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yet another AskHusi

By clover kicker (Sat Jan 06, 2007 at 06:32:00 PM EST) (all tags)

I bought myself a new digital camera for Festivus, thanks to Chuckles for the recommendation.

The nice big pics from my new camera are thrashing my home network - generating thumbnails and browsing pics is slow and annoying.

Is anyone running GigE on their home network?

My existing server is a P233MMX, entirely adequate for 100BaseT but I really wonder if she'll handle GigE.

I've got a P2-350Mhz box laying around, but is that enough extra horsepower to make a difference?

Both mobos are ATA/33, which isn't a bottleneck at 100BaseT but at GigE speeds might become a bigger drag than the pathetic CPUs.

Maybe I'm overcomplicating. Anyone recommend a consumer-level NAS?

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yet another AskHusi | 13 comments (13 topical, 0 hidden) | Trackback

There are some decent consumer by blixco (2.00 / 0) #1 Sat Jan 06, 2007 at 07:11:27 PM EST

NAS boxes out there, but you might be better served upgrading your server. Check to see whether it's really the network getting bogged, or the machine having to process the bits.

Systems are cheap.
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I accidentally had a conversation in italian at lunchtime. I don't speak italian. - Merekat

No there aren't by ad hoc (4.00 / 1) #2 Sat Jan 06, 2007 at 07:57:59 PM EST

There are no decent consumer level NAS boxes. At least not one I found. They all have no less than one fatal flaw.

I finally gave up and got an external USB drive housing and a big disk.
--
Hypocrisy is the resin that holds the plywood of society together
[ Parent ]

I'd think by blixco (2.00 / 0) #3 Sat Jan 06, 2007 at 08:00:38 PM EST

the biggest flaw would be: backup support.

But yeah, I'd go with upgraded server + big disks.
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I accidentally had a conversation in italian at lunchtime. I don't speak italian. - Merekat
[ Parent ]

: Flaws by ad hoc (4.00 / 1) #5 Sat Jan 06, 2007 at 10:17:28 PM EST

the biggest flaw I found was file system. For some weird reason, they either insist on FAT32 or some proprietary crap. FAT32 is bad because of the 2 (or is it 4?) GB file size limit. Norton Ghost backs up an entire disk in one file. Even zipped, it's bigger than 4 GB. The one I had (very very briefly) had no tools to tools to recover the disk if you "accidentally" put a >4GB file on it. You had to reformat it.
--
Hypocrisy is the resin that holds the plywood of society together
[ Parent ]

cheap cheap cheap by clover kicker (4.00 / 1) #4 Sat Jan 06, 2007 at 09:34:19 PM EST

I'm a pathalogical skinflint, or I wouldn't still be running this junk 24/7 as a server. That P233MMX chip/mobo must be 8 or 9 years old, it needs an AT power supply for fuck's sake...

It's still substantially more dough to buy a sensible mobo+RAM instead of a GigE NIC + IDE controller card for my existing junk.

The used market here SUCKS, a 1Ghz PIII system is still a couple hundred $CDN.

I've also got a mental block, I know damn well that ~200Mhz is a helluva lot of cycles for something as trivial as file+print. top(1) tells me that CPU is not the current problem.

[ Parent ]

Gigabit speed by blixco (2.00 / 0) #6 Sat Jan 06, 2007 at 10:47:11 PM EST

on your PCI bus? How quick is your bus?

You'll get very little....very very little....gain from gigE.
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I accidentally had a conversation in italian at lunchtime. I don't speak italian. - Merekat
[ Parent ]

good question by clover kicker (2.00 / 0) #8 Sat Jan 06, 2007 at 11:22:53 PM EST

PCI bus == 133MBps, which should juuuuust handle GigE.

I haven't benchmarked lately, but I can't imagine a single IDE hard drive is in the gigabit neighbourhood.

I don't really need a full GigE, but nobody sells 350BaseT.

[ Parent ]

: Are you sure by blixco (2.00 / 0) #9 Sun Jan 07, 2007 at 12:14:17 AM EST

you're at 133? Is it PCIx?
I'm pretty sure you're at 66mhz. Can you find a non PCIx, non-64bit PCI gigE card?
Seriously, you won't get much from it. But that's just my professional opinion.
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I accidentally had a conversation in italian at lunchtime. I don't speak italian. - Merekat
[ Parent ]
: Hey wait, by blixco (2.00 / 0) #10 Sun Jan 07, 2007 at 12:17:26 AM EST

there is a 32bit 33/66 card:
http://www.pcmall.com/pcmall/shop/detail~dpno~7071648.asp
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I accidentally had a conversation in italian at lunchtime. I don't speak italian. - Merekat
[ Parent ]

Cameras... by spacejack (2.00 / 0) #7 Sat Jan 06, 2007 at 10:51:42 PM EST

I love my Canon SD550, but this one looks pretty sweet. I'd use that for slightly more serious shots than my ultra compact, and as a nice hi-rez (10MP) scanner.

Although I'll probably wait another generation to see how much better resolution gets. ~$350 for a 10MP camera though, sheesh.

Solution by ShadowNode (2.00 / 0) #11 Sun Jan 07, 2007 at 03:36:18 AM EST

Use this as an excuse to upgrade your desktop, and reassign your current desktop to fileserver duties.

Don't Bother by Gedvondur (2.00 / 0) #12 Sun Jan 07, 2007 at 12:00:23 PM EST

With the junk you have Gigabit Ethernet is a giant waste of time.

Now, if you had boxes made this century, gigabit Ethernet is a pretty cheap upgrade, and well worth while.

Gedvondur
"I don't have enough middle fingers to communicate my feelings to you." --clover kicker

yes by reellife (2.00 / 0) #13 Sun Jan 07, 2007 at 02:06:49 PM EST

http://www.infrant.com/products/products_details.php?name=ReadyNAS%20X6

yet another AskHusi | 13 comments (13 topical, 0 hidden) | Trackback

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