Vantec NexStar LX DAS/NAS box

Don't be misled by its small form factor, because this little device is not
just an external hard drive, but also a portable NAS. It comes neatly packed in
a casing that accommodates a parallel (not serial) HDD of about 750 GB. It has
smart cooling functionality with passive heat sink under the HDD and a fan whose
speed can be controlled externally. The beauty of this device is that it can be
used as an external DAS or a NAS. Connect it to a PC via its USB port if you
need a DAS, or plug it to your network using its 10/100 Mbps Ethernet port to
use it as a NAS. In NAS mode, you can access all files stored on it in read only
mode through a Web browser. Or, you can access them via FTP or SMB if you want
to read andwrite.

The device's performance depends upon the hard drive you plug into it.
Unfortunately, this one doesn't support SATA drives, so you'll have to make do
with the older PATA ones. We used a 40 GB 5400 rpm PATA HDD to check how long it
takes to transfer 10 GB of files via its USB 2 and network ports. Transfers via
USB were fast, but network performance was not up to the mark.

Bottomline: An innovative device, although a bit expensive, and we wished
it supported SATA hard drives as well.