Norco DS-520 home NAS is probably more server than you need

We're not certain what kind of home user needs a NAS solution this hardcore, but that's what Norco's targeting with the DS-520, a hot-swappable five-bay SATA II NAS that's actually a Celeron-M computer running your choice of Windows Home Server, XP, Linux, or "any other x86-based OS." The unit hits your network through the two Gigabit Ethernet ports, and you can configure the drives as RAID 0, 1, 5, 6 or JBOD arrays, and once you've maxed that out, the three eSATA ports and four USB 2.0 ports let you expand the system even farther. Those of you ready to max out your home networks are looking at dropping around $620 when this bad boy ships later this year.

[Randy @ Oct 6th 2007 8:58AM]

i was contemplating purchasing the readyNAS but think i like this better. this looks perfect for solaris x86.

[iczer2 @ Oct 6th 2007 9:32AM]

I have the ReadyNAS NV myself, and while the ability to run whatever OS you want is appealing, I find it hard to justify a move to this system when I'd lose the wonderful capabilities of X-RAID. There is something to be said when you can swap drives, and even run different capacity drives, in a RAID array. A hell of a lot easier to maitain than good ol' RAID 5 & 6.

[Randy @ Oct 6th 2007 9:44AM]

I'd run solaris on this for the iSCSI support. Last I looked, the readyNAS didn't do that. as for X-raid, I think ZFS would have that covered.

[iczer2 @ Oct 6th 2007 12:01PM]

As far as iSCSI support, yeah ,the ReadyNAS doesn't have it. And from what I've read on ZFS, it can do some of the things that X-RAID does (and more).

Although you do get a lot of flexibility with Solaris (or Linux or Windows Home Server for that matter), when it comes to simple usability the ReadyNAS is hard to beat. It has one of the better web interfaces I've seen among the home NAS's out there (Synology, D-Link, Linksys, etc.).

Sometimes it's nice to have something just work instead of fiddling around with it.

[Rob @ Oct 6th 2007 10:09AM]

Maybe I'm just ignorant, and willing to take the heat for it. But, is a Celeron-M the best choice here? I'm sure these units come at an extreme premium. Being the cheap bastard that I am, I want the biggest bang for the buck. Maybe a Core2Duo or something in that neighborhood would be better. Right?

[BigD @ Oct 6th 2007 10:24AM]

I was going to make an amateurish attempt at addressing this comment...but I think I'll let the professional ass-rippers handle it instead.

Cheers.

[Joseph @ Oct 6th 2007 10:32AM]

This device is meant to be a NAS and only a NAS. Therefore it doesn't need all the processing power to run a dozen other programs at once, so a single core processor is the best bang for the buck. As far as chip performance, I would say the most important is the RAID processor, followed by the NIC chipset, and lastly the general CPU. If the RAID is being done in software, that might explain why it's so cheap.

[TKWarrior @ Oct 6th 2007 11:14AM]

[bookmarking Norco website] This looks really promising for the hardcore set. And ever since Netgear bought Infrant, the ReadyNas prices have gone up (surprise). The price is out of my range for now, settling for a 2 bay Qnap NAS for the holidays. But it's hard to find any NAS with these features for a similar price. Can't wait for a review.

[Mike @ Oct 6th 2007 11:39AM]

Sounds sweet. The big question is performance, which really can only be ascertained through real world testing. But it's too bad that something with such nice specs has such an ugly as s**t design!

[iczer2 @ Oct 6th 2007 12:04PM]

Yeah, I especially like the eSATA ports, but I have to agree on the appearance. It is an ugly beast, but a beast nonetheless.

I wonder if Netgear will improve on the ReadyNAS line to add some similar capabilities or will the let it die? Sure hope its the former.

[John Barrera @ Oct 6th 2007 12:58PM]

This unit sounds identical to the Thecus N5200 Pro, same specs and everything. I just setup one for my work place because we needed something somewhat cheap to be able to handle video streaming from 15 clients at once. Needless to say it does a pretty good job at keeping up, although the support for the unit is non-existent; Even the menus and options pages have obvious spelling and grammar mistakes, but if you can make it past that, it's a nice box.

[Jon @ Oct 6th 2007 4:39PM]

As an owner of a ReadyNAS NV+ this intrigued me. But after digging a little deeper it looks like a small server chassis, not an off-the-shelf NAS. You need to bring your own OS and RAM before it will do anything. Still, it's an interesting piece of kit for running OpenFiler or FreeNAS.

[Paul @ Oct 6th 2007 8:29PM]

When I upgraded my computer I kept all my old parts and with some scrounging I put together a second computer. With some hard drives I had laying around I now have my own 600 gig NAS. All I had to buy was a computer case and it was free after a rebate.

But all in all, something like this would be pretty nice to have. My computer NAS has a kinda loud fan.

[kevyn @ Oct 8th 2007 11:10AM]

Does this mean that the price tag includes your choice of OS? ($620 for this unit with WMS sounds pretty damn good)

[Pilikiwi @ Oct 8th 2007 7:54PM]

looks like they are taking pre orders now.
http://www.ipcdirect.net/servlet/Categories?category=External+Storage%3A5+Bays+Desktop
(at the bottom of the page)
In the spec it says "Compatible " with windows and etc so I guess it doesnt come with OS.