NAS recommendation for small business

[xega]

I am looking for a NAS for my business to store a database that can be read from multiple PCs on the network. The storage needs are approximately 1 TB and growing. The backup requirements are off site storage so this would be backed up to another NAS that is kept in a different location. Bandwidth is not an issue. The biggest issue is that it needs to store several hundred thousand small files that need to be looked up by the database itself and then trasferred to the client PC as needed. I know that small file transfer rate is very slow so i was thinking of doing a RAID 10 setup.

The devices I have been looking at are the Thecus N4100pro, the Synology DS408, and the QNAP TS-409. The biggest issue that is see is the very large number of files that will have to be sent across.

[thiggins]

Are the clients just sending queries to the database, which executes them and passes back the results?

Or are the PC's mounting the database directly and executing the queries?

[xega]

They will be mounting the database itself and running the queries from their pc.

[thiggins]

Well, then bandwidth certainly is going to be an issue. The longer each read and write take, the longer the entire query will take.

You will want as much CPU and memory in the NAS as possible. You should look at the NETGEAR ReadyNAS Pro (http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/content/view/30647/75/), New HP MediaSmart Server (EX485/487) (http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/content/view/30721/75/) and QNAP TS-639 PRO.

[xega]

What is the difference between the readynas pro pioneer edition and the readynas pro business edition? I tried looking on the site but there didn't seem to be much of a difference. Also do you have any four drive recommendations?

Thanks

[thiggins]

Pro pioneer comes without drives. Comparison chart is here (http://www.readynas.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/09/readynas_comparison.pdf).