For those that don't need 64GB of storage, the CR-7100 will hold one 16GB microSD, while the
CR-7000 holds one 32GB SD. The 7200 will be available for $30 and the 7100 and 7000 for $25, all in July. [Photofast via Akihabara]

The My Books can connect either as an NAS through ethernet or simply as an external drive through USB, and both the 2TB and 4TB versions contain two drives to watch each other's backs in case one fails. So really, you're getting either 1TB or 2TB of space, respectively, since one drive is used as backup. They're available now and retail for either $400 (2TB) or $700 (4TB). Press release to follow. [Western Digital]

WD'S NEW DUAL-DRIVE MY BOOK® WORLD EDITION™ II NETWORK STORAGE SYSTEM ADDS EXTRA LEVEL OF PROTECTION
FOR A FAMILY'S VALUABLE DATA

Offers an Easy, Double-Safe Way to Backup Computers and Share Media
Throughout the Home

LAKE FOREST, Calif. - June 24, 2009 - WD® (NYSE: WDC), the world's leader in external storage solutions, today introduced its newly redesigned My Book® World Edition™ II dual- drive network storage system in capacities of up to 4 TB. With the double protection of two Mirrored (RAID 1) drives and continuous backup software, the My Book World Edition II network storage system provides an extra-safe place for users to back up and store the data and digital media from all the computers on their network in one central location. Available now at select retailers and the WD online store, the new dual-drive systems join the recently introduced (Feb. 2009) My Book World Edition and are compatible with PC and Mac® computers.

According to a July 2008 report by research firm Parks Associates, the number of households worldwide with data networks will grow from around 170 million in 2008 to 240 million by year-end 2012. The firm also reports that the average broadband household will see its digital media storage needs grow to nearly 900 GB by year-end 2012. In addition, consumers indicate that the most important feature for a network-attached storage (NAS) device is the amount of available storage. With its massive 4 TB capacity, the My Book World Edition II network storage system will serve this rapidly growing need for home data storage.

The My Book World Edition II network storage system uses RAID 1 (Mirrored1) technology to automatically and continuously maintain a second copy of user's data. If one drive in the two-drive system ever fails, the system continues to run and the data is safe. In addition, the new
My Book World Edition II network hard drive includes software that simplifies the task of setting up automatic and continuous data backup for all the PCs in the home. The My Book World Edition II storage systems ship in Mirrored mode and use half the capacity for file redundancy.

With its media server capabilities and fast transfer speeds, this high-capacity system makes it simple to build a centralized digital media library that everyone can easily share. Music, photos and videos can be streamed directly from the My Book World Edition II storage system to any PC, Mac or connected DLNA® media player (such as TVs, Microsoft® Xbox 360 and Sony® PlayStation®3 game consoles or wireless digital pictures frames) using the integrated UPnP (Universal Plug and Play) media server and iTunes® Music server software. Users can also securely access their files from anywhere in the world through the Internet using the free MioNet® remote access service included with every My Book World Edition II storage system.

"Families have more and more digital media like movies, photos and music to store, share and protect. Having two drives inside the My Book World Edition II network storage system, instantaneously and automatically duplicating data, offers consumers the peace of mind of double safe, real-time protection of their valuable content," said Dale Pistilli, vice president of marketing for WD's branded products group. "Families can relax knowing their valuable media is backed up while enjoying the ability to stream their content to a plethora of different devices from PCs and Macs to PS3s, Xbox 360s and the latest connected TVs."

Price and Availability

The new My Book World Edition II network storage systems are available now in 2 TB and 4 TB capacities at select retailers and WD's online store (www.shopwd.com). MSRP for the My Book World Edition II dual-drive storage system with 4 TB is $699.99 USD and 2 TB is $399.99 USD.

How is it so tiny? The SS-839 uses 2.5-inch SATA drives instead of the clunky 3.5s you find in desktops (and most NAS systems).

But beyond its compact 4TB capacity, the SS-839 features plenty of performance enhancers, like a low-voltage Atom N270 1.6GHz processor, 2GB of RAM and 2 eSATA ports along with 5 USBs. Fully loaded with 8 hot-swappable hard drives, the system sips on just 34W—a handy side effect of its netbook/notebook components.

There's no word on pricing yet, but QNAP has more networking specifics over at their site. [QNAP and BW]

The 8TB model joins the 4big Quadra series—a 4-bay RAID solution that features swappable disks and seven RAID modes—that boasts transfer speeds up to 700MB/s and capacities as big as 32TB. The hard drives with higher capacities, like the 8TB, are also just bundles of smaller drives placed together.

Available in the May and starting at $1,199, the 8TB LaCie 4big Quadra Bundle will include two 4TB 4big Quadras, an eSATA II PCI Express Card and 4 ports. The 16TB and 32TB—besides having higher capacities—come with everything the 8TB bundle contains, as well as LaCie Rescue Kits, which consists of spare hard disks and power supplies. [Lacie via Engadget]

RAID sounds like vaguely scary, like something you to do a French village if you're a Viking or what you do on a Saturday night if you're a lonely, sad person, but really it just stands for redundant array of independent disks. Which really just means a bundle of hard drives acting like one superharddrive. There are a few of different kinds of RAID configurations and they do different things—one kind gives you crazyfast performance, another makes your storage safer than a single hard drive acting alone via redundancy.

The most likely place you're going to run into RAID—if you're not familiar with it already—is when you jump into the world of network attached storage, aka NAS, providing a huge bank of hard-drive goodness for storage, backup and media streaming across all of your home or office computers and devices.

But okay, let's jump into the basic kinds of RAID setups, known annoyingly as levels, even though they are mostly different. If you wanna skim, the ones you should know are RAID 0, RAID 1, and RAID 5.

• RAID 0 is all about performance, employing what's called striping, where data is broken up into fragments and written across multiple drives, sort of treating them as one giant drive. Let's assume we've got a setup with four hard disks. The performance edge comes from the fact you're getting massive throughput—it's like going from one lane to four, since you're writing and accessing all four drives in parallel. It's for pros and crazies handling massive files, like HD video editing. The downside is that if even one of the hard drives fails, you lose everything. Every file is now incomplete. It's not technically RAID since there's no redundancy going on—possibly hence the zero. You need at least two disks for this.

• RAID 1 is the main configuration most novices should learn about. It writes, or mirrors, data to multiple disks, so you've got multiple hard drives that are exactly the same. Obviously, this is good for data reliability, since if one fails, you've got another. If you don't have an independent disk controller or host adapter for disk, however, performance can be kind of crummy trying to write to the disks simultaneously, and performance isn't going to be as good as a striped RAID configuration, obviously. On top of that, you have to buy two 500GB disks just to get 500GB of storage, so it gets a little costly, too. Safety first! You need at least two disks here.

• RAID 2 stripes data like RAID 0, but at even smaller level (bits instead of blocks) and uses additional hard drives and what's called Hamming code for error protection and parity which allows it to recover corrupt data. Guess what? No one uses it anymore, because it requires a ridiculous number of disks.

• RAID 3 stripes data across multiple drives as well, but at the byte level, and it has a single disk dedicated to data parity and error correction. Because of the byte level split, all the drives work together simultaneously as one unit, which means it can only do one one read or write operation at a time. Pretty rare to see, and nothing you, Joe Q. Consumer have to worry about. It's good for high transfer rates (again, HD video editing comes to mind) with a measure of security that you don't get with RAID 0, since you can lose a disk and still be okay. You need at least three disks for this party.

• RAID 4 is a striping+parity disk setup too, but at the larger block level, so disks can be more independent, and you can have multiple read operations in different places going on. Since you're only using a single disk for parity, which has to be written to every time you write data, you can still only have one write operation going on at a time. Three's the magic number of disks here too.

• RAID 5 is where much of the NAS in a box action is today if you're not rolling with RAID 1, and tries to offer the best of all RAID worlds—performance and redundancy—by combining the various configurations. It stripes data across multiple hard drives, but instead of just dumping parity data onto a single drive, it spreads it across all of the hard drives too, meaning there's no bottleneck from writing parity data. (Though writing parity data is still kind of a drag.) In this configuration, you can lose one hard drive and be okay, since that drive's parity data is on a different disk. Sadly, there's some concern about its probability for failure over the next year as hard drives increase in size and the system expands. Three disks gets you in the door.

• RAID 6 is like RAID 5, but it uses two disks for parity and correction which are setup so that if one of the drives bombs out during data recovery, the system keeps on chugging. Obviously, you need one more disk than RAID 5, making the minimum four.

• Beyond the standard RAID levels, you've also got the multiples: RAID 1+0 and 0+1. In RAID 0+1, you take a set of drives that striped in RAID 0 configuration (so they're acting like one hard drive) and then you mirror them in a RAID 1 setup, so you get some redundancy. So if you've got a pair of RAID 0 drives, you'd be mirroring them, for a total of four drives. RAID 1+0 is the reverse: It stripes across a set of mirrored drives. With hard drives getting cheap, the army of hard drives you need to make this happen is easier to get going, so you might see more of it.

Just to be clear: RAID's not a total substitute for backup. For average internet geek people, the best way to think about RAID is as a way to more reliably store a large bank of data (which we all have now with photos, videos, music and more) with extra protection against physical hard drive failure. You can still totally lose an entire RAID array via virus or accidentally overwriting it.

If you buy networked storage in a box, like from Western Digital, you'll typically have options for RAID 1 or RAID 5—which one you pick decides on what's more important to you. Total redundancy for more reliability or a combination of performance and reliability. Lifehacker has a step-by-step guide to building your own RAID array in your computer for some more hands on how to advice, and if you need some help picking your network storage solution, we've got you covered there too.

Still something you still wanna know? Send any questions about raids, WoW or hard things to tips@gizmodo.com, with "Giz Explains" in the subject line.

The miniNAS, as you would expect, uses a pair of 2.5-inch laptop drives (up to 500GB each), which are wrong for an NAS for a number of reasons, primarily their lack of speed when compared to 3.5-inchers. At least your data will be backed up, with both RAID 0 and RAID 1 as an option.

Also packed in is a DLNA server for iTunes and multimedia streaming, a USB port for backing up USB volumes, and, in the only benefit of the laptop drives I can see, a claim of 25-30% of the power usage of a full-size dual-disk NAS.

But again, don't buy this unless you live, literally, in a closet. [Thecus via Engadget]

The new 8TB model is available as of this week for $1,700, which is a lot of money for a networked storage device until you do the math: 12 cents per GB. That ain't too shabby.

The ShareSpace is DLNA Certified for media streaming to devices like the Xbox 360 and PS3, and features improved read/write speeds of up to 30% for large media files. Current ShareSpace owners can download a firmware patch to get these improvements for themselves.

It's pricey, yes, but if you get this thing configured as a RAID array and load it up with all of your music and video, it'd be the ultimate centralized streaming storage box for your home. I want one. [Western Digital]

Barracuda owners who flashed their disks with the firmware found that after they rebooted, they'd receive a system disk failure error message. Backups, if they were stored on the same drive that was flashed, also became unavailable.

If you have a Barracuda hard drive, best follow this forum thread to keep updated on news from Seagate. Hopefully, the next "fix" they release isn't such a mess. [Slashdot]

The 2big with its two bays and a max capacity of 3TB has four RAID modes including RAID 0, RAID 1, and a hot swap feature. Transfer rates can reach up to 165MB/s through eSATA and if you don't use eSATA than you should be covered with any connection type you do use since the its also got FireWire 800, 400 and Hi-Speed USB 2.0.

As usual with LaCie's drives the 2big Quadra is stackable, rackable, daisy-chainable, and even expandable. Expect availability this month in 1TB, 2TB and 3TB sizes with a starting price of $299.

LaCie 2big Quadra: Two Bays for Custom Performance and Protection

January 6, 2009

* Up to 3TB* for backup and digital library management
* Four convenient RAID modes
* Two hot-swappable drives for non-stop data access
* Quadruple interface for universal connectivity

Today LaCie unveils the 2big Quadra, a new two-bay RAID solution with up to 3TB of capacity for high speed-demanding applications, as well as for backup and storage use. With four RAID modes including RAID 0 and RAID 1, and a convenient hot-swap feature, it offers optimal performance and data protection.

Developed for maximum speed, the 2big’s native RAID controller preserves computer resources and provides professional workstations with lightning-fast data transfers, which reach up to 165MB/s** through eSATA 3Gbits/s in RAID 0. It also integrates perfectly with most applications that demand high speed, such as photo and pre-press processing or audio/video projects, including HDV post-production.

“Like its big brother the 4big Quadra, the LaCie 2big Quadra is the most complete two-bay solution of its category,” said Arnaud Prézelin, LaCie Product manager for Creative Pro Solutions. “Its four RAID modes and outstanding performance make it the perfect choice for backup and digital library management, as well as for SDV and HDV projects.”

In addition to offering protection through a full RAID 1 mode with hot-swappable disks for non-stop data access, the 2big Quadra also features a convenient Mixed mode. This mode provides both a RAID 0 partition for daily working data and a RAID 1 partition to archive important files. As a complete RAID storage solution, the 2big Quadra is compatible with Time Machine™ and comes with Genie Backup Manager Pro™ and Intego Backup Manager Pro™ for customizable backups and a computer recovery option.

Designed by Neil Poulton, the 2big is housed in a sturdy aluminum body that ensures reliable heat dissipation and quiet operation. Developed to enhance any workstation thanks to universal connectivity through eSATA 3Gbits/s, FireWire 800 and 400 and Hi-Speed USB 2.0, it is also stackable, rackable and even daisy-chainable through FireWire for optimal use of space, as well as expandibility.

Availability
The LaCie 2big Quadra will be available in 1TB, 2TB and 3TB in January through the LaCie Online Store or LaCie resellers starting at the suggested retail price of $299.99 (excluding VAT). For more information, visit www.lacie.com.

The Hard Disk MAX includes two 1TB disk drives that can be set in either a RAID 0 or RAID 1 configuration. A front USB 2.0 port can link it to another external drive for data backups, and a blue LED stripe will change to red if potential problems come along.

Hard Disk MAX ships with LaCie setup software, Genie Backup Assistant for PC and Intego Backup Assistant for Mac. With the $270 price tag, you'll also get a year of online backup service.

LaCie Hard Disk MAX: Expanding More Than Just Capacity

* Simple and efficient dual-disk USB storage
* RAID for high-performance and maximum reliability
* Hub port feature
* Complete software bundle for easy formatting and backup

Today LaCie announced its Hard Disk MAX high capacity storage system for users who want advanced RAID features with consumer-level ease of use and style. Designed exclusively for LaCie by award-winning industrial designer Neil Poulton, the Hard Disk MAX delivers 2 TB (terabytes) of ultra-reliable storage capacity in a stunning package that will satisfy high-performance requirements for the discriminating user.

The Hard Disk Max includes two large-capacity disk drives that can be set in either a RAID 0 or RAID 1 configuration with the simple flick of a switch on the back panel. RAID 0 stripes data across both disks for the fastest data retrieval response time, while RAID 1 mirrors data exactly on both disks for maximum data reliability.

"Our Hard Disk Max is the ideal mass-storage product for users looking for high performance and data protection," said Lise Manteau, LaCie's Consumer Hard Disk Drive Product Manager. "Its elegant design and ease of use, combined with its competitive price, will appeal to users who have ever-growing data storage requirements."

Users can effortlessly configure the pair of high-speed 1 TB drives in the RAID setting of their choice. Included with the Hard Disk Max is the LaCie Setup Assistant for quick, easy and customizable formatting of the disk drives. The system also ships with Genie Backup Assistant for PC and Intego Backup Assistant for Mac.

The front USB 2.0 expansion port on the sleek, all-black polished-mirror enclosure can be used to link to another external drive for data backups. The multi-purposed blue LED stripe provides ambient light and changes to red to warn of potential problems.

The Hard Disk Max comes with the exclusive LaCie One Year Unlimited Online Backup service, which provides unlimited online backup for one full year after installation is a complete.

Availability
The LaCie Hard Disk MAX designed by Neil Poulton is available worldwide through the LaCie Online Store or LaCie Resellers at the suggested retail price starting at $269.99 USD. For more product information, visit www.lacie.com.

About Neil Poulton
Neil Poulton was born in Thurso, Scotland. A graduate in Industrial Design from Edinburgh University and Milan's Domus Academy, Poulton first came into public view in 1989 as the creator of "the ageing pens," pens made from a "living," wearing plastic that changes color and form with use. Today, Neil Poulton designs and develops best-selling, award-winning products for a variety of international clients including LaCie & Artemide. Since 1991, Poulton has lived and worked in Paris, France. www.neilpoulton.com

About LaCie
Located in the US, Canada, Japan, Australia, Europe, Singapore and Hong Kong, LaCie is the leading manufacturer of computer peripherals for PC, Apple and Linux users. LaCie creates external storage solutions and color monitors that help professionals and everyday users easily manage their digital lives. LaCie has differentiated its products through original designs and leading-edge technology. Established in France in 1989, LaCie is listed on Euronext under FR0000054314 (LAC). For more information, visit www.lacie.com.

Each side of the sign, designed by D3 LED, requires a 48-drive RAID pumping data at a rate of 3.2GB/second to a custom-built PC. From there, the data is fed through graphics cards to multiple DVI pipes, which lead to six DVI pixel splitters (known as a Spyders). The splitters take video data of a specific resolution and upscale it to the size needed for the display. Once the data is crunched and formatted for the sign, it's sent out via 4Gbps ethernet to one of more than 12,000 display modules that make up the ginormous billboard.

Each module is a mini-computer, complete with MAC address, redundant 4-gigabit ethernet ports, power supply and a fan. Each panel can report all kinds of vital statistics, including its temperature. If there's a problem, the panel reports itself to the main computer for easy troubleshooting. (Like a good communist, it can report problems with its neighbors, too.) The majority of the electronics are accessible from inside, so dangerous repair jobs on scaffolding suspended over Times Square are a thing of the past.

The sign's modules are split into three sections, low-, medium- and high-resolution grids based on their distance from the street. (Why waste pixels for objects way high up?) The top, as you probably guessed, has the largest pixels, at 24mm, while the middle has 12mm and the bottom has 10mm.

The animators are faced with a tough challenge when creating content for the signs, as they must keep the different display sizes in mind so the animation appears cohesive throughout the sections. To help out the animators, sign creator D3 LED made a virtual copy of it that is 10,000 pixels high by 4,000 pixels wide, the equivalent of 43 megapixels. (It's 20 times the resolution of HD, too.) They use an Adobe After Effects template to help coordinate placement of the animations on the slash-shaped sign.

As previously reported, a single 30-second spot on the billboard requires a staggering 150GB of data transferred through the system. But before you accuse D3 and Walgreens of hogging all of the power in New York, they attest that they are not. With the Con Ed bill in mind, their design reduced unnecessary copper wiring by over 300,000 feet and increased the voltage for more efficient power. They also set up an auto-dimmer (like you might have on your laptop) that adjusts the luminosity of the LEDs based on the ambient light outside. All of this makes it not necessarily cheap but at least cheaper than you'd think to operate.

The Walgreens sign is a complex, fascinating testament to the sheer power of LED displays. While most people living in New York avoid Times Square exactly because of things like this, tourists will undoubtedly flock to the center to observe the sign up close, even though it can be seen from as far away as Bryant Park and the Port Authority. For now, it's something that even this semi-jaded NYC resident can appreciate. [Walgreens Sign on Giz]

Network-attached storage options are more abundant than ever, but jumping into the copious bush of NAS can be quite a task, especially if you want a system that plays nice with both PC and Mac. Macs have historically been an unreasonably complex challenge for many networking products, and NAS was no exception. Here I've assessed the usefulness of three different cash-conscious strategies for setting up a Mac-and-PC-friendly NAS: Building a NAS out of an old PC, using a router with an external USB drive and buying a dedicated product.

Maybe you're wondering why you need a NAS at all. The answer is that you have too much stuff to not have one. How do I know? Because even my parents have a billion photos on their hard drive, and they know nothing of BitTorrent and Handbrake. An NAS sits there in a corner, a blinking, quietly purring guardian of all those song, video and photo files. It holds it all, streams it to just about anything else on the network, and even keeps a redundant copy safe on a separate mirrored RAID drive in case the shit really hits the fan. So yeah, you need one.

Here are the three systems I pieced together:
• My DIY system was concocted using FreeNAS software and an older ThinkPad I had lying around. This was technically the cheapest of the bunch.
• My router-based system was an AirPort Extreme with attached WD and LaCie USB drives, which was also "recycling" but cost a bit more.
• The dedicated NAS appliance I tested was a two-drive Synology DS207+, $330 for the box but the drives themselves are sold separately.

To evaluate the usefulness of each financial step up, I used three main criteria: Overall performance, availability of redundant data via RAID 1, and whether it's possible to add in features like media streaming, remote access or integrated BitTorrent.

In a mixed Mac/Windows environment, the main performance factor for Macs is support for Apple File Protocol for connecting network shares. AFP support is becoming more and more common in nicer NAS rigs, but it is still not a given in the cheaper range—every NAS alive supports SMB/CIFS, the more Windows-friendly protocol, so PCs generally don't have a problem. While Macs can connect to NAS using SMB—and also NFS Unix, which you may also run across—performance wise, OS X's SMB implementation is still shoddy compared to the apparently seamless AFP. (SMB also includes foibles such as filename length restrictions that can throw a Mac into fits.) If you're using an NAS to its highest potential, moving a lot of data around, SMB will cause more spinning death wheels and system hangs in OS X than AFP will.

It's up to you whether you want to go RAID 1 or not—you can also merge or stripe the drives for more storage but less protection. For me, redundancy is a must. I want to be able to give a NAS's drives a workout and still breathe easy in the not entirely unlikely event of a drive blow-out. NAS add-ons like BitTorrent, remote access and integrated UPnP are nice higher-end features, but they may not be as important to you.

DIY NAS With FreeNAS
I took an old IBM ThinkPad X31 I had lying around and installed FreeNAS—an open-source operating system based on FreeBSD that is similar to the OS you'll find in most NAS boxes. It offers similar features like RAID if the machine it's installed on has multiple drives, and can do UPnP, FTP access and the like via a web-based admin panel just like most dedicated rigs.

Initial installation is actually not too tough—just burn the FreeNAS live CD and boot it, then follow the install instructions. FreeNAS will re-format your drives to the somewhat obscure UFS file system it prefers (don’t try to run it on already-formatted drives, it’s not worth the immense hassle). I was up and running with AFP and SMB sharing without too much sweat. Like Linux, FreeNAS runs on a ton of hardware, so unless you’ve got something obscure you’ll likely be in business.Verdict: If you're heavy on outdated PCs and you derive pleasure from thrift and tinkering, you should give FreeNAS a try. That said, don't expect your pig in lipstick to be a screamer. Most aging desktops would be an improvement over my 5-year-old laptop with its slow 2.5” disk, obviously, but even considering that, my real-world tests were pretty rough. Browsing large folders of files hung the system on numerous occasions, and streaming of video files (especially seeking) was choppy. As far as extras go, my PS3 recognized FreeNAS's UPnP server but could not read any media, which would probably take some serious hackery to diagnose. Extras like an integrated BitTorrent client are available as well as open-source add-ons, but again, expect some heavy tinkering. Still, if you have unused hardware, try this option first.

Total Cost: Free, ideally; factor in $150 bucks for a few new drives.

Router with Shared External USB Drive
I've had bad luck in my previous, brief attempts at attaching USB storage to routers—rough performance and dropped connections abounded. This was with a few older non-Apple 802.11g routers, but naturally, I assumed the AirPort Extreme base station's AirPort Disk feature for connecting external drives was going to suck as bad. I was wrong.

Verdict: In day-to-day use for media storing, sharing and streaming, the AirPort Disk works pretty much without a hitch. I connected both a WD MyBook Mirror with RAID 1 and an older LaCie 300GB single-disk drive. In both cases, setup took literally 15 seconds after plugging in the drive—there are only a few config options to deal with in the AirPort Utility app to set access controls—and after that, it appeared as a shared volume source on Windows machines and Macs automatically. Browsing files and loading music in iTunes loaded without any noticeable difference from when my library was connected via USB, and streaming large video files to a PS3 with UPnP was skip-free.

Total Cost: $200 WD MyBook Mirror 1TB + $165 for AirPort Extreme on Amazon, so you're looking at $365. Chances are, you already have a USB drive and maybe even the AirPort, so the cost goes down considerably. (I do recommend acquiring a RAID 1 dual-drive, though.) Keep in mind, part of this sunk cost includes a solid 802.11n router, which you need anyway. There are, of course, several other 802.11n routers from the networking biggies that offer a USB connection for sharing. If you've had a good experience with any of these when connecting via both PCs and Macs, let us know in the comments.

Dedicated NAS
A ready-to-go NAS is the most obvious choice for adding network storage, but it can also be the most perilous. Go too cheap, and your box probably won’t support the Mac-tastic AFP. And even if it does, its performance may still be under par and its add-on features may not be good enough to warrant the added expense.

One of the most affordable AFP-equipped, well-reviewed NAS devices is the Synology DS207+ which, at $330 before you even buy the drives, isn't cheap at all. (If you don't have some drives lying around, the total cost will approach $500.) I picked it because, according to NAS aficionados like the folks at Small Network Builder with their handy NAS Charts, it yielded the best value in what I was looking for. Above the improved compatibility, it throws in tasty perks like a BitTorrent manager for downloading directly to the NAS, UPnP for streaming to a compatible TV or PS3, and a nice web-based control interface you can access from anywhere.
Verdict: Performance was the sour note here, surprisingly. While a large file transfer took roughly same amount of time as it did on the other configurations, doing things that required many quick reads, like opening my iTunes music folder with thousands of artist subfolders in Finder, took days on either a MacBook Pro via AFP, or a PS3 via UPnP. Using iTunes to locate the source MP3 file of a song playing hung up the Finder for so long it crashed. Loading a photo library in Aperture or Lightroom was equally painful, with frequent stalls.

I shouldn’t fully write-off an unseen quirk with my particular network setup. The folks at Synology thought everything sounded kosher, but did point out that the AirPort Extreme router I used for testing does not support jumbo frames (a way of optimizing gigabit ethernet traffic) so some gains could be reaped there with a different router. Also, much of my testing was done over 802.11g—browsing on a wireless N connection may fare better, although slowness was apparent on both the PS3 and my laptop when both were connected via gigabit ethernet, which should be blazing.

Dedicated NAS systems do provide extras such as UPnP, remote access via FTP or SSH, a built-in web server, and more. Still, your computer can already handle those just as well. With the drive attached as a network volume, your computer can act as the conduit even if it’s got nothing stored locally, serving media via a local UPnP server (like Tversity for Windows or MediaLink for OS X) and giving remote access to a local drive. A built-in Torrent client is the one I could see being useful, so if you’re a heavy Torrenter, consider that.

Total Cost: $330 for the NAS + approximately $160 (2 x 500GB drive) = $490. Yes, you can go cheaper (especially if you only need a single drive), but you will likely lose the Mac's AFP speed advantage.

Final Verdict
The quickest and simplest route out of the three is definitely an AirPort Disk, and it’s also, somewhat surprisingly, a performance winner in my real-world testing. Still, on a different network setup—if your primary machines are wired, for instance—the results could swing heavily back toward a dedicated box like the DS207+, so this isn't to say dedicated rigs should be written off completely. It’s important to pick the best performing NAS for your setup, but do it while sticking to our strategy: Start by spending as little as possible; if you’re unsatisfied, move up in baby steps.

And yes, Windows-only networks don’t have to jump through quite so many hoops when it comes to network storage, since SMB/CIFS support is the default in low-cost boxes, which works just fine in a Windows-only environment. If you don’t have a network with both Macs and PCs, there are a number of different routes you can take here that may be cheaper or more suited to what you need. Our three options offer a good balance of performance while keeping both platforms (and Linux, too) relatively happy.

NAS-land can get pretty crazy, and subject to the particular interactions of each person's own gear, so by all means throw in your own experiences and recommendations in the comments, and further help folks who are jumping into the NAS game for the first time.

Other features include support for DLNA, NFS and SMB multimedia sharing and a 1TB single SATA hard drive on the TS-109 (2TB with an external eSATA or USB drive) or 2TB for the TS-209. Unfortunately, No pricing or release date information has been announced.

From the press release:

QNAP Announces Next Generation 500MHz CPU+256MB DDRII TS-109 Pro/TS-209 Pro II Turbo NAS Series

Taipei, Taiwan, April 2008 - The leading network-attached storage (NAS) provider QNAP Systems, Inc. today unveils the next generation Linux-embedded one-bay and two-bay NAS: TS-109 Pro II and TS-209 Pro II for power users, SOHO, and business users. The TS-109 Pro II and TS-209 Pro II series adopts high performance Marvell 500MHz CPU and 256MB DDRII large memory, which is a double of the memory size of the previous generation (TS-109/209 series) and becomes the best hardware specifications in the present SOHO NAS market. The Turbo NAS maintains superior system performance even if there are multiple accesses to various network services of the server concurrently. The new models are equipped with enhanced software functions, including the new BitTorrent download engine, built-in Joomla! CMS 1.5.1 for ease of PHP/MySQL-based web server hosting and upgraded TwonkyMedia version 4.4.4 for DLNA compliant media playing. Other professional features such as HDD S.M.A.R.T., complete log system, schedule backup from NAS to external storage device, etc. are also available. TS-109 Pro II and TS-209 Pro II series is the ideal choice of high performance and energy-saving NAS for modern business and home users.

Upgraded BT engine for high-speed download
Besides the outstanding hardware specifications, the BitTorrent download performance of TS-109 Pro II and TS-209 Pro II series is largely enhanced. The high-speed DHT mode and TCP/UDP tracker protocols are supported to overcome the drawbacks of slow download of general embedded systems. You can now enjoy the level of P2P download speed as PC-based BT download. The optional firmware with encrypted BT is also provided on QNAP website for users who are suffered from traffic shaping by ISP to increase the download speed! QNAP also provides the remote management software-QGet to allow you to manage the download tasks of multiple NAS servers remotely over the local network or the Internet. According to Mr. Laurent Cheng, Product Manager from QNAP, "Most power users are used to using PC for BT download. However, PC-based BT download is energy-consuming and the fan is always noisy. As the performance of embedded system improves and evolves, we strongly believe that QNAP's energy-saving Linux embedded NAS will become an alternative solution to replace PC as a download server."

Supports DLNA, NFS, SMB multimedia sharing to set up the home multimedia centre
QNAP NAS is the NAS device with the highest compatibility with tens of different DLNA media players, Sony PS3, and Microsoft Xbox360 gaming consoles. With the upgraded TwonkyMedia version 4.4.4, the popular DivX video can be streamed to Sony PS3 from NAS. Users can enjoy more of the music, photos, and video sharing function in the home network. Moreover, the Turbo NAS Pro series works well with NFS supported High-Definition (HD) DMA for HD video streaming. They can also be connected to XBMC (modded from Xbox gaming console) via SMB for media playing. The high compatibility, energy-saving and reliable features have made QNAP NAS the first choice for setting up the digital home multimedia centre.

Feature-rich NAS for modern business
The advanced functions which are only available in enterprise-level NAS models are now supported in QNAP Turbo NAS series. The HDD S.M.A.R.T. (Self-Monitoring Analysis and Reporting Technology) is supported for users to monitor the status of hard disk drive and check the potential problems. The comprehensive log system allows administrator to track the file-level connection logs and the status of all online users. The Turbo NAS provides numerous built-in functions which can be easily managed via the web interface, e.g. network storage, file server, encrypted FTP server, encrypted remote replication, printer server, etc. The intelligent backup software NetBak Replicator is also offered for users to back up data from multiple Windows PCs to the NAS. Also, Windows AD authentication is supported for efficient user account management and reduced maintenance cost.

About QNAP TS-109 and TS-209 Turbo NAS
QNAP TS-109 series supports up to 1TB single SATA hard drive. The total storage capacity can be expanded to 2TB with an external eSATA or USB drive. With the unique fanless design and aluminum alloy case, the noiseless TS-109 is suitable for operation in digital home environment. Moreover, the power consumption rate of TS-109 is less than 14.4W under normal operation. This energy-saving design enables the server to run 24x7 non stop. TS-109 series supports 12-in-1 complete functions and high transfer performance. TS-109 Pro was honored the "The Best NAS Box" from MAXIMUMPC (US), "Lord of NAS" from Hexus (UK), and "Golden Bear Award" from Bjorn3D (US) etc.

QNAP TS-209 series is the only 2-bay, RAID 1, hot-swappable NAS model in the current SOHO NAS market. With 12-in-1 functions, the maximum storage capacity supported is 2TB. TS-209 is a perfect large-storage and high security solution for home, SOHO, and SMB users. TS-209 Pro was honored "Gold Medal Award" from ComputerGEIL.dk (Denmark), Golden Award from InfoMods (France), and "Product of the Year 2007" from Hardware-TEST.dk (Denmark) etc.

PlayStation 3 owners who want to shove a bunch of DivX/XviD movies onto a server to stream to their consoles for HD movie action will be thrilled. Less thrilling is the price: $699 in May. Those features aren't cheap, nor are the smaller laptop drives they use to power it. Then again, for about $699 you could also get a Windows Home Server, which is quite full-featured but isn't nearly as compact. On the third hand, we're not sure why you would need a NAS to be all that compact unless you were living in a tiny apartment or wanted to sneak it through customs. [Buffalo]

Promise's VTrak E-Class RAID delivers a great combination of performance, features and value. When configured with Xsan 2 and Final Cut Studio 2, it can deliver up to 6 streams of 8-bit uncompressed high definition video, 22 streams of ProRes HQ compressed HD video and 26 streams of 8-bit uncompressed SD video at costs as low as $1.12 per GB.

"Xserve RAID is still available while supplies last and we will continue to sell the 500 and 750GB drive modules," said Apple's Anuj Nayar, "for new RAID purchases we recommend the Promise VTrack E-Class subsystem." However, if you try to buy an Xserve RAID in the Apple Store, you will be greeted with this message:

The item you have selected is currently not available from the Apple Store.

Please note that Apple cannot guarantee availability of any product.

So those purchases are probably limited only to resellers. There's not mention of Xserve RAID demise in Apple press release about the latest version of its Storage Area Network filesystem manager, which now allows for a single workstation to access multiple SANs at the same time. It is also "qualified to work with third-party RAID storage," just like the Promise RAID system.

Apple Introduces Xsan 2

CUPERTINO, California—February 19, 2008—Apple® today introduced Xsan® 2, the first major upgrade to its easy to use, high performance, enterprise class Storage Area Network (SAN) file system for Mac OS® X. Combining enhanced performance with Apple's legendary ease of use, Xsan 2 makes it easier for first time users to set up and quickly deploy a SAN; introduces MultiSAN, allowing users on a single workstation to access multiple SANs at the same time; is fully integrated with Mac OS X Leopard™ and Mac OS X Server Leopard and is now qualified to work with third-party RAID storage.

Administration tools have been completely redesigned in Xsan 2, making it easier than ever to set up and manage a SAN file system. Xsan 2 intelligently handles different data types, file sizes and usage scenarios for ideal performance. For example, administrators have the ability to pre-set volume workload settings for optimal streaming of all file types, from very large files, such as uncompressed HD video to small data center files. Xsan 2 includes a new feature, MultiSAN, for users who need to access multiple Xsan volumes from the same workstation or server, such as in newsrooms with separate SAN volumes for production and broadcast.

Xsan 2 is fully integrated with Mac OS X Leopard and takes complete advantage of core Mac OS X features, such as Spotlight™ to search across multiple SAN volumes. Xsan 2 also works seamlessly with Server Assistant in Leopard Server for easy setup and configuration of SAN volumes. Leopard Server features, such as iCal® Server, Mail Server and Podcast Producer, can now integrate with Xsan 2 to support clustered file systems, improving performance and scalability and reducing the impact of a service outage from the loss of any one server.

For the first time, Xsan 2 has been qualified with third-party RAID storage hardware. Along with Apple's Xserve® RAID, Xsan 2 supports third-party RAID solutions from Promise Technology in configurations tuned and optimized for Xsan, Mac OS X Server and Apple's professional applications.

Pricing & Availability
Xsan 2 is available immediately through the Apple Store® (www.apple.com) and through Apple Authorized Resellers for a suggested retail price of $999 (US) per node.

Apple has qualified Xsan 2 with Xserve, Mac® Pro and Apple Fibre Channel PCI-X cards. Xsan 2 requires Mac OS X version 10.5 or Mac OS X Server version 10.5 software installed and will support qualified Fibre Channel switches from vendors such as Brocade, QLogic and Cisco, and RAID storage hardware including Xserve RAID and Promise VTrak E-Class RAID subsystems.

Apple ignited the personal computer revolution in the 1970s with the Apple II and reinvented the personal computer in the 1980s with the Macintosh. Today, Apple continues to lead the industry in innovation with its award-winning computers, OS X operating system and iLife and professional applications. Apple is also spearheading the digital media revolution with its iPod portable music and video players and iTunes online store, and has entered the mobile phone market with its revolutionary iPhone.

[New storage RAIDThanks Jacob]