jbird, if you have interest in the 2 drive bay (diskless) Buffalo I just noticed that Dell has them on sale for 99. See here
http://accessories.us.dell.com/sna/prod ... 0794501410

But if expandability isn't important look at the Western Digital 2tb nas drive http://www.amazon.com/Personal-Cloud-St ... 1XCGNA64A3

Just search for DLNA in the App store and you'll get Apps that will be stream files from any DLNA server. There are free (sometimes limited) and paid Apps that can do this.

Most NAS will come with a DLNA server. Note however that you'll be missing the play history in MediaMonkey if you use the NAS DLNA server.

jbird, the only delay is if the drive hasn't been accessed for a while. I have it set to spin down so it has to start up. Other than that it works great. Play music randomly without a skip or pause ..yeah

As for recommendation ... probably depends on your price point. 1Tb drives are pretty inexpensive and most nas drives are fairly similar with performance being the big difference. For my music, i think it is a 3tb drive, i have a Buffalo. I use MMW on the computer and scanned in those files. Do all my playing there. The Buffalo is a fairly inexpensive drive but has performed for the last couple of years very well.

For my films i will need a bigger (8-12tb) and faster as I think streaming films is a bit more work. But this is all more than you need <G>

The best questions would be on usage:
1) many users accessing?
2) Movies or music?
3) Must it have dlna server or will you have MMW running some where

If you might need expandability in the future Buffalo has a nice 'diskless' Nas device for around 130 that you can put 2 drives in. This lets you be a little more flexible.

Let me now if you have any other questions

Thanks for the response. Do you notice issue with speed or lagging or networking dropping? As for nas w dlna, so this eliminates need to have pc on? then do you use an app on ipad (monkey mote?) or some app installed on the nas? Any recommendations on relialbe dlna nas in the 1tb range?

If you want to run MM you will have to have a PC on. I have all my music on a NAS and can access it outside of MM. You could get a NAS with DLNA for streaming like MM does ... but that isn't MM

Have had my external hd crash so in the market for a new one. Have heard hints of being able to put music on NAS but i cant find clear instructions on this. If i do that the point would be to have pc OFF and run via ipad. Is this possible or does pc still need to be on?
Where are the instructions?
Do i need a plug in?