NAS or a home server?

MichaelHo · 6 Oct 2009 at 22:14

Having just dropped my external HDD today I'm looking for a new media storage solution.
I need to centralize my music, films, photos, other files to a hard disk which can be accessed by mac osx and windows. Will also want it to be accessible by my xbox 360 and also in the future a NMT like popcorn hour.
Criteria is that it should be small, quite and sexy if possible

Having looking through a few threads and browsing the net it seems like people recommend a NAS such as Netgear Ready Nas Duo or to just run a home server. The home server might be a little OTT but I imagine it will be faster for file transfer compared to NAS? Also I have many movie files which are over 4gigs so having FAT32 file system would not work too well.

What do you think I should do? Which option would work better?

Any help or input would be gratefully appreciated.

Michael

MichaelHo · 6 Oct 2009 at 22:25

Just seen a video on 'Drobo', it looks really good! Shame it's so expensive.

MichaelHo · 7 Oct 2009 at 13:23

Yeah I'm leaning more towards home server due to expandability. Did you guys build your own?

MichaelHo · 7 Oct 2009 at 13:29

I assume that home servers uses full power psus? Like at least 200w?

MichaelHo · 7 Oct 2009 at 22:55

Thanks for all the input guys, it's a really hard decision. Home server for better storage expandability and more unrestricted functions, but then a NAS for much reduced power consumption.
Keeping that I currently have a spare pc, spec of which is:
- AMD Athlon 3200+ (I think)
- 2 gig DDR ram
- Viper 500W psu.

Would I be able to use these components for the build? I'd ditch the case and motherboard as I'd want small form factor really. It's a good coolermaster as well :S

Re Nas I've narrowed it down to either the Netgear ReadyNas Duo or the Synology 209.

Would I be able to stream HD movies wirelessly at all? Or should I plan to have this system wired to the media player?

On a side note I've just manage to pick up a iomega 320gb portable HDD at one of the main supermarkets for a very good price! Sub £40. Will use this temporarily until I decide on what to do.

MichaelHo · 7 Oct 2009 at 22:57

PhillyDee said:
Check the Home server pictures section. Mines the large one with 13 hot-swap bays .

Did a quick search and can't find the thread! Please link me

MichaelHo · 8 Oct 2009 at 15:50

So if wired is the best option would it be worth looking at building a HTPC that can also act as a home server? Just so that it can be kept near the TV, only need cable from router to HTPC.

MichaelHo · 8 Oct 2009 at 16:19

Still not decided yet , I think I will spec up a home built server and see how much it cost to build a brand new one. It's been a few years since I've read up on components, what do you guys recommend? I know that Atom is highly thought off, how about options for PSU, RAM and Casing?

MichaelHo · 8 Oct 2009 at 21:42

lol, I've really thought about how much power computers suck until I've been researching this. Feel guilty about leaving it on overnight when doing nothing now!
Think I'm just going to go for a NAS, most likely the ReadyNas Duo but I will wait for reviews this new one by iomega, model is StorCenter ix2-200, just announced today I believe. Having a NAS running at around 30W 24/7 sounds much more green... man I'm getting old

MichaelHo · 8 Oct 2009 at 22:39

Depends upon how many drives you need, a 4 or 5 bay NAS cost a bomb, £400-£500 and up. A 2 bay NAS is around £200 for a good one. The 2 bay NAS can hold up to a max of 4TB (2x 2TB drives) if there is no need for a mirrored RAID set up.

MichaelHo · 8 Oct 2009 at 23:33

Tomsk said:
£175 (from OcUK, no HD's) for a basic (Linux) PC with room for 5 HD's. Unlike some NAS (especially the cheaper ones), it will probably reach network transfer speeds in excess of 90MB/sec.

Where do I find this pc for £175?

MichaelHo · 12 Oct 2009 at 08:16

THFC said:
Interesting reading all this, I am in the same boat, needing a nas for home use but also a print server and also for using squeeze centre after xmas. The nas systems cost a lot of money for something that could do this, no expandibility and low end systems suffer from poor cpu's on squeeze centre.

looking at a windows home server too based on an intel atom 330, with 1.5tb samsung f2s in raid. Power consumption is tiny against anything else. Apparently each w used equates to £1 extra saving a year (rough guide) so the savings add up quickly on using the atom.

I already have a HTPC and gaming pc, and a windows home server along these lines seems more appealing than off the shelf NAS. Cases for an itx system seem limited on h/d capacity

Please let me know which other components you will go with for your home server. I'm looking for a nice case for it at the moment.

MichaelHo · 12 Oct 2009 at 23:51

Got a few days of annual leave this week so I'm going to see what pc parts I have lying around and see if I can knock something up lol. Wish me luck, not put a pc together for over 3 years now (since moving to mac).

MichaelHo · 16 Oct 2009 at 19:21

Ok so this is what I currently have spare at home:
- Antec P180 full atx case
- AMD athlon 64 3500+
- g skill zx DDR 2gb kit
- nf4 LAN party mobo
- hiper 400W modular psu

not got full access to the net (on iPhone atm) so can't do research on these components. But do you guys think I could re use any of these for a home server? Keeping in mind power consumption/performance ratio is a ke factor.
If I build a home server I will buy brand new data HDDs.

MichaelHo · 19 Oct 2009 at 17:27

Zarf said:
Yeah that'll be fine, I'm running a similar build (X2 3800, 2GB ram, NF4 mobo) It sits at 2% usage most of the time, and peaks up to 20% during busy network transfers (100MB/s)
That said, I'm using hardware RAID.

Do you know what sort of power consumption it has?