Server NAS Advice

Soldato
Joined
20 Feb 2004
Posts
23,393
Location
Hondon de las Nieves, Spain
Hi Guys

I recently bought a Netgear Readynas Duo to use as a media server.
I set it all up and I liked the simple set up and configuration that the web client gives.

I had read reviews that it was slow when using Ipeng and the like due to the CPU limitations and thought it probably wouldn’t be as bad as many people suggested however I’ve found it nigh on unusable with the remotes (over 1 minute to load my artist list and then another minute or so to load the album and then track so upon trying to find a song it can take around 3 minutes.

I’m therefore intending to return/sell it and get myself something a little more suitable. I’ve been recommended the Vortexbox which I’ve seen on Ebay for £280 inc postage. Which seems to be highly rated although it comes with a cd ripper which would be handy but not essential for me and only a 1tb hard drive. Does anyone know if this is upgradeable as I liked the Raid option that the readynas offered.

My other option would be to build a simple server, I’ve competent at building pc’s however I’ve been out of that for about 3 years or so now and I appreciate technology has moved on a lot. I believe the Atom platform seems to be the low energy option. Could anyone let me know what kind of spec would be best to set something like this up. Ideally I’d like a raid setup with either 2x 1tb or 2x2tb disk space.
Would I then run something like Vortexbox or Freenas from one of the installed hard drives? I’ve heard people mention installing them onto a usb pen drive and then booting from that. How simple are those software systems to configure and set up?

I’m sure there have been plenty questions similar to this asked so if there are similar threads you may know about feel free to just direct me to them

Thanks
 
i went with the simple pc option.

Some cheap skt 775 options from member market and a couple of bits of stuff I had lying around.

Cheapo case - £0 (already had one)
P43 motherboard - £25
E2160 cpu - £25
2x1gb ram - £10
psu - already had a spare 480w one
gfx x1300 passive - £10

Total - £70.

Spare copy of xp from old pc cost nothing, and sourced 2 x 1.5tb drives from members market for £95.

Total for 3tb server - £165.

You could just as easily use freenas for o/s. Been up and running as a server/backup/media streaming etc for about 9 months without any hitches. on 24/7 as well -also it's underclocked and speedstep on etc. Sits in my garage connected via 1gb lan to router.
 
Yeah i think i'm leaning towards building one now. I've thrown out pretty much all my old hard ware though and am looking for a low power set up so thing i'll go get myself all the Atom style hardware.

I think its just a choice of operating system which is my main decision. I could either use Vortexbox or FreeNas.
Or i am thinking i could use Windows XP and use it as a HTPC aswell as a server
 
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