features to look for, and if one of the devices you've listed ticks the rest of the boxes, then go for it.
What USB NAS to go with?
