Intel NAS Now here’s something interesting for you storage folks out there. Intel has decided to enter the home/small office NAS market by announcing the new Intel Entry Storage System (or model SS4200-EHW). According to Intel, the Entry Storage System targets small businesses, SOHO folks, and the digital home and will come with EMC backup software installed. Not surprisingly, you’ll find a slew of Intel components inside the box including:

  • Intel Celeron 420 series processor running at 1.6GHz
  • Intel 945GZ/ICH7-R chipset
  • 512MB DDR2 memory
  • Four USB ports
  • Four tool-less drive retention bays
  • Three year warranty
  • One Intel Gigabit LAN port
  • 250 watt PSU

The box is capable of supporting up to four 3.5 inch SATA hard drives ranging from 80GB to 1TB in size and comes with an eSATA connection too. Curiously, the Intel Entry Storage System doesn’t support hot-swappable drives.

Features of the box include:

  • Data file sharing among Microsoft Windows, Linux OS, and Apple Mac systems with user name, password protection, and management access in local workgroups
  • Support for RAID levels 5, 10, and 1
  • Easy to use setup wizard
  • Backup and recovery application provides system backup, remote boot, and recovery for Windows clients
  • Capable of being a DHCP server
  • Can act as a DHCP client
  • User-friendly web interface for setting up users and access rights
  • Built-in FTP server
  • Web-based management
  • Can be used as linear storage or as RAID 0 setup

Price point for this box? $500 dollars - which puts it squarely against devices like the new HP MediaSmart Server which is due out later this month. It’ll be interesting to see if anyone takes this box and installs Windows Home Server instead on it. One nice thing about this Intel box - out of the box support for Linux and Apple systems.

[Check it out via ExtremeTech]

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