Advice on Home Server/NAS for Media Storage

Furton

Furton

Furton

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I'm currently in the process of refurbishing a house I've just bought which I'll take the opportunity to install Cat5e throughout, with the patch panel and switch located under the stairs.

My current HTPC set up is based on an Antec Fusion Black NSK2480B case with all storage located within it, 1TB total.

I'm taking this opportunity to rationalise my existing set up by centralising media storage and using either low power HTPC or Amazon Fire TV units for both TV's for media playback.

I've found the following spare components in my cupboard.

Abit AB9 Pro motherboard
Antec ATX Case
Intel Celeron E1200 CPU (1.6Ghz Dual Core)
MSI HD 5450 1024MB GDDR5 Low Profile PCI-Express Graphics Card
2GB RAM

The board supports the following HDD connections

ATA-100 - connector(s): 1 x 40pin IDC
Intel ICH8R : SATA-300 - connector(s): 6 x 7pin Serial ATA - RAID 0 / RAID 1 / RAID 10 / RAID 5
JMicron JMB363 : SATA-300 - connector(s): 2 x 7pin Serial ATA - RAID 0 / RAID 1 / RAID 0+1 / JBOD
SATA-300 - connector(s): 1 x 7pin Serial ATA
Click to expand...

I could build this into a server and add a few hard drives in to make what I think would be a decent server/NAS. However, I also like the look of the HP ProLiant Gen8 G1610T MicroServer, which seems smaller than a standard tower and is probably more suited as a server.

Would either option be better for running Plex to a few devices and acting as a central media and general store for the house?

What hard drives are more suitable for storage in a NAS? WD Red?

I have a spare copy of Windows 7 Home edition, is this suitable as a Server OS or should I opt for Synology which I see a lot of people here recommend?
 
If you're only using it as a fileserver & plex server as you describe... then I don't think you would greatly benefit from the HP Microserver.

The HPMS is quicker than the Celeron you have sitting around, but that would only be useful if you were doing more with it.

I started off with my own home server built from old components I had laying around... I only purchased 2 HPMS because I needed to expand and they're a cheap and good way to do that.

The power draw from the HPMS will probably be lower than your own-built system from those parts... but I don't know by how much. Considering it'll be 24/7 running, you might want to take that into account as the HPMS draws as little as 30-40W while running.

Yes... WD Reds are good for a NAS... don't go with the cheap ones and the Seagate 3TB drives are notoriously unreliable.

Windows 7 would do you fine & you're used it to... plus giving you the option to do more with it if you would like. I have Win 7 running on my home server.

Synology would be good if all you want is fileserver and plex server as it keeps things simple. But if you want to do more with it down the line, then it would be a pain to migrate.
 
It's likely to be a file server and plex server, can't imagine doing anything else with it. Just want something to forget about under the stairs!

Is there much difference between Win 7 Home and Professional for use as a home server?
 
Home does not include remote desktop... but you can use VNC instead for remote administration easily.

You can share files with Home... so that won't be a problem.

For basic file sharing and plex... I highly doubt you'll notice the difference between Home and Pro.

If that's all you're going to do... I can't see much benefit (other than potentially power draw) of getting the microserver instead of the parts you already have.




Buttt... considering the HPMS is only £120 at the moment... power differences might come into their own over time.

I did a quick search and it shows that the power draw with those components could

These guys show 150-160W power draw from idle:
http://www.techspot.com/review/244-ati-radeon-hd-5450/page9.html

But... that was with a much more powerful CPU than your Celeron.

Anandtech show 120W idle with a less power hungry CPU:
http://www.anandtech.com/show/2931/14

The HPMS with 4 hard drives installed... uses just a shade under 40W.

So it could pay for itself in under a year or two...
 
Thanks for those links. I'm trying to persuade myself that I could fund the HPMS by selling a load of spare parts I have lying around, including my old HTPC which I'll replace with an Amazon Fire TV.

Might be nice to have all new parts instead of throwing old components together which I'm not even sure even work.
 
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