As many of my G+ followers know I have been struggling to decide between an HP Micro Server (N40L) or a NAS (either QNAP or Synology). I recently decided to wait on that decision and get an interim answer using a gift card I received for x-mas. I purchased the Western Digital MyBook Live 2TB. This drive’s only connection is via a gigabit Ethernet adapter. While this device will not take the place of a NAS or even a custom built Micro Server it is much, much less expensive.
The great thing about the device is that it runs Debian.
I have not gotten so far as to tweak any of the settings, but knowing the OS underneath the hood should be of some help. I was able to transfer my .flac and .ogg song libraries to the device and then play them from my local computers. The Twonky media server did not work with Banshee nor Rhythmbox. Though it did work, for pictures and movies, to my Google TV and Samsung TV.
In the end I am quite pleased with spending $159 to get 2TB of disk space available to multiple computers on my network. The device makes a very slight bit of noise, but nothing that bothers me (unlike most servers).
