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Good Deals: Acer EasyStore Servers
  • Vitaliy_KiselevVitaliy_Kiselev
    Acer EasyStore servers are famous among guys who know this field.

    Cheap, wicked fast gigabit ethernet, about 40-70MB/s copy speed.
    Based on Windows Home Server OS.
    Swappable drives (up to 4x2Tb=8Tb for sure, I do not know about 4x3Gb :-) )
    Perfectly suitable to store your footage and PC backup.
    Important things can be mirrored among disks (you can select any folders yo wish).
    Can also connect HDD directly via USB or eSata.

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    And Cheetahdeals shop has best prices on them (up from $239, and this is with disk included!).
    They also have coupon that is easy to find on internet for free shipping in US (and use Shipito for the rest of the world!)
    Reason - refurbished. In reality they are like new, sometimes even better configuration then stock.

    http://www.cheetahdeals.com/category-s/569.htm
  • 40 Replies sorted by
  • stoneystoney
    Seems like a good deal. But I don't like RAID or RAID like backup after HDD capacity hit 1TB. Even RAID1 isn't totally safe. I could accidentally delete files. Always good idea to save intermediate work often... automatically. RAID is good for that. But I don't think it's a solution to keep data for long time. If that's the case, I'd rather have a pair of 1TB int hdd and 1TB ext hdd. Then let OS do periodic incremental backups. Gotta burn to DVDs (or Bluray disk... I guess) to store longer. Then... I gotta burn them again before the disks go bad. Gawd... its so hard to keep digital data.
  • Vitaliy_KiselevVitaliy_Kiselev
    It is not RAID :-)
    Home Server OS uses special mirroring technology on folder level.
    So, you will be absolutely safe.
  • stoneystoney
    1TB hdd is so cheap. I plan to replace optical drive with an internal hdd. So my mbp will have 2 hdds. Then have a firewire ext hdd and let OS X Time Machine do incremental backup on selected folders. It will keep my desk clean :) This might work for me since I don't have large data. Also It's portable.
  • Vitaliy_KiselevVitaliy_Kiselev
    Best solution if you want good amount of storage for extra cheap is 3.5" HDD external dock with USB 3.0.
    Besides EasyStore I have 2Tb for quick things in additional to 2Tb internal computer drives.
  • stoneystoney
    I don't have USB 3.0 port :(

    Can you do editing directly from EasyStore? Not NLE. Editing on trascoded files. e.g. ProRes422 or DNxHD115.
  • Vitaliy_KiselevVitaliy_Kiselev
    >Not NLE. Editing on trascoded files. e.g. ProRes422 or DNxHD115.

    I do not know as I do not use transcoded files. And I use USB 3.0 dock for work, server for storage and backup (it have quite handy utility that backup all things in background and you can restore even unbootable computer via provided CD - same software is present on server also)
    Acer is, generally, computer, so speed is network limited mostly, about 80-100MB/s on such tasks as transcoded files. Using WD Green 2Tb disks copy speed is only slightly less than local disk.
  • stoneystoney
    80-100Mbps? That's good enough for NLE

    Since I'm not into NLE, I'd get internal hdd giving 100MB/s. Samsung revealed 1TB notbook hdd. http://www.dvhardware.net/article50208.html Maybe I should get one this x-mas.
  • Vitaliy_KiselevVitaliy_Kiselev
    >80-100Mbps? That's good enough for NLE

    80-100MB/sec :-) Generally, this is speed of gigabit ethernet (with proper router, I use cheap TP-Link).

    Small correction - just tested with copy to Acer main system 2Tb disk, got 40MB/sec, back - about 50-60Mb/s.
    I use USB 3.0 dock and same cheap 2Tb for actual work and they are very fast (in 80-120MB/sec region with large files).
    Acer is used for storage and backup.
    But I remember guys who reported 80-90MB/sec.
  • stoneystoney
    80-100MB/s over gigabit ethernet from the Acer server... Impressive!
  • Vitaliy_KiselevVitaliy_Kiselev
    After some thinking I belive that you must tweak few things, use 7200rpm disks and large files not on system disk and it must be from NAS to your computer to get 80-90MB/sec.
  • stoneystoney
    Last year I looked into this stuff for weeks. I was hoping for some breakthrough this year. Maybe thunderbolt, but no cheap product yet. I guess I need to wait longer. Until then... 1TB internal hdd will do it for me. Just dont die on me... Mr.HDD!!! Oh I have a couple of backup ext drives. Not a real-time backup, but it still works.
  • Vitaliy_KiselevVitaliy_Kiselev
    What are you waiting for?
    Most good PC notebooks already have USB 3.0. As for PC, all but cheap modern motherboards have few USB 3.0 ports. As far as I remember my dock with regulated fan, LCD, etc costed about $30 (and you can change disk by hand within 2 seconds). Actual copy speed depend only on your HDD.
  • stoneystoney
    I have a year old mbp. Me no apple fanboy. I hate apple craps, but I'm into iphone app dev so I need os x. mbp doesn't support usb3. Arrrrr!!!!

    I'm still in fast learning mode. I produce short clips like 30s, 1min, at most 2 mins. Each time adding new flavors such as new AE trick, new color grading, etc. So I don't need a large disk space for now. In fact... I've been deleting my old projects. I was like, "OMG what a crap!!!! my eyes hurt!!!".

    Once I begin getting clients, I will need such NAS.
  • Vitaliy_KiselevVitaliy_Kiselev
    >mbp doesn't support usb3. Arrrrr!!!!

    Get cheap PCI-E card with USB 3.0 :-) Easy.
  • stoneystoney
    Not a chance. Mine is 15" mbp. Only 17" mbp has express slot. Don't underestimate Apple... They know how to squeeze
  • Vitaliy_KiselevVitaliy_Kiselev
    >Not a chance. Mine is 15" mbp. Only 17" mbp has express slot. Don't underestimate Apple... They know how to squeeze

    Sorry, I forgot that it is MBP.
    May be selling MBP and getting PC laptop that is compatible with OS X to make hackintosh?
  • stoneystoney
    Hackintosh!!! Only if I had no kids. I need something that just works out of the box. I'm a soccer dad. You know the dumb happy fool people smiling in Disney World. Yeap that's me. No opensource workflow for me. Drop a few hundreds on a product suite, and get ready to go. If GH13 had a dozen steps to install it, I wouldn't have installed it. Hehe.
  • Vitaliy_KiselevVitaliy_Kiselev
    Any how it is being IPhone/iPad developer?
    I saw some UX guys going that way, ones who make real good money make books and teach how to become super-duper developer and sell for 1 million. Seems for me like modern version of stock market :-)
  • stoneystoney
    Initially every developers were excited to jump in iphone dev. Objective-C... What C? Yeah good old C from B from A!!! Great!!! But the fun is fading away... I guess. Big corps jumped in. Bar is raising up. Fierce competition. I know a guy without a kid. Working days and nights for last 6 months to release a game. He has 3 more friends working together. They just invested $8000 on iphone game advertising company, TouchArcade. But the chance of selling big is getting thinner each day. No I don't believe easy money from iphone app dev. Mobile app dev will be just like desktop app dev. Eventually only handful of companies will survive. The era of consolidation is upon us. Easy money? That's so old. I'll be looking for consulting opportunity. Looking for rich dreamers who are willing to pay big bucks to other people who can write mobile apps. When I get paid big, I will buy more gears. :)
  • Vitaliy_KiselevVitaliy_Kiselev
    Deals are still working and prices are very good now:

    http://www.cheetahdeals.com/Acer-easyStore-H340-U2T1H-Refurbished-Home-Server-p/l-pg.t170w.022.htm

    Buy 2Tb drive and get home server with 1Gbit LAN for free :-)

    As I said, I especially like Microsoft Backup software on this things.
  • LPowellLPowell
    This is a really good deal for a headless networked backup server that runs on the classic 32-bit version of Windows Home Server. The current 64-bit version of WHS does no longer supports two of the previous version's exclusive features:

    * Virtualization of multiple hard disks of varying capacities into a single virtual drive volume.
    * User ability to designate individual folders for transparent mirroring on separate physical drives.

    These two features make it both practical and reliable to dispense with driver-level RAID mirroring. You can plug-in hard disks of any size with no need to match physical drive capacities. Windows Home Server will automatically combine them all into a single virtual drive volume, but retain the ability to transparently mirror designated folders for duplicated storage on separate hard disks for fail-safe backup retrieval in the event one of the drives fails.
  • fatpigfatpig
    Sadly, no shipping to germany!
  • Vitaliy_KiselevVitaliy_Kiselev
    @fatpig

    If you read carefully, you'll find how to ship to Germany.
  • fatpigfatpig
    of course, thanks :)
  • stipstip
    That's actually a great deal with the 2TB disc included considering rising storage prices.

    Do you know if it can copy data in a 'plug and play' style, meaning no PC or other visual interface needed?
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