NSLU2 or old PC?

[tiuk]

Here is what I know I want:

A NAS (haven't decided on size yet, anywhere from ~100 GB to 1 TB, probably somewhere in the middle), mainly for storing important files and centralizing things (for this I need < 100 GB, if I go for more capacity I'll store multimedia stuff). It needs to run RAID 1 and it'd be nice if I could run a small web server on it (nothing fancy).

I'm having a hard time deciding how to approach it. At first I thought I'd use an old P3 450 mhz system I have, and use FreeNAS. Then I did some reading about the NSLU2 and that looked like an attractive alternative. I like how small/quiet/simple it is. One of my main questions is, if I go with a solution like the NSLU2, using external drives, am I going to take a big read/write performance hit over an old PC running FreeNAS (probably with a PCI SATA controller)? It's mainly just going to be for storage, it's not like I need blazing fast performance.

For some reason I'm having a mental block as to questions I know I've been debating, I'll post back if something comes to mind.

[Madwand]

There's no inherent contradiction in blazing fast storage server, but that implies one running gigabit, not a cheap consumer NAS box, even one running "fakegigabit". An old PC is not going to fulfill gigabit's potential, but it'll come closer to matching your drives' potential.

Old PCs and consumer NAS boxes are also not the most reliable devices around -- if the files are important, you should have some redundancy going beyond RAID on a single machine.

[tiuk]

I haven't yet decided how I'm going to back up the data. I've been looking into online offsite services such as Carbonite, but I need to find out how I'd set that up with a NAS (and indeed if I'd even be able to). Failing that I suppose it'll just be backed up via external drive.

[dekard]

the old pc will give you substantially more performance and have significantly better support. Not to mention the install will be a heck of a lot easier.. Freenas is good, I like clarkconnect more...

[tiuk]

Hmm, I figured that'd be the way to go. I guess I'll continue planning in that direction. Thanks.

[TeedOff]

I had an one of those NSUL2 things at one time. Total waste of money in my opinion. Terribly slow. Only 2 drives also IIRC.