We talk with James Nixon from the FreeNAS project which lets you have a disk storage system on your network at home.

via TWiT.TV.

What is FreeNAS you say? Put simply, its is an operating system based on FreeBSD that brings with it a snazzy web interface for management, and all the protocols you need to share files between Windows, Mac and Linux. In other words, a perfect solution for your digital bookshelf. Lets get to it.

via Engadget.

This compact product working with 2.5”hard drives brings low power consumption “green” solution, quiet operation, reliability and easy disk replacement in a small size. The operating system, Synology DiskStation Manager 3.0, delivers rich features for multimedia, Internet sharing, data protection and energy-saving options. Read more in our review.

via X-bit labs.

We have been playing around with the QNAP TS-659 Pro II unit over the last month or so. Based on the Intel Atom D525 platform, it has 6 bays and dual GbE ports, making it a candidate for the high end SMB market.

via AnandTech

For the hardware, I ended up with a fanless MiniITX motherboard Intel D510MO, which has a Atom processor, Gigabit ethernet (all my home network is Gigabit, so it does make a difference). I am also using a 2GB 800Mhz Kingston RAM memory, and both two SATA connectors. The MOBO has up to seven 2.0 USB and one mini PCI Express, in case I want to add more SATA drives in the future.

via DanielAndrade.net

Thecus is the first dual-bay NAS box manufacturer we’ve seen to ditch the usual ARM or Marvell processors found in mainstream models in favour of a fully fledged 1.8GHz Intel Atom D525 CPU.

via bit-tech.net

Whether your budget and storage needs are modest or extensive, we have you covered in the latest builder’s guide to file server systems.

via AnandTech

The N8900 is based on a dual-core Intel Core i3-2120 processor with 8 GB of DDR3 memory and Thecus Dual DOM flash memory.

via SmallNetBuilder

According to iXsystems developer James T. Nixon III, FreeNAS 8.0 includes major architectural optimisations and is more modular than previous versions. It features a redesigned GUI, built using Python and the Django web framework, that is aimed at making the OS easier to use. ZFS and UFS2 file systems are both supported – ZFS is used as the primary file system.

via The H Open Source

Synology has a sensible model number nomenclature in which the last two digits refer to the year through which the model is intended for sale. The first set of digits refer to the maximum number of bays supported. Some models have a + at the end, signifying higher performance. Today, we have the DS211+ for review. The DS refers to the product category, Disk Station. 2 indicates a 2 bay model, and the 11 indicates a 2011 model. It is supposed to have a higher performance compared to the DS211 which was released in November 2010.