Here are the big advantages of NasLite over FreeNAS: (1) Considerably, and I mean -CONSIDERABLY- faster data transfers.
How much faster? Here's some Disc Wriggler scores: ------------------------------------------------------- Here's a snippet from my Diskwriggler tests using 500 HD frames under NFS. NASLite v2 is twice as fast as Freenas. Results are consistant with Samba as well. Server Protocol Test Timing "+/-" (lower is better) Naslite v2 NFS DW HD 500 Frames Write 78.58 Seconds FreeNAS 0.64 NFS DW HD 500 Frames Write 181.51 Seconds +102.93 Naslite v2 NFS DW HD 500 Frames Read 66.44 Seconds FreeNAS 0.64 NFS DW HD 500 Frames Read 147.22 Seconds+80.78 ---- Naslite v2 Samba DW HD 500 Frames Write 180.42 Seconds FreeNAS 0.64 Samba DW HD 500 Frames Write 342.14 Seconds +161.72 Naslite v2 Samba DW HD 500 Frames Read 66.44 Seconds FreeNAS 0.64 Samba DW HD 500 Frames Read 394.53 Seconds +328.09 ----------------------------------------------------------- Another link look at it: http://dan.bcapro.com/naspeed/index.htm (2) way better UI to have easier web based management. (3) This is the MOST important one: PORTABILITY. NasLite totally bypasses controller BIOS. I have picked up 1TB out of a PC that was a POC (Pentium II/400) which ran my NAS, and that machine shot crap. I moved it over to a Sempron 2500 Socket A, which is doing it now. All of my data stayed perfectly fine. I tried this with FreeNAS once, I had a machine I had setup with 400GB, and it shot craps. moved the drive over.. and all of the data was LOST. This is because FreeNAS works more on BIOS level trickery then a total bypass.. so your data is 100% portable on NasLite. Now, before I get comments of "hey, if it's crucial data, use better boxes.." that's true to a point, if I lose everything on my NAS right now, I'd really only lose TV shows. So I wouldn't be destroyed. Still, I wouldn't be happy. If it was something truly critical though, where I was investing a ton of money, I would still want NASLite just for the fact that if I'm going to do something where I want great read/write performance, I might as well shell the $20 for the right software to do it. I've played with a lot of NAS distros and firewalls with NAS attached, and I haven't found any that handle as much hardware or run nearly as fast as NASLite.
