Backing up large quantity of data across network - Nas VS ISCSI

[Felix]

I need to regularly back up over 750gb of multimedia. We currently use the Buffalo Terastations NAS units for other servers but but I want to find a better solution for our multimedia library. Now I could go with another
Buffalo TeraStation Pro II 4TB 19 Rackmount NAS but would I be better going for an ISCSI solution and go for a Buffalo TeraStation Pro II iSCSI 4TB iSCSI NAS?

Server is w2003 enterprise and it currently backs up to another local drive set up with RAID5 but this is useless if the building were to burn down or any other loss of the server. Connection between the server and backup unit would be via 2 HP procurve switches (connected by trunked fibre link) but copper to server (2 x gigabit nics) and to back up unit.

Any help and advise would be appreciated.

 

[iaind]

iSCSI is designed for clustered file systems so isnt suitable for file sharing - stick with what works...

 

[sparkey196]

If in doubt, get a NAS. iSCSI is for providing block level storage (i.e. remoting physical hard drives). NAS is more suitable for file sharing and backup.

I would certainly consider building something more powerful using commodity hardware like a HP DL180 G5. Most of those cheap NAS are not up to much performance wise or in terms of build quality.