Asus Eee Box as NAS?

[ManOKonstantSoro]

Asus has just announced their Eee Box, powered by a 1.6 GHz Atom processor, 2-GB of RAM, 250-GB of storage, 1-Gbps ethernet, 20-W power draw, and Linux operating system. I wonder if/how well one of these would work as a simple file server, in the same vein as "home-built" PC file servers?

[thiggins]

Good question. Maybe once they start shipping we can take a look at it.

[vnangia]

Asus has just announced their Eee Box, powered by a 1.6 GHz Atom processor, 2-GB of RAM, 250-GB of storage, 1-Gbps ethernet, 20-W power draw, and Linux operating system. I wonder if/how well one of these would work as a simple file server, in the same vein as "home-built" PC file servers?

Well, unless you're hooking up your drives via USB, I would have to say "not very". It's not expandable enough to really use it as a serious NAS - and it's pretty pricey at $299. For $299, you could get the Intel Atom motherboard ($80), 2GB of generic RAM ($25), and an ASUS TM-210 case ($55) with a 300W 80plus power supply, which would leave you $150 or so for hard drives. That's at least two 500GB hard drives. I admit, it's not in the same power-draw category as the Eee Box (something I struggled with myself when built my NAS), but it's significantly more expandable, and you'd probably want to spend $10 for a gigabit ethernet card. But if you do build one, I'd be interested in knowing how it turns out for you. Michael Graves just did an article in a similar vein with a T5700 (http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/content/view/30522/77/), and essentially, the Eee Box is an updated T5700 without a CD-ROM drive, and a smaller power draw...

[thiggins]

With two SATA connectors, the Intel Atom motherboard will support only RAID 1.

Performance will be limited by on-board 10/100 NIC and adding a gigabit NIC will be limited by PCI, not PCI-e.

Might still be worth a look, since everyone is wondering what an Atom-based NAS will do.

[vnangia]

With two SATA connectors, the Intel Atom motherboard will support only RAID 1.

Performance will be limited by on-board 10/100 NIC and adding a gigabit NIC will be limited by PCI, not PCI-e.

Might still be worth a look, since everyone is wondering what an Atom-based NAS will do.

Indeed I am curious. I'm thinking about building a second NAS with that board and a gigabit NIC.

By the way, there's also a PATA connector on there. Gets you up to four drives, though admittedly there will be a performance difference.

[thiggins]

Does the Intel ICH7 let you mix SATA and PATA drives for RAID?

[vnangia]

Does the Intel ICH7 let you mix SATA and PATA drives for RAID?

Not in my experience, but then again, I'd stick some FreeNAS on there and call it a day.