I should qualify my original post, perhaps. I, too, have run all sorts of different music server scenarios. To address the issue of noise and power consumption, I used a VIA processor fanless mini-itx machine (I think it was a Hush technologies box). But the reason I am such a fan of the ReadyNas is primarily because it provides a great deal of functionality while reducing the complexity of running a PC (particularly one running windows). With all the storage-attached-to-computer scenarios I used, I always found that something would eventually fall down in the chain of products that had been strung together. For example, an OS problem, or a hardware component problem that had little to do with the storage components, or a corrupted driver, etc. As for electricity costs - yes, I was using a fast P4 server, which was not ideal for this task alone. I figured out the cost by turning everything off for a day, except the machine and looking at my electricity consumption for that day alone. I did this over a three day period and took an average.
Perhaps the ReadyNas is overkill for most people and not appropriate. I like the other features it offers - such as streaming video service. I like to put my video collection on the box and serve it to different players in the house. I like the fact that I can connect to it overseas using an encrypted https connection, browse and upload files, connect to the music server, stream video, etc. If I wanted to attached a terabyte of storage to anything else without putting it inside a computer (so I could easily connect it to another computer if the first one died) - I'd have to set up an external disk RAID box - which is, in effect, what the ReadyNAS is. So, to me, it's a much simpler and more elegant scenario. It's also easy to administer from a browser (which controls all the functions of the device) and, most importantly, the infrant support team keep adding features to it on a regular basis. A lot of companies don't. Anyway, that's my humble opinion on it all. -- slimditty ------------------------------------------------------------------------ slimditty's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=4829 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=22662 _______________________________________________ Discuss mailing list [email protected] http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
