Tag Archives: Featured

If you have read our guide to building your own NAS or our more recent Lian Li PC-Q28 Review, you may be ready to get your own personal NAS project started. The cases featured in both of those articles were great enclosures for a NAS Solution, but didn't really make accessing your drives easy. iStarUSA thinks they have the perfect case for the job, the S-915. This compact mini-ITX tower style chassis may not be an enthusiasts first choice in brand name or feature a sleek all aluminum exterior, but it does have a company with 20 years of experience in industrial computers behind it. Is that enough to seat it atop your list for cases in your project?

If there is one thing that gets my cooling fans spinning, it is a nice case. Computer cases range from garbage to extraordinary. The wide selection of manufacturers, styles, colors, and features can make picking one a daunting task. Sometimes, an inexpensive good-looking case leaves you wanting features you found in a more expensive, less appealing (downright ugly) case. Well, there are only a few "go to" manufacturers for me, and believe me, Fractal Design is moving up the ladder quickly. After Fractal Designs released the Define R4, I didn't look back. Let's see if they can keep up the good work with the ARC Mini R2.

Thecus is no slouch when it comes to producing affordable NAS solutions. They have been producing some of the best performing NAS at an unbeatable price point for as long as I can remember. With the introduction of their Vision Series, Thecus has put the pressure on. Their N7510 NAS brings some interesting things to the table, 7 bays of storage loving goodness, great looks, and a fantastic price point. Let's see if it delivers more than just an odd number of drive bays.

Having more than one hard drive in your PC not that uncommon for one reason or another. Sometimes, having access to those drives is just as important as having them. The days of locking your drives behind your case's side panel are gone, and products like SATA cages / backplane make accessing your drives easy. For me, having a number of 2.5" SSDs with varying operating systems fulfills my needs for testing, working, and playing. Instead of selecting which drive I want to run through the BIOS, I simply pop that drive in my SATA backplane and I am off and running. Recently our Vantec EZ Swap F4 MRK-425ST-BK 4 Bay HDD rack has decided that its 40mm fan would sound like a bicycle with a baseball card running through the spokes. Can iStarUSA's BPU-124DE-SS unseat our current hardware? Let's find out.

NAS manufacturers are hitting the home theater enthusiast scene pretty hard. Asustor has joined the charge and thinks they have a NAS that can steal the spotlight. They are packing as much as they can into these powerful little boxes and people are eating it up. Asustor impressed us with their AS-608T; can they keep up the good work with the AS-302T?

When we thought that we had the perfect case for our NAS build, Lian Li came knocking on our door and promised to change our minds. Our current build features the Fractal Node 304 and it has been a great small server / NAS mini-itx chassis that has plenty of storage space. Unseating it will be quite the challenge. Lian Li confidently accepts the challenge.

I have always had an HTPC as my home theater's centerpiece. The flexibility that an HTPC brings simply can't be matched by the likes of WD TV Live, Apple TV, or any Roku. I have the ability to spin a disc, play my enormous library of music and movies, and watch live TV. The only thing that had been holding my HTPC back from being adopted as the primary solution by my fiance was a keyboard and mouse. In order to rid my self of our cable box, I had to find a solution that anyone could use, including my technophobic fiancé.

When it comes to storage, there are always those names you hear more often than others. No matter where I go, or what company I visit, there is always a Buffalo NAS being used. Buffalo has made a name for themselves with reliable network storage and because of this, their name is usually at or near the top when an organization is looking for network storage. However, in the current state of "throw everything and the kitchen sink at it" NAS market, can they keep up? Buffalo is the brand, and the TeraStation 5400 is the subject.

I can't tell you how many times I have told people how important regularly backing up your computer is. I consider this as important as wearing your seat belt, as important as a helmet while riding a motorcycle. If you are not backing up your system, you are asking for trouble. Well, the truth is that not enough people wear their seat belt and I see bikers without helmets all the time. I am willing to bet that at least 1 out of 4 of you reading this aren't backing up your computers.