http://www.engadget.com/2006/10/25/buffalos-hd-qsu2-r5-drivestations-2tb-and-yummy-esata/ Engadget Comments for Buffalo's HD-QSU2/R5 DriveStations: 2TB and yummy eSATA http://www.engadget.com/media/feedlogo.gif http://www.engadget.com en-us Copyright 2012 Weblogs, Inc. The contents of this feed are available for non-commercial use only. Blogsmith http://www.blogsmith.com/http://www.engadget.com/2006/10/25/buffalos-hd-qsu2-r5-drivestations-2tb-and-yummy-esata/http://www.engadget.com/2006/10/25/buffalos-hd-qsu2-r5-drivestations-2tb-and-yummy-esata/Oct 25th 2006 10:16AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2006/10/25/buffalos-hd-qsu2-r5-drivestations-2tb-and-yummy-esata/http://www.engadget.com/2006/10/25/buffalos-hd-qsu2-r5-drivestations-2tb-and-yummy-esata/Oct 25th 2006 10:51AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2006/10/25/buffalos-hd-qsu2-r5-drivestations-2tb-and-yummy-esata/http://www.engadget.com/2006/10/25/buffalos-hd-qsu2-r5-drivestations-2tb-and-yummy-esata/
Amazing that it has true RAID5 support and it's just direct attached HDD. Looks like it has USB and Firewire as well as eSATA.]]>Oct 25th 2006 11:36AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2006/10/25/buffalos-hd-qsu2-r5-drivestations-2tb-and-yummy-esata/http://www.engadget.com/2006/10/25/buffalos-hd-qsu2-r5-drivestations-2tb-and-yummy-esata/Oct 25th 2006 12:16PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2006/10/25/buffalos-hd-qsu2-r5-drivestations-2tb-and-yummy-esata/http://www.engadget.com/2006/10/25/buffalos-hd-qsu2-r5-drivestations-2tb-and-yummy-esata/
I want to be able to have it on the network so I can access it without having to perform a PC share, *and* be able to plug a local machine (like a laptop) into it via USB so I can just zap things on/off of it without having to put the laptop/other device on the network.

Is there a device that can do both, or am I stuck with having a dedicated share machine for this? Thanks!]]>Oct 25th 2006 10:55AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2006/10/25/buffalos-hd-qsu2-r5-drivestations-2tb-and-yummy-esata/http://www.engadget.com/2006/10/25/buffalos-hd-qsu2-r5-drivestations-2tb-and-yummy-esata/Can this run other server software, like slimdevices?]]>Oct 25th 2006 10:58AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2006/10/25/buffalos-hd-qsu2-r5-drivestations-2tb-and-yummy-esata/http://www.engadget.com/2006/10/25/buffalos-hd-qsu2-r5-drivestations-2tb-and-yummy-esata/Oct 25th 2006 11:36AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2006/10/25/buffalos-hd-qsu2-r5-drivestations-2tb-and-yummy-esata/http://www.engadget.com/2006/10/25/buffalos-hd-qsu2-r5-drivestations-2tb-and-yummy-esata/Oct 25th 2006 11:32AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2006/10/25/buffalos-hd-qsu2-r5-drivestations-2tb-and-yummy-esata/http://www.engadget.com/2006/10/25/buffalos-hd-qsu2-r5-drivestations-2tb-and-yummy-esata/Oct 25th 2006 12:46PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2006/10/25/buffalos-hd-qsu2-r5-drivestations-2tb-and-yummy-esata/http://www.engadget.com/2006/10/25/buffalos-hd-qsu2-r5-drivestations-2tb-and-yummy-esata/
That's how any RAID device works. All RAID arrays are block devices.

"in RAID 5, the more drives you use, the smaller percentage of space you "waste"."

but the write performance will always suck. Each write takes 2-3 disk revolutions to complete and only N/2 writes (at best) can occur simultaneously (where N is the total # of drives). RAID 1 performs much better and disks are cheap.

"I guess even numbers are nice for the 0/1 crowd, though."

They're slightly better for write throughput with RAID 5 as well.

Honestly, I have no idea why anyone is interested in RAID 5 for small numbers of disks and low capacity requirements. Disks are just too big and too cheap and there are too many single points of failure to accept such a cheap implementation of redundancy. RAID 5, though straightforward on paper, is complicated to get right in practice. I'd never (again) trust my data to it.

]]>Oct 25th 2006 12:52PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2006/10/25/buffalos-hd-qsu2-r5-drivestations-2tb-and-yummy-esata/http://www.engadget.com/2006/10/25/buffalos-hd-qsu2-r5-drivestations-2tb-and-yummy-esata/
RAID 5 (or 2, straight mirroring) is useful even for low-end users: as more people go digital for photos and max out their in-built PC drives, they need backup in case of failure. Disks may be cheap(ish) to replace, but the lost data might be irreplaceable.
I wouldn't worry for movies and the like which are available to (re)download, but I'd hate to lose my self-generated archives.]]>Oct 26th 2006 1:29AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2006/10/25/buffalos-hd-qsu2-r5-drivestations-2tb-and-yummy-esata/http://www.engadget.com/2006/10/25/buffalos-hd-qsu2-r5-drivestations-2tb-and-yummy-esata/
If you want cheap expansion, better to buy a mini-tower, add an eSATA card and RAID card, and then throw in some 500GB drives. At about $175/500GB drive and $400 for a low-end mini-tower with eSATA, you can save quite a bit. Plus, it'll be easily upgradable to 750GB drives when the price of those things comes down.]]>Oct 27th 2006 7:50PM