Media pc help

Megahurtz400

Megahurtz400

Megahurtz400

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Hey guys,

I'm looking at media pc/centre solutions and am looking for some advice on whether what I want to achieve is possible :)

Basically, what I want is a central server/machine that I can store my downloaded media on, and access via smart phone/smart tv/chromecast etc.

I'm currently using Plex media server on my main pc, but want a silent always on solution.

The thing I'm having problems working out is, I don't have space for another pc and display, so want to have a centralised storage device where I can start a download (torrent) on my pc and have it download to the storage on the central server.

Having no clue about NAS drives, is NAS something that would allow me this to happen, or am I better setting up an old laptop/micro PC that I remotely access to start downloads etc?

Hopefully I've explained the problem well enough D:

Cheers :)
 
i looking for a very similar machine atm, i spotted the windows home server software and got excited that i could throw in all my old hard drives to form a raid 5/6 array, as per the video on youtube by linus tech tips, but i was gutted when i discovered that windows home server has been discontinued. i dont think you can buy it at all now.

the biggest problem for me is defo the server os, ive used linux a bit but i dont know if i want to run a linux server for this.

will let you know if i find anything interesting.

_______________
update:

just bought a couple of dirt cheep (under £100 ) servers from ebay im gona experement with in setting up as my home / family storage / backup / streaming server. looks like i can also get win home server there for £30, it will do for now as a test envirnment, will grab a dozen super cheep used hd's and setup a raid 6 array, no doubt some will fail but thats the reason for going with raid 6.
 
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Premade NAS are expensive for what they are, but most will run Plex and have some sort of torrent software on them.
If you have some old PC parts I'd just build a headless PC and run FreeNAS on it.
It supports Plex server / Transmission(torrents) and a number of other plugings (sickbeard/sabnzb)

I used a SC-N400 mITX case before I needed more than 4 drives, so you can make it as small as you like.
 
Could I run FreeNAS on an old MacBook (Mid 2007)?

As far as file back up etc, it's not a massive priority, as it will be used mainly for movies, tv shows and music.

Forgot to say budget is very limited, the closer to free the better, so I already have a MacBook sitting doing nothing and an external 2tb HDD?
 
Well I would guess it could run, but being rather old I'm not sure how well it would run.
My worry would be whether the CPU could cope with the Plex Transcoding. 2007 would be a Core2Duo as a guess? It would be fairly low power, but the fan would ramp up when watching films as the CPU gets used in bursts at 100%.
It could certainly handle the rest.
You could try downloading Plex for Mac and testing out its performance.
 
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