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What's the best NAS for a media server?
I'm looking for a NAS that supports UPnP/iTunes and will stream ripped DVDs to 3 Apple TVs. Needless to say it needs to be able to transfer files quickly over a Gigabit Ethernet connection. RAID 5 would be good, but RAID 1 would suffice. It would also be nice to have 2 USB 2 ports and an FTP and Web server.
I've done some research and am confused by my findings, so would welcome help from anyone who's knows anything about this area.
Network World's 3 highest ranked NAS's are:
1.Anthology Solutions Yellow Machine P400T, but it doesn't have a Gigabit Ethernet connection and no USB ports.
2.Buffalo Technology Terastation Pro, though this lacks user controls such as folder-access restrictions.
3.Netgear ReadyNAS NV, which is a bit more expensive than the others and lacks user controls such as folder-access restrictions. However in a PC World review the Netgear ReadyNAS NV was ranked first.
ZDNet rates highly:
-Iomega StorCenter Pro NAS 150d, especially for it's very fast read/write speeds, however it then goes on to suggest that the following 2 NAS's might be better for media serving.
-HP MV2020 MediaVault
-Buffalo Technology Terastation Home Server, -However In a PC World review the Buffalo Technology Terastation Live was rated last (fifth).
Interestingly, ZDNet rates the Maxtor Shared Storage Plus about fifth out of 6 in terms of read/write speeds (almost 50% slower than the Iomega, HP MediaVault and the Terastation, yet it makes the 'A-List' at PC Authority where it's given a glowing review, and it's ranked 2nd in a review of NAS's by PC World. Unfortunately the device doesn't have an FTP server, which would have been nice. It also doesn't support group accounts or user quotos.
And the there's NAS's such as the QNAP TS-109 which gets a good review from PC World, QNAP TS-209, Synology DS207, D-Link DNS-323 or Thecus.
So which would make the best media server?
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