Home NAS Recommendations

[D. Hugh Redelmeier]

| From: Lennart Sorensen <lsorense-1wCw9BSqJbv44Nm34jS7GywD8/FfD2ys at public.gmane.org>

| Yeah unfortunately it seems you can either buy something with windows or
| buy parts.  Very few options for buying whole machines without windows.
| Stupid world we live in at the moment.

Or you can buy expensive server-class hardware with a la carte OS.

Actually,, here is a possibly reasonable choice for a NAS:
  <http://www.pricecanada.com/p.php/Acer-Aspire-R1600-Intel-Atom-230-16GHz-PTSCL09004-645215/>

NCIX has the Acer Revo R1600 for $199.99 for the next day or so and
ground shipping ought to be $5.99 if I read correctly.  No PST or HST
will be charged by them for the next day or so.

As for OS, it comes with "Linux Boot" which turns out to be
FreeDOS!?!?!  What a misleading terminology!  I poured Ubuntu on mine
and don't remember any difficulties.  I used an external USB DVD burner.

The part that makes this most interesting for a NAS is the eSATA
connector.  But there is only one.

You are paying for an ION video controller in this box.  In fact, that
is why I bought it -- to run a TV set.  But it is overkill for a NAS.

NCIX has a quite similar Zotac MAG HD-NS01-u on sale too.  $219.99
before a $20 mail-in rebate (yuck).  I haven't noticed any interesting
differences between it and the Revo 1600 but I haven't looked hard.
  <http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=48946&vpn=MAGHD-NS01-U&manufacture=Zotac&promoid=1019>

$200 for something that is low power and small and yet runs ordinary
PC distros is an interesting choice.

Funny fact: the desktop Atom in the Revo can run x86-64 code but the
notebook one cannot.  This may have changed with the recent round of
Atom updates.

Funny fact: the ION is supposed to support up to 4G of RAM but Revo
owners find that 4G is a problem (unless my (human) memory is faulty,
which happens too often).  Prying the Revo open to add RAM is not
trivial but can be done -- there are movies on the internet.  I did it
but snapped a little bit of plastic in the process (not actually a
problem, or even visible, but annoying).
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