[X4U] NAS Drive Recommendations

[Joe Sporleder]

We currently use Mac minis with Snow Leopard server in a small newspaper publishing environment - with about 5 Mac workstations that regularly access the production data (mainly ad files and associated artwork). I am considering moving the file serving to a NAS drive connected to our ethernet, since many of the NAS appliances I've looked at support AFP (and some support Time Machine as well, which I would like to keep open as an option). The Mac minis would then mainly do light to moderate Internet related services, such as email serving.

Do any of y'all on this list use NAS in a production environment? I am looking at a 4-bay Buffalo Networks drive (4TB). I have heard very positive things about Buffalo from a tech colleague that works for a college in Nebraska (radio, tv, video production), and Buffalo was also recommended by a tech expert keynote speaker at our state press convention. However, when I went to check prices on the Buffalo products I am considering (also considering a 2-bay version for another office primarily as a time machine backup), reviews on Amazon seemed rather unfavorable of Buffalo.

Any other brands I should consider? Ones that play well with Mac is a must, and being able to use it as a centralized Time Machine backup for our Mac workstations would be a nice bonus (although I could continue using the Mac mini server for that).

Joe