How does this sound?

[Ricochet J]

Right. I've got two computers, a laptop and a PDA (my brothers).

One computer is mine, in my room. We'll call this PC 1.
One computer is my brothers in his room. We'll call this PC 2.
And we'll keep the Laptop and PDA as thier names respectfully.
They're all connected to the router. PC 1 and 2 is hardwired (Cat5e). Where as the Laptop and PDA are connected wirelessly (the only time the laptop isn't connected wirelessly is when it's updating and is hardwired but that doesn't matter for this case).

Now, here's where it gets interesting. All the multimedia files, music, videos and pictures are on my computer (PC 1) because originally I didn't intend for other computers to join the house! So, when other users on their computers (PC 2) or laptops or PDAs want to listen to a music file, or view a movie or see a pocture my HDD (in PC 1) spins up and stutters the whole system! This is understandable but unbearable when i'm playing games or doing work in the OS.

Now, how does this sound?

I've got a WD Raptor 150GB. I just need to install it on my computer (PC 1) for games.
I can buy another WD Raptor 150Gb for PC 2 to make the OS and games run faster on that one.
If I buy a NAS and connect it to my network for all my multimedia to share with other PCs and Laptops and PDAs, will I see an improvement on my system? (Because the HDD gets busy and spins)
And also, will it slow the network down? (Gigabit ethernet switch connected to a router)


Thanks

 

[scott.holmes]

Simple answer really, short one too!

Yes, if you get a NAS and have your media files on that for people to use, it will not then affect your PC in anyway, so PC1 will notice the difference a lot!

Having a raptor in each machine will speed up things a lot, and you will again notice the difference.

And as for the NAS slowing down the network, no it wont. As long as the NAS has decent software to sustain the speed the only thing that will slow it down is the Gigabit connection itself, as they normally max out at around 40Mbps, if your lucky to get it that quick, as my GigaLan never does Mine averages around 25 to 30, which is fine for any HDD to work with.