Hi all,

I wonder if some of you could provide me with some advice:
I need to buy a data storage unit but I've failed to found what I'am looking for:
Here are my specs:
RAID5
slots for 4 sata disks of 750 gig each (500 gig would be ok too)
USB host to plug additional disks/printer (that's actually just nice to have, not really a concern for the time being)
gigabit ethernet connection
so far, it's quite easy!

the problem is that I'd like to connect the unit directly to my computer through USB, firewire or eSata.
And I can't find any!

I would eventually connect the drive over a network but not before a year.
my laptop has only 100 Mbits ethernet connection and I'd rather use USB or firewire until next year when I plan to change it and buy a HTPC.

I read on ehomeupgrade a post saying that the buffalo terastation can be plugged directly to the computer through a USB port but on buffalo's web site, nothing is said about that.
Also, I would the drive to be either dlna smb upnp compliant.
also I must say that I still need to investigate further the pros and the cons of these 3 standards.

I found bizzare that all single-disk (or some dual disks) external units support USB, firewire or network but not the quad disk units

Can anyone help please?

Cheers

Hi all,

I wonder if some of you could provide me with some advice:
I need to buy a data storage unit but I've failed to found what I'am looking for:
Here are my specs:
RAID5
slots for 4 sata disks of 750 gig each (500 gig would be ok too)
USB host to plug additional disks/printer (that's actually just nice to have, not really a concern for the time being)
gigabit ethernet connection
so far, it's quite easy!

the problem is that I'd like to connect the unit directly to my computer through USB, firewire or eSata.
And I can't find any!

I would eventually connect the drive over a network but not before a year.
my laptop has only 100 Mbits ethernet connection and I'd rather use USB or firewire until next year when I plan to change it and buy a HTPC.

I read on ehomeupgrade a post saying that the buffalo terastation can be plugged directly to the computer through a USB port but on buffalo's web site, nothing is said about that.
Also, I would the drive to be either dlna smb upnp compliant.
also I must say that I still need to investigate further the pros and the cons of these 3 standards.

I found bizzare that all single-disk (or some dual disks) external units support USB, firewire or network but not the quad disk units

Can anyone help please?

Cheers


no such device. doesn't exist... Do you want a NAS or an external Drive array... Your not going to get both....

The closest thing to what you want is to use the PC as a file server and add an external drive case and a sata raid controller... This requires your PC be on and functional....

Sean

is this because of a technical challenge or because there is no customer for it?
I though a few people would be interested in home NAS system that could be accessed from both a USB and a network connector.

hatbrox, without going into too much details, a NAS works on file protocols to allow different operating systems to access the same data without any intimate knowledge of the underlying NAS file structure. A USB drive works more on a sector basis, similar to your local disks. If you intend to use the storage on the network, why not just do it from the beginning? If you don't want to set up a network, you simply use a network cable to connect your PC directly to the NAS.

I'm not convinced that the absence of USB/firewire is due to the fact the unit in a NAS device.
Many single-drive external NAS unit come with a USB flavor.
Example: Maxtor 300GB Shared Storage Hard Drive NAS.

I'd rather bet on the RAID feature. Maybe there is no controller that can handle both USB and RAID drives. Although I don't see an issue here. the RAID controller should be enable to tell the USB port how many drives are "logically" available.

I'm not convinced that the absence of USB/firewire is due to the fact the unit in a NAS device.
Yes, of course there are ways in which a NAS act as a USB target device (if the NAS manufacturer chooses to do this), but the files you store from the USB interface will not be accessible from the network interface. The two access methods would need to be partitioned and thus your NAS capacity will be less what you've preallocated for USB.

I found a product that provide both ethernet (NAS) and USB connection:
thecus.
Their N5200 support USB (2 host and 1 client), eSATA (host, for extra capacity) and up to 5 internal sata disks and 6 RAID modes. not bad!

I also found this product: SANS DIGITAL MR5CT125
Drive Hard Drive: 5 x 500GB SATA II
Drive Interface: SATA I/SATA II
External I/O USB 2.0 , Firewire 800 and eSATA
RAID Levels 0, 1, 0+1, 3, 5, 6, JBOD
$2650, though!

I finally found a very nice box:
it houses 5 sata drives, has buit-in RAID, and provide esata, firewire, usb connections!!!
I'm finally going to give the NAS, I'll put my HTPC behind the routeur to distribute content over the network.

I finally found a very nice box:
it houses 5 sata drives, has buit-in RAID, and provide esata, firewire, usb connections!!!
I'm finally going to give up NAS, I'll put my HTPC behind the routeur to distribute content over the network.
http://www.nitroav.com/product/400/

You said you were looking for a NAS (network attached storage) device. I did not see where the box you decided on, has a network interface.

I found a product that provide both ethernet (NAS) and USB connection:
thecus.
Their N5200 support USB (2 host and 1 client), eSATA (host, for extra capacity) and up to 5 internal sata disks and 6 RAID modes. not bad!

I have one of thest things and they claim it does a lot of things that actually don't work. It is fast but the firmware is currently garbage... The infrant a far better choice for features and stability...

Sean

Sean,
Do you also own the Infrant to be able to say that it's better, or are you just guessing? I ask because I am --->this<--- close to buying one myself. I like the eSata and the 4-port gigabit "router" to make things easy. Least not forget the option to hold 5 drives. 4 drives for a Raid5 setup just seems counter-intuitive to me.

If those 3 features work all by themselves, especially considering it's the exact same price as the infrant, then I can't see how the infrant is better.

Oh, and another thing.... according to this website:
http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/index.php?option=com_wrapper&Itemid=153
it's the "FASTEST" NAS device available today.

So as an owner of this device, please tell me why I shouldn't buy one. is yours for sale? *smile*

$1000 for that device and it doesn't include disks!!!! I built my file server for $1400 including 5 250GB drives and a $700 12 bay 3U server case AND a 12 port SATA raid card... And I didn't skimp on the hardware either, today I could probably build it for under $1000(I built it a year ago). The most expensive piece was the case, but a good case is important.

Please shop around for different options.

$1000???
It's currently only $639 @ newegg. cheaper then an empty infrant.

I have seen a lot of NAS and for me this is the best

Wireless Network Storage (Gigabit Ethernet—Quad Drive)
Support 4 HDD SATA in all RIAD Format included RAID5

if you go in IOMEGA web site you can download manual in PDF format

if it is so expansive there is the 500GB with the same features(GIGABIT,WIRELESS,RAID)

Chhers
Walter

I'm giving up on an external NAS.
I'll set up my HTPC as my NAS server. It'll give me more flexibility over the different standards. Since the HTPC box will be quite small, I'll have the storage set up externally.
the Norco DS-1220 12-Bay Dual SATA PM Enclosure ($800) is currenlty my best option but I'm still fishing around and reading reviews.

> sean_w_smith
Yeah I realized that, I saw a guy from Germany who got really pissed off with this box.

It's quite challenging to find a product, it already took me 20 hours surfing the web. I keep changing mind as I read reviews, forums, articles... Quite interesting! I really thought I could buy a box, plug it and enjoy. But I feel I'm going to end up building my system myself, piece after piece, just because I can't compromise!

hatbrox, why not just go for the Thecus N5200? it does EVERYTHING you want.

Nah, the thecus is nice on paper, but it's too slow (especially on RAID 5). And I read it's too noisy.
Some users also reports problems with Maxtor drives.
I haven't found any good reviews yet! So I definitely give up on thecus.
I found good stuff out there, especially unit with triple interface (USB, Firewire and esata)
I finally was very keen with the esata port, but none of them support esata II yet although they often have an internal sata II controller. Quite weird.

As I said, the Norco DS-1220 12-Bay Dual SATA PM Enclosure is my favourite unit so far. And it's damn fast when stippring over the 2 internal SATA controllers. But it's not distributed in my country yet. So I'm still thinking!

The Norco is not a NAS. It is just a drive enclosure.

I know, as I said earlier, I'm giving up on external NAS. I'll use my HTPC as my upnp server to broadcast movies in my other room.

Sean,
Do you also own the Infrant to be able to say that it's better, or are you just guessing? I ask because I am --->this<--- close to buying one myself. I like the eSata and the 4-port gigabit "router" to make things easy. Least not forget the option to hold 5 drives. 4 drives for a Raid5 setup just seems counter-intuitive to me.

If those 3 features work all by themselves, especially considering it's the exact same price as the infrant, then I can't see how the infrant is better.

Oh, and another thing.... according to this website:
http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/index.php?option=com_wrapper&Itemid=153
it's the "FASTEST" NAS device available today.

So as an owner of this device, please tell me why I shouldn't buy one. is yours for sale? *smile*


I own a Buffalo Terastation, A Infrant ReadyNAS X6 and a Thecus N5200....

All the fancy stuff the thecus claims to do is pretty much null and void because most of it doesn't work. The infrant software is at least 10x better. Everything works and has worked since Day1. Not 1 reboot in a year with the infrant... The thecus is fast though. Gig switch is ~$25. Toms hardware said depsite the speed buy the infrant and they were right. Yoda gives great support. Thecus support won't return phone calls or emails.... Totally useless...

I would trade for NV+ in a hearbeat....

Sean

I have seen a lot of NAS and for me this is the best

Wireless Network Storage (Gigabit Ethernet—Quad Drive)
Support 4 HDD SATA in all RIAD Format included RAID5

if you go in IOMEGA web site you can download manual in PDF format

if it is so expansive there is the 500GB with the same features(GIGABIT,WIRELESS,RAID)

Chhers
Walter


What makes the Imega better than the competition which does all those things and more...

Buffalo and Infrant make solid products. So far we have seen no reviews on this gadget. Any pointers would be appreciated...

Sean

Nah, the thecus is nice on paper, but it's too slow (especially on RAID 5). And I read it's too noisy.
Some users also reports problems with Maxtor drives.
I haven't found any good reviews yet! So I definitely give up on thecus.
I found good stuff out there, especially unit with triple interface (USB, Firewire and esata)
I finally was very keen with the esata port, but none of them support esata II yet although they often have an internal sata II controller. Quite weird.

As I said, the Norco DS-1220 12-Bay Dual SATA PM Enclosure is my favourite unit so far. And it's damn fast when stippring over the 2 internal SATA controllers. But it's not distributed in my country yet. So I'm still thinking!

Can you point me to some benchmarks on this thing. Toms Hardware tested the thecus and its the fastest thing going at the moment and I haven't seen anyone claim otherwise. Whether it will stay up for a while and whether most of the features work is a different issue...

It's kinda like trashing Mercedes Benz because the fancy heated seats feature doesn't get hot enough, so instead you give praise and encourage people to buy a Honda instead because their winshield wipers work just fine. And get this....Honda costs more! lol

OK, so let's forget the fancy stuff Thecus claims to do, because as far as I can tell, the Infrant could never do any of it anyhow. Let's talk about basic operation and intended use of the item.....

Nobody is claiming the Thecus is "bad" or "crashing" or anything like that. If it wasn't booting up then that's one thing....... but if it fulfils the basic neccessity of serving your data from it's internal hard drives, and it serves it FASTER then the competition...the i'm lost as to what can be so wrong.

These are just hard drive boxes. It's not like we're surfing the web and checking email with them. Just serve my media files to my TV's and I'm good. What it's REQUIRED to do, it seems to do better then the others (protocols & connections), holds more then the others (5 drives) and delivers it faster then the others (both read & write). OK, so the SNAPSHOT feature is not all what it's cracked up to be...but so what.

Maybe I guess it depends on your intended use. If you are needing this for data type files for day to day computing needs then maybe you do in fact need the web user interface to be a bit more prettier and for the 'extra' features it claims to do to work better (even though none of the competition offers it). But for people who need it for nothing other then storing & serving media files (Music, Photos & Video especially multizone HD Video) to a media player or HTPC then I cannot see how the Thecus is not the best choice considering the lower price, connectivity options, 5-drive capacity & higher serving speeds.

"thank you for smoking"

It's kinda like trashing Mercedes Benz because the fancy heated seats feature doesn't get hot enough, so instead you give praise and encourage people to buy a Honda instead because their winshield wipers work just fine. And get this....Honda costs more! lol

Your analogy is wrong. The infrant is an MB S class. The thecus is a honda with a thousand HP motor in it. Sure it goes fast but the MB does everything else better...


OK, so let's forget the fancy stuff Thecus claims to do, because as far as I can tell, the Infrant could never do any of it anyhow. Let's talk about basic operation and intended use of the item.....

Actually the infrant does far more useful stuff correctly than thecus currently can:

UPNP - Check
Slim Server and Roku Support - Check
iTunes Support - Check
Mail Notifications that work - Check
SNMP Notifications that work - Check
UPS Managment that works - Check
Snapshot Capability - Check
Power Down Support - Check
Good Backup Client Support - Check
Recycle Bin Capability - Check

These BASIC functions that infrant does well aren't supported or don't even work on the Thecus. They claimed to have Snapshot and Power Management and they removed it from the latest firmware it was so bad.... How they decided to do that when the mail notificaiton is useless and there is no SNMP support...


The thecus does none of these things. I'm sure other infrant owners can chime in on what else they like... Bottom line here the infrant has dozens more features than the N5200. Sure the idea of 5 drives excites me... but the fancy new raid modes... no, having a cold spare is a nice idea... One of these days I will get up the balls to find out if it works...


Nobody is claiming the Thecus is "bad" or "crashing" or anything like that. If it wasn't booting up then that's one thing....... but if it fulfils the basic neccessity of serving your data from it's internal hard drives, and it serves it FASTER then the competition...the i'm lost as to what can be so wrong.

If you go read the thecus forum which is suprinsgly slow you will find people with data corruption issues. A lot of people myself included have the thing reboot for no apparent reason (The infrant has NEVER once crashed in over 1 year of use). Oh then there are the file deletion issues with the thecus. Sometimes I delte files and they claim they are deleted and you go back on another machine and they are still there. Delete from the same machine again. same problem... try another machine they might actually remove they might not...

and then there is the support.

Non Existant. I have both called and emailed support. 0 replies... With infrtant , Yodah is always helping people out whether by phone, email, this forum or theirs...


Bottom Line:

I own them all and have tested and them and Toms hardware reached the same conclusion. The infrant is king at the moment. The thecus has potential but the
software quality and feature set is poor... So why did I buy one. I was suckered in by the speed and said "It can't really be that bad".... Well yes it is.... and there has been no new firmware in almost 2 months...

Curious which if either of these do you own and have used extensively?

The thecus may sound like a ferrari on paper but its really a 1000 HP Honda... I'll take the S-Class any day...

Some links other might find useful:

Toms Hardware review of the N5200:
http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/content/view/29616/75/

Infrants Support Forums: (Very active)
http://www.infrant.com/forum

Thecus User Group (unofficial, barely has a pulse)
http://thecususergroup.proboards106.com/index.cgi

Thecus Forum (Official, DEAD!)
http://forum.thecus.net/phpBB2/

You can read this thread where some other owners of both chime in and say the Infrant is a better box...
http://thecususergroup.proboards106.com/index.cgi?board=n5200reviews&action=display&thread=1153541166

Its all about the software... be interesting to see how iomegas new device fairs. I still recommend the terastation for the super budget conscious. it works better than the N5200 and its dirt cheap....


Sean

Well there you have it.

I don't own any of them, but I needed an in-depth (owners) review from someone who can explain it better then just "it sucks".

I ordered one, but i'll promptly return it to newegg if it gives me any sign of data corruption or rebooting.

Well there you have it.

I don't own any of them, but I needed an in-depth (owners) review from someone who can explain it better then just "it sucks".

I ordered one, but i'll promptly return it to newegg if it gives me any sign of data corruption or rebooting.


I waited patiently hoping for the best when I should have returned it... good luck.. hopefully some of those links will help you out....

Sean

but if it fulfils the basic neccessity of serving your data from it's internal hard drives, and it serves it FASTER then the competition...the i'm lost as to what can be so wrong.


A stream of compressed HD video is only 2.5 megabytes per second - not even 1/20th of the sustained read speed of a modern hard drive. You don't need speed to serve up video streams. You need speed to organize your media collection.

My Linux media server does sustained transfers over gigabit Ethernet at 340-360 megabits per second, and the limiting factor there is the fact that I don't use jumbo frames, not the hard drives.

jhue,
sounds good on paper, but apparently streaming multiple streams of 20m/b WMVHD or MPEG2 to multiple locations at the same time is a bit taxing on everything including the drive.

But it's not hard disk drives we're talking about here. We are talking about the NAS device that delivers the information.....

And even still, what difference does it make whether its the stream or like you said, the collection itself. The NAS device still needs to be as fast as possible. Thecus is the fastest, but if like Sean said, then the speed is overwhelmed by the buggy firmware, the it may not be the answer right now. The Infrant is the 2nd fastest and there are others in between. Terastation apparently is the slowest of the bunch, and some people are reporting it has problems sending just ONE stream of 20megabit HD, so forget about 2 or 3.

I have quite a few locations to serve @ my house and 3 streams of HD is highly probable dring many times of the week. That's why speed was important to me.

jhue,
sounds good on paper, but apparently streaming multiple streams of 20m/b WMVHD or MPEG2 to multiple locations at the same time is a bit taxing on everything including the drive.

But it's not hard disk drives we're talking about here. We are talking about the NAS device that delivers the information.....

And even still, what difference does it make whether its the stream or like you said, the collection itself. The NAS device still needs to be as fast as possible. Thecus is the fastest, but if like Sean said, then the speed is overwhelmed by the buggy firmware, the it may not be the answer right now. The Infrant is the 2nd fastest and there are others in between. Terastation apparently is the slowest of the bunch, and some people are reporting it has problems sending just ONE stream of 20megabit HD, so forget about 2 or 3.

I have quite a few locations to serve @ my house and 3 streams of HD is highly probable dring many times of the week. That's why speed was important to me.

The TS is not that slow... I can stream 3 DVD streams simultaneously no problem off it.

same on the infrant... Others have reported 6 DVD streams off a Infrant NAS with 0 issues...

Any infrant NAS or the terastation pro should handle 3 HD streams with ease... got to remember the BASE TS does all the RAID etc in SW. It lacks the dedicated ASIC's you find in other NAS's.....

BTW: It appears thecus posted some new firmware but no release notes... hopefully its a improvement over the last firmware which broke more than it fixed...

now on HD... Some report the to SMB presents a problem streaming HD which I don't understand but evidently UPNP is a lighter weight protocol and works better for these high bit rate streams... we know the Upnp support on the infrant is rock solid... I have not tested that aspect of the thecus... I have too many issues with plain old SMB sharing... :(

Sean

Sean

uPnP is a lighter protocol, but not very useful when using full blown HTPC's as your clients. If you had a bunch of TVIX, MVIX, MediaGates and the like using player-to-nas communication then yes uPnP would be great for those streaming devices.

However, if you are planing to do computer-to-nas communication like HTPC's use or Apple MACPRO & G4 Mac, then NFS, AFP & CIFS is the ticket. And if you plan to do high quality High Definition over those protocols you'll want a NAS unit that can read and write pretty fast ensuring that your NAS will never be your bottleneck.

I personally will use SMB on my Windows boxes first. If that protocol doesn't work well with multiple HD streams from the Thecus that will be here today, I will instead install Windows Services for UNIX and try the NFS protocol and see how that goes.

Not to mention recording two streams of HD to your NAS at the same time. I frequently record NOVA channel & THE UNIT, HEORES, NUMBERS, BONES, DAY BREAK, HOUSE and a few others and the wife gets OPRAH, GREYS ANATOMY, MEN IN TREES and a few others. Most all of these are HD and many record at the same time using the Dual A180 HDTV tuners i have in my master bedroom HTPC. Therefore, I need a NAS that can write those 2 streams of simultaneous HD video fast enough everyday for hours at a time with no hiccups. And naturally they need to be played at the same time in different parts of the house as we wind down our evening after a long day of work. I know the readynas (sata I @ 1.5gbps) & thecus( sata II @ 3.0gbps) can handle the task. not so sure about terastation.

As far as plain DVD goes, I'm sure they all can handle that.

I just checked...

A 1 hour episode of NUMB3RS recorded in HD the other day ended up being 8.2 gigabytes in size.

So if my calculations are correct, thats about 67,000 megabits per hour. divide by 60 then divide again by another 60 gives us an 18.7 mbit/sec HD stream. (wow, I didn't realize these stations were broadcasting that high!)

That single file has more bandwidth then 3 hollywood DVD's combined. 4 in some cases. So basically if we want to stream 3 HD recorded shows around the house at the same time....
(me watching NUMB3RS in the den, wife watching GREYS ANATOMY in the living room and the in-laws watching a NOVA documentary in a guestroom....all while recording 2 shows that are currently scheduled)
.....then that's roughly equivalent to streaming 9-12 DVD's simultaneously.

And this my friends, is the reason why Speed and having a larger 5-disc Raid setup is very important to me.

But like Sean said...it 1st needs to "WORK" lol. let's pray the newest firmware is a good one.

YMMV

I just checked...

A 1 hour episode of NUMB3RS recorded in HD the other day ended up being 8.2 gigabytes in size.

So if my calculations are correct, thats about 67,000 megabits per hour. divide by 60 then divide again by another 60 gives us an 18.7 mbit/sec HD stream. (wow, I didn't realize these stations were broadcasting that high!)

That single file has more bandwidth then 3 hollywood DVD's combined. 4 in some cases. So basically if we want to stream 3 HD recorded shows around the house at the same time....
(me watching NUMB3RS in the den, wife watching GREYS ANATOMY in the living room and the in-laws watching a NOVA documentary in a guestroom....all while recording 2 shows that are currently scheduled)
.....then that's roughly equivalent to streaming 9-12 DVD's simultaneously.

And this my friends, is the reason why Speed and having a larger 5-disc Raid setup is very important to me.

But like Sean said...it 1st needs to "WORK" lol. let's pray the newest firmware is a good one.

YMMV


and 3 HD Transport Streams at 20mbs is still only about 7 Megabytes per second which should not be a challenge for any nas...

on the SMB issue I just saw a lot of reports with people have hiccups streaming HD TS over SMB and UPNP was flawless... Read the tvix thread for more info there...

good luck...

and personally I avoid NFS like the plague... Brings back way too many bad memories from my last job.. NFS = Nightmare File System. I have a hard time understanding why such a bad idea continues to exist... Certainly off topic :) I guess much of the same can be said for CIFS/SMB.

Sean

hatbrox, since you didn't want a Thecus N5200, i got one for you. *smile* it's because of your post that I found it to begin with. I posted my thoughts at this thread: http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=737770

I just checked...

A 1 hour episode of NUMB3RS recorded in HD the other day ended up being 8.2 gigabytes in size.

You must not be squashing null packets to get files of that size. My OTA HD recordings are typically less than 6GB/hour with null packet removal. 8GB/hour is what you get at the full 19.4Mbit/sec rate sustained for a full hour.

How do you kill your null packets?

I've heard that it does not affect picture quality, but some argue that it does, and can even render some recordings unwatchable

How do you kill your null packets?

The hardware and software I use to capture either does not generate them (ATI HDTV Wonder) or has an option to strip them (R5000-HD)


I've heard that it does not affect picture quality, but some argue that it does, and can even render some recordings unwatchable

Null packets contain no information, hence the name "null packets". Some hardware decoders only work with constant rate streams though, thus the need to preserve null packets. All of my equipment works fine with variable rate streams.

This thread has been great. I've learned a lot. Thanks guys.

I already bought a 2TB Buffalo Terrastation because I didn't know why the Infrant was so much more expensive. Maybe I should have just added an SATA host adapter PCI card to my Quicksilver PowerMac G4/733. It has gigabit Ethernet, but I already have four hard drives in there and four more might be too much. OTOH, the current drives are JBOD, so I would rarely have more than one spinning at the same time the RAID is running. Any thoughts? If heat isn't a problem, I might just use the Buffalo for back-up storage.

One more question:

... avoid NFS like the plague... Brings back way too many bad memories from my last job.. NFS = Nightmare File System...

I've read here that some media players require NFS, that they have network performance problems with SMB. So, what exactly is the problem with NFS? Are NFS and uPnP possible on the Buffalo and on a Mac o/s X? Is there some reason why some media players would work better with NFS than uPnP or visa versa? Thanks.

Neil

So... fast forward a couple years.

I'm in the same situation as the OP, and looking around I dont see any real solutions in the market.

I have a server closet with three machines and several other computers and media devices spread around the house.

Ideally I would like a RAID storage device that provides an eSata port for my primary machine, USB 2.0 ports for a couple of the other machines that share the closet and a Gb network interface to serve the rest of the household.

When I started looking around I saw that there are NAS devices now that do have eSata and USB ports - and at first I thought it was great. But then looking more closely at the manuals, they all seem to have those ports to connect drives for expansion - not to serve as a client device for PCs.

From what I've seen, there are two seperate types of devices: NAS storage and External Hard Drives.

The NAS devices support network connections, and sometimes have other interfaces - but not to let PCs connect to them. The External Hard Drives have some combination of eSata/USB/Firewire ports to let PCs connect to them, but no network interface.

Am I missing something, or are there hybrid devices that do both?

I want consolodated storage thats available on the network for all the computers and dont mind the speed limitations of the network for them. But for my main machine at least I'd like to connect with a faster connection. Is that really too much to ask?