Nas or HP ProLiant?

liamcrane

liamcrane

liamcrane

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Evening all

Im thinking of treating myself :p I have decided i would like to get a nice low power network device that will allow me to stream all over the house as well as while im away from home. I have an HTPC made up of my old gaming rig which runs xbmc and has 2TB drives installed with all the media. I also have to external usb 1TB desktop WD drives which are my backup drives for everything. I dont really want to leave my HTPC on while im away to be able to access files so i thought maybe a nas or HP ProLiant would be a nice treat.

I must admit i really like the look of the Synology Diskstation DS212J, i thought throwing a 2TB drive in there would do for now knowing i could put another one in at a later date. What would be the better option out of the 2 do you think? Im only really looking to use it mainly as a backup solution with shares so i can access everything round my LAN and while on the move as well as for streaming to laptops etc

Cheers guys hope you may be able to help
 
HP microserver, stick 8GB RAM in, some drives, install a hypervisor, add a NAS OS as one of your VM's, then play around with what ever then :)
 
Assuming you get the discount, the microserver will pretty much beat any nas unit.
 
Thanks guys, what OS do you normally go for on one of these? I have a copy of win 7, and WHS so if these could be used that would be fab!

Is there a specfic model that i should be looking for? I reckon i could have about £200 spare at the mo, I have a spare 500gb drive as well to get me started

Thanks again
 
randal said:
Biznes - What tuner and OS are you using dude?
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Using Windows 2008 with DvbViewer 3 * Kworld KW-UB450-T and 1 * Hauppauge nanoStick 290-E for HD. with this setup if you wanted you could record 8 or more channels at once as the tunners can record others from the same Mux at same time. So the HD one can record all HD Channels at once.

Untangle is in Virtual Box

liamcrane said:
Thanks guys, what OS do you normally go for on one of these? I have a copy of win 7, and WHS so if these could be used that would be fab!

Is there a specfic model that i should be looking for? I reckon i could have about £200 spare at the mo, I have a spare 500gb drive as well to get me started

Thanks again
Click to expand...

Currently model wise for discount N40L model. Both those operating systems will work fine. The server comes with a 250GB drive also.
 
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Ah ok, was hoping you were going to mention a DVB-S low profile card. Ideally Linux too. :D

One can dream!

Sounds like an ideal setup though, like it.
 
Think you may have changed my mind from a synology to an n40L. How does this cash back offers work? Is it a pain to get it sorted? They seem to he about £220 so with the cash back comes in at a good price :-)

One thing i like about the synology was the ios apps that would let me stream media from the nas to my iphone, is this possible on a micro server running WHS? Can you even install any applications on WHS or is it just used as a file server?

Thanks again everyone
 
Once you buy from an approved retailer, fill in the Cash Back offer form and send them a copy of your invoice with the microserver circled on it.

They got back to me within 48 hours of postage via email to say my claim had been approved, cheque takes up to 45 days to arrive.

As far as streaming is concerned, there are some players on iOS that can read files off Samba/CIFS/Windows file shares so that's one way around it. Have used in the past to good success.
 
randal said:
Ah ok, was hoping you were going to mention a DVB-S low profile card. Ideally Linux too. :D

One can dream!

Sounds like an ideal setup though, like it.
Click to expand...

You can get low pro DVB-S cards very easily, and ones with linux support, clearly your not looking hard enough :)

Kimbie
 
randal said:
Oh I know chap, just wondering if there were any specific recommendations.
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Ah right I am with you lol

I use http://www.tbsdtv.com/products/tbs6981-dvb-s2-dual-tuner-pcie-card.html in my Windows box but there is Linux drivers via their download site, never had any problems with it.

You can ignore the molex connector on the back as that is used for extra power if you have one of those fancy motorised dishes so you can steer the dish from the card according to their support.

WMC, Mediaportal, TVHead all seem to work fine with it and will pipe the signal into XBMC without an issue.

Kimbie
 
Fantastic, I'll take a look into that. I'm currently running a Dreambox, which is a Chinese clone so isn't the most robust/stable thing hardware wise. Let alone viewing experience with outdated firmwares etc.

Would be awesome (read: more Mrs friendly) to get it piped into XBMC so it's just one box under the telly with one remote setupet etc.

Will have a sniff at that, cheers!
 
randal said:
Fantastic, I'll take a look into that. I'm currently running a Dreambox, which is a Chinese clone so isn't the most robust/stable thing hardware wise. Let alone viewing experience with outdated firmwares etc.

Would be awesome (read: more Mrs friendly) to get it piped into XBMC so it's just one box under the telly with one remote setupet etc.

Will have a sniff at that, cheers!
Click to expand...

No prob glad could help
 
Think i may well bite the bullet and pick one up. Cheapest i can see is £130 after cashback. Can you just send them an email with your invoice attached or does it have to go via post? Im just a little worried as it states it has to be invoiced and delivered by the 28th Feb which is not to far away with it being the weekend now

Is WHS the best OS option? I really only intend to use the microserver as a file server as i have a powerfull HTPC machine connected to my TV, only other thing i really want from it is to be able to stream my MKV's to an ipad or laptop upstairs. I had even considered Server 2008 but i guess thats overkill
 
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Just in the interest of fairness, I want to point out why a NAS box has it benefits. They are super quick and easy to setup and use. They 'just work'. If you want something to fiddle with, upgrade, hack etc, thats a MicroServer, but even so NAS boxes have a few tricks up their sleve. You can start with one HDD, add more, and replace dead ones, all without interupting your streaming.

CD
 
liamcrane said:
Think i may well bite the bullet and pick one up. Cheapest i can see is £130 after cashback. Can you just send them an email with your invoice attached or does it have to go via post? Im just a little worried as it states it has to be invoiced and delivered by the 28th Feb which is not to far away with it being the weekend now

Is WHS the best OS option? I really only intend to use the microserver as a file server as i have a powerfull HTPC machine connected to my TV, only other thing i really want from it is to be able to stream my MKV's to an ipad or laptop upstairs. I had even considered Server 2008 but i guess thats overkill
Click to expand...

As long as the machine arrives before the end of the month, you still have another 4 weeks I think to send off the actual claim.
 
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