Cheap NAS or MSI Wind/Eee Box?

[Craig White]

On Thu, 2009-04-02 at 19:46 -0400, stevensspam at cox.net wrote:
> I have been debating recently whether to pick up a cheapish networked external hard drive like a Western Digital My Book (that one initially because it can be picked up locally, although initially googling suggests it might not be very Linux friendly). Anyone have any experience working with any of the cheap Network Attached Storage units? I'd like to hang something off the network that my sister and I could back up files with. I have a pair of small/older USB hard drives that are okay for occasional use, but it's a touch annoying to have to take them from computer to computer when I know better is available.
> 
> On the other hand, in my more ambitious moments I get to thinking about picking up something like an MSI Wind bare bones unit or Eee Box and just tossing on SAMBA and Apache to get both some networked drive space and a local web server to play with. Has anyone here worked with the Wind or Eee Box? Both look like they could reasonably be placed in a living room without attracting too much attention (handy since that's where the cable modem and router are located).
----
My argument against the netbooks for this purpose is that they aren't
built for continuous on functionality and I suspect that they won't
last.

The Apple mini makes a nice quiet device for this purpose but I myself
would never do that but it depends upon how much learning/effort you are
willing to put yourself through.

There are mini boxes, convection cooled (no noisy fans) like the Apple
mini that you can buy, network and roll your own (i.e. put Ubuntu or
CentOS on it). Then you can have a web server, etc. In fact, with the
new version of iTunes, I can use my Fedora mt-daapd server (finally) and
serve music to any iTunes or Rhythmbox or Songbird.

Craig


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