> -----Original Message----- > From: Benjamin Gramlich [mailto:benjamin.gramlich at gmail.com] > Sent: Thursday, April 26, 2007 12:51 PM > > > I, too, have been looking at setting up and NAS because I've > heard that > external HDDs have a high failure rate. Wouldn't the tradeoff in speed > be worth it for reliability of an NAS? Let others address this. I don't have enough knowledge here. > In other words, is it better to > have 100mb/s and a reliable RAID setup than to have 480mb/s and an > external drive that may overheat in its enclosure and die? My 2.5 inch external case/drive does a decent job of conductive cooling to the exterior from which natural convection is quite adequate. I'd guess that the same attention to cooling exists for larger cases. I was interested in the simplicity and portability of my 2.5 inch external drive when my laptop was sick and I needed to access data through a desktop at work. 60Gb that fits a shirt pocket is nice! Speed with USB 2.0 "ain't bad" (this laptop drive is kinda slow anyway), and I can tolerate the speed with USB 1.1 before resorting to juggling CDs, etc. Chuck