Addonics Mini NAS: when RAID is too much to ask for
By Joseph L. Flatley 
posted November 17th 2009 9:39AM
posted November 17th 2009 9:39AM
If you're in the market for a single bay network drive, your options have certainly been piling up lately -- and now the kids at Addonics are premiering their aptly named Mini NAS. Billed as "the world's smallest," this guy is roughly the same size (and roughly as attractive) as a small hub, and it sports 10/100Mbps Ethernet, a 2.5-inch drive bay, a USB port for printer sharing, and support for SMB, Samba, and iTunes music sharing, FTP access (up to 8 simultaneous users), and a BitTorrent client. Yours now for $69. PR after the break.
Addonics Announces the Mini NAS, a Small Portable Network Storage Enclosure Solution That Provides Cross-Platform Access of Shared Data
SAN JOSE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Addonics Technologies (www.addonics.com) today announced a small and portable network storage enclosure solution called the Addonics Mini NAS. The new storage device provides fast access to data across most platforms.
Among its key features are a fast Ethernet 10/100Mbps connection and the ability to install any 2.5" SATA hard drive or Solid State Drive (SSD) and make it instantly sharable over the LAN. An USB printer can also be shared over the LAN simultaneously when attached to the Mini NAS.
The Mini NAS is the approximate size of a VHS tape cassette and weighs less than a pound. Its size makes it very portable and allows it to be installed in a small space.
The Mini NAS supports both SMB (Server Message Block) and open source Samba network protocols. This provides for cross-platform access of all shared data for most versions of Windows, Mac OS X, and various Linux distributions.
For remote users not connected over a LAN, the Mini NAS provides FTP access for up to eight simultaneous users anywhere in the world with an internet connection. In addition, the Mini NAS can be configured as a bit-torrent downloading appliance or as an iTunes media server.
Other features include ease of installation; low power requirements; the ability to be set as a DHCP server or client; support of Samba servers for up to 64 clients; support of FTP servers for up to eight clients, and the ability to be used as a print server and an UPnP AV server to share photo/music files stored on the file server with XBOX 360 video game consoles connected to a LAN.
The Mini NAS also provides read/only or read/write access to folders and administrative management access via web browser with password security.
List price starts at $69.
SAN JOSE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Addonics Technologies (www.addonics.com) today announced a small and portable network storage enclosure solution called the Addonics Mini NAS. The new storage device provides fast access to data across most platforms.
Among its key features are a fast Ethernet 10/100Mbps connection and the ability to install any 2.5" SATA hard drive or Solid State Drive (SSD) and make it instantly sharable over the LAN. An USB printer can also be shared over the LAN simultaneously when attached to the Mini NAS.
The Mini NAS is the approximate size of a VHS tape cassette and weighs less than a pound. Its size makes it very portable and allows it to be installed in a small space.
The Mini NAS supports both SMB (Server Message Block) and open source Samba network protocols. This provides for cross-platform access of all shared data for most versions of Windows, Mac OS X, and various Linux distributions.
For remote users not connected over a LAN, the Mini NAS provides FTP access for up to eight simultaneous users anywhere in the world with an internet connection. In addition, the Mini NAS can be configured as a bit-torrent downloading appliance or as an iTunes media server.
Other features include ease of installation; low power requirements; the ability to be set as a DHCP server or client; support of Samba servers for up to 64 clients; support of FTP servers for up to eight clients, and the ability to be used as a print server and an UPnP AV server to share photo/music files stored on the file server with XBOX 360 video game consoles connected to a LAN.
The Mini NAS also provides read/only or read/write access to folders and administrative management access via web browser with password security.
List price starts at $69.
2.5 makes it kinda fail, but still a nice nas box for 69 bucks. So this bittorent client, does it have like a web administration page or some specific software to administrate it? Might go pick one up it looks like quite a bargain...
2.5 makes it fail worthy...but your probably going to pick one up...I hate having to use dot dot dot is fail worthy but I have to use it to get my point across.
would have been nice if it has an eSATA so it would have an 'out' for HDD expansion on the fast.
Nice, I want this for Christmas.
Not really useful without gigabit. I have a 10/100 NAS enclosure, but I use it via USB because the upload rate was too slow. Worked fine for SMB shares to XBMC though...
You guys are missing the point, *pause*, It's $70, for NAS!
I paid $50CAD for my 3.5" ComGears FT-35ILAN NAS 2 years ago (how could anyone resist?). It's nice to have around, but not worth it without gigabit, for my needs at least.
http://www.comgears.com/en/nas.html
Sorry, I missed the part about the BT client for this Addonics NAS. That might actually make it worth something more. I wonder what client it's running.
After buying many of these (for 3.5" drives), I think the number one factor in my next purchase is going to be performance. Until then, I'll be using the current server setup.
No gigabit, and for $69? What, are they crazy?
Slow USB hard drive: 30MBps
This NAS: 10MBps (80Mbps, after some TCP/IP overhead)
You realize your paying a bit for the "worlds smallest" bullshit right? Not for 2.5 1TB SSD included, Teamed 4x1GB connections, wireless N, bluetooth, USB 3.0, eSATA, Win 7 w/ OS X SL patch...
Yes, but the cost of Gigabit v 100Mbit ethernet chips is practically negligible nowadays. Why do manufacturers still insist on making 10/100 Mbit routers, games consoles, even netbooks? Gigabit ethernet is particularly important in a NAS, no matter how small or cheap.
The lack of gigabit ethernet is certainly annoying, just like the lack of it on some wireless N access points. Why bother having a nice fast device if you are going to gimp it with 10/100Mbps ethernet. 10MBps doesn't cut it for data traffic for most anything anymore.
the reason is that the cpu in this thing is not fast enough to take advantage of gigabit. They don't mention the speed on the page, but I would assume it is a low power arm. If you want a good gigabit nas you're getting into atom territory, and dropping a few bills for it.
NO gigabit??? Makes this good idea instantly obsolete...
I bought the Addonics USB to rj45 NAS dongle last year because it seemed like a neat and compact solution. It was, for about 10 minutes at a time. My guess is that it was overheating, because it came back to life after a few hours of unplugged R&R. Then it would die again. Poor return policy with Addonics as well. You get what you pay for...
Isn't SMB and Samba the same thing?
Kind of. It supports SMB via Samba.
Yes. And it supports both!
I think this is smaller:
http://www.canadacomputers.com/index.php?do=ShowProduct&cmd=pd&pid=026714&cid=NTW.791
Admittedly it doesn't include the drive in the box itself. But it's still smaller.
Nor can a drive be contained inside that device.
It's akin to the old Linksys NSL-U2, aka slug.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NSLU2
NFS?
Looks like FAT32 only - no xfs or zfs or anything remotely 1990s.
hum.... I don't get it... No Raid, no Gigabite Ethernet, no Wi-Fi, just one 2,5' bay... Isn't that just an expensive print server?
Dude, that's the whole point! No raid, no Gigabite Ethernet, no wifi, just one HD bay! Cheaper NAS. And I have a feeling that a print server doesn't serve files........ just printers.....
Although, gigabite ethernet would have been nice.
Please stop saying "gigabite". It hurts my soul.
Ripped scene content in the photos!
OK, for all the folks out there who are bagging on this one, help me find something similar that fills my needs:
I want a low-power single-drive NAS device with Gigabit ethernet that's relatively portable.
I already have a RAID NAS on the network that serves multiple machines. However RAID, as we are often reminded, is a hedge against the inevitable disk crash, NOT a backup solution. Therefore, I want a portable single-drive device that I can use to make weekly backups from the real NAS, then take offsite for storage elsewhere (my office @ work).
I really want a dedicated low-power device, not a removable drive tray in a linux box that I have to hang on the network with a 400W power supply humming away. Preferably, said device will also not be super expensive. If this Addonics thing had GigE, I'd be all over it.
Any ideas?
Look at the Intel NAS for $199 on newegg ( it was $149 this weekend.)
Hrm... According to the Datasheet: 4.8" x 16" x 13.23", and 14.57 lbs empty or 20lbs w/ 4 drives.
Not exactly portable...
For the same price, maybe I'll just get one of the Acer Revos and throw a bigger drive into it. Sure, I'll have to do more to configure the software, but at 7" square and
The Excito Bubba Two meets your criteria, and then some. Of course it's pretty expensive, too.
make it take a 3.5 drive and add NZBget to the web interface and im sold.
This one by IO-Data is just as small (if not smaller), and includes gigabit ethernet:
http://www.iodata.jp/product/hdd/lanhdd/hdlp-g/gallery.htm
http://www.iodata.jp/product/hdd/lanhdd/hdlp-g/spec.htm
Only available here in Japan though.
Not to beat a dead horse, but cheap gigabit chipsets are absolute crap. The same holds true for the routers/switches that serve them... or the PCI bus on the receiving end. There's a _lot_ spots where a bottleneck could occur.
In real world situations, I have seen a 2-3x speed increase when serving files from a USB 2.0 SATA drive over gigabit into memory (so I could exclude the write speeds on the receiving device)... not a huge difference, but helpful nonetheless.
Regardless, my point is there's a lot more to it than just having a cheap gigabit chip in there instead. And to be perfectly honest, 10/100 serves 1080p content fine to any extender in my house.