[J-Pak]

I know a few people on other audiophile forums have these setup and fully integrated into their speaker systems, I'm wondering if anyone here has one? I'm thinking of getting the basic Infrant S2-0000 (empty) and using my own SATA hardrives.

What I'm most concerned about is how cool they keep the drives and to a lesser degree how much noise they make (not such a big deal will be in a different room).

And most importantly, ease of use. ie in case of drive failure is it plug/play/restore with the RAID?

 

[smartins]

I'm actually studying and planning a file server atm. From what I've read, the Infrant ReadyNAS NV+ is one of the best options for ready made NAS. One comparison (I beleive on Tom's Hardware but I can't be sure) picked the Infrant as the top performer NAS of the bunch.

After doing the math I decided against a ready made NAS because of the low expandability options (the NV+ is a 4 disks NAS). So I'll be setting up a dedicated file server with a decent raid card and drives cages. It will cost more than a 4 disks NAS but I'll have the possibility to increase the array up to 8 disks directly and to 16 of I buy another 8 disks card and link both together.

Here's a link with some performance comparisons:
http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/index...per&Itemid=153

 

[J-Pak]

Four disk isn't so bad, 500 GB hardrives are around $150 in the US, and they continue to fall in price. Thats a little under 1.5 TB with 4 drives and RAID.

 

[chris_ah1]

I built my own file server that does a bit more than just host audio - build your own and have fun - it will probably perform a lot better than the nas if you have multiple people on the network at once.

500GB seem to be the sweetspot imo and are what I populated my latest machine with.

 

[nelamvr6]

I'm planning on going the ReadyNAS route also. The noise is one of my biggest concerns. All of my computer system is situated in my listening room, since my listening room is essentially my apartment. No way for me to put a lot of distance between the NAS and my sweet spot.

I'm more concerned about the SPL from the cooling fan. Well, as of right now I am, unless I find out that the drives make a lot of noise also.

 

[woodcans]

I am using a ReadyNAS NV+ as my main source right now. I have had it for a little over a month and am very pleased with it. I put in 4 of my own drives and have nearly completed ripping my cd collection. Noise was a concern of mine and from what I read online the NV+ has a much lower noise level than the previous model. I have it in a cabinet and with the cabinet door open it is barely audible. With the door closed it is difficult to tell if it is on or not. Not having to have my computer on is a huge plus and one of the reasons I got one (additionally my computer is loud). I also like the x-raid function for redundancy.

 

[woodcans]

Quote:

Originally Posted by J-Pak /img/forum/go_quote.gif Four disk isn't so bad, 500 GB hardrives are around $150 in the US, and they continue to fall in price. Thats a little under 1.5 TB with 4 drives and RAID.

I've got 1.3 T w/ RAID.

 

[woodcans]

Quote:

Originally Posted by J-Pak /img/forum/go_quote.gif What I'm most concerned about is how cool they keep the drives and to a lesser degree how much noise they make (not such a big deal will be in a different room). And most importantly, ease of use. ie in case of drive failure is it plug/play/restore with the RAID?

In my relatively small cabinet with no ventilation to speak of, the drives stay around 37c during heavy use. They haven't gone above 40c even with the cabinet doors closed. If I leave one of the two doors open, they stay a few degrees cooler.

And yes, it is plug & play w/ the raid. If you lose a drive you can just put in a new one without losing any data.

 

[MrFaust]

I too have a ReadyNAS. I'm trying to get another nic for my laptop so that I can run a gigabit crossover cable directly to the NAS so I can get faster speeds between it and my laptop. I've already upgraded the ram to 1gb in it. That made a huge performance increase as well. Right now I have 4x 500gb hdd's and get 1.3tb raid. By this next summer I'll be swapping though out for the new 1tb hdds. And just for the record, you get the same amount of space if you use RAID-5 or their RAID-X. My only wish is that it could have had the capability to be a USB attached hdd.

 

[J-Pak]

Quote:

Originally Posted by woodcans /img/forum/go_quote.gif In my relatively small cabinet with no ventilation to speak of, the drives stay around 37c during heavy use. They haven't gone above 40c even with the cabinet doors closed. If I leave one of the two doors open, they stay a few degrees cooler. And yes, it is plug & play w/ the raid. If you lose a drive you can just put in a new one without losing any data.

Thanks so much

Quote:

Originally Posted by MrFaust /img/forum/go_quote.gif I too have a ReadyNAS. I'm trying to get another nic for my laptop so that I can run a gigabit crossover cable directly to the NAS so I can get faster speeds between it and my laptop. I've already upgraded the ram to 1gb in it. That made a huge performance increase as well. Right now I have 4x 500gb hdd's and get 1.3tb raid. By this next summer I'll be swapping though out for the new 1tb hdds. And just for the record, you get the same amount of space if you use RAID-5 or their RAID-X. My only wish is that it could have had the capability to be a USB attached hdd.

Are you using it just for music, or does it have other functions?

 

[MrFaust]

I store tons of music and other multimedia on it. I think there might be some misconceptions about the ReadyNAS. It isn't a music box or anything to that extent. It's just a raided file server. Now from what I've read, they work extremely well with Squeezebox 3's.

 

[woodcans]

Quote:

Originally Posted by MrFaust /img/forum/go_quote.gif I store tons of music and other multimedia on it. I think there might be some misconceptions about the ReadyNAS. It isn't a music box or anything to that extent. It's just a raided file server. Now from what I've read, they work extremely well with Squeezebox 3's.

It has integrated seamlessly w/ my SB3 & Transporter. Slimserver, iTunes server, and UPnP server software are preinstalled on the unit. My only complaint with the unit is an occasional minimal amount of lag when using the SB3 or Transporter remote (less than a second, but noticable). I have ordered an extra 1 Gb of ram for it to see if this corrects the issue.

 

[MrFaust]

Quote:

Originally Posted by woodcans /img/forum/go_quote.gif It has integrated seamlessly w/ my SB3 & Transporter. Slimserver, iTunes server, and UPnP server software are preinstalled on the unit. My only complaint with the unit is an occasional minimal amount of lag when using the SB3 or Transporter remote (less than a second, but noticable). I have ordered an extra 1 Gb of ram for it to see if this corrects the issue.

The 1gb ram will help alot.The other thing you want to look at is getting a gigabit router/switch and get some cat6 cable. Most modern pcs and things have 10/100/1000mbit nics installed.

 

[NeilPeart]

Don’t forget that the ReadyNAS NV and NV+ both support jumbo Ethernet frames! Most gigabit cards and gigabit chips embedded onto motherboards include support for jumbo frames 8K or larger! Make sure when you upgrade to that gigabit switch that it also supports 8K or larger jumbo Ethernet frames (jumbo frames ! I love my ReadyNAS NV. I also upgraded my RAM to the Patriot 1GB CAS 2-2-2 and the response of the interface was much-improved (not to mention the write transfer rates of the server). Unfortunately the particular 2-2-2 timing memory is no longer available, but Crucial makes an excellent 3-3-3 alternative – I really don’t think the slightly slower timings would affect performance too much (it’s the increase in RAM capacity that provides the most benefit). I’m running 4 400GB WD Raid-enhanced drives that I will upgrade to 1TB when available/affordable.

8-port gigabit switch w/jumbo frames support (they also make a 5-port version):
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16833129025

Crucial 1GB PC2700 RAM for Infrant – verified in Infrants Hardware Compatibility List (very important to observe this rule):
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820145068

 

[floydenheimer]

I love my readynas! I just recently upgraded my capacity from 3x250 to 3x500 with no data loss; X-RAID can't be beat.