Intel Entry Storage System SS4200-E NAS Server w/ Intel Celeron 420 1.6GHz, DDR2 512MB & eSATA support

Pros: Egg dropped the price by $50, so I bought a second as a backup just in case of a catastrophic hardware failure. Additionally, I also moved all 4 drives from my first SS4200 NAS to the second to check the new system out, and all was well, just a basic re-IP was necessary, all the data was still there after the four drive transplant to the newly arrived system.

After much geek lunch discussions at work, if one is heart-set on WHS, then go ahead and buy a HP Mediasmart box or build your own or something, and THEN, use this Intel NAS as a solid backup solution for your WHS by installing the included EMC Retrospect automated backup on your HP Mediasmart NAS. Just a thought......

How's that for not having all your backup eggs in one basket ! (no site pun intended)

Cons: I don't have any valid cons for this product, other than just personal preferences to add functionality to the GUI for NFS export options, and easy secure Internet Web server configuration for the masses.

Other Thoughts: Looks less like luggage every day when mounted vertically.

Nice box overall.

Pros: Good value, fast file transfers, hardware part easy to install. I used it with 4 1.5TB samsung green drives, speed is about 40MB/s. Not earth shattering but decent. In case of 4 disks it will by default use raid 5 - You can change this but you will lose data so do it first thing if you need to change it.

Cons: Software setup is somewhat involved. It did not come with the latest firmware - get it from Intel's site.

Other Thoughts: It says incompatible with Win7 64 bit but if you don't need the application for backup that is supplied, you can totally use it with Win7 64bit - mount drive and use other software. I haven't even tried the included soft - it may work. Also, update firmware - newest one is simpler to use and has more options. Use your router list of assigned IPs to find out IP assigned to this unit and then assign permanent IP to it which you can use to map drive as \\192.168.1.xx\public.

Pros: It was well priced that is why I purchased it

Cons: In came in dead, it powered up,it saw the two hard drives but that was as far as it goes, my router did not see it, so the software could not contact it. I did an RMA for credit and shipped it back, I did change my mind before it arrived, but I was told it was out of stock, but the truth is the price went back up by $50.00 and I lost out.
I think NewEgg should have reshipped me a replacement. Thats not good, it will be awhile before I purchase anything form NewEgg.

Other Thoughts: When I contacted the online support, UI was told that he changed my request from credit to replaced. NOT

Pros: It's cheap and it works. It's a nice home NAS that gives you what it promises. It's very well built and looks nice. Stays cool even in tight spaces like a closet. I would really love to give this five eggs.

Cons: Intel made the mistake of trying to make the system too easy. You load your four drives, turn it on, and the system immediately starts building a RAID5 array. You have a handy set of web tools to manage the system except they don't really let you manage it.

If anything happens during the initial 24 hour setup (disk failure, desire to use something other than RAID5, etc.) you have to wipe the disks in order to get the system to rebuild. Except the disk erase tool really doesn't work. I had to go to the web and figure out how to turn on SSH, login as root, and dd the drives to wipe them. It would have been much easier to just give us access at the controller level.

Other Thoughts: All in all a frustrating experience. I have no doubt I will have a working NAS someday but dealing with the frustration of the limited tools is very off putting. The chance of having to RMA at least one of a four consumer level drive purchase is high so the assumption that nothing will go wrong is a flawed one on Intel's part.

Pros: Can't beat the price really. Any other NAS device with 4 drive bays is significantly more. I was able to get this for $149 during one of Newegg's "Shell Shocker" sales.

3 year warranty! (This item is being discontinued, but I trust Intel can honor the warranty)

Quiet, efficient. Fits nicely in an my A/V tower. Performance seems above average.

I'm using Samsung F2 1.5TB disks in this box and it's working great so far. It mounts just like any other file share in XP and I'm able stream content to my WD TV Live effortlessly without interruption, which was the main purpose of this device.

Cons: -I found the mounting of the drives to be difficult due to how tightly they had bound the SATA and power cables to the chassis. I ended up freeing them of their bondage like zip ties and that made the installation a bit more tolerable.
-No JBOD
-No hotswap
-No ability to expand the volume later on without rebuilding raid set?

Other Thoughts: I understand a lot of people used this as a Windows Home Server platform. I'm not sure I see the benefit. The Intel/EMC software comes with it gets the job done and offers a legitimate RAID solution (albeit software raid). I guess they both have their pros and cons, but once you've purchased the WHS license and upgraded the memory in this device to properly accommodate WHS you might as well have bought another unit. Just my thoughts.

Pros: Comes in a shiny box

Cons: Well, where to begin? Bought two of these from two different vendors--both the times had the same problem. As soon as I turn on the system, the fans blast off, LEDs for drive bays 2 and 4 turn solid blue, and nothing happens. The one I bought from Newegg doesn't even turn off after that. Tried with and without hard drives. The NIC doesn't come up either. System is undiscoverable. The hard drives are on the tested hardware list. Just to double check, I inserted the hard drives into another computer--they are good and clean. I read online that for some systems the DOM is not recognized, and the BIOS refuses to boot from the DOM. This might be the issue with both of my systems. I even tried the USB boot by holding down the reset button, but that did not work either. I don't feel like buying a serial port and debugging the issue--I am not that enamored by this system.

Other Thoughts: I think the BIOS/firmware needs a lot of work. I don't think this is a hardware issue. I understand that Intel wanted to kill two birds in one stone here--a NAS and a Windows home server. But that made the NAS experience really unwholesome. There is no way, for example, to clear out hard drives that have already been used with a bootable partition. Would it have been so difficult to provide a toggle switch on the back that always forced a boot from the DOM? Just to rule out any problem with the hard drives, you have to put them in another computer. What kind of user experience is that?

Pros: Fast, gigabit network transferring speeds of 60-65mb/s. Easy to setup, if you want to install other software I recommend going with the USB boot method (put bootable OS on USB stick and hold reset button and front button down til power is on as Amber, done)

Cons: Difficult to install new NAS software such as FreeNAS on the ROM chip itself, but not a problem since you can run it from a USB stick easily.

Pros: Amazing fast data transfer using a gigabit network (faster than USB 2.0 hard drive). I had it configured with a raid 10 (2 hard drives striped, 2 mirrored) with 4 western digital 640 GB black Hard drives. Backed up a 5.38 GB itunes library in 2 minutes 28 seconds (over 2 GB per minute).

Cons: Doesn't boot up anymore. Had it on a high quality surge suppressor. The annoying thing is now I have my data on 4 linux formatted drives. Linux is great, until it breaks, just like Apple.

Other Thoughts: Reliability means more to me than performance.

Pros: Performance and build quality is high. The system is very flexible and versatile.

Takes a default Linux installation with no fuss.

Cons: Whoever placed the SATA data and power cables seemed like they were intentionally placed to make drive installation difficult. I fear with frequent drive installation/removal the cables will break.

Also, mine came with a defective fan in the PSU. It rattles a bit.

Other Thoughts: The EMC package is a joke - installs a service on your machine to run a web interface to communicate with the server.

I installed Ubuntu to an array on new drives in my desktop, then put the drives into this system. It booted right up, grabbed a DHCP address and I haven't looked back.

Pros: Been running a E2180 in mine for about 6 mos. No problems or heat issues. The upgrade to the dual core completely eliminated some stuttering issues I was experiencing while streaming HD content.

Cons: Not wise to run a lot of cpu-intensive apps with a 65W cpu installed. The heatsink in the SS4200-E is fairly small and is only air cooled.