Drifting over to Linksys I discovered one of their new products aimed at the home storage market. Like many companies, Linksys had decided to release a NAS device. Unlike larger products which can hold 4 separate drives, the NAS200 sports space for 2 drives. Although this limits its storage, it also reduces its price. This is targeting the storage needy, but cost conscious consumer. The unit sports 2 SATA drive bays which are accessed by removable doors at the rear of the device. The NAS200 can be configured to use RAID 0, 1, JBOD, or each drive separately.
Accessing your files can be accomplished using standard network protocols since the device attaches to the network rather than directly to a computer. With an additional 2 USB ports, you can expand the storage using external drives or USB pen drives. Management of the device is performed by way of a standard web browser thus not requiring any additional client software. The NAS200 also has a built-in FTP utility to enable you to access the files remotely. The NAS200 should be available in the first quarter of 2007 for a price of $179.99. This is of course without drives, although I hear Hitachi has some nice terabyte drives coming out...