I have been doing some research for a customer that need to store huge amounts of TIFF images of maps. Trying to find the cheapest cost per terabyte online NAS(Network Attached Storage). Thought that the results might be interesting so posted them here. Note: all prices are in GBP(£) and available here in the UK.
Summary:
Tb After RAID | (£/Tb) | (~$/Tb) | |
| LaCie 1TB Big Disk USB2 7200rpm 8MB (x2 mirrored) | 1 | £770 | $1338 |
| Buffalo Terrastation 1.6TB – Network Attached Storage | 1.2 | £678 | $1177 |
| Thecus N4100 NAS Server + 4x 500Gb Maxtor Pro | 1.5 | £813 | $1412 |
| 4U CyberStore Storage Server + 16x 500Gb Maxtor Pro | 7.5 | £653 | $1135 |
| 5U CyberStore Storage Server + 24x 500Gb Maxtor Pro | 11 | £694 | $1205 |
| R3161 NAS RAID System, 3U 16 Bay | 7.5 | £1032 | $1794 |
| R5241i NAS RAID System, 5U 24 Bay | 11 | £997 | $1733 |
| 15 Drive 3U Rack + 15x 500Gb Maxtor Pro (Parts) | 7 | £618 | $1074 |
| 40 Drive 8U Rack + 40x 500Gb Maxtor Pro (Parts) | 18.5 | £595 | $1033 |
| 48 Drive 5U Rack + 48x 500Gb Maxtor Pro (Parts) | 22.5 | £596 | $1036 |
Hi,
this is a pretty interesting comparison. I wasn’t aware that normal Drive racks 3/5u would be so cheap compared to “NAS solutions” as the Thecus.
I ordered a N4100+ from Thecus and the performance was a real horror!
(check my website link above for the full story, but in short – a performance of 2-3Mbit(!) transfer does not qualify
as a Raid system… that’S not even remote storage performance!)
best
christoph