li Arc wrote: ↑I used to run a dedicated PC on old hardware for this, an Athlon 3200+ with 1GB RAM, onboard nVidia video, and 4 USB externals plugged into it, not counting the OS hard drive inside. I kept duplicating my most important files from external to external, with different pieces of important data housed across two different units, staggered across all 4 drives. Eventually, I found this setup ridiculous since everytime I added or removed some important files, I would have to update it across the drives, not to mention there was so much data that I kept losing track of where the data was on which drive. I decided to get the NAS on several bases:
1) Redundancy
2) Power Consumption
3) automation/print server
I am already familiar with 1), having run managed SCSI RAID systems in the past, and the software automation and print server were more nice-to-haves, but what I didn't realize was how significant the power savings were in comparison. Since the switch, I have regularly saved $30-40/month on my electricity bills, which basically paid for the NAS itself within a year. Hence, for the power savings alone, it's worth it. 18-28 watts power consumption on a board without drives isn't as impressive as 13-18 watts power consumption with a single drive, <45W with all 4 drives populated; most of these NAS's are capable of or can exceed that mark. If you go all out and try something like the DS411 slim and use 2.5" drives instead, you'll find the difference staggering.
In the midst of rising energy costs, scarcity of non-renewable energy, and the environmental impact of an ever increasing demand for energy, shouldn't we all do our part to find ways to reduce our energy footprint instead?
li Arc
Thanks for sharing li Arc.
Which is why I drive a 4-cylinder 1.7L car. That's where most of the energy savings is to be made (when filling up).
The Proliant though not as energy saving as your NAS, is much more energy-efficient than many boxes out there. My needs are not that great, simple file server and backup is enough but who knows what I will think of next.