Dlink DNS-323 or External Hard drive?

[James H]

Hi,

I am currently in the process of purchasing external storage for my mac mini and windows vista pc.

I'd like to know which of the following would be a better choice, DNS-323 NAS or an external HD with 1TB and FW800?

I plan on having all my pictures and videos on the external storage. I will use lightroom to create libraries from the drive. I'll also have my itunes library on it. Which of the two options will be faster for data transfer and streaming?

I also plan to access these files at the same time with my mac and my pc.


here are links to these products (I'm from Canada)

DLINK DNS-323 : http://www.directcanada.com/products/?sku=11280NW2968

I will add a seagate 7200rpm 1TB HD to it.

WD Hard Drive : http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=3595898&CatId=2427


thank you for your help.

[James H]

would the drobo be a good option too?

[saul]

For pure speed on the Mac side the WD via firewire 800 wins.

The WD can only attach to one computer at a time though so if you use it you will then have to set up file sharing between the two computers. So if you plan on turning the Mac off or letting it sleep then you should go with the NAS solution.

Also sharing files between PCs and Macs can get messy as some file formats don't quite work.

[James H]

I just thought of an option.

Can I get a FW800 external HD like the WD and us it on my mac, and also buy a dns-323 and then backup my files from the WD to my dns-323 so I can access the files with my pc?

I would like for my dns-323 to be in sync with my WD, is that possible?

thanks.

[Coldfire]

For pictures, the NAS is good enough. For videos, you suffer fatigue with the NAS, the FW800 external drive is better.

TBH, both storage solutions offer different solutions to different problems. NAS is useful for central storage and backup (with the correct software). With RAID-1, you are assured of HDD failure. For this reason, I (too) use the DNS-323 with 2x1TB in RAID-1 using Samsung and WD (GP) drives (just to be sure I am not hit with batch failures).

At the mo, I am sourcing a miniStack v3 so that I can use the FW800 connection - am getting tired of waiting for SuperDuper to complete its stuff.

[James H]

I went to apple store today and they suggested me to get a Time capsule instead. He told me to use the capsule for my pictures that way my pc can access them through gigabit ethernet which would still be fast. I can then get another external HD for my capsule backup.

What do you think about that option?

[Coldfire]

Problem with the TimeCapsule (he would not recommend anything else non-Apple?) is that if the HDD in it crashes, your data goes with it. Expensive product with a "fatal" flaw I would say. If Apple launches a similar product - wireless N plus RAID-1 storage - and does not cost an arm and a leg, then I start listing my DNS323 on eBay.

EDIT: one more thing - the DNS323 incorporates a iTunes server as well, something very attractive for distributing your music to your Macs.