Lindy Electronics has launched a NAS Personal Server Premium drive featuring Gigabit-based network storage for small businesses.

The company said that the NAS Personal Server made it easy for LAN users to share files and folders and back up data using the embedded SAMBA file server. It also offers users a built-in web server. However, it doesn't offer any storage, just the means to connect 400 GB's worth of IDE hard drives. The device retails for £160 (AUD$395), cheap for a NAS server but expensive for a mere box.

"On the face of it, it's a lot of money to pay for an enclosure," said Lindy's senior product manager Steve Fawcett, "but it does offer a lot more than just storage. There's the ability to hang a print server off it for a start, that could be £60 to £70 alone."

Nor does the Personal Server Box offer the latest SATA-based hard drive connectivity. "There is a migration to SATA out there and this box doesn't offer it," said Fawcett, "but we think that this will be useful to those people who have old hard drives lying around and are looking for some way to use them. In our own office, our technical support team uses the box to store ghost images of PCs". However, Fawcett said that the company would be offering SATA support later in the year.

"The product does require a certain amount of technical knowledge," admitted Fawcett. "You need someone with a lot of experience with IP addresses for example but we think it offers users quite a lot for the money."