DSM-G600, DNS-3xx and NSA-220 Hack Forum

That's a good question. I've been pondering myself whether to purchase a new NAS. Key criteria would be: faster CPU & more RAM, faster network speed (the DNS is really slow despite it having Gbit). I'm also considering moving to a 4-bay device.
It's essential though that I can access it via SSH and compile my own software on the device.

If anyone's got a suggestion, let me know

If it was alone for the RAM and CPU the LaCie Networkspace 2 would be an option. It has 256MB RAM, and (I think) a 1GHz Arm cpu. It costs about 140 euro, including a 1TB disk.
Further it's relatively easy to get shell access. Just get out the disk, and change a few lines in the config files. (The OS, kernel and bootloader (uBoot?) are on harddisk).

Disclaimer: I don't own one myself, I just assisted in hacking one, via a forum.

Ok, I just ordered a MSI Wind Nettop 100 (atom barebone) for $15 more then a dnd-323.... off topic for the forum at  this point but  thought I would just let you know what I decided.

The unit has room for 2 drives but ships without RAM... but I had a 1G SODIMM DDR2 lying around so it's sweet!!! It's an actual PC so I might play with Windows server for educational purposes. For now looks like flexibility is no longer an issue, I can run anything I want on this puppy. It even comes with an internal Compact Flash socket so that the OS does not occupies any space on the drives...

Full Gigabit speed
Real print server
and then some...

I am happy. Thanks to Wortelsoft for the suggestion!
PEter

Last edited by peter_m (2010-02-23 22:03:29)

Haven't received it yet but tests show 34 to 36 watts with one HD + one DVD optical drive.... Unfortunately this system only fits 2 HD internally over SATA, but with the USB ports, it handle more but not at the same speeds as SATA...

Will post back once it's all up and running.

I have a SheevaPlug and am pretty happy with it.   I ordered it before learning about the DNS-323.

I originally had Ubuntu Server 9.04 on the Sheeva, but moved to Debian because Ubuntu is dropping support for armv5tel as of 10.  Debian is installed on a 2G SD card, using 1/3 of it.  I don't have any disks hooked up to the Sheeva, but I could attach one via USB.

I'm still noodling over what to do with this duo.  I like the low-power aspect of the DNS-323, complete with disk spin-down and the compact form factor.  I really like having two disks on my file server, one is a rsnapshot of the other and is swapped out monthly. 

Attaching two USB drives to the Sheeva will be tricky and incur added expense/power/clutter/failure-points of USB enclosures.  I would rather make the DNS a "dumb" NFS server and let the Sheeva mount the disks in the DNS via NFS and then do all other operations like rsnapshot, samba-serving, torrents, media serving instead.  The problem with that approach is the slow file serving performance on the 323.

Thanks for the pointer to the Wind Nettop 100.  (I have a Wind U120 netbook and am very happy with it.)  Interesting option.  But the reviews seem mixed with quite a few negatives.  Also looks hard to put two drives in.  Machine sort of looks like not-quite-a-media-server, not-quite-a-file-server, not-quite-a-home-theater-pc, but aimed at being a cheap desktop?  But having the low power, Atom, and choices for OS is interesting.  Love to hear more.