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Re: Infrant ReadyNAS NV and other PC audio related Q's

I'm looking into getting an Infrant ReadyNAS NV as a wireless network server for my PC audio system. My intent is to get a bigger drive and have it networked wirelessly. In the future I may get a Squeezebox 3. For now I have a Mac Mini using iTunes system.
Anyone have experience with the Infrant and have comments? Is it quiet?

I've had an Infrant ReadyNAS 600 - essentially the previous generation of the ReadyNAS - for about 13 months. I have it populated with four 320GB hard drives, which yeilds about 872GB of usable space.

Probably the nicest thing about the NAS using RAID 5 is that you can have a single large aggregated space in which to store files. Currently there's no such thing as an 872GB drive, although there will soon be one. Having this large space makes file management a lot easier than dealing with, say, four 200GB drives.

Another nicety is RAID, which means you can lose a hard drive and still remain running. For a music server, though, RAID is fairly expensive and not particularly necessary. RAID is no substitute for backups - there are still many ways to have your entire library wiped out, so you'll still need to backup your music library to some other device or media. Another reason that RAID isn't really necessary is that its biggest advantage is the "still remain running" part I mentioned above. In a work environment you can't afford to be down for hours or days while you replace a hard drive. For a home music server I don't think anyone will be especially put out if it takes a couple days to replace a failed drive and do a restore from backups.

As for quiet, I've not heard the NV. The 600 (first generation) has a "squirrel cage" type fan which is different than the larger PC fan in the NV and I'm not certain how they compare. I used to have mine in my office and found it suprisingly quiet, but I know I wouldn't want it in my listening room. It's now in the basement where it doesn't really matter how loud it is.

I'm not clear on the wireless connection you mention. The ReadyNAS itself doesn't contain a wireless card, so you'll have to connect it to your network using wired Ethernet. If you then connect that part of the network wirelessly to another part, or to devices such as a Squeezebox or a PC or Mac, that's certainly doable but it's not really relevant to the operation of the NAS.

Is it easy to set up and manage using a Mac? I would probably keep the Mac Mini with it in another room to rip albums and use a laptop connected to my audio system to play music via a USB DAC I have (and share the Mac Mini iTunes playlist). Is it easy to use something like the Infrant to do this?

The Mac part I'm not sure about. I know that for Windows there's a small application provided called "Raidar" which is used in the initial setup to find the NAS on your network. It's not really necessary, though, and there may even be a similar app for the Mac. Most of the configuration is done through the ReadyNAS's web interface, which is pretty easy to use. This interface is the same no matter which type of computer you connect from.

This looks like a good solution for large storage needs and the wireless network capabilities since the computer itself does not have to be on to stream audio.

Yes, it is a good solution, but not the cheapest and as mentioned above, not really necessary for music file storage. Cheaper would be to stick an old PC in a corner somewhere and put some hard drives in it. Back the data up on external drives and store them somewhere safe. Disadvantages are that the PC may take up a bit more room, maybe a little more power. But it will be both cheaper and faster.

I've passed on the Olive concept for now since almost everything I read leads to the conclusion that it's not ready for primetime. And the drive size is limited. The Squeezebox looks interesting if a bit complicated. I know the Mac is easy.

If you're thinking about it, I'm not a fan of using a ReadyNAS to run SlimServer - it's just a little too underpowered and the implementation on the ReadyNAS has some disadvantages, such as not being able to transcode music file formats.



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