If performance is gained through incremental increases in speed or priority, sure.

I've been ripping my DVDs using Handbrake on OS X for years (and still do).

Besides run/stop-restore,

run/stop-restore

I've been using Secure Settings as a plugin to Tasker... useful features.

4) ssh into it to manually fix permissions on group-shared folders so all users have rights to all project files.

Work out the energy consumption, and let me know how much that works out over the longer term. Also I'd rather pay a bit extra and NOT lose my data.

I'm just curious, how many people here actually used a Synology *and* FreeNAS both to compare them? And then really found FreeNAS to be better?

Tried FreeNAS. What a waste of time. Not that it was terrible... just spend a lot of _time_ babysitting it. It was rather "Meh...", although much better than my previous NAS solution (Buffalo NAS). As for cheap, the Synology's sleep and low power modes actually work so well... making it actually cheaper than FreeNAS…

PS: It does indeed look like Parallels 8 seems faster than VMware 5, but I'm sure VMware will catch up again soon (like it did with previous versions).

My reason for not using Parallels any longer was their annoying popup-ads (even though you have a purchased copy) to buy antivirus etc. The check-box did not stop it from recurring. I just don't like it; but fortunately I have choices... some people may actually like this, and also don't mind that it is slightly…

Na, I understand the reason for contrived acronyms.

Before I used apps like these I HAD to recharge my phone every night. Then using some clever Tasker scripts I could get 4-5 days on a single charge on my standard GNex battery. Enough for a week-end away.

Even Tasker can no longer control cellphone radios... alas.

Don't you just love contrived acronyms.

This was basically my experience... having wasted a few hours of my life on FreeNAS I'm happy to go on with my life not ever having to babysit the Synology. Sure if I was unemployed, perhaps FreeNAS would make sense... but as it is it has saved me the time and money (not to mention it being so silent, and my DS212 is…

Having managed unix machines for some time in my career I found FreeNAS to be pitiful... I had to babysit it constantly... not to mention it being loud, power-hungry and not as flexible. I've since tried a few other NASes, and if you just want to save time and aggravation, the few $100 is well worth it. I'm not longer…

VOTE: Synology DS212/DS212j/DS212+ (pick your favorite) (DX712 is also good... just too much for me)

I've had a few NASes, but it was not until I had a Synology that I really understood how useful and good it is. I've used Buffalo and even set up a FreeNAS. If you want trivial config, allways-working NAS with incredible features... don't bother with anything else.