NAS: Gigabit LAN or USB3 or eSATA?

[hujan86]

I'm considering for an NAS so I could remove my 3.5" HDD. Thus reducing cable clutter in my PC casing and getting some space for a longer graphic card. Although I have yet to confirm buying one.

But if I am to get an NAS, I would like stream my MKV & MP4 Full HD files efficiently as if they were streamed from a SATA HDD. Should I look for an NAS with eSATA or NAS with USB 3.0 ports? I mean, which connection has better transfer speed? Is streaming through wired connection (Gigabit LAN) better or worse than through eSATA and USB 3.0?

Recommending me what brand and model to consider is welcomed. Please note that Firewire and Thunderbolt are not supported by my motherboard.

[Acebmxer]

If the NAS is going to be connected to same system you plan to watch these video files on then your best bet is esata, if you want them over your network you best bet would be gigabit lan connection. But to make full use the the available bandwidth the NAS would need to have at least 2 drives in Raid0 as 1 hdd does not use all esata or regular sata's bandwidth.

[dJabba]

NAS = Network Attached Storage. Even though they feature USB and eSATA those are only 'input' connections and you can't connect most that way directly to your system. There are many solutions for that as well, but those are categorized as external HDD enclosures.

The difference is really, do you want to access it from multiple devices at once or just one .. and do you want to move it around if. The big benefit of a NAS is that you can access it from all devices on your network, and also over the internet if you set it up for it.

A good normal HDD (not in raid) can do around 120MB/s on a good day, and that's what a gigabit connection can do (approximately). I can stream my movie files to 3 systems at once lagfree on a single gigabit connection and serve files over FTP and it's still smooth and no lags.

[Edit]
Oh, and when it comes to brand, I can really recommend both Synology and Qnap. If you buy a prebuild NAS, don't cheap out, you'll regret it in the end. Even though the hardware might be the same, there is a big difference in how easy they are to setup and what features they even allow.
Thecus apparently also makes good devices, but haven't had the chance to use those myself, so can't give a real opinion on those.