Seagate Unveils BlackArmor 440 - Great Design, Huge Storage

[Greg King]

That's the same price as Vista Home Premium OEM. The retail version is only $20 more, sometimes drops to less though.

Had no idea PP2 even existed yet. Still in beta?

Power pack 2 was released a few days ago and you are right (I was wrong), you can pick up Vista Home Premium for the same price as WHS but your still screwed if your not backing that $99 OS that plays all of your media up to something.

 

[Rob Williams]

I don't think a WHS could replace a NAS from a price-point, but I do think you have a few other ways of looking at it. NAS boxes are expensive enough, and by spending a little more, you could easily build a small server that's probably a little more robust than a NAS, sans the software of course. There exist Mini-ITX boards now that can use full-featured CPUs, even Quad-Cores, and if you try hard enough, you could likely build such a system with almost no noise.

I do kind of backtrack on a few comments though. A NAS is going to be better for many situations, simply because of their size, and their absolutely feature-rich software package. I still haven't found a NAS that has truly pleased me though. I realize I use Linux, but I've used three different NAS boxes in the last little while and have issues with almost all of them. The Maxtor SS II I'm using now is the best I've touched so far, but it has an odd issue where it needs to be rebooted every once in a while.

 

[Kougar]

Greg, yes I agree they still need to back it up to something. That holds true of WHS or anything else though!

Rob, backtrack away, the earlier posts in a thread tend to be more interesting anyway! After awhile I just end up dragging the thread out... Have you ever tried a QNAP product personally? They might just break your track record with NAS's...

 

[Merlin]

I don't think a WHS could replace a NAS from a price-point, but I realize I use Linux, but I've used three different NAS boxes in the last little while and have issues with almost all of them.

Synology ( NAS207 ) uses a linux OS, I'm surprised there might be a conflict

 

[Rob Williams]

Synology ( NAS207 ) uses a linux OS, I'm surprised there might be a conflict

I thought the same thing, but it doesn't matter it seems. The issue was simple... in Linux, each file is assigned an owner and usergroup (rwilliams:users, for example). On the Synology NAS box, it removed all traces of those permissions, so it kind of ruined it for me. The Maxtor Shared Storage II I'm using retains all those permissions just fine.

Kougar: No I haven't tested out QNAP. I don't plan to given I have a NAS that at least works for me right now. Really not in the mood to be blowing money right now, especially on a NAS that may or may not satisfy my needs, hehe. It's REALLY hard to say how Linux-friendly a NAS will be. Like Merlin, I would have assumed the Synology would have been the best, but it wasn't. Instead... it was a freaking Maxtor NAS that worked best for me.

 

[Simon3421]

A little off topic - but does anyone here own the Maxtor Black Armor portable HD? I'm thinking of getting the 160GB version and just would like to know if anyone owns it and likes or dislikes it and why.

 

[Kougar]

A little off topic - but does anyone here own the Maxtor Black Armor portable HD? I'm thinking of getting the 160GB version and just would like to know if anyone owns it and likes or dislikes it and why.

Welcome to the forums Simon!

I have never used one, but it looks like a decent enough portable HDD. Their product page lists two reviews for it: Link

 

[Simon3421]

Thanks, Kougar!

 

[Psi*]

rambling ...

See, when taking a look at NAS boxes, I tend to think, "You might as well build your own server", and for the most part, I believe that would be a better idea, if space wasn't a real issue. Nowadays, you can build a modest SFF machine with a small Dual-Core CPU and a copy of WHS, and still probably cost a little bit less than the most robust NAS boxes out there.

Of course, it's not just the hardware that's expensive for NAS boxes, but the software, so in the end, I guess it really depends on what exactly your looking for. As for not having RAID available on WHS... isn't that more of a hardware option than an OS option?

It takes a few days for me to figure out if I have something useful to say (still debatable), but I have thought that this is what I should retire y old computers to. On the other hand what about reliability? Of course that doesn't mean that "new" won't break.

So this afternoon I was thinking that a primary nemesis to hard drives longevity is heat. The nemesis to a tolerable office is heat and noise (thinking about the noisy fans in the older boxes). That led me to imaging NAS hardware as a few drives in the open air with a thermostatically controlled fan blowing across them. Well, then we need a fan filter so things don't get all linty. Well, then we need a bigger fan.

Also wondering about the typical user that would care about having NAS. I suspect that is someone that is ... older (/w family) ... and has had a computer for quite a while in 1 form or another. The point is someone that has accumulated stuff that they at the very least don't want to go thru & filter out what is important & what is not. But keep it simple stupid (kiss).

With respect to "kiss", I have thought about the NAS as the original posted mentions, but also USB/firewire/SATA external ports on any computer in the house to connect to one of those "boxes" that just let you drop SATA drives in. Even if it is only 1 drive at a time, having 2 or 3 1TB drives <$100 seems kind of attactive ... and cheap.

 

[Rob Williams]

Well, like I mentioned in this news post, NAS boxes go beyond the hardware, and I would have little doubt that the software is responsible for a rather sizable chunk of the total price. The KISS mentality works well here, because rather than have folks do everything manually (or write their own scripts), they can utilize the software on the NAS box to take care of things for them.

NAS boxes also have the benefit of not being connected to any particular computer. Rather, they are always available through your home network, so you can grab the media you need from any PC or network-enabled device (such as an Xbox 360).

Most robust NAS boxes (this one included, I'm sure), would feature sufficient cooling for long-life, and also a removable filter that would be used to catch dust.

Personally, I use NAS boxes for the extra security. I don't think anything I have data-wise is truly important (well, except family photos and the like), but I like to make absolute certain that I never lose any of it. So, I have a secondary HDD in my main machine that backs up all my documents, and then the NAS comes into play and grabs all of the same data. At any given time, I have three copies of my data, four if you count the selected data that I burn to DVDs.

In the end, ease-of-use is king with NAS boxes. If you build your own PC as a server, it takes a lot more work and technical know-how to get anything going, and most people aren't going to want to put in the effort. One thing I wouldn't mind doing though, is building an HTPC that also acts as a NAS box. That way, you get two machines in one, essentially, and it's easy to fit HUGE amounts of storage in an HTPC nowadays, even if you want to use RAID.

 

[Simon3421]

Welcome to the forums Simon!

I have never used one, but it looks like a decent enough portable HDD. Their product page lists two reviews for it: Link

Does anyone know if it is/will be compatible with Windows 7? The BlackArmor seems to be pretty unaccepting when it comes to OS (working only with XP and with Vista)?

I don't want to buy it and end up with a nice-looking paper weight!

 

[gibbersome]

Does anyone know if it is/will be compatible with Windows 7? The BlackArmor seems to be pretty unaccepting when it comes to OS (working only with XP and with Vista)?

I don't want to buy it and end up with a nice-looking paper weight!

On Windows 7, You should be able to run BlackArmor software in Windows XP/Vista compatibility mode (someone please correct me if I'm wrong).

It's still an expensive solution though, are you sure you need it?

 

[Simon3421]

On Windows 7, You should be able to run BlackArmor software in Windows XP/Vista compatibility mode (someone please correct me if I'm wrong).

It's still an expensive solution though, are you sure you need it?

Only $59 at Future Shop. Just want something secure for all my home/insurance/etc. stuff.