Gigabyte Announces its First Consumer NAS

[btarunr]

Following ASUS' venture into the consumer NAS segment as ASUStor, Gigabyte responded with its own. The company launched its Home NAS family with the GR-EZI04H, a 4-bay consumer NAS based on the Intel Atom platform. Pictured below, it uses a common desktop cube form-factor, with a main lockable door covering its four caddies.

Gigabyte used an interesting combination of hardware. It combined a current-generation Atom D2500 dual-core processor clocked at 1.80 GHz, with an old (yet effective) ICH10R southbridge, instead of the usual NM10 PCH. The ICH10R has been used on high-end Intel 4-series and 5-series platforms, and provides six SATA 3 Gb/s ports with RAID 0/5/10. The GR-EZI04H features two gigabit Ethernet ports, two USB 3.0 ports, two USB 2.0/1.1 ports, and a VGA display output. Its OS, a choice between Windows Home Server 2011 and Embedded Linux, is stored on an mPCIe DOM. Gigabyte used a custom NAS management software that isn't extensively detailed, but features a standard feature-set. More details are awaited.



View at TechPowerUp Main Site

 

[stinger608]

I guess the price point is the big question with this NAS.

 

[SaltyFish]

That's nice, Gigabyte... now how about a new RAM disk drive for the rest of us?

 

[Chris_Ramseyer]

http://www.tweaktown.com/reviews/5064/gigabyte_gr_ezi04h_4_bay_nas_review/index.html

Yep, pricing will make or break this one.

 

[sc]

$700...
Why can't anyone make a cheap modular NAS?

 

[Chris_Ramseyer]

That is the MSRP though.

They are not exactly cheap to make. The Atom proc and chipset are not cheap. Then you have to add the backplane, the R&D time and all of the extras. Even the drive sleds are costly.

There are 2-4 pay low price units available with Marvell ARM based procs, they are cheap but they also perform like crap too. I stopped reviewing the Marvell controlled systems because they couldn't even make it through my testing programs without failing.

 

[sc]

True, but for $700+ you could build your own NAS (supporting more drives) which can double as media center/router/torrent machine.

 

[btarunr]

I think the $700 price includes a Windows Home Server 2011 license. The Linux variant should be cheaper.